#CAN I PICK YOUR BRAINS
6 messages in this thread
Can anybody help, since I've no experience in the DTV field.
I would like to develope a software application that is basically a database
containing video footage, that depending on certain criteria produces a video
tape by joining the various clips together.
Let me try and explain this a bit better.
I will have upto a 100 small clips of video footage (I guess it will need to be
stored on CD ROM).
These clips will then be formed in different sequences to produce video tapes
for our clients.
Problem is I don't no where to start. Got any ideas on software/ hardware.
ANy help much appreciated.
Thanks Chris
Hi Chris!
Sounds like a neat application and one well suited to CDROM/Digital Video
technology. You might start by looking at MultiMedia Authoring Systems
like MacroMind's Director or get yourself a Windows Video Capture Card
like the FAST Movie Machine Pro and a program like Xing-CD for the actual
encoding of the CDROM.
-John
John,
Thanks for the reply to my message and for the information.
It is very difficult trying to start on this project with no background either
in DTV or MM.
What I am most concerned with is buying 'compatable' hardware & software.
Also the ability to link the output package with a database such as Paradox to
join the sequences is very important, since we will be producing hundreds of
video tapes – made up of small film sequences that are joined together in
different sequences depending on the customer etc..
Any ideas?
Many thanks,
Chris
Chris,
Have you determined a "platform" to use yet? If It is an Amiga,
AmigaVision comes with a dbase compatible database that can be
interactively searched. Then with a VLAN interface or something like
Sanyo's decks with built in BCD_talk, you can use AmigaVision to control
tape decks to assemble the finished product.
I am sure that there are similar linking/database compatible authoring
systems on Windows or MAC Systems.
Another possibility would be to leave the clips on one or more tapes, in
one or more player machines. Then use an "Edit Controller" that has
extensive logging functions as your database, and search through the log,
tagging clips that you need for assembling to the recorder.
-John
Chris:
You may consider putting still images from your video footage into a video
database like Aldus Fetch. You can then search the video database rapidly to
find a frame that represents the shot you want. In the comment field of that
frame could be the tape name (or disk name) and timecode for the shot you want
which is added to a Edit Decision List for auto assembly.
If you have hundreds of shots, have you given any thought to how many of these
shots will fit on a CD? My experience has been 5-8 minutes of 640X480 30
frame-per-second video to 1 CD. Maybe you could leave it on tape and digitize
only when needed. Tape is much cheaper than hard disk space and even cheaper
than CDs.
Chris,
I have to tell you that is really simple and easy. Take our product, Media
Studio's Video Editor, as an example:
0. open the program and insert the CD-ROM which has the video clips
1. place these clips (the pointers of them, in fact) into timeline,
2. drag and drop to arrange them in the way that you want,
3. add transitions or video effects if you want,
4. preview the result on computer monitor screen,
5. create the output video file with specified frame rate, etc. (All the
arrangement and settings are stored in a project file.)
6. print to video if you want to catpure video to tape (you need a capture card
or an RGB to NTSC converter to do this).
We even provide you in the same box, a powerful multimedia Album program to
manage all these multimedia clips for you.
You don't even need to have to worry too much about capturing video from tape
to video clips since you got a CD-ROM full of it. Just FYI, there are many
more such programs around, our Media Studio, Adobe Premier, In:Sync ZAZOR are
among a few.
–Vincent Chen, Ulead Systems