Whether you’re a big time video producer, or if you’re just a normal person videotaping your child’s first birthday. You’re going to need to get that video footage off of the camera, edit it, and then put it onto a disc for future viewing. You might just want to run off a couple copies from your home computer, or you might be getting your DVD footage ready to be duplicated by a large duplication house. Either way, and every way in between, you’re going to need to follow the same couple of steps. If you are a regular, semi-computer literate person, this task may seem very daunting. Let me tell you, it’s not rocket science, and if you follow this guide it’ll be easy as pie. There are really only 3 to 4 steps in the process, and today I’m going to break it down for you today.
- Capturing Your Video and Audio
This process will vary depending on what type of software you are using to capture to. I usually just use the Windows Movie Maker that comes with Windows XP Home Edition. After you have recorded your video, plug the camera into your computer. (Your digital video camera will come with a USB or S-Video cord that you can connect to your computer.) You computer should recognize that a new piece of hardware has been attached to it. When you open Windows Movie Maker, there is a button labeled “Capture from video device”. Click that button and follow the instructions, it’s really a snap. If you are using another type of software, just look for the option labeled “capture”, that’s the process of taking video from an outside source and placing it onto your hard drive as a digital video file.
- Editing Your Video and Audio
Once you get your video and audio footage onto your computer’s hard drive, there are many different programs to use to edit and output your video. The most simple program PC users have access to is Windows Movie Maker, which we discussed in the previous step regarding video and audio capturing. This program is both free and easy to use, yet it is probably the least flexible. This doesn’t mean anything to the novice video editor, but will limit the more advanced users. If you are more advanced, I suggest checking out Adobe Premiere. I have used the program myself, and absolutely love it. Regardless of what program you use to edit your video, the process will be basically similar. You will be able to chop up and rearrange your video, add music or narration, and ultimately output it as an .avi file. You will want to output it as the most high quality .avi that you can. If you were preparing video to share over the web, or to burn to a CD to view on another computer, this would be your last step. But since we’re ultimately trying to get our video onto a DVD for viewing on a DVD player, we’ll need to complete another couple steps.
- Encoding Your Video and Audio
This is one of the most important steps in the process, as it determines the quality and format of your DVD video footage. There are many different 3 rd party applications that are used just for encoding, but some of the more high-end video editing programs like Adobe Premiere have encoding tools embedded in them. Regardless of what tool you use to encode, you’re going to need to end up with a high quality MPEG2 file, which is the format that will play on a DVD in a home DVD player.
DVD authoring is the process of adding a title screen, chapter markers, and other assorted features that you’ve probably experienced in watching professionally made DVD movies. You’re going to need a 3 rd party application to author your DVD, and there are many to choose from. One of the more high-end applications is Adobe Encore, which is easy for a novice to use, and also has many advanced features that the more experienced DVD author will appreciate. Some of these programs come with templates, ready to use. I suggest that first-timers look for a program that offers this feature.
After you author your DVD, you’re ready to burn it to disc. If you completed all the steps correctly, you should be able to pop your DVD in your home player and watch away. Beware that some older DVDs do not play burned DVDs very well, so if you have an older one and your disc doesn’t play, it doesn’t mean that you did anything incorrectly. All in all, I understand that this is definitely not full instructions on how to author a DVD. I hope that this has at least shed a little light on the subject, and that you come away from this with a better understanding of how it’s done.
By: Jason Cole |
