Page created Tuesday,
January 20, 2004
Revised Monday, June 09, 2008
Cajun Clickers Computer Club Of Louisiana
Digital Video Special Interest Group
Introduction To The Cajun
Clickers Video Project Click Here!
The CCCC DV SIG
meets frequently throughout the year for approximately 2 hours in Lecture Room 1 at the CCCC Office in Baton Rouge.
The purpose of the SIG is to discuss information and topics related to digital
video. Topics include shooting video, capturing video to your PC, editing and
processing video and audio, and creating DVDs.
The SIG is lead
by Walter Scott (email)
Upcoming SIG meetings
|
July 12 |
Video project
update, Tube Raider: Conqering streaming audio and viddo, part 2 |
|
Aug 2 |
Video project
update, TBD |
|
Sept |
Video project
update, TBD |
++++++++++++++++
Video SIG Projects
++++++++++++++++
Useful Video Information
Some members of
the Cajun Clickers Computer club are editing video with Linux. Here is a link
to one member’s write
up.
B&H Photo (a very reputable on line dealer) is
still (as of 1/2008) selling Sony Vegas 6.0 video editor for less than $100.
This is very highly discounted because Sony Vegas 7.0 and 8.0 have been
released. Vegas is a full featured, professional level editor, at an entry
level price! Vegas 6 originally sold for around $600 list. Vegas 7 and 8 are
about the same. Note this is NOT Sony Vegas Movie Studio, which is a "poor
man's" version of Vegas for around $90. Go here:
Video Information (documents in PDF format)
An Excellent Low
Cost DVD Player!
My New Year's Video
Resolution: A new way to archive VHS tapes!
Over in the Amateur Video Editing Yahoo group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/amateurvideoediting/
) we had a couple of group members who purchased hard drive based High
Definition camcorders without doing a lot of background research. They
immediately found that they had major problems editing, and in one case, even
viewing the native files from their cameras. CCCC Video SIG and AVE group
member Jack Giammerse, Jr. took the lead in helping these guys out by
researching different software solutions for them. This article
is a summery of what Jack found out during his investigation. It is a bit rough around the edges, and not
totally complete, but if you are planning to purchase a High Definition
camcorder, this article can save you a LOT of time and effort. It was written
by Jack Giammerese, who holds the copyright to it, and it was edited by Walter
Scott.
And here is
another excellent article on HD Cameras and
Formats
I’d love to be
able to record DV direct to disc, using one of these
Know Your Connectors! Don’t be confused!
Some video SIG members have become involved with High Definition video,
using the Aiptek GO-HD High Definition 720p Camcorder
Format and Quality Issues
This inexpensive, SD card based camera
records high definition video in mov format.
These files appear to be very high quality. However, mov files require some version of Apple QuickTime, and
to edit them requires QuickTime Pro. As we wanted to avoid these programs, we
attempted to convert the files to wmv format, and then to edit them in Sony
Vegas 6.
To convert from mov to wmv format, we
used SUPER C, a free video converter.
(More on SUPER C below.) It appears that we did lose some quality in the
conversion. On the other hand, it looks like we did not lose any quality in the
editing.
Here are some short files you can
download and play and judge for yourself. These range in size from 20-50 MB
each and are all 720p (1280 x 720 resolution). They are best viewed playing
full screen on a high resolution Widescreen monitor. (Right click, select “save
as” then play. Don’t try to stream unless you have a really fast
connection!)
These original, unmodified files are
around 25 MB each, and require Quick Time or Quick Time Alternative to
play: video1.mov , video2.mov
This is an mov file converted to wmv format with the free software SUPER C
(more info, below): orig-wmv.wmv
This is a wmv format file that is the
result of some simple editing in Sony Vegas. hd-video.wmv
A fellow Cajun Clickers member was kind
enough to make some frame grabs from some of the files. These are in PNG
format, and are fairly large. The quality loss from conversion is more apparent
in the frame grabs than in the moving videos. Click on the thumbnails to
download the full size frame grabs.
|
|
|
|
|
Original
mov |
converted
to wmv |
wmv
edited in Sony Vegas |
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The
Care and Feeding of SUPER ©
SUPER C is an excellent
free multiformat audio/video converter, that does not require you to install any
CODECs. However, they have really hidden SUPER C, making it almost
impossible to find. Here is the trick: Go to this page: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
Scroll down to the link at the bottom of the page "start downloading SUPER
© right now." Click that link. At the page that comes up, scroll about 1/3
down until you see the phrase "SUPER © is a FREE Multimedia software to
download and use." Click on "download and use." At the page that
comes up, scroll to the very bottom and click on the link "download SUPER
© setup file."
To use SUPER C, You have
to set your screen resolution to at least 1024 x 768 or SUPER C will not
display properly. Here are a couple of screen grabs of what it should
look like
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The digital video SIG
edited two news segments on the Cajun Clickers - Katrina Pet Rescue Project.
These segments were filmed and broadcast by Baton Rouge's WAFB
Channel 9 who granted us
permission to post the sections about the Cajun Clickers. The Clickers won 1st
Place in the “How” category of the APCUG 2005 Jerry Awards Winners
(Scroll Down). Special thanks to Terry Stockdale for his leadership
in this project!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Some members of the SIG were involved in a short
video political satire created by one of the SIG members. Here is the completed
project: mosquito-small.wmv (Warning, not for kids!)
The program we used for the Chroma key effect is ZS4,
a free video editor. You can find out about this program and download it at
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Let me know what topics you would like to see covered in up coming SIG
meetings. Here
is a pdf file of some of the topics we have covered, and/or will cover. For more information on the Digital Video
SIG, contact Walter (email)
If you are in
the Baton Rouge area, and would like to join Walter and Karen in creating
original, G- rated videos, go
here:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/Scott_Morton_Video
Walter and
Karen's Video Production Page:
http://smengineers.net/video/smvideo.html
Need help with
your video projects? Go here:
http://beam.to/video-convert
Links to other
useful groups and sites
Amateur Video Editing group on yahoo
Useful Information on Digital Video
Go To Walter's Home Theater
Page
Go to the
Cajun Clickers Main Page