Camcorder & Computer Video articles from December 2002

Camcorder & Computer Video archives from December 2002

Videoediting--as simple as you want it to be. (Editor's Report).(Editorial)
December 1, 2002... I recently received an e-mail from a lovely person, Dawn, from St. Louis, who wanted to know, essentially, if we here at C&CV were all crazy. I thought it might be interesting if I wrote an open letter in reply. She says, "I love your...

Digital vinyl CD-R. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? A new line of discs from Verbatim that combine the look of a 45 rpm record with today's CD production technology. What does it do? It provides high-speed write performance and read compatibility with even the oldest CD drives...

48x veloCD. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? A new CD burner from TDK. What does it do? It can burn a complete disc in 2 1/2 minutes and delivers 48X read, write and audio ripping along with 24X rewrite speeds. Special features? Its "Buffer Underrun Protection"...

Time Image royalty-free film library. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? A 10-volume royalty-free film library from Time Image. What does it do? It contains about 300 clips that can be integrated into any video production; subjects include time-lapse, world locations, news, war, 3-D animation, and...

Texture Collection. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? Downloadable high-resolution textures from NewTek. What does it do? Geared for digital artists and producers, the initial release includes 50 high-resolution textures that are available at no cost from the company's Web site....

Pinnacle Expression. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? A home video/photo solution from Pinnacle Systems. What does it do? It lets users capture movies from a DV camcorder, import digital photos, AVI and MPEG files, and create interactive multimedia presentations. Special...

Flix Pro. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? Flash video encoder from Wildform. What does it do? Lets users easily edit, crop and convert video on the Web using one's own custom player. Special features? It encodes virtually every type of video, audio and image file...

USB2+FireWire card. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? The latest combo card from Keyspan. What does it do? It adds three external and one internal USB 2 ports to any Mac or Windows PC with one available PCI slot. Special features? The USB ports support data rates of up to 480...

DVD 25. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? A single-play, progressive-scan DVD player from Harman Kardon. What does it do? Along with DVD-Video disc playback, the unit can play CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3 and Video CD discs. Special features? It offers an intuitive...

Echo Fire 2.1. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? Video previewing tool from Synthetic Aperture. What does it do? Echo Fire 2.1 offers real-time video previewing via FireWire to Adobe After Effects and Photoshop under Windows 2000 and XP. Special features? It can also...

CenterStage. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? A video processor from FOCUS Enhancements. What does it do? The unit functions as a resolution multiplier and upscales video to the full native resolutions required by CRT/LCD monitors, LCD/DLP/D-ILA projectors, and other...

AVerDVD EZMaker. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? A home DVD-creation program from AVerMedia Technologies. What does it do? It allows users to capture and convert home video tapes to Digital Video, and burn DVD-quality videos on CDs or DVDs. Special features? Real-time...

Casablanca prestige. (Zoom in: the season's hottest accessories and gadgets).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2002... What is it? A complete, stand-alone video-editing system from MacroSystem US. What does it do? The silver, VCR-sized unit features a locking, removable hard drive on the front panel with up to 120GB capacity. It includes a DVD burner,...

X times 2: powerful editing solutions from Matrox. (Video Editing Roundup).
December 1, 2002... Matrox' latest real-time video-editing products--the RT. X100 and the RT.X10--can take advantage of the new advances in Windows operating systems, CPU power and inexpensive RAM that are available to today's video professionals, prosumers and...

Pinnacle's Pro-ONE line: full real-time features work on older machines, too! (Video Editor Roundup).
December 1, 2002... When the Pro-ONE began shipping last year, it was a glimpse at what the future would be for Pinnacle Systems. The Pro-ONE leveraged the latest in nonlinear editing (NLE) hardware with its acquired NLE software plug-ins. I really liked the...

To the max: going beyond Matrox's RT2500. (Video Editing Roundup)(Cover Story).
December 1, 2002... In the realm of video cards, there is a broad range of choices, from those that some consider toys to those used and broadcast production services. For the aspiring editor looking for higher quality and more efficient operation, there is a...

Premiering 6.5: Adobe's latest version offers support for MPEG-2 export and DVD authoring. (Video Editor Roundup).
December 1, 2002... Adobe Premiere as been the long-estalished leading video-editing application for Windows and Macintosh. For videographers and for others ready to step hp to a more sophisticated tool, Premiere offers professional features, and a clean and...

Make em pop! Free downloadable 3-D software. (Video Editing Roundup).
December 1, 2002... Some days I get tired of being called a thief. It's not that anybody has walked up to me and said it to my face, but they might as well have. I noticed this trend a couple of years ago as it became more time-consuming to install newly purchased...

Hitachi DZ-MV230A DVD-CAM: "direct to DVD".
December 1, 2002... This is a most unusual camcorder. It is, without a doubt, a breakthrough model. If the Holy Grail of camcorder manufacturers has been to produce a model that will shoot video and stills, edit them in-camera, then record them to a DVD that you...

11 camcorder tricks: the pros share their shortcuts.
December 1, 2002... Ever wonder how the pros do it? Experts in the video industry are always sharing their favorite shortcuts and timesaving tricks. Here are a few of mine: #1. Gradual lighting nixes the squints. Talent squints because of bright lights,...

Mini DV to S-VHS and vice-versa: JVC's Dual-Format Mini DV/S-VHS recorder and editor.
December 1, 2002... Here at Camcorder & Computer-Video, we've been promoting the virtues of nonlinear editing for some time now. It IS the de facto standard for editing your home videos today. But, we also realize that many of you may be put off by the prospect of...

Sony DCR TRV25: a Mini DV for the rest of us.
December 1, 2002... Sony Electronics introduced the Mini DV format many years ago with the venerable and now retired DCR-VX1000 camcorder. It's hard to count the generations since that first model, but it can be safely said that the Mini DV format has gone on to...

Video in motion: youth discover a whole new world through ikemedia.tv.
December 1, 2002... With intense red, purple, yellow and orange splashes fusing with almost 3-D-like images, it's hard to miss the ikemedia. tv trailer as it zooms into a local skate park, which on a typical afternoon is packed with mostly teenagers. Located in...

Camcorder insider: Sony's multi-format recorders: the ultimate solution to DVD recording.
December 1, 2002... Ever the innovator, Sony Electronics has just announced what may the ultimate solution to the recordable DVD dilemma: "WHAT format to record in--DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, or DVD+RW?" Sony's answer: ANY of them! Yes, Sony is introducing two...

Music and magic: add a colorful soundtrack.
December 1, 2002... You know the old saying, "A video without music is like a day without moonshine." Or, was that sunshine? Old sayings can get so confusing. In either case, since the earliest days of film, there have been soundtracks to accompany them. It...

Camcorder CPR: first aid for camcorders and tapes.
December 1, 2002... Last year, my brother and I visited Mexico while reports of a hurricane loomed nearby. Although the hurricane wasn't forecasted to hit the area where we stayed, it caused some unusually large swells in the ocean. So, we decided that it would be...

Shooting low: from the ground up.
December 1, 2002... Finding new and original subject matter to capture on video is often a challenge, since almost everything around us has been captured and screened before. Even our latest video could easily make our jaded audience yawn, unless of course we can...