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VideoWave III-- Editing Movies With Your PC
by By Mike Flanagan—December 2000 1960 PCUG www.1960pcug.org, mflanagan@houston.rr.com - February 22, 2001 at 14:19:00:
Hollywood director “want-to-be’s” take note. MGI’s VideoWave III software is a powerful video editor for the money. While many professional video editors weigh in at $695 and more, this $99 package includes many creative multimedia features that rank it above many of its competitors in the same price range. I found this video editor more intuitive than Asymetrix’s “Digital Video Producer 5.0”, which I have used for about a year. With a video camera, you can do useful editing of your home videos with this package.Software Details —MGI’s VideoWave III has the ability to interface with a PC card to capture analog or digital video movies. Captured movies can be saved as a file on a hard drive in several formats including MPEG 1 and MPEG 2. Many competitive packages do not have the ability to save in both MPEG formats. The compressed format of MPEG is an issue when saving files to a CD-R. Compression is important when you pass along your creation to friends on a CD with limited storage capacity. Once files are saved to a hard disk, it is easy to open a new library to begin a new project. You can drag video files onto a storyboard where the editing process begins. The storyboard allows you to sequence video clips into a single continuous movie. The video files can be dragged from the storyboard onto the editor window where you can advance and reverse the video selections to the exact frame you wish to edit.
The Cutting Room button brings up a set of controls that allow the user to split a video clip into two parts or crop out unwanted footage with frame-by-frame precision. Audio and video tracks can be separately exported to audio files or video files. Editing audio files require a separate software package. Some video editors allow for greater ability to edit audio than does this package, but none of the under-$100 video editors I have experienced equal the precision of a dedicated sound editor like Wave Studio from Creative Lab’s Sound Blaster package. In VideoWave III, there is another button to add audio files into your video at specific starting positions. This allows you to add music, recorded narration, or other sound files into your video as desired.
The Darkroom button brings another set of controls that allow the user to adjust brightness, contrast, and color. Color can be adjusted with a set of RGB controls similar to those found in graphics manipulation software. The Special Effects button, combined with the video animator, allows you to apply some amazing video effects. You can make a movie swirl about or fall into pieces and then transition to another video clip segment by bringing the mosaic back together. Text can also be added to animation with another set of controls. These controls give the user an opportunity to overlay text onto their video or to create separate background title effects. This is where Hollywood “want-to-be’s” can input their name in bright lights that fly across the screen or into credits that scroll up from the bottom.
After editing and assembling all the video clips into a desired sequence, you are ready to produce (build) the project into a single video file. The final video file can be saved onto and replayed from either a hard drive or a CD-R. The video files will far exceed the 1.44MB available on a floppy diskette. The masterpiece can be transferred back to a VHS tape, if you have a video output port on your graphics card.
Hardware Issues—The question that is often asked by novices about digital video editing regards what hardware is required to edit videos using their PC. Older camcorders, TV’s and most VHS players are likely of the analog variety. A newer video card that includes video input or a TV Tuner card will have the capability to import and capture analog video. Those that own a digital camcorder will need to have an IEEE 1394 card installed in their computer to transfer digital movie files for editing onto their PC.
System Requirements—Windows 95 OSR1, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (recommended for DV editing) or Windows NT 4.0 Pentium II 266 MHz. (Pentium II 350 MHz recommended for DV and MPEG-2 capture and edit). 45 MB available hard disk space for program; 1 GB workspace (6 GB recommended); minimum Ultra DMA (SCSI-2 subsystem for best results); 64 MB of RAM (128 MB recommended for DV and MPEG-2 capture and edit) SVGA video card with at least 4 MB RAM. Also required for capture is a TV tuner or video analog capture card or IEEE 1394 DV camera capture card.
In closing—I hereby challenge club members to dueling videos at a Multimedia & Graphics SIG in 2001. Move over Steven Spielberg - there is a new generation of home producers, armed with powerful creative tools and abilities, about emerge!
Two additional “Video in Review” articles, that may be useful and also authored by Mike Flanagan, can be found at http://www.1960pcug.org/~pcnews/1999/09/video_in_review.htm and http://www.1960pcug.org/~pcnews/1999/10/more_about_pc_movies.htm
Mike Flanagan is a member of the 1960 PC Users Group. He has served as SIG Leader, President and V.P. of Programs. Mike has a commercial website at http://www.impressivemedia.com and can be contacted at mflanagan@houston.rr.com
December 2000 www.1960pcug.org
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