To add full-screen, full-motion video to your multimedia project, you will need to invest in specialized hardware and software or purchase the services of a professional video production studio. In many cases, a professional studio will also provide editing tools and post-production capabilities that you cannot duplicate with your Macintosh or PC.
Video Tips
A useful tool easily implemented in most digital video editing applications is “blue screen,” “Ultimate,” or “chromo key” editing. Blue screen is a popular technique for making multimedia titles because expensive sets are not required. Incredible backgrounds can be generated using 3-D modeling and graphic software, and one or more actors, vehicles, or other objects can be neatly layered onto that background.
Applications such as VideoShop, Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and iMovie provide this capability.
Recording Formats
S-VHS video
In S-VHS video, color and luminance information are kept on two separate tracks. The result is a definite improvement in picture quality. This standard is also used in Hi-8. still, if your ultimate goal is to have your project accepted by broadcast stations, this would not be the best choice.
Component (YUV)
In the early 1980s, Sony began to experiment with a new portable professional video format based on Betamax. Panasonic has developed their own standard based on a similar technology, called “MII,” Betacam SP has become the industry standard for professional video field recording. This format may soon be eclipsed by a new digital version called “Digital Betacam.”
Digital Video
Full integration of motion video on computers eliminates the analog television form of video from the multimedia delivery platform. If a video clip is stored as data on a hard disk, CD-ROM, or other mass-storage device, that clip can be played back on the computer’s monitor without overlay boards, video disk players, or second monitors. This playback of digital video is accomplished using software architecture such as QuickTime or AVI, a multimedia producer or developer; you may need to convert video source material from its still common analog form (videotape) to a digital form manageable by the end user’s computer system. So an understanding of analog video and some special hardware must remain in your multimedia toolbox.
Analog to digital conversion of video can be accomplished using the video overlay hardware described above, or it can be delivered direct to disk using FireWire cables. To repetitively digitize a full-screen color video image every 1/30 second and store it to disk or RAM severely taxes both Macintosh and PC processing capabilities–special hardware, compression firmware, and massive amounts of digital storage space are required.
