Digital video basics
Note: This section on digital video focuses on video that will be played on the Web. This kind of video is relatively small, and must use a compression format like
MP3 or MP4 to produce useable footage across high-speed broadband. As you decide which of these questions applies to your work, you will be linked to helpful tips:
- Does your camera "shoot" or capture digital video and can connect to a computer with a USB or Firewire cable? Here are some tips from the UK. Many still cameras can shoot video, but you need to have enough memory for this to work well. We recommend using a 1 or 2 GB SD memory card, but look at your camera's specifications, too. Read an extensive review of this kind of camera.
- Youtube has some experimental video editing apps they call their testtube
- Check out Viddler.com, to annotate, add comments and links to your video.
- Seero.com let's you geotag, go live and broadcast on the move, if you have GPS.
- Looking to use the camera built into your laptop to create live streaming video? Try seesmic.com. You can add it to your blog so people can leave video comments for you, too.
- Vuvox.com let's you create collages, embed links in them, with a panoramic side scrolling look.
- Do you plan to create a video with a series of still images and audio (think: Ken Burns video)? See our information below about Jaycut.com or use iMovie if you have a Mac.
Editing Digital Video
Nowadays, content creators want to make "mix-ups" or "mash-up" videos made from various photos, audio files, and sometimes special effects. You collect
a set of digital images that are about 400 pixels wide and are formatted as .jpg or .png. You collect your audio and convert it if necessary, into MP3 format (use iTunes
or Audacity or other audio software.)
The new free site, Jaycut.com, offers unlimited uploads, and a "mixer" tool that uses a timeline and can mix two video tracks with an audio track,
and the save the results to your computer, Facebook or MySpace. It is the product of a group of Swedish entrepreneurs and is free.
Here is a link to a review of several other online video editing software programs. Read How to edit video by using online editing software.
No need to buy a Mac or special software. You will need a high-speed broadband connection, however.
Formatting Digital Video for the Web
The newest and inexpensive cameras that capture video, including phonecams, use MP4 format, but there are several other formats you might encounter,
including:
Transfer the video to a computer with a USB cable or using "Bluetooth" wireless network. If your camera is tapeless, your video is recorded on "Flash memory" card and
you can put this card into a card reader to upload footage to your computer and to the web.
Moving Digital Video Around or Getting the Ghost out of the Machine
Format is key to getting your video out of one computer and on the Internet or wherever you want to send it. The size of a digital video depends on several things,
including frame rate, resolution, and compression type. The Web 2.0 applications we direct you to use will automatically adjust these so your video will run online.
If you need to send video to someone, you will have to use a file transfer site (FTP) like box.net or upload your movie to one of video hosting services (Brightcove,
Google, YouTube, Jaycut, etc.) and then it can be played from the Web. Most sites provide computer code that will let you "embed" a picture of the video in a web
page. When you click the embedded image, the video will play from the video host site.
Publishing Digital Video
Jaycut.com
NEW Megavideo -- instead of YouTube
Blip.tv
Current.tv
Brightcov.tv -- nicer looking player for the embedded video than YouTube has. Video looks better than youtube.
YouTube, Google video, motionbox, splashcast are some others you can try out.
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