P. Bournias, Management Information Systems and Technology

P. Bournias
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WINDOWS RESOURCE #7

COMPUTER VIDEO PROCESSING

You have recorded all those wonderful memories on vhs video tapes so what can you do now before your video tape player goes dead or before the video tape looses it's magnetic composition because it won't be long before that happens and you won't find one in the market.

Record them to dvd!!! If you have a computer with a pentium 3 or 4 cpu, windows 98, xp, nt operating system unless you prefer LInux, at least 512mb of ram, a dvd writer, and a video / tv card you can save those old video recordings onto dvd.

These days more and more people are using video for a variety of reasons, such as education or the latest fads like creating home videos for sites like DevilFinder, Google Video, YouTube, and other sites.
Here is my version of how to do it.

Working with video on Windows

For those of you who want to learn the essence of how to logically work with video, here it is. We all want to keep memories even if we can't remember them and this is for those who want to save those old home videos to a better form of media such as dvd.

The video recording processes are simplified as follows:

Record video tape using windows encoder to a wmv file
Edit and record to a secondary file if you wish to keep the original unedited
write the dvd

The main components of video work require

Time

Video does not equate to digital data, therefore do not expect to be able to speed through the processing of it while reading, editing, or writing it.

Hardware

A good cpu, pentium 3 or above, preferable not a celeron as video requires math computations for speed.
512mb of ram will work but the more the better.
A good video card
An internal video/tv card or external video capture device
A DVD read/write optical drive
Plenty of hard disk space each dvd needs about 4gb so working with multiple videos can easily multiply this amount.
I recommend 80gb minimum for room to do a variety of editing/splicing which shouldn't be a problem for newer systems.
A video camera either analog or digital
A DVD recorder player or Video tape recorder player

Note:
If you want to work with a variety of videos from other countries, then you will have to use a multisystem and no region dvd device and video / tv cards.
Having both a multi-system player/recorder and a no region dvd read/write drive allows video transfer and playing virtually anywhere in the world.

The following information assumes that you know how to install your computer hardware and software and that you have already done so.

Connecting the hardware for video capturing

It's not that hard, just some reading, inserting the video/tv card and drivers, possibly connecting it to your sound connectors, then connecting your video using RCA cables with 1 x video and 2 x audio with a "Y" connector to mini-jack for the audio to your sound card line-in.

Do not connect your video out that usually connects to your tv to the tv card antenna in because the recording quality will be terrible!

Testing your hardware

After you have setup your video/tv card you should have tested it to see if you are receiving proper television reception of your local channels.
Assuming that you are you can change your input to COMPOSITE or VV to accept your video camera as input.
Starting your video camera playback, you should now see the video through the tv program on your screen. If that works, then you can close that program because the windows encoder will use it's own display to show you the video flowing into your system.
If you are working with a newer system and a digital video camera, then you most likely have a program that will transfer your video through a dv interface into your system using the firewire port. Lucky you.

Software

The operating system used in this case can either be windows 9x or xp or nt while the linux operating system is making tremendous efforts and will soon equal and probably surpass the windows operating system capabilities.
Windows Media Encoder
Windows Movie Maker
Roxio MyDVD or other package including DVD creation.

Optional Software

TMPGEnc, a utility that converts wmv format to mpeg for dvd as well as other formats, free 30 day trial.
Pinnacle Studio PCTV
Adobe Premier
Codecs

Most used video file formats for video work:

AVI, .MPG, and .WMV combining video can also be done.

Most acceptable sound file formats for video work:

wav, .mp3 to include your own music in the background.

Most used graphic file formats for video work:

jpg also known as jpeg. you can overlay jpg's as backgrounds.

Most used flash file formats for video work:

swf for embedding your own special effects into your video.

Program and video software information

Windows Media Encoder 9 (WME) is not included on your windows installation cd but you can obtain this software directly from the Microsoft website.  Links to some of the information here are presented at the end of this page.

Windows Movie Maker (WMM) is included on your installation cd and you can check to see if it was installed by looking in START PROGRAMS or START PROGRAMS ACCESSORIES.  If you do not see it there then you will have to use your installation cd to add it to your system.

Windows Media Player (WMP) is usually installed on the system so this will most likely be the quick and dirty way of playing a video file to see results if you are not in an editing program.

Roxio MyDVD or other package including DVD creation can be purchased separately and is a good idea especially if you need to backup the data files on your system as can be done using Roxio's Creator Classic.   Using the Roxio DVD Builder, you can create a multi menu dvd to preserve your home movies safer than they would be on tape.

If you explore video creation further, then you are likely to find that the windows programs are very basic but get the job done.   Searching for better programs and more options will bring a plethora of programs, utilities, and you can learn how to utilize a variety of programs to create videos with special effects, sounds and multiple sound tracks, music, graphics, and still photography.

Some additional programs that I have tried and found useful include:

TMPGEnc a very handy utility to convert and encode video into mpeg format from other formats.

Pinnacle Studio PCTV software, the latest versions can import directly from digital video cameras; allows you to manipulate video, sound, and to add or create graphic titles, and special effects that are included in the package.   Finally it allows you to create a video file in the most popular formats to work with mpg and avi.

Adobe Premiere is another video editing program that is for more advanced video work allowing you to add multiple video and sound tracks, and to tweak different aspects of the video, and includes dual screen views - one for the original and one for previewing.

An important fact about the programs is that you should check the specifications and hopefully verify that the program will accept video input / outputs in the formats that you will want to use.  AVI, MPEG, and WMV files should be a minimum and hopefully the program you choose will be able to convert between them to avoid having to use a bunch of other programs and therefore more time converting.

How to do it - simple video to pc

Trying to keep everything as simple as possible is the object of this writing because video work can become very complicated if you want to engross yourself in it.

Tip:
As an experiment, I would suggest that you try all of the following with 10 minutes of video.  This will give you an idea of how long it will take to process a 2 hour video.  Most of the processing time will be used during importing, then saving, and converting to mpeg if necessary.

Start Windows Encoder.  Immediately a wizard will pop up and you have the choice of using it or cancelling it.    I tend to cancel it and simply make the changes that I will use as there are not that many anyway. Basically the wizard will guide you through each of the property menus.
If you cancelled as I mentioned, then click on PROPERTIES on the bar.
At the SOURCES tab, click on the CONFIGURE and then VIDEO SOURCE, choose COMPOSITE and assuming that the video source is the same as the country you are in, click OK.
Next, click the OUTPUT tab, check ARCHIVE TO FILE, hit BROWSE and set where you will store the video file and give it a name then hit SAVE.
Moving on to the COMPRESSION tab, at Destination select FILE ARCHIVE, video should change automatically to "highest quality" and audio should also have changed to LOSSLESS.
Skipping the Video Size tab, takes us to the ATTRIBUTES tab where you can enter information regarding your video if you wish.
Then hit the diskette icon to save your setting to a file that you can name default.  This can be reused for each video that you want to process as another forethought, you may not want to set the ATTRIBUTES when saving this so that you only have to change that and the ARCHIVE FILE NAME each time you open these settings as default.
With that you are now ready to start your video transfer.
Hit START ENCODING and at the same time start your video player.

The video playback from your vidoe or camera should now be on the output of the encoder program preview while being saved to your hard disk.
Hopefully you know just about how long that video will be so that you can now do something else while that is happening.

Tip:
Cameras and videos from other countries can be done the same way as long as you change the ntsc/pal/secam settings in the video source options of the program.
What are ntsc/pal/secam?  Check your video / tv card to see what you are using but basically each country has it's own.
America uses two ntsc settings, one for video and one for television, while Europe mostly uses a pal/secam combination.
See the links that I have provided below for video/tv card specifications.

Once your file has been saved to disk, you can stop and exit the windows encoder program and start the windows movie maker (WMM) program.
Now it's time to start the windows movie maker.
Although they are both windows programs, oddly enough you must import your newly created video file into WMM.    Once you see the middle of the program fill the video containers with icons of your video you can begin to create your video master-piece.   At the bottom of the screen is the TIMELINE that accepts graphics, sound - music, effects, and video.

If you have created a graphic in .jpg using a drawing program the all you have to do is to import the file into the program and you can use it as the first frame of your new production or save it until you create your dvd and use it there as a background for your dvd menu screen.

Tip:
Using your video / tv card program or WMM you can play your video file and take a snapshot of an image to use as a background image for your dvd menu display.

After that, simply click on one of the video containers above the timeline and then use CTRL-A to select all of them.
Use the right side bar to move to the top of the containers and drag the first one down into the first timeline spot.   That will load all of the clips into the timeline.

If you wish to edit your timeline, then click on timeline and you can shorten a clip, or add music usually mp3 or wav files but watch the size and also watch that you don't loose the original sound that was captured with the video unless you prefer it that way.

In between the video clips you can add special effects included in the program such as screen transformations that are available with the WMM program, or add others from other sources, or create something using a flash program.

Then FILE SAVE MOVIE FILE to your system and exit the windows movie maker.

Optionally if you need country conversion

TMPGEnc starts with a wizard.  This time I use the wizard as follows.
Click on the pull-down and select MPEG-1 LAYER II Audio MP2.
Then on the left various video media are shown.  In the DVD section, click on the specification that applies to the video output that you want to produce.  For America, NTSC, for Europe PAL
Then click next.   In the VIDEO FILE, click on BROWSE, then click on Files of Type and select ALL FILES *.* because wmv is not in the primary list.
Then find and select the video file that you saved prior to this step and click OPEN.
Now you should see both video and audio sources set to your file.
Then click next.  and once again at Filter Settings, click next.
At Bitrate Setting, click next again as these are more advanced settings.
Now you should see the BROWSE for the OUTPUT FILE NAME set to the same as your input file name but the new file will have an .mpg ending.
At this point, once you click on OK, the conversion process will begin.

WRITING YOUR DVD

Once you have your video file ready, start the dvd builder or creator program that you are using and write your dvd.
In Roxio, click on ADD NEW TITLE, this is where you will load graphics or video onto the timeline.
Now you are ready to "burn" write your dvd. Place a blank dvd into your dvd writer and click BURN.

And there you have it, home video!

Usually a 2 hour video including transitions, menus, and chapters will fill a 4.7gb dvd. As for processing time, various parameters include your computer, how much time you work on editing details of your video, the loading and conversion processes, and finally writing your dvd.

There are other features of the program that I have not mentioned in greater detail but I think that after you experiment with the first short movie that you should be ready to experiment with other features from each of the above programs mentioned.

Here is the process reviewed:

Video captured through video/tv card and encoder program to wmv file
Edit wmv file and save as wmv video file
write the dvd

Video problems

Depending on your operating system and the versions of the video programs you use you may encounter a variety of situations that require additional software.
One such example is that when working with older video files, some of them use codecs.
These are special file encodings that allow the video to be protected or adapted for the variations of versions of video programs that play video on computers.
Usually codec problems are seen when playing smaller video clips through windows media player, quick time, or real player software. Best bet is to try and convert the file to another format that is more compatible.

Gaps in video playback are usually caused by a variety of parameters that can include slow cpu, slow cd or dvd writers, and also by trying to use your system to do other things while working with video.