Learning Resources

Analog and Digital Video

Assigned Activities Step 1

Video Production

• Pre-stripe the video tape.  Blank video tape has no control track, so there is no way for the camcorder to easily find clips if they are separated on the tape.  Striping means recording on the tape using a test pattern, or nothing at all.  To do that, put a blank tape in the camera, put it in VCR mode and record without anything connected to it.  This puts a black 'image' on the tape, but more importantly puts a control track on the tape.
• Record video clips. Using the camcorder, shoot half a dozen or so short (less than two minute) video clips, leaving a minute of so blank space between clips.
• Connect camcorder.  Connect the camcorder to the Dazzle video capture unit
• Setup Moviestar.  Open Moviestar.  See the Moviestar image for program features on the Moviestar screen. 
  • Select Multimedia Web project.  This will set the capture, editing, and rendering parameters so that the video is appropriate for use on the web.
  • Click on the Capture button (top left corner)
  • Set the Video Device to DVC80, if not already selected
  • Change the File Location to a folder in your documents folder
  • The Resolution was pre-set when you selected Web format
  • If you wish, you can play a clip, and while watching it in the window, set the Select A/V Property options
• Capture the video.  Using Moviestar, capture the video clips to the computer.  Be sure to record some of the blank space before and after the clip.  Save them in the default location, or create a new folder. 
  • You will need to manually control the camcorder.  The camcorder controls below the video window only work with digital video cameras connected via FireWire
  • Using the camcorder controls, queue up the video to a point in the blank space before the clip, click on the Record button (its the right one) in Moviestar, and then press play on the camcorder.  Press Stop (its the left one) when you are done

Clips are saved automatically with filenames capture0001, and so on.

Note:  You can capture live video this way as well, and you can record from a VCR, or any other video device that puts out a composite video signal, or S-Video signal.