#Titling Help Please
15 messages in this thread
Can anyone explain to me in laymens terms what I need in terms of hardware and
software to do simple video titling. I have a PC system and I would like to
record what I see on the monitor onto VHS tape. Taking this a step further,
what about if I want to superimpose some text onto some pre-recorded video?
What would the minimum system specification be?
Any help much appreciated.
John
John,
You seem to want a device called an "overlay genlock". This device will allow
you to overlay whatever you can get up on your rgb monitor onto an incoming
video source and then output the combined signal for recording on video tape.
Many of the current "Windows Video Capture Cards" have an overlay genlock
capability, otherwise there are also dedicated devices like the GVp G-Lock,
Rocgen Genlock, etc.
-John
Thanks for the help John,
I think I'm confused between MPEG cards and Video Capture Cards. Is an MPEG
card simply for playing Video disks, ie. they don't allow any editing? Do
Video Capture Cards produce an AVI file which needs Video for Windows or do you
get all the necessary software with the card?
Thanks again,
John
John:
> Do Video Capture Cards produce an AVI file which needs Video for Windows or
do you get all the necessary software with the card?<
Most video capture cards come w/Video for Windows or some other software which
will play .AVI files (f'instance, Intel's Smart Video Recorder Pro comes
w/Asymetrix Digital Video Producer w/includes a VfW recorder/player). I'd check
to make certain the software's bundled w/the card before I bought, first,
though…
Hope this helps,
Tim Liebe
Thanks Tim,
Its all slowly starting to make sense now. Thanks again for the info.
Regards,
John
John,
We carry an excellent overlay card from AVer Media, called the AVer PRO. It is
now available with your choice of titling programs. Curtain Call for windows,
or Deputy CG for DOS. Both are very good and the complete bundle, including
overlay card, is $499. We have a special package offer of both software titles
and the overlay card for $549.00.
We were selling both the Roctec and GVP cards. GVP has gone out of business do
to their over reliance on Toaster add ons. Roctec is still around, but their
quality, support and documentation is very poor. The Aver Pro has excellent
picture quality, SVHS compatable, and two great software choices.
To get more info on the AVer boards and FAst capture cards, call me or email
your mailing address
For a free copy of our booklet "THe Desk Top Video Handbook". I think it will
help you make the right purchase decision.
Gary Bettan
The Electronic Mailbox
800 323-2325
Please send me information here or fax me at 416-923-5386
MM
John,
MPEG and M-JPEG are simply to digital compression/encoding formats.
Theoretically, once you get the (video) data to a digital form, it can be
converted from any format to any format.
Now, that said, it does sound like MPEG is going to become the standard for
digital video playback via TV, IE., digital data distributed via CD-ROM, cable
TV, etc.
On the other hand, M-JPEG certainly has the professional non-linear video
_editing_ world sewn up at this time.
-John
John:
>>Theoretically, once you get the (video) data to a digital form, it can be
converted from any format to any format.<<
I think that is a dangerous statement to make. The current example of M-JPEG
and MPEG is a good example of why. To go from M-JPEG to MPEG you will have to
decompress then recompress, thus losing a "digital" generation. If there are
any artifacts created by the M-JPEG compressor, they will be compressed as
artifacts by MPEG. That means artifacts of artifacts.
You've probably heard on XingCD. It does take those M-JPEG files and
convert them as you say, and it can do a pretty good job if the
original is fairly artifact free. The danger is in the implication
that one can move back and forth freely between algorythms. Perhaps
in theory one can, but there is likely to be a cost, similar to
dubbing to another tape format.
Nice catch, Jeff. Yes, the double encoding to digital format will
degrade the quality compared to a straight-through MPEG encoder.
However, if you can keep the quality high on the first encoding, it
?probably? isn't a too significant loss and as I understand it,
real-time MPEG encoders are $15k+ while a good M-JPEG board is going
to be a few grand.
-John
>> if you can keep the quality high on the first encoding [it} isn't a
too significant loss<<
Yes, that's true. I keep thinking of that like there's not much lose
first gerenation to second generation BetaSP, but it stills exists. I
guess the difference with digital is that should be no need to ever
go third or fourth generation if you manage your data wisely.
>>real-time MPEG encoders are $15k+ while a good M-JPEG board is going to be a
few grand.<<
I'm not sure what you're implying here. You're right about the costs, but the
two are for two different applications. Also, if you have an M-JPEG board
you'll still need the MPEG encoder to get to MPEG. That MPEG encoder can be
software, like XingCD, though that is NOT real-time (more like 60x real-time).
Jeff
Jeff,
I am trying to say that you can buy a good M-JPEG board for two thousand or so
and then use a non real-time MPEG encoder, like XingCD, to create MPEG files as
opposed to spending the $15k+ to buy a real time MPEG encoder. For the folks
that do an MPEG job or two a year, it would probably be the more effecient
method.
-John
Your advice and that of others would be welcome.
I am planning to develop graphics/other and HI-8 video materials in the Amiga
flyer and port it over to our Fast Machine MJPEG card. Then, we want to develop
interative presentations using full motion video – delivered from a laptop –
and through Director.
The preferred solution would be that the Fast Machine card (or a second card)
could be attached to the laptop. This would have the benefits of 1)one less
conversion to MPEG 2)full editing capacity. The big question is whether or not
Fast Machine or any othe Motion Jpeg card runs with a laptop. I would buy
whatever laptop I required that wasn't exorbitantly expensive. The other
question is how to ensure the overall quality when the image is projected to a
large screen.
If a motion JPEG board cannot be hooked to a laptop, then it seems to me the
files need to be converted to MPEG. Here, my plan is to use XING CD and an MPEG
player board attached to the laptop. I think Panasonic has a laptop that can
take an MPEG player card, maybe other laptops do as well.
My questions are:
1) Are any of these strategies viable? Are there other strategies?
2) Is the quality from hi8 to amiga flyer to motion jpeg to MPEG (full screen,
full motion) going to be okay if done at minimal loss – or will it be a mess.
Any advice on overall approach or specific equipment would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks.
Michael
Michael,
Why do you want to use both the Flyer and the FAST to edit the video? If you
are thinking that you need to redigitize the Flyer edited video to remain in
the digital domain for M-JPEG conversion, and love the Flyer's
quality/interface I guess I can see it, otherwise wouldn't you be better off
simply digitizing and editing directly on the Video Machine?
Another possibility is to get the Flyer board and NewTek's, coming RSN,
portable box. The advantage of the portable box is that you can edit on it
from virtually any macine (including portables) that has a SCSI interface.
This way you could aquire, edit, and playback all on a portable. It is quite
possible that someone will come out with a way to digitally encode the Flyer's
VTASC/CG/Transitions etc., into MPEG as well.
-John
John,
Thanks for your response. Perhaps, I didn't clarify. I have the Fast Movie
Machine (motion jpeg card – a much cheaper card than the video machine DPR
card. I want to use the Flyer to produce higher quality video/more special FX
etc than I could using the movie machine card. However, there is no current way
that I know of to get the Flyer VTASC into MPEG that can play in an IBM based
interative presentation. I agree with you that the best solution is for such a
translation to occur. Have you heard about such a strategy?
I think I will pop over to the NEWTEK forum and ask the new NEWTEK person what
he thinks of that solution.
Michael