Making Your Own Video for the Archive: Getting Started

• Why would you want to make your own digitial video?
• What do I need?
• What was that about video cards?

Why would you want to make your own digital video?

Part of the initiative of the LSA Video Archive is to provide the way for linguists to get their favorite videos converted to digital (digitized) and placed on the web. Therefore, it is not strictly necessary for a submitter to make their own digital video. A submitter could simply send in a videotape of some type (VHS, mini-DV, Digital 8, etc.).

However, some may wish to edit their videos on a computer, using Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, iMovie, or some such program. Thus, they could highlight areas of the video, add effects, cut out areas of non-interest, etc. This tutorial is not going to explain how to edit the video (for that you should read your manual for the software you've chosen), but will give you some idea of what is necessary to capture your video to a computer for editing.

What do I need?

Well, the three basic needs are a player of some sort to play your video, a computer, and some video editing software package like Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, or iMovie.

Just as there are VHS VCRs to play VHS format tapes, there are players that can play other formats. The Sony GVD-300 will play mini-DV tapes, and the Sony GVD-200 will play Digital 8 tapes, just to name a couple of examples. Also, you can use the camcorder you used to record your video as a player.

As for a computer, you'll need a pretty up-to-date one. If you're going to use a Mac, I would recommend a G3, at the very least, G4 preferred. If you're going to use a PC, Pentium II or higher is recommended. Beyond the computer itself, however, you'll also need some type of video card that can be used as the input from your player. And that depends upon what type of format you plan to use. I'll talk more about this momentarily.

Then there's software. If you're using a PC, Adobe Premiere 6 is probably the software for you. If you're using a Mac, you've got some choices. You could also use Adobe Premiere 6, which is available for both PC and Mac. But you could also use Final Cut Pro 2.0, which is only available for Macs, or iMovie, also available only for Macs. The program iMovie comes standard with most new Macs, but you'll have to pay for Final Cut Pro 2.0 or Premiere.

Just a note about buying this software: if you're buying it through an educational institution, the software is considerably less expensive. Final Cut Pro, for example, is almost three times as expensive if you buy it as a private consumer or business.

What was that about video cards?

If you're going to be using video that is in a DV format (mini-DV or Digital 8), it's real easy. You want a video card that accepts the IEEE 1394 interface.

The what?

The IEEE 1394 interface is also known as FireWire (Apple) or i.Link (Sony). This is a really nice interface for going from DV to computer. Most new Macs come with FireWire as standard. With PCs, you might have to talk to your dealer about getting a IEEE 1394 interface card, such as a Matrox.

If you're going to be using analog video, You can still use the IEEE 1394 interface, but you'll need a go-between. Many DV players have analog input jacks built in. These jacks are designed to work with the RCA composite cable. If you've ever done anything with your VCR like recording from tape-to-tape, or connecting a DVD player to your VCR, you've probably seen these. They often come looking like a cable with three plugs on each end, a yellow, red, and white one. In the Capturing Video section, I'll talk more about this connection. Anyway, for now, what you'll be able to do with the go-between is play your analog video through the composite cable into the DV player, which will output as DV to the computer. A little complicated, but I've been told that it's possible.

Another way, which is possible, and a bit easier, is to acquire a media converter, such as the Sony DVMC-DA2. This item, which goes for about $300, is a small box that accepts analog input, through an RCA cable (see above), and outputs with IEEE 1394 to your computer. If there's a multimedia lab at your institution, you might ask to see if they have them available for check out.

If you're going to be using analog video, and you don't have access to a DV player or a media converter, you're probably going to have to get a special video card that accepts analog video input like a composite. There are a number of them out there, and I would recommend speaking to your computer supplier about them.

And, of course, you can always dub your analog tapes to digital, just as you would dub from tape to tape in any format. I'll talk about that a bit later.