Digital Video And Editing

Raymond Chapman · Post by **Raymond Chapman** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 9:37 am

Can someone shed some light on digital editing? I'm looking for a information on a good digital video camera and also what editing software is available.

Have any of you done video editing and what software have you used?

Just like anyone else, I'm trying not to spend a lot of money. OK...I know more money equals better quality, but I'm not interested in competing with Hollywoood - just producing some instructional tapes for a bunch of signfolks.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Post by **Mike Jackson** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 5:17 pm

Raymond,
We use a Sony digital camera, a DVD recorder, and Studio 9 software. It works, but takes quite a bit of time, and a lot of hard drive space. It is a whole new world requiring a whole new learning curve. There are quite a few bulletin boards and forums dedicated to just recording DVDs.

As with anything now, you can buy fairly good "consumer" electronics for reasonable money...and also the higher end "pro" equipment at about four to ten times the cost.

Mike

Doug Bernhardt · Post by **Doug Bernhardt** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 8:19 pm

Well Ray...there's the answer. If you wanna mess up the bull board with nonsense questions at least you'll get the truth. I was hoping the answer was gonna say something like "if you know photoshop, this will be a breeze" but no....Mikey's gonna throw a wrench into things.
Say...how come you are posting questions instead of showing the flag out at Myers!! My excuse....too darn busy till end of month and will try to get away for a few days (somewhere) then.

alf toy · Post by **alf toy** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 8:28 pm

Adobe has a consumer version of its pro editing software for $100. Videomaker magazine rates it quite highly.

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/reviews.html

Check out Videomaker Mag for product reviews and buyer guides. Look under clubvid.

http://www.videomaker.com/scripts/article.cfm?id=11140

Some sites for good basic info:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/index.htm

http://www.videohelp.com/

alf toy · Post by **alf toy** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 8:38 pm

As an afterthought. If you are not interested in high end effects you may be better to use a digital camcorder to record your lessons or demos and then edit to a S-VHS VCR. Or even edit to another DV camcorder to keep the 500 line quality. Once you have the videotape master, record to a standalone Dvd recorder right off the camcorder or vcr. I find that a lot simpler than using the computer sometimes.

Raymond Chapman · Post by **Raymond Chapman** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 4:20 pm

Thanks for the information. Like anything else I begin to investigate, this just blows my mind. You can get "information overload" in a hurry just flipping through some of these sites.

Doug - well, you know if Mikey likes it, it probably is the best there is. Sure makes you want to jump in there with both feet, doesn't he? Like you said, I was hoping he would say, "It's a snap...anyone as smart as you would have no trouble." But no....Mike just tells it like it is.

Maybe I'll just go coat out some MDO...I can handle that.

And sorry for messing up the board, Old Man.

Doug Bernhardt · Post by **Doug Bernhardt** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:01 pm

Hi again Raymond and Goldie.... I also have an interest in something like this but sheesh...if the learning curve is WAY steep, just need to pass. The project I have in mind is just a fun thing other than work make a living stuff. Also, do you need this so you can do some mis-info video's? Something to show how "NOT" to hold a brush! ;=) BTW....where's the insults? I had planned on getting a little abuse after the above posts....and lord knows you can dish it out!! My ego still hurts after a few zingers (to do with my wardrobe) some month or 2 ago!!

Post by **Mike Jackson** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 1:21 am

Raymond,
When we purchased an external DVD recorder, it came with Studio 9. Unfortunately, it was a Limited Edition version, missing some of the key features. I paid to upgrade it to the full version. After doing that, we discovered it still did not have a reverse motion feature, so I ended up paying additional for an add-on filter pack. After all the upgrades, it seems to be a reasonable program, but I can say it was a frustrating trip getting to this end. I think I would buy the Adobe product suggested by Alf Toy earlier. I believe there are tutorials on Lynda.com for that one.

Our Sony video recorder has both USB and Firewire connections to our computer. The Firewire port allows for better, higher resolution input to the computer, so I'd suggest looking for a camcorder with that feature. Our Sony model will read Digital 8 and Hi-8 tapes (we had Hi-8 tapes from our previous non-digital camcorder), plus it can read the older standard 8 tapes with a change in the camcorders menus. Additionally, our Sony camcorder can act as a bypass device. Any regular signal can be sent through the camcorder (old VHS tapes, signals from our DVR, and other non copy protected media) and recorded to the hard drive. That is a nice feature worth including.

Alf mentioned using a VHS or camcorder to edit and compile a tape. I wouldn't go that way, personally. Once a digital signal has been recorded to the computer's hard drive, it is pretty much safe and shouldn't degrade--as you might find going tape to tape to tape and finally to DVD. With the video editing software, you can precisely edit film images down to the single frames, and you can split a video into multiple sources while maintaining the sound track of one of them. Tyler had a video editing class in High School and was able to jump right into this software to clip and compile a sequence. He's working on his skateboarding videos right now.

There is a LOT I don't know how to do on the DVD recording, but we have managed to start building a few nice sequences and burn a few simple DVDs. As stated before, it was not an intuitive new venture. There are a lot of new chunks of information and technology to learn and understand.

On a related note, I upgraded our Cable TV to digitial video, including a DVR to record show onto the hard drive of the receiver. I recorded Northern Exposure for quite a few nights until I filled up the hard drive space. Earlier, I had purchased a fairly basic machine to record all our old VHS tapes to DVDs, with basically the touch of a single record button. That worked out fine and I recorded over about 100 old VHS camcorder tapes. I then managed to connect the DVR to the DVD/VHS recorder and successfully record the Northern Exposure tv shows to DVDs to clear off the hard drive again. Depending on whether I chose to edit out the commercials, I could get around three one hours show on one DVD.
Interestingly, the new Season 3 N.E. DVD is out, and they were able to get around 26 episodes on one or two DVDs

Mike Jackson.

Raymond Chapman · Post by **Raymond Chapman** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 8:30 am

Mike - thanks for taking the time to outline your process. You never fail to amaze me as to how you can put all this stuff together the way you do.

I know that I take some jabs at you (and a lot of others) but I do appreciate your abilities greatly.

Just be mellowing in my old age, Doug.

Billy Pickett · Post by **Billy Pickett** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:41 am

...Ray, if you can spring for a new POWERMAC ($1500 laptop), it will have Macs IMOVIE and IDVD built in. The sweet 'puter is the "state of the art" for video production, and it also has Macs new OS "Tiger" .(w. widgets!!!)

Billy Pickett · Post by **Billy Pickett** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:42 am

...Edit; it's a PowerBOOK. oops.

Digital Video And Editing

Digital Video And Editing

okay....

Video editing

Thanks

Thanks Again