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The Desk Top Video Handbook On Line ver 13.1
Getting Started Q&A

This page features very straight- forward, easy to understand information about getting started in the exciting world of Desk Top Video (DTV). We have put all the info in a Question & Answer dialog format. We hope you will find this page helpful. (February 2002 update)

What is Desk Top Video?
Desk Top Video (DTV) is using your computer to create videos. You can easily and affordably use your computer to edit your video. Today, computers are so fast and storage is so cheap that you can capture/ digitize your video directly from your camcorder to your computer and then edit it. You can add all kinds of cool titles, filters, transitions and FX. You can output back to tape, onto the web or even onto a CD or DVD!! We call this kind of editing Non-Linear Editing (NLE).

In the past you had to edit Linear. That means that you went from tape to tape, laying down each track one at a time. You could use titlers and special FX generators and even a digital mixer. This process was very clunky and required not only special editing gear, but a fairly good amount of hand/ eye co-ordination.

Non-Linear is definitely the way to go. Even if you have an existing linear editing system and edit very long videos (say a 3 hour wedding) you still want to add an NLE system into your production suite. Anything you could do on an old fashioned linear system can be done better and cooler with NLE. By simply adding an NLE produced opening title sequence, highlight video or photo/video montage you can make your videos much more exciting!!

What exactly is Non Linear Editing?
Non-Llinear editing (NLE) is when you edit videos within your computer. Instead of using jog shuttles and special video decks, you simply capture the video to your hard drive. You can then edit and rearrange the scenes much like moving paragraphs around in your favorite word processing program! Since the video is digitized, you can instantly get to any exact point in the video!

Once the video is captured you can create all kinds of cool effects and transitions. Because all the video is digital, you have an almost infinite amount of FX to choose from. Page peels, flips and spins are just the beginning. You can add awesome animations and graphics to your video as well!

What is full speed, full screen video?
A standard NTSC video signal consists of 30 frames (actually 29.97) per second, and two fields per frame. This is considered to be full speed or full motion video (PAL uses 25 frames per second). With digital video, full screen is considered 720x480. If you capture at a smaller size, your computer will have to interpolate and create the missing information when it plays back the video full screen to your VCR or TV. The larger the capture size, the higher the resolution, and the greater size of the file created.

What is a video capture card?
Video capture cards let you record video onto your computer's hard drive. These cards use hardware and/or software compression (CODEC) to digitize the video onto your hard drive. You can the edit the video and play it back to tape or display the finished movie on your computer screen! The most popular type of video capture cards on the market today are FireWire cards. You can find inexpensive OHCI FireWire card for under $100. Many computers come with FireWire/iLink/IEEE1394 jacks already included. All you need to do is add NLE software and you are ready to edit video. Of course, you'll need to have a camcorder that supports FireWire as well.

If you want to capture analog (RCA or S-Video jacks) you'll need to add a video capture card to your system. You can find inexpensive capture cards for under $500 that support both analog (RCA & S-Video) plus FireWire inputs and outputs.

One of the most popular pages on our website is our Video Capture Card Round Up. It includes all the latest cards and it is updated often. The latest version, 7 (September '02), is now posted on our site.

What is the difference between FireWire and DV?
FireWire is the name of interface used to transfer video digitally between your camcorder and your computer. It is also called iLink or IEEE1394. It has emerged as the industry standard for digital videography. DV is the CODEC used by FireWire devices to squeeze down the video data so that we can more easily store and edit it.

What is a CODEC?
CODEC stands for Compression/Decompression. It is the method used by your video capture card to digitize the video and store it on your hard drive. The most popular CODECs used today are DV and MPEG2. Other CODECs include MJPEG, MPEG1, DIVX and those used for streaming video. You can learn more about each CODEC in our NLE Primer.

Is FireWire the best way to edit video?
Yes it is!! You can 'dump' the digital video (DV) signal directly into your hard drive, edit it and then output the DV signal back out. DV compression is not variable. It is fixed to full screen resolution and approximately a 5:1 compressions ratio. DV footage requires 13GB of storage per hour of video. With today's fast computers and huge inexpensive hard drives this is no problem at all!

Best of all, because the signal stays digital through the entire process, you get zero loss and a finished video that has the identical video quality to the original. DV in = DV out!!! For more information see our FireWire Q&A.

What kind of computer do I need for NLE?
The speed of your computer will let you edit and render faster, but it will have no effect on your video quality. You'll want a machine that is at least a PIII 700 w/256 megs RAM with an 8 meg 3D graphics card that supports Direct Draw Overlay.

If you plan getting one of our advanced editing products or one of our real-time cards, you'll need a faster machine. Many of the newest cards do have pretty hefty requirements. Fortunately computer prices are cheaper then ever, so getting a screaming fast machine for your video editing is more affordable then ever. As a rule of thumb you can never have too much memory and you want the fastest machine you can get that fits your budget.

If you are planning to get a new computer or you want to see if yours is going to work, check out our recommended systems and potential conflicts page.

What additional equipment do I need for NLE?
First you'll need either a FireWire port or a video capture card. If you already have FireWire then all you need is additional software for basic video editing. The NLE software will let you import and log your footage, edit each scenes in & out points, assemble them together plus create all the amazing effects you want to add.

If you want more then just basic editing, you'll want to get one of our complete capture card bundles. These will include the capture card hardware, editing software, plus a bunch of additional software and utilities to make your video editing better, more productive and add more features and FX. The other thing you are going to need is plenty of storage space.

How much hard drive space will the video need?
For DV footage, you'll need 13GB per hour of raw video. If you plan on using MPEG2 for DVD authoring, figure you'll need the same amount of space. The higher the resolution you need, the more space the video will require. Broadcast/commercial systems use very little compression and as a result require significantly more storage space and throughput. Our top cards create hi quality SVHS video that takes up an entire gig for only 3 minutes of video! For the best results and highest video quality we recommend a dedicated video storage solution. This can be a big, fast EIDE ATA66/100 drive for basic DV editing, or a Medea VideoRAID, SCSI drive or Promise FastTrack RAID for long format real-time productions. You can learn more about video storage on our Video Storage Page.

What does real-time NLE mean?
Real-time NLE systems offer you transitions, filters and effects that do not need to render. This means that you can play your video directly from the timeline out to tape. Since you do not have to render, these systems save you both time and disk space. Not all real-time systems are created equal. Some offer only a few real-time effects, while others offer hundreds, thousands or more. Many hardware and software solutions are called real-time, but they offer very different levels of real-time output. Some systems only offer you real-time VGA preview. Others have real-time VGA and analog (RCA or S-Video) output, but require you to render before you can output via FireWire. The most powerful real-time solution offer you VGA, Analog & DV output in real-time.

An important thing you need to know about real-time systems is that not everything is real-time. Moist systems offer you a subset of real-time transitions, filters and effects that you can use. If you use other FX beyond this subset, your project will require rendering. In addition, each real-time system has a limit to the amount of layers it can handle and still stay real-time. Add in too many filters or FX, and you'll need to render. For more information see our Real-Time round up article with our comprehensive real-time features comparison matrix.

What is the 2GB limit and what is timeline playback?
The 2GB file limit was a problem early NLE systems had because of an avi file limitation built into Windows. Under Win2K this limit was pushed to 4GB. That meant you were limited to only 9-minute video clips using DV compression (18 minutes w/ Win2K). With storage prices tumbling and 30GB ATA EIDE drives available for under $150, a solution for this was very important.

Fortunately this limitation is a thing of the past. The first work around developed to overcome this was timeline playback. The video clips in your project are played directly from the timeline using the original video capture files. Now you can create projects that are several hours long. The only parts of the video that are rendered are the transitions, filters and special effects. As a result you need much less disk space for making the video and since only those portions are rendered, rendering the finished project is dramatically faster!!

Next the industry came up with two solutions to the file size limitation. Seamless capture automatically breaks your files into 2GB segments that can be played back and edited seamlessly. Your editing software sees the video as one big file, but if you go into explorer you'll see that it is a series of 2GB files. The other solution was a new avi file type for Win2K and beyond. The OpenDML standard lets you create avi files that are several terabytes in size.

What are plug-ins
Plug-ins are additional software programs that add new features and effects to your NLE system. They are called Plug-ins because they "Plug In" to your NLE software and operated as if they were a part of it. A 3D transition Plug-in would appear as one of the listed transitions in the transition library. We carry a wide variety of plug-ins. You can find out more about them on our DTV software plug-ins 2002 round up article.

Can I put my video on a CD or DVD?
YES YOU CAN!! You'll need to export your video into either MPEG2 for DVD or MPEG1 for VideoCD. For DVD you'll also need to author the video and then burn it. Authoring adds the navigation and interactivity to your DVD. Once you have authored your DVD all that is left ot do is to burn it onto DVD using one of our inexpensive DVD burners. Producing your own DVDs is the hottest new technology in Desk Top Video. That is why we've added an entire section to our website � The DVD Cookbook On Line. It's loaded with all the info you need to get started making your own DVDs.

What do I need to put my video clips on the web?
That depends on how you plan on delivering the clips to your audience. Streaming video technologies like Real Video and VDO require special servers and software. But several other new technologies exist that require no special server at all. We suggest you spend some time researching the various web video delivery systems available before you buy your video capture card.

Once you have decided on the web video compression you plan on using, you will have to create your video clips and then convert them for the web. The latest web compressions are getting quite sophisticated and deliver much crisper images then just a year ago. We have found that the key to good web video is to start with high quality video captures. 640x480, 30 frames with a data rate of 3 megs or higher. Although the video will be squeezed down to fit over the nets limited bandwidth, the more data you give the web compressor to work with, the higher quality the finished product will be.

What do I need to create a video photo album?
Once again, one of our full screen 720x480 capture cards ( � or � screen are not a good choice, because the still images will look distorted). You can grab the single frames straight from your camcorder into the computer, then use your NLE software to add music, titles, transitions and other cool effects.

What do I need to output hi resolution animations?
Any of our capture cards will do the trick. To get your animations out to tape you will have to render them using the CODEC that the card supports. Many animation programs will let you render the clips directly into the desired CODEC. If yours does not, you'll have to bring the animation into the NLE software and render it out as a new video file. For best results, you want a capture card that supports the exact resolution you plan on using for your animations.

Can I install the boards myself?
Installing boards in your PC is really very easy. You may not even need a screwdriver! Once the board(s) is installed, you will need to install the special new video drivers that come with them. To make sure things go smoothly, we have an excellent installation and troubleshooting tips page in our on line tech support section.

What is a driver?
A driver is the special software code that lets your computer interact with the different devices hooked up to it. Keyboards, mice, floppy disk drives, all require drivers. The drivers supplied with your board have been specially written to allow optimal operation of your computer once they are installed. Newer better drivers get released all the time. This is why we have an FTP page on our website that lets you download the latest drivers directly from the vendors ftp sites.

What if I need help?
The Electronic Mailbox understands that even with all this great info, you may still have questions. Our techs understand the equipment and they can help you decide on the perfect system to meet your needs and budget. If you have any problems installing and using your new DTV equipment, we offer you free DTV technical support (516) 759-1615. If our techs get stumped, we will refer you to a specific tech support person at the manufacturer. We also offer our exclusive 30 day Customer Assurance Program on all DTV purchases!

The Desk Top Video Handbook On Line ver 13.1 Getting Started Q&A

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The Desk Top Video Handbook On Line ver 13.1
Getting Started Q&A