PC Video

We have just started putting together an associated site dedicated to computer video in the UK. We will be adding articles as we go along so do visit from time to time computer-video.co.uk

It is relatively easy to create an 'electric slideshow' of scanned or electronically produced images, using relatively cheap hardware and software. This can have pre-recorded audio or Midi tracks added to it, with a voice over commentary, and a stand-alone AVI or MPEG file produced.

With a Video card equipped with a composite or S-VHS output, the file can be recorded onto video tape. This option is considerably cheaper than a card which will write direct to tape, but is less able to cope with moving video without dropping frames. Either way, unless you have a fast computer with a big, fast hard disk (SCSI preferably), then you will be spending a lot of time waiting for the video to be rendered.

There are currently a number of programs for the PC which will enable you to make fully-fledged video, given suitable hardware. At the lower end of the market are programs like MGI VideoWave, whilst at the higher (more expensive) end is Adobe Premiere. Both programs will enable the production of video, so as with most software, it depends on what you are looking for in the future.

This is a transcript of an actual session we participated in on a tech advice forum. It has been edited in places to maintain clarity. You may find the answers helpful.

Q. I'm very new to video editing.
I want to purchase some video editing software, but I need some help.
I'm looking for something that has lots of features and won't restrict me too much.

A. A couple of things you have to consider is how you get the video into your computer (probably through a card), what sort of video (analogue or digital) and how you will get it out again onto tape, minidisc, etc. Using streaming video is a whole other deal www.streamingmediaworld.com/video/tutor/ is a good place to start.

Q. What exactly do I need to bring the video from an external source on to the computer?
I want to do the following:
- transfer VHS video on to my PC
- transfer video camera recordings (direct from my video camera) on to my PC

A. Assuming they are both analogue video sources, you will need an analogue video capture card. You can get USB versions, but they don't really run fast enough for video capture at higher resolutions. I can't suggest places to buy other than in the UK, but most online computer peripheral sites should stock them. Manufacturers like Fast, Pinnacle, Matrox and Canopus would be the ones to look for. Whichever you choose, make sure it is supported by the software. It is possible to get software and hardware bundles, these work out a lot cheaper, but you will sometimes get offered 'lite' versions of the software, so be careful. A good UK site to look at is www.computervideo.net

Q. I'm looking to make short video (2 to 10 min.) clips for the internet.
What kind file format would I use for video posted on the internet?

A. If you want to show video on the page rather than being downloaded and viewed (ie mpeg, avi formats), then streaming video is the only option. You can use either RealVideo or Windows Media, there are a bunch of tutorials on that site I suggested, and freely downloadable producer programs to create the webpages. Only potential problem with video is that it takes up a lot of bandwidth, so be careful your isp doesn't have a bandwidth limit on your website. If you have to pay for a streaming media server, then it gets expensive.

Q. All I want to do is have people download the video from my site (without streaming).

A. OK, at it's simplest you create a link on the webpage like this

<a href="videoclip.AVI">right click here</a>

and tell people to right click and "save target as" to download it. With IE6 it gets a little complicated if you don't do this, as it wants to play all online multimedia content itself. This is the simplest way, you can make it as complicated as you like, using any video format you want. AVI is universal but does create big file sizes, MPEG is much better.

Q. I’m recording video using a regular video camera. What are the most basic things I need if I want to capture video on my computer?

A. Either a video card with a video input and output suitable for whatever your video footage is currently on (for example ATI All in Wonder Pro), or a separate capture card suitable for your source device, again with video in and out (for example DataVideo MJ600). You may not want to copy back to tape at present, but you probably will in the future! Then you will need software to actually capture the video and edit it. Anything from MGI VideoWave to Adobe Premiere, you choose the functions and price and choose on that basis. That's it really, the more you spend on the hardware, the better the output will be, but make sure the software supports the hardware. The absolute basic setup would be VideoWave and an All in Wonder type card, often available bundled together.

Q. Obviously my computer has some sort of video card, but can it be used to input/output video from a video camera/vcr?

A. Either a video card with a video input and output suitable for the whatever your video footage is currently on (for example ATI All in Wonder Pro), or a separate capture card suitable for your source device, again with video in and out (for example DataVideo MJ600).

Q. What’s the difference between a Video Card and a separate capture card?

A. I guess the trouble is that the term 'Video card' can be confusing in this context. I'll have to make some generalisations but for our purposes, whenever I mention video recorders as a source, it is true for video cameras as well. Here goes...

All PC's have a means of displaying what is happening via a computer monitor screen. The way they do this is via an adaptor. This is either a seperate card plugged into the motherboard inside the computer, or chips built into the motherboard. Commonly this is called a video card, and only has one socket, the one for the monitor to plug into which is not compatible with tv's or video recorder's.

In the last few years, it has been increasingly common for the plug in type video cards to also have a socket for the type of video signal that works with a standard tv or VHS recorder. This enables the computer output to be played on a larger tv screen or recorded onto video tape. Some of the more expensive of these cards also have a socket to input tv or video recorder type signals into the computer for editing, etc. If you have one of these cards, you can run the monitor and record video signals onto the computer hard disk from a video recorder, and record back to the video recorder without the need for any other hardware. The All in Wonder Pro is an example of such a card.

If you do not have a card like that, then you either have to buy one, or purchase a separate card whose only function is to get video recorder type signals into and out of the computer. This is a video capture card. Generally speaking, you will get better quality using a video capture card.

Q. Why will I get better quality using a video capture card?

A. As with most things, a card that only does one job doesn't have to make technical compromises in order to do other jobs as well. The technical requirements for computer monitor type video are different to the requirements for tv and video recorder type video. Cards that deal with both will not be designed using the very best techniques to capture video, otherwise they could not produce good quality computer monitor type video.

Q. Are you saying that a good video capture card will not accept data from both a VCR and a video camera?

A. Video capture cards should accept input from both VCRs and video cameras.

Q. Are there video capture cards that work with both analogue and digital video cameras?

A. Yes, Canopus do one, but only if you want to pay a lot of money.

Q. Do you know of any good websites that review video capture cards?

A. Kinda depends on where you live. UK and US video standards are different, UK uses the PAL system and US uses NTSC. Doesn't matter what the differences are, you just need to know they are different. I can only comment on the UK, but a good starter card seems to be the miroVideo Studio DC10+, the magazine site I mentioned earlier has reviews, but there are not categorised, so you have to look through them if you don't know the names of the cards. Otherwise they have reviews at www.sirentechnology.co.uk under all the sections, or do a search on Google for relevant sites, not forgetting to add your country to the end of the query (ie just add uk or us or whatever), so you limit it to suitable sites.