PapaJohn Productions

Newsletter #183

Some Website Remodeling

I check my website after each newsletter goes out to see where a link to the new issue best fits. Sometimes it's on more than one page. But last week's topic of Vegas Movie Studio didn't quite fit on any page.

But I really liked Vegas... it has to fit someplace!

... it made me take a critical look at the current menu. There was a branch about making CDs, and another about making DVDs, two things that Vegas does. But those are minor compared to the video editing features. Some apps like MyDVD had pages on both branches.

There were no branches or pages about suites like Vegas Movie Studio and Pinnacle Studio, software packages that can do full featured video editing in addition to making discs.

To make room and consolidate some pages, I combined the two branches about making CDs and DVDs, and expanded the subject to include video editors other than Movie Maker. There's a snapshot of the new branch at the right....'Other Editors and Making Discs..'

Software that does video editing and disc making are first. So far there are pages for Adobe Premiere, Pinnacle Studio, Roxio MyDVD, and Sony Vegas Movie Studio. Others like the two pages for MyDVD will be consolidated and moved into it. Sometimes video editing apps evolve to add disc making features, and sometimes disc making apps like MyDVD expand to include video editing features.

Apps such as VCD Easy that specialize in making discs will follow the others.

I'll use the rest of this newsletter to make some comments about the software in this branch of the menu. Before getting into it, here's a note.

note...

I played a bit more with Vegas' after the newsletter went out last week, checking its special video effects features. Here's a short sample of what it can do.

Vegas Special Video Effects - 30 second sample

It brings back fond memories of Panasonic's DV Motion Studio, an app that came and went with my older Toshiba laptop. I wasn't successful installing it from the recovery disc of the Toshiba to another computer.

... back to the main subject

Other Editors and Making Discs...

This part of the menu will be about other video software editing and disc making packages... other than Movie Maker and DVD Maker.

If captured files are in formats Movie Maker can't use, then conversion utilities are needed. Sometimes the other editing software can serve as the conversion utility.

Older versions are often 'given away'... and continue to work well

Here are some of the things that interest me when using different features of different apps.

Other Editors...

Movie Maker is more and more just about capturing DV via firewire. Browsing camcorders being sold locally shows fewer and fewer of them being DV models. Other software is needed to get your video files from hard drive and disc based camcorders into the computer.

While you're using other apps for capturing, take a look at the other features. The snapshots at the left and below show some of the hundreds of transitions and effects available in Vegas.

Note: external plug-ins of WAX were there but when I tried to apply one, a message said it wouldn't work with this version of Vegas.

Vegas Movie Studio's special video effects remind me more of the full featured Adobe Premiere 6 I used to use more so than the limited features of Adobe Premiere Elements. The 30 second sample clip I have on the way into this newsletter is just the beginning. I'll be exploring the features much more as time goes by. It's easier to take a project clip to Vegas for a special effect than it is to create or find custom xml code that does something similar in Movie Maker.

When I borrowed a Sony HiDef camcorder, I ended up downloading a trial version of Vegas just to capture the HiDef footage. Now I have Vegas but don't own an HD camcorder!

My copy of Pinnacle Studio 8 came bundled with a Dazzle80 analog capture device. My copy of Vegas Movie Studio was a recent purchase that cost zero after rebates, and included free shipping. The real investment with software like these is the time needed to learn them enough to comfortable using them and tossing files back and forth between them and Movie Maker.

I use Pinnacle Studio 8 for computer generated music backgrounds and animated 3D text overlays. As it takes only type II DV-AVI files, and MM2.1 and MM6 produce type I, I have to do a conversion from type I to II when I want to move a Movie Maker project clip to Pinnacle Studio.

If you're just looking for something like music background... this snapshot shows Pinnacle set to preview 2 hours of Hot and Spicy Band Punches. I'll capture the sound from Pinnacle as a high quality stereo wma narration file in Movie Maker as it previews. In this case there's no need to take a Movie Maker project file over to Pinnacle.

Everyone knows how limited the titling features of Movie Maker are. Here's a snapshot of the title editor in Pinnacle Studio. Position and rotate the text... add shadows... animate it.

Roxio's MyDVD Premier 8 shows how far this disc-making app has moved toward being a full-featured video suite...

It has a full video editing app VideoWave, and a CineMagic auto movie generation feature.

This snapshot shows a video file originally recorded by Vista's Media Center... as a DVR-MS file. It was auto converted to an MPEG-2 file by VideoWave as it couldn't handle the DVR-MS file.

Once in VideoWave as an MPEG-2, it's an easy step to save it as a DV-AVI file for use in Movie Maker.

That's an example of the kind of moving around you can do using the various software apps in your toolbox.

GEAR is a supplier of software for both disc making and video editing. I don't have a page about it yet, but I've written a couple reviews about it for BrightHub.

The DV-AVI file format is what I use to move clips from one app to the other, preserving whatever quality I start with. Some apps like Movie Maker use the Microsoft DV codec. Others, if they don't have their own specialty DV codec, can use the freely downloaded Panasonic DV codec.

Conclusion and Closing... and What's Next?

In addition to the structure and content of the website, it's about wanting to help users get their video projects done, using a toolbox of software and picking the right things for the job at hand. It might be Movie Maker for one task and Vegas for another. And as with the music backgrounds, it could be Pinnacle Studio and Movie Maker working together.

Most software works pretty well in general, but at times there are issues. When faced with an issue, I find it usually easier to switch to another app and continue with the project than it is to resolve the issue.

I just wanted to share some of my thinking with you as the website gets this remodeling.

Have a great week....

PapaJohn