Making Movies

[Sexton O Blake]

Cut cut cut -- the lighting was all wrong!

Good to see I too am not alone in this arena. Forgive this giant post. It clears my head and gives me directions and goals plus perhaps it will lead to others providing feedback.

For years I have been filming on our Sony camcorder - hoping that one day, in a galaxy far far away, that I can rip into the computer and spit out VCDs/DVDs.

So now I might have number three on my top 10 time wasters:
#1 Computers
#2 Internet
#3 World of Movie Making
#4 TV?
..
..

I ended up getting new gear just after Xmas that hopefully would lead me toward the promised land.

Intel P4 (HT) (2.8) -- built in FIREWIRE (USB2.0 but of course)
ASUS P4P800DX
2GB RAM (ram drive perhaps?)
ATI All-in-Wonder 9600* 128MB
Existing 7200RPM 120GB PATA drives (currently 2 out of 6 in my collection..)
Antec P160 case + Antec 480W P/S
XP Pro (SP1a)

** I want to thank sites like 'sharkyextreme' for providing buyer guides. Without them, I would be lost with all the possibilities. I spec out each component when I buy a new computer, but I do so every 2-3 years. That is dog years - nothing can be carried over from the past - so you either start from scratch or spend every waking moment taking in all the new technology. (I would prefer to spend every waking moment reading about stocks so at least I can make serious money and pay someone to do this). See http://www.sharkyextreme.com - folder "Guides". Even with the guides, it took me weeks before I could widdle the price and go for the new system.

Case/MB..
The main criteria was ensuring that firewire was built into the motherboard. Further, this MB had onboard connectors for attaching to ports on the front of the case - another requirement. I found a lot of cases nowadays have "USB+HEADPHONE" jacks on the front, but not all have, in addition to these, FIREWIRE and MIC jacks. The P160, high priced and all, fit the bill. But I felt with video ripping it might get a hotter than most - it is aluminum and comes with a 120MM fan at the back and an optional spot for one strategically placed in front of the harddrives. Finally, the case and power supply were high on my list and I wanted to ensure they were of high quality.

ATI AIW.. take Deux...
I had the 2nd generation (circa 1997) of the ATI All-in-Wonder. Not impressed with ATI's support (read: lack of, that is) and how they just said "no support for TV tuner under Windows 2000". In 1999 I bought a Matrox card (G400DH). This time around, other than Nvidia, there was nothing out there that was a leader as was the ATI Radeon cards. The original goal in mind, I took a chance and got another AIW card.

FYI: 9600 versus latest 9800 differences:
9800 (PLUS) DVI
9800 (PLUS) better "graphic processing" engine (~x2 of 9600)
versus
9600 (PLUS) DUAL Monitor (2 VGA or 1 VGA + TV)
9600 (PLUS) FM Tuner
9600 (PLUS) $110US cheaper

What happened was, ATI made the 9800 then, for whatever reason, went back and made the 9600 AIW version - this time introducing DUAL monitor support for the first time, plus throwing in an FM tuner to boot. Compelling reasons to go with the less expensive 9600 over the 9800. Paying for minor improvements (even 2x the graphic power) are useless when in 6mths to a year the gains are like 10-30x. Also as a side bar, I am on the CPU all the time - so a TV tuner with a built in recorder were worth the $40US premium over the standard 9600 (save hydro with another "TV" on in the house).

XP.. finally..
Everyone might balk at the high price tag for XP Pro - but they really have made giant leaps to improve the product.
- built in "pcanywhere" (Remote Desktop) which is far better than pcanywhere
- built in web/ftp server (apparently SMTP but can't get that working)
- built in scanner software
- built in picture viewer
- built in movie maker (recently upgraded to boot)
- far more stable than 98..
- UNIX like command line options
- doesn't sit for 30minutes on the blue screen scanning your harddrive after (and if) you crash
- ability to run in the tasks in the background and "switch users"
- NTFS (512byte blocks - far better than that "should it be 8K or 16K crap FATCAT32)
.. and on and on..

SONY...
Not much to say. If yourself or anyone can help with this - I don't have the manual handy. As you record there appears to be some "auto-indexing" or "snippets". As you rewind the tape, the "counter" keeps going to "0:00:00" then back up (new snippet). See more below on this.

Life continues..
At this point in the story, I have barely scratched the surface on my way to utopia. The accomplishments are few:
(A) FIREWIRE (DIGITAL)
- I bought a "4p-6p" FIREWIRE cable - paid $4.50US - buy at a local computer store since the big boxes will try to sell them for $15+++++ easily
- Camera is SONY - has "iLINK" - SONY site says "standard IEEE1394"
- With XP Pro installed, I was able to plug the camera in, turn it on. Instantly in "My Computer" it shows "SONY DV" icon. It then starts Movie Maker.
- I was able to rip in a few seconds of video. Played ok. -- first test was a screaming success (see E for more)

(B) ATI - (ANALOG)
- ATI has built in recorder (for TV; FM; INPUTS) plus "TiVO" / "VoD" / "Video on Demand" capabilities
- Has SVIDEO out and audio out; but also has a breakout connector to give you SVIDEO or COMPOSITE VIDEO IN; RCA audio IN
- I have been able to "record" video from a VHS tape directly into the ATI. A mere test is where I have finished.

(C) Roxio V6 DVD Maker - (comes with VCD support)
- I was able to rip video via FIREWIRE directly in this product
- storybook setup - you can add your own audio/video; chapters apparently
- automagically burns a VCD for you - was able to put it (was on a CDRW) in my Panasonic DVD player and it worked no problem
- didn't explore all options on this

(D) Windows Media Player - WMP v9
- you can rip video too but limited options it seems
- I ripped in VIDEO via FIREWIRE (DV) but had no sound
- I made some adjustments and was able to rip VIDEO/SOUND via firewire but I lost frames

(E) XP Movie Maker version 5.1 (upgraded from CD install)
- same as (A) with a much better interface than ROXIO (C)
- As videos are read into the system (any product I would think) from the SONY, the "snippets" are shown separately - and can be manipulated separately or saved as a single file
- Storybook look - you can move "snippets" around into your "storybook"
- you can add titles and credits to your storybook
- create the movie (single file)
- this version asks "where will this movie be played?" to enable you to create files in formats and frames per second (fps) that can be viewed on various machines

So now where am I with this? My goal is to make movies up and then:
(A) Distribute on VCD/DVD (I don't own a DVD writer today though);
(B) Provide streaming video over the net (various qualities/sizes);
(C) Archive in digital format;

For thet streaming, I just copied over to my web directory and then from outside was able to retreive the movie.

So everything works, right? Well there is "Hertz and Not Exactly" and baby it Hurtz alright. Getting the connectivity working is the easiest part of the exercise it looks like.

The hardest part is deciding on the best quality to rip the movies and then how to export them.
- Some of my movies are coming from legacy tapes that cannot be digially imported (VHS).
- Then there are old Sony camcorder tapes - I think, although analogue in format, they can be moved across the firewire back to the computer instead of through the RCA jacks. My camera has DV out, but not DV tapes - it uses Digital 8 tapes.
- The third kind of tapes are the standard Digitl 8 tapes (native format for the camera today; digital)

The biggest problem is - understanding and coping with all the formats, file sizes and that "judge" dreaded word - CODECs. With music the formats, although many, most are using Mp3 and the methods for encoding are easily found. However, with movies the field is expanded and there are more issues introduced partly due to the sheer size of files. Want to spend hours reading on capturing, ripping and recording? Look at VCDHELP.COM - which, when I can find some time, is where I will be spending my time.

Consider music. Say you have a CD that is of high quality - your bit rate could be "192" or "160" or "128". So if you use "128" you might find the quality is "so/so". If you lose the original CD, you will never be able to achieve a better bit rate. However, suppose you ripped it at "192", you could always make a second copy at "128" - now would "128" match the quality as if you ripped from the original CD at 128? Probably not. You could have two versions - one for archiving and one for listening (e.g. the most Mp3s on a CD to listen to) - e.g. to preserve and for everyday use (I do see the value of two copies, unless 192 is the only rate to listen to)

With movies, the same goes. I can rip in the movies at the highest possible quality, then export, but the export would be massive if I don't use a compression algorithm.

I see people uploading "DVD" movies (2hr) using DiVX encoding at qualities that result in 700MB files (ok quality) to say 1.5GB (great quality - pure DVDs are 4GB). Some movies use a poor encoder - sometimes the audio/video get out of sync or when you move the position slider, it takes a while for the movie to play or play properly. Nowadays the defacto standard appears to be DiVX.

Using the ATI, a 25m (minutes) program recorded off the TV is "exported" in MPEG-2 at 900MB (.MPG) and MPEG-4 at 700MB (.AVI) [options available within the ATI player]. As you can see - the sizes are far too large. 120m would be 3.3GB -- and that is TV broadcast, not a bloody DVD copy. I take the MPEG2 over to a friend's house - and guess what - WMP didn't play MPEG2 - isn't that special!

When I ripped a couple of movies from the camera one ended up as 6MB (DEST). Another example - I ripped in a 2m clip - it was pure Digital in - SOURCE at 250MB - then exported using a format that would achieve 30fps using a "340kbps" broadband connection - this resulted in a 23MB file. Again seemingly a standard compression - but still large - 2minutes is 23MB!!

Next, when at my outlaw's house, their machine was circa 1997. So right off the bat, playing the 6MB file above was brutal. Even if the Win98 Media Player is at the right version, the codec, if I choose to use one that is not standard, must be installed. But the movie was unwatchable. The movie played alright, but almost every video frame was lost due to the lack of CPU power. Here is the other factor - your target audience. Futher the quality also may relate to the VIDEO SIZE. E.g. is it a tiny box on the screen is useless. FULLSCREEN - is it even watchable?

So here are the points I need to address and be satisified with:
- Import at the highest quality possible (Digital 8; VHS; Legacy camcorder tapes; Firewire; Composite)
- Export in various formats
- VCD? That is standard - but you can only achieve something like 35minutes/VCD. Shall I wait for DVD? Will I be able to "seamlessly" string together multiple VCD files for DVD? At least everyone can play VCD who has a CD player in their computer. Most DVD players on the market play VCD too.
- Poor PC format - something for parents to see their grandchildren on their crappy PC
- Fast PC format - high quality a big file -- therefore, I have to be able to compress (encode) to something more reasonable
- RAW? The purest form so I can "Export" later using a better codec? Perhaps the odd flick? All flicks? Worth it?

- Of course do all the above with confidence that I don't have to go back and do something over.. do it once and be happy. If I am ripping from old tapes will I be able to do it again? Will they still be good? I will assume not.

- When you read VCDHELP.COM it isn't so simple to move from one format to another. Some examples deal with having to rip video in one pass then ripping audio in another pass and then putting all the pieces together - hoping they are all "sync'd'. And of course all this entails many steps, programs and hours.

Lots of thoughts and lots to learn. When I rip CDs I own today, I don't think "I will lose this CD so it better be a good rip". I rip with the thought - I can rerip if necessary and I want the most music today on a Mp3 CD. Not such an easy call with this stuff.

BTW: I have just downloaded from Divx.com their free trial of DrDivx... the next chapter begins..

(And think about this - today there are CD's and DVD's. Already they are working on larger capacity DVD's - and perhaps beyond. Plus, CD's and DVD's are not 100% either - they scratch. At least you can create "copies" and/or parity files .. but still...)

SoB

PS: Unfortunately I am a lurker and haven't paid up at iHUB (I have lifetime at SI) - so hopefully I can reply and post more during future Happy Hours -- assuming I am not already pissed drunk at the time.

Much success, mon, on the forum.. Cheers mon!