Last updated: 12/23/2005 This web page was hastily put together as a resource in support of my conversation about digital video with Mike Wendland on his PCMike radio talk show on WXYT AM 1270. Presentation Arts, is in business to help small businesses and individuals tell their story using video images and sound.Integral to our approach has been the use of digital video (DV) technology. DV has reached a level of maturity where now anyone with the time, the right equipment, and an idea can be their own film maker. You can produce results that rival edit suites that cost upwards of a quarter million dollars just a few years ago at at fraction of the price. Thankfully, it's a small fraction!
I hope you find the information below useful in sorting out all the options to get you going. Who knows? You might be the next Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, or Alfred Hitchcock. Whether you want to make serious documentaries filmed and edited at some exotic location or just want to put together highlights of your kid's soccer season, the core technology and issues are the same. I hope sharing my experience of the past few years of getting my own edit suites up and running and consulting with others doing the same will prove useful to you. I especially would like to help if your are diving into DV for the first time.
There's a lot to learn but should you have any questions, please feel free to drop me an e-mail or give me a call.
Regards, Dave Nacy dave@nacy.org Mobile office: 248-877-2361
Table of Contents:
DV (digital video) is a term that has been around ever since folks started capturing video images and audio on a computer workstation and manipulated that information for the purposes of production. What has changed recently is the advent of technology that has placed this technology within the reach of consumers . This "next big thing" as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer describes it, is enabling a whole new wave of video producers much like desktop publishing grew a new generation of graphics designers. In this case, the enabling agents are today's more capable computers and the IEEE-1394 interface standard, also known as "FireWire".
The term miniDV applies to those devices whose tape storage format is the small digital video cassette with the DV logo. This smaller storage format can accommodate more resolution and CD quality sound with digital accuracy than can even the best VHS or 8mm formats. miniDV cameras with the IEEE-1394 interface start about $800 and run into several thousand dollars, depending on features and options like interchangeable lenses and pro audio connections.
These are all terms that refer to the interface standard specification invented by Apple Computer that became known as "FireWire". Sony's name for the IEEE-1394 standard is iLink. IEEE-1394 is essentially a set of standards that allow for high speed data communication using a simple 4 pin and 6 pin wired connectors. For you it means you can reliably send and receive high quality video and audio data, as well as, control your camera or tape deck via a simple connection to your computer.
People have written volumes about digital video - what it is and how to do it. What you are in for here is an abbreviated version describing what you can do and how to get started. First of all, watch your television screen with a more critical eye. View commercials with a "how'd they do that?" mentality. Find what you like visually and the kinds of sounds that are "you". Tune into VH1 or MTV where things get really creative. You won't have the production budget of a major record label, but you do have within you the same type of creative talent.
Video editing is the one thing Americans are arguably best trained to do. All those years watching the tube (not to mention movies) finally pays off! You know almost intuitively what is good and bad video and editing. I can't teach you the art and skill of editing or film making. I can help get in front of the right equipment so you can begin a creative learning process that, once you get through the technical stuff, is a blast! Get ready to pop the popcorn and call your friends over for your first debut...
Digital video editing is a leap forward in the editing process in that there is no tape involved. The computer can combine and process each frame of video information without the need to rerecord or destroy the original footage. You can layer graphics and text over footage shot with your camera. Layers of video can all have their own levels of transparency. You can change time by slowing things down or speeding things up. All this is done using non-linear editing software.
Digital video editing using FireWire requires three major pieces of the puzzle to be in place. First you need a computer that will be the control center of your editing system. The second piece of the system is an IEEE-1394 hardware card or connection on your computer. The third thing we need is an IEEE-1394 device through which video and audio can be received and transmitted. What ties the whole thing together and makes it work is your editing software.
The software you choose is more important than the type of computer you use. It's features and capabilities will enable or limit your creative potential. I have observed there to be roughly three categories of editing software: Introductory, Enthusiast, and Professional. I suppose there is a third , Broadcast Professional, but that's a bit outside the scope of this discussion. My comments below are cursory. I expect you will dig deeper into any items that interest you. There's no way I can replicate the depth of information out there on the web on this stuff (nor would I want to try to!).
The Introductory User will find software that offers simple user interfaces or wizards to guide them through the video editing process. Even though the offerings at this price range (which start at FREE!) don't have all the bells and whistles of the more robust packages, one can achieve professional results if the original source footage is clean looking and the editing done in a compelling way. You can surely beat what tape based editing systems costing thousands can do and you'll do it in less time for a lot less money.
If you have a digital video camera, you need to have a computer that supports the digital connection from you camera to your computer. Most cameras and recently made computers have FireWire support. Some cameras use a USB connection to the computer. In any case, if you don't have the required connection between your camera and computer, you'll have to upgrade.
What if your camera is an older analog model like VHS or 8mm? Are you stuck? No! You can still capture your movies in digital form by getting a video interface device to perform the conversion. I have an Adaptec AVC-2200 VideoOh! This unit allows you to plug in your old VCR or camcorder, record to disk, make simple edits, and burn a DVD of your creation. I have found it to be really useful for archiving my old VHS family movies on to DVD. This same device will take video out of your computer via USB and convert it to analog stereo audio, composite video, and S-video. It is also useful when playing out of a computer or laptop during live presentations.
Once you get your camera and computer "talking video", download one of the free packages and get going! After becoming more familiar with the process you may find it worth you while to step up to the paid versions that have a bit more functionality to offer. I personally prefer Final Cut Express HD on the Mac, but have had good success with versions of Adobe Premiere and Ulead VideoStudio.
Not listed below is Dazzle* which includes an IEEE-1394 or USB video connection with basic editing software for Windows starting at $49 (search for Dazzle here). There are lots of video interface and firewire cards on the market.
Adobe Premiere Elements Ulead VideoStudio Sony Vegas 6
$79-99, iMovie HD (part of iLife suite, Mac only) $82-99, Adobe Premiere Elements (Windows) $69-105, Avid Pinnacle Studio Plus 10 (Windows) $49, Roxio VideoWave 7 (Windows) $99, Sony Vegas MovieStudio + DVD
The Enthusiast needs a bit more than the beginner. More transition types, more effects (filters), and more audio processing options will help the enthusiast do what they want in the edit suite. Some hardware bundles in the past have include somewhat stripped down versions of full Adobe Premiere known as Premiere Elements. If you can get the full version, do it if it costs less than upgrading later. At $149, the EditDV Unplugged & MediaCleanerEZ bundle is a terrific value. You can upgrade this to the industrial strength EditDV down the road - once you've mastered the basics of video editing.
Final Cut Express HD (Mac) Avid Xpress (Mac & Windows) Sony Movie Studio + DVD Platinum Edition (Windows)
You can hardly go wrong selecting any of the packages below. Adobe Premiere is probably the most popular of the bunch. I started with Premiere about ten years ago but, personally, I like Final Cut the best. I've also been part of large collaborative projects that successfully used Sony's Vegas. I also own After Effects to do special effects and some high end composite rendering that isn't in the scope of editing packages. Final Cut Pro plus Motion from Apple is comparable to Premiere and After Effects from Adobe.
I once was faced with a project that required encoding all my video to MPEG2 Program streams for playback on Adtec's MPEG2 players. Three screens of video played in perfect synch with one another during a live concert was the application. The result was awesome, but Cleaner 5 fell down on the encoding job. I turned to Vegas Video (now Sony Vegas 6) with the MPEG2 rendering code from Ligos. The output was impressive. As part of the process, I learned to really like the more advanced audio features of Vegas Video as compared to Premiere. For Windows users, this would be a real solid choice.
Not mentioned below are higher end systems with specialized hardware that allow real-time rendering and playback of titles and effects. Other hardware accelerates rendering times of After Effects' plug-ins. At this level of sophistication is where the dollars really add up. There is no limit to the amount of money you can spend getting your edit suite to resemble a broadcast studio (ask my wife!).
Final Cut Pro 5 (Mac) Adobe Premiere Pro (Windows) Avid Xpress (Mac & Windows) Sony Vegas + DVD (Windows)
The holy grail of video distribution has arrived! Apple is now selling systems and software (iDVD) that are targeted at making DVD's faster, easier, and more cost effectively than thought possible just a couple of years ago. For about $700, one can purchase a unit with all you need to burn DVD's that will play on most set-top DVD players. Apple Computer really started things by including FireWire on all their G4 Macintoshes. Most PC makers have followed suit in packaging machines configured for video capture, editing, and DVD authoring.
Whether you are Mac or Windows based, you will want as fast a computer as you can afford. Processing video requires 30 frames of imagery per second. When you apply filters to change the color of you video to sepia tone or look more like film, you are requiring the computer to recompute each and every frame - 30 times for each second of video. The faster the machine, the quicker this process will be. Although slower machines may work okay, you will spend more of your time waiting for the machine than if you had a faster processor. Fork over some dollars for a fast CPU - it's worth the investment.
When it comes to memory, you will find these applications are RAM intensive. Make sure you have at least 512MB of RAM. If you can get more, that's even better. My Mac has 1GB and my PC has 2GB of RAM. This will enable you to have multiple applications open at once, which can prove convenient in the creative process.
The digital video standard has a data rate of about 3.5MB/sec. That means you'll need 2.1GB for every 10 minutes of stored video! Your disk drives must be large and fast. They need to be able to sustain read and write rates of at least 4MB/sec. The good news is that you can get these large fast drives relatively inexpensively as compared to the A/V rated SCSI drives these systems required not too long ago. If you plan on having many hours of video online, go get a 300-400GB hard drive. Note that some large drives will require special disk drive cards to be added to your machine. I had to do this for may G4 Mac.
I prefer to work with a dedicated DV tape deck (like the Sony DV Watchman). That way I can have the camera out shooting while another project is being edited. In a perfect world you would do the same. In reality, I've used cameras as tape decks. It works fine, but the mechanisms are not nearly as durable as those found in editing decks.
You'll need a TV monitor hooked up to your system when you edit. Colors will look different on the NTSC TV screen than they will on your computer monitor. Some colors (like pure RED) are not even valid for broadcast. You will want to work in the mode that what you are seeing in the edit suite is what will be seen on the TV when you play it back later.
Due to the nature of needing to route various audio and video signals to different pieces of gear, you might want to add an audio mixing board, some audio/video switchers, and a VHS deck or two for dubbing to a format your friends can use.
There are several companies out there that can put it all together for you. I'd check out Pro Max, and The Videoguys. These companies offer fully configured systems that are ready to go out of the box or can help you put together your own system. I highly recommend Pro Max, having met and received tremendous support from Charles McConathy. I figure any company whose president really knows the technical in's and out's of this stuff can't be all bad. The Videoguys are more PC oriented and I've had good experience with them, too.
This is a topic worthy of separate treatment in and of itself. My recommendation is simple: buy the best camera you can afford. Nothing in your edit suite will influence the quality of your results more than your camera. I used to prefer Sony miniDV cameras (TRV11, TRV900). I've done many video shoots using the Canon GL1. I recently acquired a Panasonic PV-GS200 and can't believe what it does in such a small package. Cameras can be broken down into three categories: single charge couple device (CCD), three CCD, and broadcast.
Single CCD cameras are the least expensive and can produce terrific results in ideal lighting. Three CCD cameras are the most versatile, producing broadcast quality results under a wider variety of lighting conditions. Broadcast DV cameras are professional cameras whose DV convenience is aimed at the television news industry.
CCD's are the light receptors of the camera. The more picture elements (pixels), the larger the CCD's, the the number of CCD's (one vs. three) dramatically increase the quality of your video.
Expect to pay about $400-$800 for a solid single CCD DV camera. Three CCD cameras can be bought for $1000-$2000. Professional cameras run from $4500 on up to $180,000 for the HDTV versions.
If you already have a substantial investment in 8mm video, you may want to check out a lower cost alternative to miniDV cameras. Sony has a line of "Digital 8" cameras like the TRV280 that can record and play 8mm tapes and supports data transport and camera control via USB.
If you don't have any concern about older 8mm tape compatibility, get a good miniDV camera. The higher resolution, image clarity, and audio flexibility of miniDV is worth the money. miniDV tapes are now affordable and easy to find at Best Buy, Circuit City, or Costco. Even our local CVS drugstore carries miniDV tapes now. The best solution is to order tapes in bulk off the internet.
Deciding on cameras, like the rest of this editing discussion, borders on religion with some people. Do a thorough investigation according to your budget. At the lower end, I like the Sony DCR-HC32 and Canon ZR300. If you have the money, you can hardly go wrong with the Sony DCR-PC1000 or the Canon GL2 . Many entries to the market combine digital video recording with still image capture at higher resolution than the normal 640x480. This is like getting a digital camcorder and digital camera all-in-one. Check out the Samsung Compact DuoCam for these features.
When faced with making your projects look like the kinds of things people are used to seeing on television you find your task is difficult indeed. You'll want the kinds of moving backgrounds and graphic elements you see on ESPN SportsCenter. Your audio must have the clarity of Mike Wendland's special reports on WDIV. The music that introduces your production has to have punch.
You can buy all these elements off-the-shelf. First, let's tackle the sound track.
Let's say you edit your project and need 13 seconds of salsa music. What to you do? Buy SmartSound. This software is a studio recorded audio system that allows you to produce audio tracks of the style you choose for the length of time required. Simply select the style, punch in the duration, and SmartSound will assemble the audio track ready for your editor. You can add on more collections of tracks organized by style or purpose (documentaries, film textures, extreme sports, sound effects, etc.).
If there is one weakness with most camcorders, it's the quality of the on-camera microphones. They usually pick up motor noise or other distracting background noise. If you are recording a talking head, use a separate microphone. This inexpensive addition to your camera will improve your productions dramatically. Although professional lavalier microphones work best, they require special adapters to work with most consumer DV camcorders. Simple battery power lavaliers like the Radio Shack 33-3003 cost about $35. With a dual mono to stereo adapter, you can plug two of these into the stereo mini jack found on most camcorders. The difference between separate lavalier microphones and the on-camera microphones is astounding.
Say you want some funky moving backgrounds or want to simulate an explosion or want some wild MTV-style graphic effects. Turn to Art Beats or Digital Juice. You can license this footage for your use without the need to become an expert graphics or effects designer. These will make your projects look more polished and professional.
An indispensable tool in my DV arsenal is Adobe After Effects. This is a high end compositing system that is only limited by your imagination. It is an open system that allows third parties to write packages called "plug-ins" that extend the abilities of the basic system (as powerful as it is). I like the set of plug-ins from Atomic Power known as Evolution that offer some really awesome special effects. The package has since been acquired by Adobe. A simple example of Evolution is the card wipe used in to produce the animated GIF at the top of this page.
When shooting video, getting the subject lit with the proper lighting can be difficult and is considered an art form itself. You may need to add a video light that mounts on the camera for shooting people in a crowd that is insufficiently lit (like most wedding receptions). For more formal interviews, purchase a light kit that will enable you to do three point lighting (key, fill, and overhead). Using the proper lighting will make your subjects look more like what people are used to seeing on TV. B&H Photo and Video offer myriads of "light kits" of which the most popular will cost you about $800. Their professional staff can help put together something that will meet your needs and budget.
An area we are ever more active in is taking a video project and publishing it for use via the web, PC's, and DVD players. There is a software package, Cleaner XL, that can encode finished DV movies into other formats such as RealPlayer, QuickTime, AVI, and MPEG. I've had problems with older versions Cleaner for encoding MPEG2 Program streams. Quicktime Pro from Apple can also publish your movies in several popular formats. Once you have finished your project, you can put it in a form that others can view using their familiar internet browsers with the RealPlayer plug-in. Or, you can write CD-ROMs that have AVI or MPEG movies that people can view with QuickTime Player or Windows Media Player.
VideoCD is a special format that enables you to write CD-ROMs that will play in most (not all) DVD players with VHS-like quality. These are popular with people in Asia as they offer a cheap means of distribution. However, with recent advances made with DVD authoring one can get much better results using this higher resolution format.
There are entry level, enthusiast, and professional DVD authoring solutions. They range from Apple's iDVD and Sonic Solutions MyDVD to DVDStudio Pro, DVDit 6, and Scenarist. Apple, Adobe, and SONY all offer bundled video editing and DVD authoring systems.
Just download one of the free software packages listed above and put them through their paces. If you do not have a FireWire card on your PC, install one. Several FireWire cards come bundled with video editing software. You may have good luck on eBay finding older, but reliable FireWire cards like those bundled with EditDV.
Once you have a capablecomputer with editing software installed, you will need a FireWire or USB compatible video source. Most video cameras with the DV logo have a FireWire connection that will allow your computer to control the camera and extract the compressed video off your camera's tape and transport it to your computer. This same connection will allow you to play edited video using your computer but you will need to connect a television monitor up to your camera's video out to see how it will look on a TV screen (see diagram above).
The bottom line is that, if your computer supports FireWire and you already own a FireWire tape deck or camera, you can get going without spending another dollar. You can do some serious work without having to spend more than $500. The best solution is to acquire the best miniDV camera you can afford, video editing software you can understand, and a DVD burner with authoring software to save your movies for the ages (or at least mail them to your friends and family).
Mac OS Based Computers HP x4000 Windows 2000 Mackie 1202 Mixer Carver Professional Power Amp Advent Monitor Speakers (out of production) Cerwin Vega LW10 Subwoofer Sony SVO-2100 S-VHS Edit Deck w/RS-232 Interface Card Sony TRV9 19" Sony Trinitron Computer Monitor 24" Sony Trinitron Computer Monitor Epson Scanner
Apple Final Cut Express Apple iDVD Adobe After Effects Adobe Premiere Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Adobe GoLive Digital Juice for NLE Digital Juice Backtracks SmartSound LogoMotion (vanished from the internet) Ray Dream Studio Sonic Solutions MyDVD Sonic Solutions DVDit Presentation Arts, Inc. Project Summary
Apple Final Cut Express Apple iDVD Adobe After Effects Adobe Premiere Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Adobe GoLive Digital Juice for NLE Digital Juice Backtracks SmartSound LogoMotion (vanished from the internet) Ray Dream Studio Sonic Solutions MyDVD Sonic Solutions DVDit