Recently in Video Editing Category

"I am using two Samsung SC-MX20. They give me really good video in low light, however, Samsung uses MPEG-4 compression and this can be a real hassle (time consuming) to uncompress. I tried a USB video capture device but (of course) it drops frames. Since Samsung does not have a FireWire connection, would a PCI video capture allow me to take the compressed video and capture in AVI format? If so, which PCI video capture card(s) should I consider? I have tried searching the web, but it seems everything is more aimed at capturing TV to PC and I am not sure it that will work for me?"

Since the Samsung SC-MX20 camcorders record MP4 files, rather than capturing to tape, you should be able to optimize a setup that will get you faster editing by simply opening the files. There could be a scenario where you could capture over component video connection using something like a Black Magic or AJA capture card, but upgrading a few components on your computer may get you to where you want to be for less money.

"The .avi file has two audio tracks, Spanish and English. When I use a converter to get it ready for my iPod, it will use the Spanish track. How do I get a converter that I can chose which audio track to use?"

Since I don't know which converter you're currently using, I'll offer an easy solution that will get you the result you want without buying more software and an investment of about 5 minutes extra time. Before you covert the video file, open it in VirtualDubMod, modify the audio properties of the file, and save it without needing to recompress the audio. You can either save a copy with the Spanish track still there or overwrite the file and ditch the Spanish track altogether. Here's how it works:

I specifically like VirtualDubMod better for this because it does a better job of displaying audio tracks visually. VirtualDub will also work if you prefer, but the screenshots below are specific to VirtualDubMod.

First download a copy of VirtualDubMod and open your AVI file.

From the Streams menu choose Stream list, which opens a window like the one below. I don't currently have any AVI files with multiple audio streams, but yours should show several tracks here instead of the one in my screenshot.

I would do this in two steps to make sure you get the result you want. Disable the Spanish language track in your file by selecting it in the available streams list and clicking the disable button. Now select the second audio track in your list, which should be the English language track. Click Move up to make it the first track in your list. When this is done click OK.

From the File menu, choose Save As. Name your file and be sure to choose Direct Stream Copy in the Video Mode dropdown menu (this makes sure you aren't recompressing the video). Click the Save button when you've adjusted the settings.

Saving a two hour file this way takes less than 5 minutes, so the process should go fairly quickly. When finished, you should have a video file plays back the English language track by default. Convert this file in your video converter.

Tip: If you have a bunch of files to change audio tracks on, queue them up by checking the Don't run this job now box. You can then run them all by selecting File > Job Control from the menu.

"I have recently purchased my first video camcorder, a Sony DCR-SR55E. Are you able to offer me some advice on what video editing software would be good for a complete beginner?"

Normally I'd recommend starting with Windows Movie Maker, which comes with every Windows XP and Windows Vista install. While Movie Maker isn't a perfect solution for every video editing need, it's simple to use and will quickly get you from video on your camera to an edited file you can output for playback elsewhere. I particularly like the fact that Movie Maker gets you started without spending any additional money. Because your camera is a hard disk camera, Movie Maker is simply not an viable option, so you'll need to try something else.

"If I shoot video in 1080i mode with my camcorder can I output later in 720p?"

Most consumer high definition camcorders shoot video in a 1080i mode, usually 1440x1080. The format the camcorder records video in does not dictate the format you output from your editing software. If you start with your 1080i video in your favorite video editing application (for HD editing, I typically recommend Pinnacle Studio or Sony Vegas) you can export several versions of the video when you are finished. Most video editing applications offer either outputting your video as MPEG-2 1080i, which is the same format you started with, or they give you a number of additional choices.

Several questions came through this week (for both Mac and PC users) on how to rotate video clips shot with digital cameras. Apparently there's a whole crowd of people titling their digital cameras sideways this week. :)

For anyone with a Windows computer, rotating movies is easily done using Windows Movie Maker. This is one case where the defacto video editor for Windows outshines Apple's iMovie. Mac users will need to install an additional effect before rotating video clips in iMovie. For Movie Maker users, simply add your video to the Movie Maker timeline and apply a Rotate effect to turn the video right side up. Watch the video to see this in action.

"Is there a way I can rotate a video I recorded with my digital camera? I recorded a movie sideways with my digital camera and now I need a way to turn the video right side up. I'm using iMovie, but it doesn't seem to have a rotate feature."

You are correct that Apple doesn't include a Rotate tool in the Video FX. Fortunately, there's an excellent freeware solution you can download and install that adds a rotate effect to iMovie. You'll want to make sure you have iMovie HD or iMovie 6 on your computer, because that's what you'll be editing with instead of the new iMovie 08. You can track down iMovie 6 on the Apple Website, if you don't have a version of it available. Watch the tutorial video to see how to step through rotating your movie clip in iMovie.

"My camcorder needs to connect to a FireWire port on my computer in order to capture video, but my computer doesn't have one. It's a laptop, so I can't install one of those PCI cards. What are my options?"

Whether your computer is a laptop or not, there are ways you can get the functionality of a FireWire port without needing to install anything in your computer. One easy way is to get a USB hardware solution that passes FireWire connections. Laptop owners have more options because there are numerous PCMCIA and PC Express cards available with FireWire ports built in.

"How do I change the speed of my video in Sony Vegas so that the speed slightly faster or slower? How can I apply this to the video and make it work? When I changed the video playback rate on the Sony Vegas timeline, I went to Make Movie and it wasn't in fast motion."

The options for speeding up a video in Sony Vegas are a little quirky. You can adjust the playback speed by applying a video effect, but it doesn't always "take". The video plays back faster on the timeline, but doesn't take up less time on the timeline. Doubling the speed of a 1 minute clip doesn't actually shorten it to 30 seconds, for some reason.

"I'm running Windows XP with Movie Maker but Movie Maker isn't recognizing my Canon HV20 camera. What do I do?"

The Canon HV20 is a great camcorder, but it is not compatible with the Windows XP version of Windows Movie Maker. At the time Windows XP originally appeared, most consumer camcorders were still standard definition, so no support for high definition video was built into the XP version of Movie Maker. Now that Windows Vista is on the scene, it supports all HDV format camcorders, including the Canon HV20. You have three options for editing video recorded with your Canon HV20:

Monty writes, "I just bought a new HP computer with Windows Vista and yes I want to edit video. My MiniDV cameras won't work with Vista and I don't know if there are any HD cameras that will work with Vista. If there is do you know if a HD camera can play MiniDV tapes?"

High definition camcorders that record in the HDV format on MiniDV tapes typically have a standard definition mode as well. For instance, the Canon HV20 I use regularly will automatically detect that the tape in the camera contains MiniDV footage, so that when you transfer video to your computer from the camera, it will capture the standard definition MiniDV footage. The only caveat to this is the software you are using must support the HDV format as well as standard MiniDV, otherwise the software will not recognize your camera. This shouldn't be a problem for Windows Vista users, but in testing standard definition capture from my Canon HV20 on a Windows XP machine, I couldn't get the XP version of Windows Movie Maker to recognize the HV20.

As a side note, most MiniDV cameras will work with Vista software as long as you are using the FireWire connection. I know there are a few MiniDV cameras from Sony that also added support for transferring video via USB and that typically fails on Vista because there are no Vista drivers for most of the cameras.