Recording Video

HOW TO GET YOUR VIDEO INTO THE COMPUTER

Before we get to the video, let's talk about the computer. Next to high-end 3D gaming, video editing is about the most demanding application that you will use your computer for. That means the better the computer, the faster the video processing.

It's not as necessary for Head Shot or Desktop Videos, but for Full Motion Video processing you need at least a 2.6Ghz CPU, 1 GB of RAM, a good video card and a large hard drive. Video built into the motherboard is minimal; you really need a separate video card with at least 128MB of its own RAM. The hard drive depends on how much video you are going to store. I would say at least 160GB, but you'll be better off with 250 to 500 GB. Video storage takes up a lot of space.

At the pace of advancing technology, a modern computer with a dual or quad core CPU and higher end video card should work fine for moderate video editing, but your RAM should be at least 3 GB.

Now, if you are just going to be doing a few videos for a web site, you may not need all of the above. You'll have to try your setup and see. If it doesn't work, you may be able to talk a friend with a good computer into helping you or have it done commercially.

Apple computers have a better reputation for video editing and have an excellent program that comes free with the computer called iMovie. For Windows computers you may need to buy video editing software but the computer is generally cheaper and more easily upgradable.

If you stay within the Microsoft family there is also a free video editor from Microsoft  (Start/All Programs/Accessories/Windows Movie Maker). If you don't have it you can download it for free from Microsoft.

NOTE: Movie Maker will only capture digital video from tape, not digicams using DVDs.

VIDEO CAPTURE

How to Capture Video   Using Windows Movie Maker

To get your video from outside the computer to the inside, you will have to capture it if it's analog or transfer it digitally to your PC.

NOTE: You can record directly using your computer if you are using a webcam attached to your PC or are recording activity on the computer's monitor.

From a Video Camera.  To explain computer recording from a video camera we'll need to discuss some terms. Video cameras come in two broad categories; analog and digital. The older video cameras use tape cassettes to record an analog signal, much like an audio cassette tape or VCR tape. They're actually hard to find on the market, but if you have an older analog camcorder or are trying to record VHS tapes into your computer, I'll go through the procedures.

Digital video cameras can also use tape, but they record digital information onto the tape (1's and 0's). The tapes can be DV (Digital Video) or Mini-DV. They can also record onto flash memory, CD's or DVD's inside the camera, or an internal hard drive (see previous page on digital video media).

Analog Capture. If you are transferring video to your computer from an analog device such as a TV, VCR or older camcorder, you will need a capture device (also called a digital video converter) that converts the signal from analog to digital as it records it into the computer (around $50-$100). The device below is an external capture device, but you can also use and internal (PCI card) capture device.
 

VIDEO CAPTURE DEVICE

What I recommend taking a look at is the Pinnacle MovieBox  . It has inputs for both RCA jacks for analog AND a Firewire input (see below) for digital video (MiniDV) camcorders with a USB output. It saves having to install a FireWire card. They even have a "Plus" version that includes a microphone and stand AND a Chroma Key (green screen) backdrop. Both come with video editing software.

In some cases higher end Graphics/Video cards that are in your computer may also be able to capture video. Check your documentation.

Digital . There are two ways to transfer digital video into your computer: USB and Firewire. Digital memory and Hard Disk Drive camcorders usually use USB, which any PC can accept.

Mini-DV tape cameras usually transfer your video directly (digital to digital) using a Firewire (IEEE 1394) cable. To do that, you need a Firewire connection on your computer. Some Windows computers don't have them. If that's the case, you will need to add a Firewire PCI card that goes inside the computer.

The newest version of Firewire is Firewire 800 (800 Mbps), twice as fast as the older standard. If you are going to buy a Firewire card we recommend spending the extra for the Firewire 800. Prices range from around $15 for the older Firewire cards to $40-50 for the Firewire 800 cards. Again, just go to someplace like Amazon and put IEEE 1394 PCI CARD  into the search box.

Some digital camcorders may have a USB connection (only USB 2.0 is fast enough to transfer video) that you can use to load your video. Be careful, though. In the above left photo the DV camera has a USB connection, but it is only for an added storage card the video camera uses to take still pictures.

Webcams connect via USB and you can record directly into the computer. However, you need a decent webcam that captures at 30 fps to get acceptable video. You are usually better off recording with a camcorder and loading it into the computer.

Next, you have to have software on your computer that will see the camera and record and store the video. If you purchase a capture card, video editing software may come bundled with it. Any of the video editing software covered in the next lesson will be able to record the video from your capture device or DV camera.

SUMMARY

If you are using USB or a memory card to load the video you don't need to 'capture' it, it just moves the video file into your computer.

If your video is on a digital cassette or analog device you need to 'capture' the video by recording it using your computer's editing software.

Here are a few things to consider when recording:

If you are recording from a digicam and want to put the edited video back onto the camera for, let's say, hooking it up to a TV to play, you must capture the video in DV-AVI format. Otherwise, you can record in a compressed format like .mpeg2 or .avi or .wmv if you are using Windows Movie Maker.

DESKTOP RECORDING (SCREENCAST)

I'll cover some of your options for desktop recordings on the Video Solutions page, but most screencast software will save the file on your computer, so there's no reason to import it.

However, now that you can do almost anything on the Internet, there are sites that allow you to record short desktop videos via their web interface.