The World’s Top Tips for
Pinnacle Studio Video Editing software
(with some Avid Liquid snippets)
HOLLYWOOD FX,
General Tips and Information...
Information about video editing in general.
On this page you'll find
Video capturing is essentially a matter of processing lots of data at high speeds. The pace of this process is not determined by the processing unit (your computer system) but by the provider of the data: your camcorder or VCR. That equipment has a tape running inside which sends complete images 25 times a second (PAL systems). To cope with such an amount of data, data compression is inevitably required.
The amount of data that has to be processed and stored is enormous. Let me give you some figures to get the picture right.
Suppose you want to capture an S-
Thus, each frame takes up 720 x 540 x 3 = 1.166.400 bytes. A full second's worth
of 25 individual frames (PAL systems), need no less than 29.160.400 bytes, almost
28 Mb. It is almost impossible to store so many data bytes on a one-
How is compression achieved?
To decrease the amount of data to be stored, compression techniques are used. These so called codecs (COmpression and DECompression algorithms) eliminate data that is either redundant or of little importance.
Redundancy
By avoiding redundant information less data needs to be stored while maintaining image quality. In other words: it is still possible to reconstruct an exact copy of the original image. For example, suppose you were asked to describe a box with apples. You probably won’t say: "A box with an apple, and another apple, and another apple, and another apple, ….., and another apple." It is more likely that you'd say: "A box with ten apples." It is not very useful to describe each and every apple in the box, because they are all alike. Instead you just say how many apples are in the box.
If you replace the apples in the example by pixels you get a pretty good idea of how image compression by redundancy is achieved. If you need to describe ten identical red pixels in a row you need 10 x 3 = 30 bytes (assuming a 24 bit colour palette). But if you take the redundancy into account you could store the same information in 5 bytes (3 bytes to describe the first colour, and two bytes to store the number of identical pixels). As you can see the amount of stored information is decreased, but the meaning of that information is the same. Both descriptions evaluate to a row of 10 adjacent red pixels.
Information of lesser importance
Not all information that reaches our eyes contributes to the image as we see it.
Let’s say that you are standing close to a horse. When asked you will not hesitate to say: "This animal is a horse." If you see the same animal at a distance of a hundred yards running in a meadow you will still be able to identify it as a horse. Apparently not all the details you saw in the first horse are essential to identify an animal as a horse.
This knowledge can be used for compressing data. The issue is to delete only non-
Key frames
A third compression algorithm uses so called key frames. In this technique a particular frame is described fully (without compression). Of the subsequent frames only the changes in respect to that key frame are stored. It is obvious that in cases where there aren’t many differences between the frames, this key frame technique greatly reduces the amount of data stored.
But the method has its drawbacks. Suppose that you have chosen to use a key frame every two seconds. Of every 50 frames there are 49 that are only described by their changes in respect to the key frame. In case a major scene change takes place in (let’s say) the seventh frame, the frames 7 to 50 will all be related to a totally different key frame. And this will cause a decrease in image quality for almost two seconds!
Hardware and software codecs
Compression can be achieved with hardware as well as software. In general best results are achieved with hardware compression. Of course you need a special capture card (like DC10plus).
If you are not going to write your edited movie to tape but want to use it as a multimedia clip on your computer, you will have to apply software compression. This is called recompression. The advantage is, of course, that the video clip can be played only any computer without specific hardware needed (provided that the PC has the particular software codec installed on it).
A very important codec is JPEG, available both as hardware and as software compression.
It is very well suited for still images, but totally unsuitable for moving images.
That is way the hardware based Motion JPEG (M-
Two of the major software codecs are Intel Indeo Video and Cinepak
TIPS FOR SHOOTING YOUR VIDEO by Mike Shaw
REMEMBER when shooting video ... camcorders are designed primarily to capture movement, not create it. Thus, one can make general sweeping observations such as ...
Don't zoom in and out like a frantic trombonist ... it makes people seasick (as in “sick of seeing”...). It is OK, for example, to zoom in slowly on a speaker at a wedding, but not to zoom in and out as if playing with a horizontal yoyo.
Don't 'pan' from side to side or up and down unnecessarily -
Don't try to video whilst walking or running ... the pro's use a very special piece of equipment (Steadycam) to keep the video camera rock steady during such moves. Amateurs and semi pro's do not have that equipment.
Use a tripod, monopod or or some other sort of support for the camcorder at every opportunity. You'll be far, far happier with the results every time you do.
But of course, all rules have exceptions, and these rules are no exception. For example...
An exception to the pan rule -
An interesting trick with the zoom -
Shoot sooner, end later to allow for easier 'scene trimming'.
Make sure the video tape you capture does not have 'blank spots' -
Planning your video before you start (storyboarding) will help to save time when you come to edit. Try to introduce your movie with an overview or establishing shot(s) to 'set the scene' for what is to come.
Use a mix of close-
Don't position the subject dead centre -
It is recommended (strongly) that all 'background' programs are closed down when
you want to run Studio software -
Another solution is to set up a 'dual boot' system -
The method offered here was suggested and outlined by Chris Randall, and involves setting up your PC for an extra, separate 'user', and removing all unwanted stuff from the Start Menu of that user's configuration.
CREATE A NEW USER CONFIGURATION
This method uses a feature found in the updated versions of Win95 (and Win98) -
I suggest you read through everything for this method before proceeding, so you know exactly what it's all about: this, together with the procedure, was kindly provided by Chris Randall, (and very slightly edited by me).
First, what's this User Profile all about?
After Internet Explorer 4.0+ is installed on a Windows 95-
The first time the Users tool is used, it creates a profile for you. You are prompted for your user name, and if you have logged on to the computer before, you are prompted for the logon password you are currently using (if any). Once your password (if any) is verified, you are prompted to choose which items you would like customized for your profile. The items you can choose for personalizing your profile are:
Desktop folder and Documents menu
Start menu
Favorites folder
Downloaded Web pages
My Documents folder
To select any of these items, click the check box next to the item to select it. After you choose from this list, click one of the following options:
Create copies of the current items and their content
Create new items to save disk space
The "Create copies of the current items and their content" option makes a copy of other users' files and settings to start with.
The "Create new items to save disk space" option creates blank entries for you to add to your own personal items. When you are prompted to restart your computer, click Yes. After configuring your profile and restarting your computer, you can then use the Users tool to add other users, specify passwords for them, and configure what items they can personalize.
Once you set up a "New User", the next time you re-
Here is how to set up a user profile.
- Go to the control panel in windows. Click on the Users icon. Click New user. Name the new user something like VidEdit. Leave the password section blank. (That way you won't have to type anything in when it asks you for a password when you log on, just hit the return key) Click the "Next" button.
- Now, it will ask you to "Select the items you want to personalize and choose how you want them to be created." .
- If you check "Create copies of the current items and their content", it will copy
the items you select to the new profile.
If you select "Create new items to save disk space," then it will create a blank Windows with no programs in the "START" button.
THUS, let us say you checkmark Start Menu as the item you want to personalize.
If you selected Create copies... of the Start Menu, then you will have to DELETE (remove from the menu) the programs you don't want to use with Studio software.
If you selected Create new items....., then you have to ADD the programs you want to use in the start menu, including Studio 400. - Click NEXT to finish. Then click the start menu to Log off windows. You should be able to log onto the user VidEdit now. Then right click on the start menu and create a shortcut to run the Studio editing software.
This article first appeared on the Pinnacle Webboard, and is reproduced here by kind
permission of its author -
Hi fellow users. I have been intrigued and, on several occasions, amused by the 'blacking' or 'pre striping' rituals that many users adopt in order to protect themselves from the dreaded 'blank spots' in their precious camcorder footage.
I recently joined in with a thread that discussed the implications of 'blacking'
tapes used with DV and Digital8. I was unsure at the time whether these tapes behaved
in the same way as their analogue counterparts. I do not use the digital medium yet,
so had no personal experience of it, and I found that no other user on the forum
seemed to have an 'in depth' knowledge of its properties either. So I have taken
it upon myself to find out the facts behind the need for 'blacking' or 'pre-
I have just had a long technical discussion with a senior video engineer who works for a major Japanese camcorder manufacturer (guess who?) and here are the facts that should dispel the 'myths' that surround the subject.
1. If you regularly adopt a 'sloppy' approach to handling your tapes in your camcorder,
then pre-
2. If you use your camcorder as you would a 'still' camera, i.e. always record from
where you left off, (never rewinding mid-
3. There is no real virtue to 'pre striping' a tape with timecode, on the pretext
that you are 'laying down' a timecode that will remain intact for the duration of
your tape. Once the camera has read the previous scene's timecode, and is recording
the new scene, it obliterates the underlying video 'stripes', complete with your
pre-
4. Continuing on from the previous point -
5. 'Blacking' or 'pre striping' involves removing the tape from its wrapping. Now,
it looks just like a tape that may have some important footage on it. (who writes
labels on location?) I bet there's more than one user that has accidentally recorded
over something important in the heat of the moment. Even writing the word 'blank'
on the tape does not help. These words are not automatically removed after the tape
has been used. There is nothing more re-
You may get the impression from this, that I am not an aficionado of the 'pre striping'
school, so why, in my first paragraph do I concede that 'pre-
This is purely from the way the Lanc connection works, and the way Studio400 deals with the 'counter pulses' that are passed to it from the camcorder. During replay, the stream of data that passes from the camcorder to the computer is synchronized to the rate at which the video frames are read from the tape. Without getting too technical, this data stream is disrupted if there are no video 'stripes' present on the tape (the tape is blank). This can cause a temporary disparity between the 'pseudo timecode' that S400 attaches to the Captured AVI file, and the perceived frame on the camcorder. In certain circumstances (not all) this can upset the frame accuracy of the Make Movie process. It depends on the severity of the 'blank' portion. Be aware however, that 'pre striping' is no guarantee that there will not be a 'glitch' as you pass over the pre striped portion. This is because the underlying 'stripes' are no way synchronized to the overlaid ones (your recorded video). In 8mm systems the stripes are grouped in sets of four in order for the tracking function to work. It could therefore take four stripes (4 frames) before the Lanc data is reporting the frame rate correctly again.
The overall conclusion is that, if you are going to take your hobby seriously then you have to learn how to use the camera properly. No amount of 'blacking' is going to overcome 'sloppy' camera operation.
If you are into 'belts and braces', then by all means continue to 'black' your tapes,
you will do no harm. However, in the 10 years that I have been using videotape, I
have never once pre-
This has been a long post, sorry about that (I hope I don't get my membership suspended), but I thought it was about time these facts were made known. I did not invent them, they are based on actual facts.
BTW this information relates equally to 8mm, Hi8, DV, and Digital8.
If there is a request for it, I can supplement this information with details about the 'whys and wherefores' of filling in any blank spots that you may already have, and the limitations of doing so.
Cheers,
Sparky
Here's a useful tip for the perfectionist. When you put a new tape in your camcorder,
if you have time, and if you can use mains power (saving battery life), FF your tape
to the end, and then rewind to the beginning again. This will pre-
The following excellent and extremely interesting article has been written -
When you start using the video editing software on your PC it is easy to forget the elementary facts. But one way or another, they will catch up with you in the end: indeed, the final result of your movie will depend a great deal on your camcorder and VCR. That is why I address some technical aspects of these machines in this article.
Recording on video tape
Contrary to you might expect, video frames are recorded on tape quite differently from audio signals. Sound is recorded in a linear way along the tape. This cannot be done with the video frames: the tape simply isn’t wide enough to hold all the information of one single frame. That is why these frames are recorded in a diagonal way (see the picture below).
Both the tape and the head move during the recording (and will later on while playing back). The recording and playback heads are mounted on a drum which rotates at a fixed angle to the tape.
When recording, the head does not pass along the tape surface -
The quality of the recording depends amongst other things on the quality of the tape itself, the quality of the heads, and the speed at which the heads rotate over the surface of the tape.
Videotapes contain a thin layer of iron oxide. As the recording head passes the tape a weak electrical current is sent through the head. The resulting magnetic field magnetizes the iron particles just underneath the head. The electrical current varies depending on the captured analog video signal.
Play back works the other way round: the magnetized iron particles create a weak current in the playback head. The accuracy of this process (in other words: how identical is this signal to the original one?) depends on a number of factors:
· the number of particles that were magnetized during recording. The finer the particles and/or thicker the layer, the more particles can be magnetized. The same effect comes when the tape passes the head faster;
· the magnetic properties of the iron oxide and the way it is attached to the tape;
· the extent to which adjacent tracks overlap each other;
· the occurrence of electronic noise in the recording/playback circuit.
This explains amongst others why recording in SP mode (Short Play) gives a better result than recording in LP mode (Long Play). After all, the tape speed with LP recording is lower, which means that the frames have to be recorded on a smaller surface area. For the same amount of information you have less iron particles available.
Erasing the tape
To make sure that a recording is not 'disturbed' by a previously recorded frame, so called erase heads are used. An erase head, of course, erases any data passing underneath it. Technically this is achieved by assigning the same magnetic polarity to all iron oxide particles on the tape. The less expensive consumer model VCRs have an erase head that is mounted in a fixed position just in front of the rotating drum. The old signal is being erased in a linear way (just like a sound recording). See the picture below.
But the problem with this is, that the linear erase pattern partially overlaps the diagonal track of the recorded frames. That is the reason why such a VCR is not very suitable for video editing: the start and end points of a recorded segment always contain a partially erased track. This shows as a colour change on screen or a sound glitch during playback.
Flying Erase Heads – FEH
To avoid this problem the more expensive VCRs use another technique for erasing frames. These VCRs have the erase head mounted on the rotating drum. They are therefore called flying erase heads. See the picture below.
Just before the recording head passes along the tape, the erase head will erase all data on the tape. This is only done on the right spot, without partially deleting data from the preceding or following track. This makes clean edits possible. If you really want to take editing seriously you need a VCR with flying erase heads.
Tape formats
At the moment three different formats are available for consumer videos: VHS, 8mm
and digital. For comparing each format’s quality the horizontal resolution is important.
The vertical resolution is equal in all systems: PAL-
The table below lists some of the quality aspects of the various systems:
Digital
VHS(-
S-
8mm
Hi8
Digital or analog
digital
analog
Compression
5:1
Y/C
Horizontal resolution luminance (# of lines)
500
240
400
230
400
Vertical resolution luminance (# of lines)
576
Signal/noise ratio luminance (dB)
54
43
46
45
45
Horizontal resolution colour (# of lines)
125
40
Vertical resolution colour (# of lines)
200
140
Signal/noise ratio colour (dB)
54
?
?
?
?
VHS formats
VHS stands for Video Home Standard and indeed is the most commonly used video format in the world. That is an advantage, obviously – almost anyone can play a VHS tape. The disadvantage, however, is that VHS is good as an end product but is inadequate for use during the edit process. When copying you will soon notice a generation loss. Another argument against VHS is that camcorders for VHS tapes are large and heavy.
Only few (if any) VHS camcorders are on the market today – they lack the latest gadgets like steady shot. All the more reason to look for an alternative
One of those alternatives is the VHS-
As far as the quality is concerned you will have the same limitations as with a regular VHS tape
Both the VHS as the VHS-
8mm Formats
The standard Video8 tape is compact, but can be compared to regular VHS as far as the image quality is concerned. The audio quality, however, is better (stereo). The tape itself is of a better quality, which makes generation losses a bit less dramatic in comparison to VHS. Most of the consumer camcorders use 8mm tapes nowadays
Like VHS the Video8 system has a variant for better quality. This Hi8 tape has an excellent image quality in combination with HiFi audio.
Digital format
For a couple of years, digital video has been within reach of video consumers. There
are two different (non-
Mini DV uses a small cassette with an average play duration of one hour. Image quality
is better than S-
The disadvantage of Mini DV (DV stands for Digital Video) is that camcorders are rather expensive, although prices are coming down right now. But VCRs capable of playing Mini DV cassettes are even more expensive.
Since early 1999 Sony offers Digital8. The image data is stored digitally on a ‘regular’ Hi8 tape
Generation loss as a result of copying tapes
The image quality (and to some extent also audio quality) deteriorates when copying
from one tape to another. The reasons can be found in noise, signal interruption
or distortion. The extent of the loss depends on the equipment used and the physical
qualities of the tape. It is more apparent with VHS and 8mm than it is with S-
The most common form of generation loss is the phase shift. Even if all other factors involved are optimal (no noise, a constant signal, etc.) this shift will occur. You will notice it when the coloured picture has shifted up (or down) a few lines in respect to the black and white picture.
The reason for this phenomenon is that the video signal is split into a signal for luminance and a signal for colour (Y/C signals). When copied to another tape they get out of sync: they don’t arrive at the exact same time and are therefore stored on different places of the copied image. The picture below shows this:
To correct this phase shift (or better: avoid it) you need a so called Time Base
Corrector (TBC). The Y-
You won’t like any quality loss at all, but none is as striking (and therefore annoying) as this colour shift, particularly in the second or even third generation. Reducing or eliminating this shift will vastly increase the overall image quality of your video movie.
It is obvious that VHS and 8mm tapes are not as suitable as source tapes as is the
case with S-
The word video is derived from the Latin ‘videre’, meaning ‘to see’. Without light there is no visibility. Light is essential for video taping. Important enough to put the spotlights on it. In this article I will address various aspects of light: the amount, the colour, the angle, contrast, etc.
What is light?
Outdoor light comes from the sun most of the time. Indoor light usually is artificial, in various forms.
Objects are only visible to our eyes when the reflect light. As you probably know, sunlight is literally built up from all the colours of the rainbow. Al these colours sum up to a pure white light.
As soon as one of these colours is not being reflected by an object (the colour is
absorbed) that object shows a different colour. For example, the grass is green because
red light is being absorbed and is not being reflected. The remaining yellow and
blue colours together make the grass look green.
If all colours are absorbed, the object appears black.
By the way: besides the colours visible to the human eye, sunlight contains other radiation. The ultra violet (UV) and infra red (IR) rays are the most familiar.
It is not only the colour of the light that is important, but also the amount of
light. Even though grass has the same colour when it is dark as it has during the
daytime, it definitely looks different. That is partly caused by the sensitivity
of our eyes -
For measuring the amount of light two units are used: lux and lumen. It is important to understand that they are not the same. So don’t get confused about it. Lux is the unit for the amount of received light, whilst lumen is used to measure the amount of emitted light. Let’s take a look at the example below:
In the first situation a candle emits 1 lumen. The candle is placed in front of a screen, at such a distance that an amount of 4 lux ‘hits’ the screen.
The amount of light coming from the candle still is 1 lumen, even if we double the distance to the screen. After all it is still the same candle. The screen however only receives an amount of light equivalent to 1 lux.
If we replace the candle with a light bulb that emits 4 lumen the amount of light reaching the screen is 4 lumen again, despite the double distance.
If you find this hard to understand, don’t worry. It is just an explanation of the
well-
While shooting your video the lumen unit isn’t that important. After all, what really
matters is how much light is received by the CCD-
To give you an idea of the variation in lux values, take a look at the table below:
Situation
Lux
Dark street by night
< 1
Dark street with street lights, by night
10 -
Living room by evening, with dimmed light
50 -
Office with tube lights
200 – 1,000
Outdoors; mostly cloudy to overcast
2,000 – 10,000
Outdoors; partly cloudy or misty/hazy weather
20,000 – 50,000
Clear sky with sun, around noon
75,000 – 100,000
Apparently white – white balance
The human eye is a very sophisticated instrument. In combination with our brains (our knowledge and experience) it enables us to recognize colours that aren’t really there. A camcorder lacks this intelligence and therefore records the colours as they really are.
What do I mean by this, I can hear you think. Well, let’s do a little testing.
Take a blank (white) sheet of paper. Tonight in your living room you ask your partner what the colour of that sheet of paper is. I bet he/she will say: "White!" Now that is logical, you may say; after all it is a white paper. But if you take a closer look at it you will notice that it actually has an orange/yellow shade. That shade is caused by the lights in the living room – they don’t emit pure white light, but a yellowish light that creates such a cosy atmosphere. In other words: your partner sees a yellowish paper, but experiences this as a white sheet because he/she knows by experience that it is a white paper.
As I said before, your camcorder isn’t that smart. It just records what the CCD-
Our own brains handle this process automatically. One big hurray for human intelligence!!
Many camcorders have black-
In addition to the light itself you should also take the walls and ceiling into account. If you direct a video light to the ceiling it makes a big difference whether the ceiling is just plain white or a dark brown wooden ceiling. The reflected light is of a totally different colour. You won’t notice it, probably, because of your intelligence, but your camcorder will.
You may very well have noticed that colours seem to change during the course of the day. On a clear day around noon the yellow colours dominate. Towards the evening they will turn more into the red ones. And as soon as the sun has disappeared on the horizon the colours shift to the blue. These colour changes are caused by the earth’s atmosphere.
In cloudy conditions the colours become more grey – a side effect of this is that you loose depth in your images.
Depending on what you are trying to achieve you can take these effects into account. On one occasion you may want to correct the colours by adjusting the white balance, another time you choose to make use of the conditions to create a certain atmosphere.
What direction is the light coming from?
Light can come from various angles. It is wise to distinguish between outdoor shooting and video taping indoors.
In free nature sunlight (either direct or diffuse) is the main light source. This
sunlight almost always comes from ‘somewhere above’ – this may vary depending on
the time of the day or the season. Light coming from above, of course, drops shadows
top-
Inside our homes we are used to quite different patterns. In the average living room objects are lit from more than one side; most of the times more than one lamp is on. And these lamps are often located in relatively low positions. In addition to that the walls and the ceiling reflect light and act as a secondary light source. All of this results in faint shadows, falling into various directions.
Shadows are very important for creating depth in your images. Especially in a two dimensional world like a video image, you may want to make use of whatever means you can to create or enhance the illusion of depth. On the other hand hard shadows hide details in that shadow. What you want to do is find a compromise.
Depending on the actual situation you can decide to make use of additional lights, either coming from above or two sides, install a backlight or use indirect light by use of reflectors. The most obvious option is to mount a video light on top of your camcorder. You are assured of a fully lighted object. But unfortunately this method has its drawbacks:
- The object drops a shadow right behind it. By definition this shadow drops in the same direction as you are looking at. It seems as if there is a dark lining around the object.
- People looking into the bright light tend to squint their eyes or turn their heads away.
- Although the details in the person’s face are fully lighted, because of the absence of shadows (i.e. the shadow of the nose is very short, even if the nose itself is very pronounced) you loose the illusion of depth.
Even in situations where there seems to be enough natural light, it may be a good idea to use an extra light. You can soften the shadows; darker parts can show some detail; objects are lifted from their background; creating more shadows creates/enhances the illusion of depth.
It most certainly is worth while experimenting with various settings and possibilities under changing light conditions. And one thing is for sure: practice makes perfect.
To much light or not enough light
I already mentioned the amount of light, measured in lux. During your ‘field work’ you will inevitably come across conditions of over or under exposure.
In the first case you would try to correct by using artificial light, in the other case you would adjust the exposure of your camcorder. The real problems are in the combination of both of these conditions: one part of the image is very bright and another part is relatively dark. What do you choose?
Let’s take a look at the winter sports, for example (a similar situation is a sunny
beach along the Mediterranean). If the weather is cooperating you can enjoy the snow
and a clear blue sky. For one, the snow reflects all the light falling on it (that’s
why the snow is white, remember!!) . High in the mountains the light itself isn’t
tempered as much as it is at sea level. So your camcorder’s CCD-
The automatic exposure meter of your camera adjusts to the total amount of light
received by the CCD-
The choice is yours to cope with this dilemma. If you want to show your friend’s skills you will need to over expose. Details of the people will increase, but the snow surface will change into one large, bright spot.
If on the other hand you want to emphasize the structure in the snow, or the mountain tops in the background you must underexpose at the cost of loosing detail in other objects.
Overexposure can be avoided (to a certain extent) by using grey filters or polarisation filters.
Underexposure has another side effect. Modern cameras are very sensitive, even under minimum light conditions. The faint light falling on the chip is electronically amplified. But the noise is amplified to the same level, which shows in a gritty picture, especially the dark parts of it.
At all times you must keep in mind that it is almost impossible without very technical tricks to correct for an underexposed or overexposed video recording. Under certain conditions it is better to choose a manual setting for exposure.
