I am a begginer on editting and download videos from my camcorder

Question

Can someone please help me learn how to edit a video? do I need software? Can I do it without software? and how do I get that cool text and stuff in my video? And how do I get music? Sorry I'm asking to many questions I just need help! I have the Samsung SC-D375 Mini DV Compact Camcorder if that helps.

Thank you!

Answer 1

You probably have everything you need.  If you do not have a Firewire cable (also known as i.Link, IEEE 1394, and DV), you will need to purchase one.  You will probably need a 6-pin to 4-pin Firewire 400 cable, or you may need a 4-pin to 4-pin cord.  Your computer most likely has a large 6-pin Firewire port already, and your camcorder definitely has a small 4-pin connection.  If not, you can get a Firewire card for laptop or desktop for $50 or less.

Since we don't know what computer you have, we can't give better instructions for the video capture and editing process particular to your situations.  Andrew and Mr Masks explained the basic procedure for capturing your video.  This all sounds daunting at first, but once you do it the first time, you will realize how simple and straight-forward it is.  You will then be able to repeat the process at any time with confidence.

To make things simple, concentrate on learning the video capture process first.  After you have a couple of tapes captured, you will know what to do.  Then you can move on to the more daunting task of editing.

The best advice for your initial editing experience is to do things one step at a time.  Remember that digital editing does not physically affect the video files.  All you are doing is building a set of instructions for the editing program to follow later.  When you have your new video sequence complete, you render or export the sequence you built, and the computer copies pieces of different material, arranges them according to your sequence, and saves an entirely new movie (without destroying or changing the old the old).

There is no set starting or ending point in editing, nor are there any set procedures.  It is up to you how you want to go.   You can trim your video segments first, or you may want to start with titling, or you may decide audio is more important in the beginning.  It does not matter.   What is most important is to develop the story you want to tell before you start editing.

You can use your editor to review your video stock, music, and possible titling options to help plan out your editing.  Once you have a plan and you get started, stick to this plan all the way through editing.  This way, it is easier to make quick adjustments later if something needs to be changed.

It may take several projects before you start to truly understand the theory of the editing process.  The good thing is that if you store your tapes, you can experiment all you want in your digital editor.  Don't be afraid to try everything you can.  If something goes so badly that you can't 'undo' your changes, you can always re-import the video on the hard drive into a new project (or re-capture the video from the tapes) and start over.

* There is one big issue you may run into: storage space.   Depending on the hard drive in your computer and how much space is available, you may need an external hard drive.  You will want at least 500gb, but when starting out, but if you need to save money, 250gb or 320gb will be fine for now.  You will need a lot of space to hold the original video files captured form your camera, the music you want to use in the project, and the final movies you have created.

Answer 2

Ahh no problem!

Yes, you do need video editing software, but you're in luck. If your computer runs Windows XP or Vista, then you can run Windows Movie Maker. It is already installed on your system. Go to Start->All Programs->Windows Movie Maker. Or you can type in the Search pane for Windows Movie Maker. Open this up and on the left hand side it gives you a step-by-step list on uploading your movie to your computer, and then editing that movie. Adding text and music is also simple, it should tell you in the step-by-step guide (4 main steps with sub divisions) on the left hand side. Music is added by dragging the song from Windows Media Player into the time line. One suggestion though, if you do us Windows Movie Maker, and the song you want is in iTunes on your computer, you must burn that song to a CD and then reload it into Windows Media Player. That's the only way it will be able to be dragged in to WMM.

If you are one of the fortunate people who have a Mac, you are also in luck. Open Finder and click applications. There you will find a program called iMovie. Open it. This software is much easier to use than the WMM, but it does not have a tutorial. Google for a tutorial, there are many out there. Dragging music in is the same way, but you may use iTunes songs because you are running everything on a Mac. If you click the Titles button, you can add a text slide. Type your text and then drag the effect you want from the list to the time line. Using iMovie is a bit more complicated than WMM but the results are by far better.

If you are looking for help with uploading the movie to WMM/iMovie, I am not so familiar with iMovie in this case. Plug your camera in to your computer (Firewire, S-Video, USB, depends on what your camera takes) and if it is a Digital Camcorder you should be able to drag the movie from the camera to your desktop or similar folder. (Autoplay should pop-up). If you use an old analog camcorder (sorry I don't know what you use--I couldn't find it on the internet) you must plug it in, and then click the first option in the step-by-step guide in WMM. Select your device, select your save name and where to save it, then a screen should show saying "Start Recording" and under that, "Stop Recording"... Hit play on your camera and you should see your camera screen on the computer screen. If you do, you are OK, if not, you must play with things to configure it right. Sorry I can't go into much detail about that I don't have enough information on your camera/computer to do so. If it works, rewind your tape, then hit Start Recording on your computer and Play on your camcorder at the same time. It will pause on the computer for a second or two sometimes, that's OK. It does not delete your movie, just let it run. After the movie is over, hit stop on the camcorder and Stop Recording on the computer. Click finish and your movie should be in WMM. Drag it to the timeline and your set!

Hope this helps!

Good Luck!

Answer 3

Yes, you do need software to be able to edit video.  If you are on a Mac, you should have plenty of programs available, such as iMovie.  For PC, I used a program called Adobe Premiere Pro.  That program is a little more in depth than what you are probably looking for, but if you run a search on cnet.com you could probably find a good video editing program that is free or cheap.

To get your video on the computer, you need to connect it with what is called a firewire.  This is just a cable that connects your camera to the computer.  From there, you can edit it using your program of choice.  It's sort of tricky explaining how to edit without knowing what program you will use, as they are all different, but I can give you some basics.  You'll notice that you have a few windows open.  One will be a long window that is usually at the bottom of the screen that will be divided into rows.  This is called your timeline.  This is where you actually edit your video and sound files.  You can cut the video, rearrange it, delete parts of it, etc...  In this window is a vertical line that runs through all the rows.  If you notice, you can actually move this line forward and back on the timeline.  This is called the playhead.  Moving the playhead to different points of the timeline will allow you to jump to different areas of the video and let you preview the video.  There will be a second window that will actually show the video itself.. This is called your playback or preview window and allows you to preview your video wherever the playhead is located.  This will allow you to see what your final video will look like.

The third window that is usually on your screen is your file browser.  This shows you the filenames of all the files you are using in the timeline and just allows you to keep track of what you're using.

For text, most video programs will give you the ability to write text, but the effects can be pretty limited.  Usually the cool effects you are probably referring to are done in another program and then imported into the editing program.

To get music into the program, you will just import it the same way you do your video.  It will appear below your video file on the timeline.

I'm sorry I can't really give you specific instructions, but without having a program you're running, I can't really give you details.  once you download a program, though, you should be able to either get instructions from the help menu or even run a search through Google for tutorials.  (I.E., if you were using adobe premiere, you could run a search for Adobe Premiere Tutorials.)

Answer 4

Your minidv camcorder requires a firwire connection so determine if your pc has a firewire port (ieee 1394) . If it doesn't you will need to purchase one and install it in your computer, you will also need a firewire cord (ieee 1394). Once you are able to download your camcorder, you will need an editing software. If you have XP, then you have a free editing software called Windows movie maker, this program is not the greatest but it's free. If you have a mac, you should have imovie. There are a lot of editing software programs out there. I use pinacle studio 11 plus so you should look for similar programs and make sure you know the specs of your computer so you can match it to the box of which ever program you choose. All programs have a help section that you can use.