Video Editing

Have you tried to edit video? Not the videos from DVDs you rent, or recorded off your TV using a Tivo, or any PVR. Not ones that you swipe from hosting sites like YouTube or Veoh, but your own home made videos. Ones that you shot with your camcorder? Fun isn't it.

Home videos and camcorders have progressed a long way since they were first started way back with the old 8mm film cameras. I think the first big splash into editing video was when the camcorders came along. This was also the start of the video format wars. Sony Betamax was immediately followed by VHS. No one really knew which was better, or which would survive.

I made a wrong choice back then, choosing Betamax. The quality of video produced by the camcorder seemed way better than those produced by VHS camcorders. The tapes were smaller too. However as we now know, Sony lost, and it wasn't long after that you could no longer find any betamax tapes to record with.

So onward and upward with the VHS, and recording your family events to keep and view when you grew old. Wrong.... Sony, JVC, and others just can not stand for you not having to spend more money. So the next in line was Digital media...

Digital media of course involves more than just the video recorders. In fact the storage devices needed to be developed first. Devices such as hard drives that could hold more data, yet be much smaller. Tapes that would record the data in the same format that is used to transfer to other devices such as your computers, and then storage media that could hold more than what a CD provides, ie; DVDs.

Well they finally came up with a real smart way for people, like you and I, to take very good quality videos. It started out as Hi-8, which is analog, and soon progressed to Digital-8 and mini-DV. This was and in my opinion still the very best format, bar none!!!

DV (digital video) is easier to edit, is considered the most loss-less file format, providing you with about the best quality around, with the least amount of hassle. Since DV, things still changed. I guess people just can't be satisfied can we. Dumbiest thing we've done yet, is think that we need to be able to record the same high-definition video as Hollywood. However we should not be forced to pay over $100,000.00 to do it.

Well, (the consumer) cried out, demanded this, and we got it. After all we have the cash to blow don't we. They gave us HD this, HD that, everything must be HD now. Heck, the old free TV over the airwaves becomes extinct in a matter of days. Why?? HD and digital that's why. Sit down and put a pencil to just how much it will cost in the end, to change completely over to HD/Digital. Let's see.... oh yes we're talking about camcorders, so you need a new HD camcorder, a new powerhouse PC to edit those home videos on, DVD oops scratch that, we've jumped over the DVD, as it can only handle SD (Standard Definition), now we need one of those Blu-Ray burners to put the video on, and a Blu-Ray player to play them on our new HD (LCD or Plasma) TVs.

Ok I'm going to cut right to the point now. My main reason for this post. This new HD/Blu-Ray stuff may be nice and pretty. However the codecs used in these are the most difficult in the world to edit and do anything with. I'm talking about the AVCHD. Most of the expensive programs let alone the cheap ones, can not deal with it, with any sort of stability. You need a real powerhouse PC to attempt to edit it. The new quad-cores still aren't enough. Oh they can do it, but I'll bet they struggle just the same. The programs just are not written to take full advantage of multi-core processors, and I doubt that the operating systems are up to speed as well.

So anyway, I don't blame the hardware or software manufacturers for this. It's those idiots like us, that think we can and should be able to do this. The manufacturers responded to us, because they knew we would throw our money their way, for whatever they said would work. They continue to promise us everything, but not really deliver. We complain about the almost non-existence of Tech support. Why should we be surprised by this. They know that this HD stuff is for the birds. They are aware that these formats are not meant to be edited, they are for the finished product of a more editable format like DV.

I say you got what you asked for, and what you deserved!! All the headaches, and frustrations that you wanted, and then some. Don't cry to some tech support that my PC crashes when I try to do this with my video. It takes hours and hours, and days to render. Well what the heck did you expect? Take a piece of aluminum foil wad it up into a very small ball. Now I want you to unwrap that wadded up piece of aluminum foil, and get it just the way it was before you wadded it up. That's compression and decompression, in other words a CO DEC, that is used for this HD stuff...

Have fun....

Digital Media the How to...

Digital Media, video and photography. I'm mainly a home-hobbyist, but have gained a lot of experience and knowledge over the past 5 or 6 years. Most of this I attribute to what has almost become an addiction to providing help on Corel User to User Web Board. So I've decided to share some of the knowledge that I've gained. How to..is a recurring question when it comes to video, and photography. I hope that I'll be able to provide some sensible answers to them.

When talking about videos, I don't just mean videos that you purchase or rent to view. I mean the actual art, science and process of producing them. Not that I don't watch movies or videos, I do watch some, however anymore I find my self paying more attention to how the movie or video is being produced.

While watching them, I'm asking myself questions (not aloud, wife would think I'm nuts), like how did they compose that shot, or what effects are being used? Is this something that I could reproduce?

Yep, videography, editing and producing videos is hobby of mine. I'd love to make it my occupation, yet I fear in doing so will take the fun out of it. As an occupation you're faced with deadlines, trying to please the clients. I think this will have an adverse affect on creativity. So for now, I'll just be satisfied to leave it as one of my hobbies..