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- Dazzle Hollywood Dv Bridge Software Update
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The following software updates are only for Dazzle customers and may be freely downloaded. Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge. Dazzle's new DV-editor for notebooks (DVE-N) easily plugs into your. The package also includes Ulead VideoStudio™ Video Editing Software, Version 4.01.
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DVD & CD: | DVD & CD Articles | DVD Software Gallery | High-Def DVD Gallery | DVD Authoring Resources |DV to DVD -- End-to-End Digital Video
(7/2001)
by Douglas Dixon
DV and MPEG-2 - Transcoding DV Input - 1394 Hardware - Editing Tools
MedioStream CAMpeg RT - CyberLink PowerVCR II Deluxe 3.0 - Ligos LSX-MPEG Suite
(See also DV to DVD -- DVD Gets Easier)
How's this for realizing the promise of digital video -- combine a DV camcorder for capturing digital video clips with a DVD burner for saving digital video productions, and you have the possibility of an end-to-end all-digital video solution on your computer!
DV tape in to DVD disc out. Sounds great, but how real is the promise? The pieces are coming together this year: DV camcorders are reaching mass market, IEEE 1394 / FireWire adapter cards are becoming more common, DVD authoring tools are getting easier to use, and even DVD burners are reaching consumer price points. But the remaining bottleneck is still in the digital formats, especially converting video from compressed DV format to the MPEG-2 compression format used for DVD.
But this part of the problem is being cracked, as personal computers have gotten fast enough to perform real-time DV-to-MPEG-2 conversion, or transcoding, in software. New Windows applications from MedioStream and CyberLink now can capture live from a DV camcorder through a 1394 / FireWire interface, transcode to MPEG-2 on the fly, and save the result to disk.
For those who want more control over MPEG-2 compression for DVD, tools like the Ligos LSX-MPEG Suite offer professional-quality encoding from AVI to MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, in both a stand-alone encoding tool and as a plug-in for Adobe Premiere.
All of this means that all the pieces are finally coming together to realize the dream of end-to-end digital video processing on the desktop.
DV and MPEG-2
So, what's the big difference between DV and DVD video anyway? After all, they're both compressed digital video, full-resolution (720 x 480) and full-rate, and even start with the same two letters. But they are significantly different formats, designed for very different purposes.
The DV compression format was designed as a capture and editing format for use in devices like camcorders. It uses a fixed data rate, which makes sense when you are writing to or reading from a video tape. DV therefore uses 'intraframe' compression, in which each frame is compressed independently of each other. As a result, while DV format is great for editing since there is relatively light compression on each frame, the data size is much larger than more aggressive compression formats. The DV format uses 25 Mb (million bits) or 3.1 MB (million bytes) per second, or 187 MB per minute, 11 GB (billion bytes) per hour of material. That can fill up a disk quickly!
By comparison, the MPEG-2 compression format was designed as an efficient delivery format for pre-recorded video. It supports variable data rates, so you can tune the amount of compression, trading off quality against data size, to match the type of material and target storage medium. To compress more aggressively, MPEG-2 uses 'interframe' compression, in which some of the frames are compressed independently (like DV), but most of the frames are compressed by using information from the previous and even following frames. This can provide big savings in compression size, especially when large portions of the background remain relatively unchanged from frame to frame. However, the trade-off is that the video is much less suited for editing, since it is compressed more heavily, especially the in-between frames.
As a result, MPEG-2 was a great match for the DVD format, permitting a two-hour movie to be squeezed down to fit nicely onto a DVD, along with other ancillary material. Most DVD formats now hold 4.7 GB per single-sided disc, with the video compressed using MPEG-2 at around 3.5 Mb per second. That's around 1/7 the size of DV compression, at 0.43 MB per second, 26 MB per minute, 1.5 GB per hour. Now, that's more reasonable.
Transcoding DV Input
Previously, converting or transcoding between the DV and MPEG-2 formats would have required three separate steps: capturing the DV video, decompressing it, and then recompressing to MPEG-2. Even worse, all that decompression and recompression would have required significant processing time and mass quantities of disk space, to store the original DV video, plus the raw uncompressed video, and then for the recompressed MPEG-2 video. But now the processing power in even desktop computers has become fast enough to perform all these operations, in real time, while capturing DV video from a 1394 / FireWire interface and writing the result to hard disk.
The proliferation of the IEEE 1394 interface (also originally called FireWire by Apple and i.Link by Sony) also has made the whole video capture process much easier. Before, with analog input, your capture board performed the analog to digital conversion, and often some form of compression, which meant the quality of the captured video was very dependent on the quality (and the cost) of the board. And taking full advantage of a high-end analog capture board also often locked you into a specific video editing application that had custom software to interface to the board.
Now, with DV camcorders, the analog to digital conversion is done in the camcorder as you shoot the video, so the data stored on the DV tape is all digital. Getting it into your PC, then is just a digital data transfer, like a file copy, over the 1394 / FireWire cable. There is actually no 'capture' involved. Even better, 1394 is a generic interface, already implemented in inexpensive hardware chip sets. This mean you can install one inexpensive 1394 adapter card and expect it to work with most DV devices and DV video software applications. This technology is still new, though, so before you buy be sure to double-check the compatibility between the 1394 adapter, video editing software, and DV camcorder.
1394 Hardware
Adding a 1394 interface to your computer, desktop or laptop, is not longer a big deal. For example, ADS Technologies (www.adstech.com) sells the PYRO line of 1394 / DV capture products for both desktops and laptops. The ADS products include the PYRO Digital Video 1394 PCI card and the PYRO 1394 DV For Notebooks PC card, each for $129 (retail). These products often include basic video editing software, and can work on both PC and Macintosh platforms.
You can also use an external converter like the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge (www.dazzle.com, $299) to capture analog input through a 1394 interface, and even convert from analog to DV and DV to analog without the use of a computer.
Editing Tools
The latest releases of many video-editing tools also now support direct DV capture and editing. These include products ranging from Ulead Video Studio 5 at $90 to Adobe Premiere 6.0 at $540. Some also support output to MPEG-2 format for DVD. If you are shopping for new hardware or software look for good bundling deals. For example, Adobe is now bundling the full version of Premiere 6.0 with hardware products, not a 'LE' light or limited edition version. ADS also announced the PYRO PlatinumDV with 1394 PCI host card bundled with the full version of Adobe Premiere 6.0 for $399 (MSRP). Previous PYRO DV owners also can upgrade to Premiere 6.0 for $199.
MedioStream CAMpeg RT
You need video editing tools if you are creating a traditional video production from a collection of clips, as a linear story using techniques like video and audio transitions and effects. But what if you want to make a quick interactive presentation out of the clips, and present it on DVD? Then you need a different kind of tool -- a DVD authoring tool to create the interactive menus and navigation paths. And you also want to work directly with MPEG-2 video format, without the processing and storage overhead of converting from the DV format.
Enter CAMpeg RT from MedioStream, Inc. (www.mediostream.com). CAMpeg RT provides a full end-to-end solution for turning DV video into DVD productions, including a 1394 FireWire adapter card, the MedioStream real-time DV-to-MPEG transcoder software, and the Sonic Solutions MyDVD authoring software.
MedioStream released CAMpeg RT in March 2001 for $249 MSRP, $199 estimated street price. It is based on the MedioStream Codec Software Development Kit (SDK), introduced in summer 2000 for OEM customers. The MedioStream SDK supports full-resolution DV and MPEG-2 compression and decompression for full-rate NTSC and PAL under Windows 98SE, 2000, or ME on Pentium III or equivalent machines, with a 1.1 GHz processor recommended. MedioStream is planning to deliver a professional version, CAMpeg Pro, later this year, which is expected to support a wider range of formats and simple editing functions.
CAMpeg RT has a very simple interface, controlled from the main window. Click the Settings button to specify the desired data rate and quality for the captured video. MedioStream describes the low quality setting as typically resulting in a bit rate of about 2 Mbits for a full size picture (720 x 480) at full 30 fps frame rate, or about 860 MB for one hour. The high quality setting results in a bit rate of about 5 Mbits for a full size picture at full frame rate, or about 2.2 GB for one hour. The actual compression rates depend on the content of your video.
To capture a sequence, first click the File button to specify the directory and name of the MPEG-2 file to be captured. Use the VCR controls to play through the video on the DV camcorder to the starting point. Unfortunately, CAMpeg RT does not provide frame step and visual scan controls, so you may find yourself using the controls on the camcorder to position the tape. Then click the Encode button to start the tape playing while CAMpeg RT captures and transcodes the video and audio, and click it again to stop. Finally, click the Review button to play back the MPEG-2 (.MPG) file in a separate window.
I tried out a preproduction version of CAMpeg RT, version 1.1.8, on a 1 GHz Windows ME machine with a 1394 adapter card already installed. It worked out of the box, interfacing to a Sony DCR-TRV11 DV camcorder and successfully capturing full-resolution full-rate DV video to disk as a MPEG file. MedioStream has designed CAMpeg RT for slower machines. It will buffer the video data to disk if needed, and also has an option to drop frames if necessary to maintain real-time performance. Be warned that, unlike other DV capture applications, CAMpeg RT requires that your Windows display be set to True Color (24- or 32-bit), and otherwise will display unhelpful error messages.
The current CAMpeg RT product also includes the Sonic Solutions MyDVD authoring tool (www.sonic.com). MyDVD is an even more user-friendly extension of the popular Sonic DVDit! application.
CyberLink PowerVCR II Deluxe 3.0
What is so amazing about these new video technologies is how quickly they are incorporated into consumer-level software products, as the processor speed and storage capacity of even basic desktop machines make it feasible to support them. Real-time DV transcoding to DVD format is new and cool, and yet is already subsumed as yet another feature in the latest release of CyberLink PowerVCR (www.gocyberlink.com), a PC digital video recorder application that was itself establishing a new category of applications only last year.
The latest release, CyberLink PowerVCR II Deluxe 3.0, has an impressive list of TV viewing and recording features, including multi-channel preview, instant TV replay, time-shifting playback, scheduled recording, and access to an Internet-based Electronic Programming Guide. The new version 3.0 now supports input from both analog sources like TV tuner cards and from DV devices. It can also read and convert AVI and MPEG-1 files. It even supports simple video cut & merge editing.
PowerVCR supports batch capture and transcoding from DV tape by selecting specific sections of the tape to be processed. It also can capture to multiple files, keeping each file size to around 600 KB so that they can fit on a CD disc. It can perform real-time recording directly from analog or digital sources to MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 format, including real-time transcoding from DV to MPEG-2, for output to VCD or DVD format.
The PowerVCR interface includes three floating windows: the Master Panel on the left side for access to the major product functions, the Control Panel at the bottom with play controls and settings, and the main display window in the center of the screen.
The Master Panel provides nine functions: Live / Digital Recorder (digital TV and VCR), Instant TV Replay (short-term buffering), PowerDVD (DVD or MPEG playback from a playlist), File Player (media file playback), Recording Scheduler (scheduled VCR recording), File Converter, Video Trimmer, DV Tape Transcoder (DV to MPEG File), and the 'i-Power' link to Internet resources.
I tried out the new CyberLink PowerVCR II version 3.0, which was released in mid-March 2001 for Windows 98SE, 2000, and ME. The DV Tape Transcoder tool successfully interfaced to the Sony DV camcorder and displayed the video from the tape. The tool works by making a batch list of clips to record, by moving through the tape and setting in and out points. The controls to play and step through the tape and specify in and out points were somewhat clumsy, only playing or scanning in short spurts and scanning very slowly for the start point.
CyberLink claims that PowerVCR can record 320 x 240 resolution video in real-time on a Pentium II 350, record 720 x 480 resolution on a Pentium III 650, transcode full DV to MPEG-1 on a PIII 600, and transcode DV to MPEG-2 on a PIII 900. It provides a large set of built-in profiles for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Video CD (VCD), DVD, and DV-compatible recording, for NTSC and PAL, ranging from 3 to 5 Mbits per second data rate and from 320 x 240 to 720 x 480 resolution.
PowerVCR successfully recorded 320 x 240 video out of the box on the test system, but full-resolution video was jittery. The built-in PowerDVD player provides a nice tool for playing and comparing different recorded files.
PowerVCR 3.0 is available from the CyberLink web site by the time you read this article. The previous version, PowerVCR II Deluxe, was $129. The Deluxe version of 3.0 includes the CyberLink PowerDVD 3.0 DVD player application ($129). It is also available in a Pro version without PowerDVD ($90), and a Standard Edition without DV camcorder support ($50). A free trial version of PowerVCR and the other CyberLink products are available on the web site. The trial versions typically expire after a month or so, and are limited in the length of video and audio material they can process.
Ligos LSX-MPEG Suite
Direct DV to MPEG-2 is a powerful solution for getting clips to DVD quickly and easily. But if you are editing the clips first, you will want to capture and edit them in a less compressed format like DV, and then transcode them to MPEG-2 as a final step before creating the DVD. DVD authoring tools like Sonic MyDVD support this approach with built-in support for transcoding imported video files in a variety of formats.
As you get deeper into working with MPEG-2 video and DVD, however, you will find yourself wanting more control over the data rate and quality of the compressed video. A separate compression tool like the Ligos LSX-MPEG Encoder can provide more flexibility in compressing video to take advantage of the MPEG-2 format, including variable bitrate compression to use more data on the more complex frames and rate control to more precisely limit the data rate of the compressed file.
Dazzle Hollywood Dv-bridge Software
The Ligos LSX-MPEG Suite 2.0 includes three components, the LSX-MPEG Encoder 3.5 for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 digital video transcoding, the LSX-MPEG Player 3.0, a DirectShow filter that allows you to play MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files in Windows media players, and LSX-MPEG for Adobe Premiere, a plug-in that enables you to output MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 streams directly from Premiere.
You start working with the Encoder by specifying the input AVI file and output file name. You then set the basic compression parameters, using one of the 18 predefined profiles for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 at different resolutions and data rates, or define and save your own profiles.
The Encoder also provides fourteen sets of advanced parameter settings, ranging from low-level compression features to options to work with interlaced video, crop the edges off captured frames, and resize the frames. It also offers several performance parameters, to trade off processing speed and visual quality, and to take advantage of parallel processors.
Even better, if you are working with more than a few video files, the Encoder has a batch processing mode, in which you can specify a list of files and a compression profile, and then start the Encoder working away on them.
The LSX-MPEG Suite 2.0 is available as a download product from the Ligos web site for $399.95, and the individual components are available separately: the Encoder for $179.95, the Player for $29.95, and the Premiere plug-in for $179.95. Ligos also offers time-limited trial downloads of the products.
For DVD production, the LSX-MPEG Encoder also supports the Video CD (VCD) and Super Video CD (SVCD) formats, for playback on DVD players that support SVCD playback.
DV to DVD
DV to DVD is the dream of digital video on PCs, capture, editing, and production with all-digital processing. And these tools are starting to realize the promise. MedioStream CAMpeg RT offers an end-to-end solution with all the components, from DV adapter to software transcoder to Sonic MyDVD authoring. With real-time DV to MPEG-2 transcoding, you can go from video clips on tape to an interactive DVD production in minutes.
Meanwhile, CyberLink PowerVCR II 3.0 shows how real-time transcoding can be part of a larger system, and also provides nice tools for playing and performing simple edits on MPEG-2 files. And the Ligos LSX-MPEG Suite provides more flexible tools for high-quality MPEG-2 encoding, exporting from Premiere, and viewing files using standard windows players.
References
MedioStream - CAMpeg RT
www.mediostream.com
CyberLink - PowerVCR II Deluxe 3.0
www.gocyberlink.com
Ligos - LSX-MPEG Suite 2.0, LSX-MPEG Encoder 3.5
www.ligos.com
Sonic Solutions MyDVD
www.sonic.com
ADS Technologies - PYRO Digital Video 1394 Interfaces
www.adstech.com
Dazzle - Hollywood DV-Bridge
www.dazzle.com
Digital video production, editing and publishing offer genuine opportunities for kids to learn and express that knowledge in new ways
Click here for the full-color PDF version of this article - 16mb
© 2001 Gary S. Stager/ MagazineDistrict AdministratorPublished in the December 2001 issue
With the possible exception of faster processor speeds, there have been few major developments in personal computing over the past few years. Recent advances in computer and communications technology have had little impact on the nature of teaching and learning. The availability of the World Wide Web, handheld computers and wireless communication offer enormous potential, but have thus far allowed us to add speed and convenience to traditional aspects of schooling without transforming the learning experience.
Instructional media has been oversold since the days of Edison as a solution to our educational challenges. However, Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky and Papert tell us that changing the mode of delivery offers little assistance in transforming learning. Powerful learning occurs when we shift the emphasis from the teacher to the learner… less us more them.
The 1970s ushered in the era of low-cost video recorders and portable video cameras. This innovation offered teachers and students with a vehicle for producing their own content. Now student productions could be archived, played in other classrooms and sent home to share with the family. Imaginative schools built television studios, offered courses in TV production and some even made cassettes of student performances available in local video stores.
Digital video production, editing and publishing offer genuine opportunities for kids to learn and express that knowledge in new ways. As with desktop publishing and multimedia authoring, Apple Computer is bringing digital video to the masses with innovation, ease-of-use and affordable technology. Other companies are now working overtime to offer similar capabilities in their products.
Administrators and school leaders need to understand how this technology is different and what the occupants of classrooms can do with it.
DV in a Nutshell
Digital video cameras, now widely available from companies such as Sony and Canon, store images in the same digital form (bits) as computers store data. This allows video to be transferred from camera to computer and computer to camera without any loss. In other words, every copy is of the same quality as the original. Apple patented FireWire, the high-speed low-cost digital transfer technology used by nearly all digital video cameras and a growing assortment of hard drives, CD-burners and other peripherals. FireWire is also known as iLink by Sony and IEEE 1394 by other companies. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences just awarded Apple a 2001 Primetime Emmy Engineering Award for FireWire’s material impact on the television industry. Essentially, FireWire is a way to move data between digital devices.
The real power of digital video is found in the editing process. Just a couple of years ago this required digitizing analog video before your computer could work on it. This process involved converting the analog information on a VHS tape into the bits used by the computer. This transfer process caused a loss in quality. If you wanted your edited production to be distributed via TV or VHS, then there would additional loss in quality during the second transfer. Special add-on cards or other peripherals usually needed to be purchased to make digiting possible. Apple computers all ship with built-in Firewire and other computers can add FireWire cards at an additional cost if those computers have expansion capabilities.
Once the video is stored on your hard drive you may edit it. Editing brings value to those boxes full of tapes you have and reduces the likelihood that every student production looks like a never-ending bloopers real. Editing may be used to shorten and cleanup video. It may also be used as a way to enhance storytelling through reordering events, or by adding narration, dramatic music, transitions and special effects. Every FireWire Macintosh comes with iMovie 2 for free. iMovie allows computer users to capture video from a camera and edit stunning productions with the ease of a word processor. When your movie is complete, output it back to tape or compress it for distribution via CD, the Web or DVD. (see sidebar for PC alternatives)
Digital video requires a great deal of disk space. A little more than 9 minutes of video requires 2 gigabytes of disk space. Large external FireWire drives are an excellent way for schools to store large video files. These drives also offer teachers portability. They can be moved to where they are needed. FireWire drives may also be chained together to create large banks of data storage. You can never be too rich or have too much hard disk space.
I would suggest that finished productions should be exported to DV tape and archived in that small low-cost way. Preserving video on hard drives makes that video vulnerable to a variety of threats (crashes, erasure, etc…) and is too costly. You can always import video from an archived tape and re-edit it for a different purpose or audience.
When your video masterpiece is complete it is time to share it with an audience. iMovie 2 and other programs allows you to prepare the video for a variety of media (CD, Web, DVD) through compression. Compression is a mathematical process by which the file size is reduced in order to save space and deliver the video quicker via limited bandwidth. You will need to make decisions about tradeoffs between size and quality. Smaller file size means lower quality video, but much of this compression is either difficult to see or acceptable for classroom purposes.
If you wanted to share the school play with out-of-town grandparents last year, schools had two digital options; low-quality video on CD-ROM or stream the video on the web. Streaming media is cool, but often requires high bandwidth, expensive servers with large storage capacity and the employment of a technical staff capable of running those servers. Today, $2500 Macintosh G4 computers include the SuperDrive and iDVD software. The SuperDrive allows the playing of CDs and DVDs, plus the creation of CDs and DVDs. That’s right, you can now make your own DVDs! The free iDVD software is even easier to use than iMovie 2. Drag your video files onto the iDVD screen, choose a visual style for your menu and press burn. A couple of hours later you have a full-quality hour-long DVD that Grandma can pop into her DVD player! (subsequent copies are made much quicker) This technology represents a leap-frog effect on the streaming technology many of us were betting on just a year ago. Imagine a day in the not too distant
Educational Applications
Digital video offers numerous opportunities for student expression through all kinds of storytelling across the curriculum. Personal stories, skits, plays and recreations of historical or scientific events are all possible. Fictional stories may be depicted and mathematical models may be explained. The editing process allows for enhancing the storytelling.
Video offers unprecedented opportunities for students who need to express themselves and their ideas. The obstacles associated with writing and oral presentation make it too difficult for many students to convey their creativity and knowledge. Video and the ability to edit that video lowers the bar on communication. This communication now has a limitless audience available via the web, CD, tape and DVD.
Kids engaged in the production of school news programs, interviews and even commercials gain first-hand knowledge of the ways in which media may be used to manipulate us. Media literacy concepts of bias, point-of-view, propaganda and advertising take on new meaning when kids are behind the camera and the editing process.
You may engage the community in the life of the school through the repurposing and publishing of school events. Tapes of classroom productions may be broadcast on local cable, sent home on CD/DVD or even made available in local video shops for free loans. These efforts keep citizens abreast of the activities in your school and may increase community support for your efforts.
Students may use video cameras and digital editing to document their learning process in a variety of ways. Video is used to tell the story of how they learned, what they did, as well as the finished product. This enhances metacognition, exhibits student knowledge and communicates the learning activities of a school with the community. A good example of a video documenting student learning may be found at http://www.pencilsdown.org/lego.
Educators may also enhance their professional practice through digital video. Lessons may be videotaped and used to share best practices with colleagues. Similar video may also be used as a vehicle for collaborative action research. Educators can view carefully edited video case studies as an invitation to dialogue about teaching practices and learn new classroom strategies. Raw video may be used with innovative tools like those offered by LessonLab (www.lessonlab.com) as a forum for educators to discuss their own practice and that of colleagues. Examples of adults using digital video as a vehicle for reflective practice may be found at http://www.stager.org/lego/virtcamp.html.
A Sony or Canon digital video camera.
Your choice is between cameras using the smaller newer mini-DV tapes and cameras which use larger 8mm tapes. While 8mm digital cameras are larger than mini-DV models, they do have one advantage. Old analog video tapes you may have are automatically digitized when played by a digital 8mm camera. This saves money and allows you to bring old tapes in to the digital age.
iMovie 2 (Mac)
www.apple.com
Apple's groundbreaking easy-to-use, but powerful video capture, editing and publishing software has revolutionized the personal video industry and will revolutionize your classroom too.
iDVD2(Mac)
www.apple.com
Do the impossible and make your own DVDs without ever opening a manual. These DVDs may contain video and collections of digital images.
Cleaner 5 (Mac or Windows)
www.discreet.com
Cleaner 5 (previously known as MediaCleaner) is the gold standard for compressing video and converting media files. It often compresses a video by 90% with very little noticeable degradation. Answer the 'wizard's' questions about your priorities and the type of format you wish for your product and let Cleaner 5 do the work for you. It contains converters and codecs (compression algorithms) for transforming media files into different formats. The fact that Cleaner allows you to Batch process files (create a stack of projects for it to compress or convert at once) means that you can leave your computer on overnight and have it compress lots of files without your supervision.
Slick 1 & Slick 2 (Mac)
www.geethree.com
For just $29.95 you can buy sets of over 40 really cool new transitions and special effects that plug into iMovie 2.
Smartsound for Multimedia (Mac or Windows)
www.sonicdesktop.com
Smartsound for Multimedia is an amazing software package that allows you to choose a style of music, its use (zippy opener, calm background music, dramatic finale) and the duration you need. The software then magically composes a royalty-free sound file you may use in your digital productions. Other professional quality music libraries are available.
Sonicfire Pro (Mac or Windows)
www.sonicdesktop.com
SonicFire Pro picks up where Smartsound for Multimedia leaves off by allowing you to automatically score a digital video. Open a QuickTime movie, set markers for different parts of that movie and SonicFire Pro automatically composes a score for that film. The right music fits precisely into the sections of video.
QuickTime Pro (Mac or Windows)
www.apple.com/quicktime/
QuickTime is the industry standard for digital media. The QuickTime Player is free for both Windows and the Macintosh, but paying $29 turns your software into QuickTime Pro. The Pro version allows you to perform quick edits of your digital media (video, audio, animation, VR, graphics) and convert a wide variety of media types.
Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge (Mac and Windows)
www.dazzle.com
This reasonably-priced peripheral, the top of the line product from Dazzle – a company offering a variety of media digitizing products, allows you to convert analog video from a VCR, TV or other video source into digital video via FireWire. It has inputs and outputs for FireWire, RCA audio, Composite RCA video and S-Video. iMovie 2 instantly recognizes the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge as if it were a digital camera. Now your digital movie may be exported directly to a VCR.
iMic is a USB device that allows you to connect a variety of microphones and audio sources to your computer without built-in sound input.
iVoice Macally (Mac)
www.macally.com
iVoice is a USB microphone with a line-in jack for computers without built-in audio.
VideoFactory 2 (Windows)
www.sonicfoundry.com
VideoFactory2 is a robust, user-friendly video editing and capture package for Windows.
VegasVideo 2 (Windows)
www.sonicfoundry.com
VegasVideo 2 is a higher-end video editing software package for Windows. It is geared towards more professional users.
Final Cut Pro (Mac)
www.apple.com
This is Apple's high-end video editing package. It allows the user to make amazing videos with professional quality effects. As a result, Final Cut Pro requires a greater commitment on the part of new users. Taking a course or buying a third-party guide might be a good idea. Although there are probably high school kids in your district who can figure it all out and teach you.
DVD Studio Pro (Mac)
www.apple.com
This is Apple's professional-level program for creating DVDs with all of the bells and whistles found on commercial DVDs (chapters, motion menus, subtitles, multiple languages, visual angles, etc…) While DVD Studio Pro has a steeper learning curve than iDVD, it is within reach of committed educators.
Blue Armadillo (Mac or Windows)
www.tech4learning.com/snacks/barmadillo.html
This free tool allows you to batch process a folder full of images. In other words you can use Blue Armadillo to change the size of a bunch of photos or convert image formats.
Acid Music 3 (Windows)
www.sonicfoundry.com
Dazzle Hollywood Dv Bridge Software Update
This popular PC program and its library of sound files allows the user to compose royalty-free music clips which may then be exported to include in video projects
RealPlayer Basic is the free version of the client (player) for watching streaming RealVideo and listening to RealAudio. It often works with your web browser.
RealProducer Basic (Windows or Mac)
www.real.com
RealProducer Basic is the free tool that allows you to convert your audio or video files into Realmedia files you can stream from any web site. You will need to hunt around the Real site to find the free versions of this tool. The nice folks at Real Networks naturally want you to trade-up, but for most school uses, the free player and producer software will do the job quite nicely.
Dazzle Hollywood Dv Bridge Software Download
A more extensive collection of free and low-cost cross-platform digital media resources may be found at http://www.stager.org/imovie/