Video Digitizing

1. Connect the appropriate device (VCR, DVD, LD player) to its corresponding ADVC-100 capture box. For PAL films, the top Pioneer VCR and Jaton DVD player automatically convert signals to NTSC so digitizing them is no different than regular films.
   
   
2. Switch to the computer that the box's firewire cable connects to.
   
   
3. Start EditStudio 3.
   
   
4. Select the "Capture" icon on the left
   
   
5. Click the "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR" check box on the right side of the screen.
   
   
6. Click the "Options" button on the right, change the destination directory to the appropriate Captured location.
   
   Computer 2: C:\EditStudio 3 Captured (Never changes)
   Computer 3: D:\Captured
   
   Also check to see if there are any limits on timing under the "Limits" tab and adjust them or turn them off as necessary.
   
   The printed film time on movie boxes generally refers only to the movie and and not the commercials, logos, or warnings, so remember to add a few minutes to the printed time just in case, especially for foreign films. (about 10-15 minutes works well)
   
   It's easier to chop off an extra minute with VirtualDub than to redigitize an entire 2hr+ movie.
   
   
7. Hit play on the player and click record in EditStudio. Check the audio-meters to make sure you are getting sound with the video and that it is in stereo. If you didn't set a limit, you'll just need to hit the same button again when the movie is finished to stop capturing.
   
   

1. If you added some extra time to the movie and now it has a lot of black or DVD menu before starting or after credits, it's really easy to fix. Start Virtual Dub and open up the *.avi file you want to encode.
   
   
2. Now move the video slider to where you want the movie to begin and click the black half-arrow facing left (Inpoint marker). It is one of the two right-most buttons at the bottom of the screen. Then move the slider to where you want the movie to end and click the right-facing one (Outpoint marker). The area between where you clicked on the slider should turn dark blue.
   
   
3. Go to Options>Performance and turn all the settings to their maximum.
   
   
4. Go to Video>Filters. Add resize. The dimensions should be 360x240. Filter mode should be Precise Bicubic (A=-1.00).
   
   
5. Go to File>Start Frame Server. Use the default name for the frameserver if you like - it doesn't matter, and press start. Save the file as "frame.avi". There should already be a file by that name in the Captured directory, so just type "f" in the box and you can scroll down to it.
   
   For movies significantly over 2 hours:
   
   
6. Pick a scene in the middle that you would like to split the movie after.
   
   
7. Adjust the slider to the last frame of the scene, using the left and right arrow buttons on the keyboard to move frame-by-frame. Set that as the Outpoint. Proceed to Part 2 to encode the first part as normal. When it is finished, use the keyboard to move the slider one frame forward to the beginning of the next scene and set that as the Inpoint. Mark the end of the film as the Outpoint and continue on to Part 2 to finish the encoding of the remainder of the film.

1. Start RealProducer. The input should already be set to "frame.avi", but if it isn't, just select it from the Captured directory. Set the output filename to the movie's name, and that should be set to the Encoded directory.
   
   Computer 2: C:\EditStudio 3 Captured (Never changes)
   Computer 3: E:\Encoded
   
   Fill in the appropriate movie information. Author should be the film's director. Then, check the Audience boxes for"Corporate LAN", "384K DSL/Cable Modem", and "512K DSL/Cable Modem". Audio format for movies should be "Voice with background music", and Video Quality should be "Normal motion video".
   
   
2. Click start and wait to finish.

Updated: 03/23/2005 - Jacob Grabczewski