Digitize Video Material

There are numerous ways to digitize your video material. This topic offers you some basic information and general advice. If you do not have many digitized videos, yet, this information can prevent you from making a mistake.

What setup suits you best, depends on your personal demands. Those demands can be based on:

oThe quality needed

oThe format created by your recording equipment

oThe amount of expected recording time

oThe available disc/storage space

oThe recording surroundings

oOr anything else that matters

Video DVD

Do NOT create VIDEO-DVD's - One of the biggest problems is caused by the default routines used in DVD creator applications. If you have digitized your video and need to save them on a DVD, do NOT create a 'Video DVD' but create a 'Data DVD' and copy the video files on to that!

The software creating a VIDEO-DVD converts your videos to *.VOB files and cuts your material into pieces, during the process - mixing up your session structure.

Example
Presume you have 3 half hour sessions saved in 3 separate video files. Burning them onto a video DVD most often results in any number of *.VOB files. In those VOB files, you can find for instance the last part of session 2 within the same VOB file as the beginning of session 3. The contents could only be properly read by a DVD player because it uses the index file that is created as well.

The Windows Media Player framework and therefore INTERACT, cannot make use of this index file. INTERACT can play the VOB files one by one, but only in combination with the commercial Elecard video codec.

Methods to Record or Digitize Videos

Today, most recording systems create digitized video material, but unfortunately, not all of them use a controllable video format. The moment you record a scene with more than one camera, synchronization becomes a real challenge, if you pick the wrong method or equipment. That is why we listed the most common issues and solutions right here:

Mangold VideoSyncPro for synchronized recordings - This professional recording system records up to 4 video streams simultaneously on a single recording station. Linking multiple recordings stations, result in an unlimited number of synchronized video streams that can be recorded. Visit our website for details or contact our sales team at sales@mangold-international.com.

HD camcorders - Modern camcorders usually record in AVC/AVCHD quality, resulting in *.MTS or *.M2TS video files using some implementation of the H.264 compression routine. Most of those videos can be played in INTERACT as they are, provided the correct video codec (CoreAVC) is installed. General Problem: Your recordings are automatically split in 2 Gb files, which is a problem for all longer sessions.

Digitize all recordings with an external encoder - Use an external box like the 'Pinnacle Movie Box' to transfer your videos to your hard disk - no matter if you use a miniDV camcorder or a modern disc-based camera. This ensures that all videos will have the same format, independent of the camera model AND enables you to bypass the 2 Gb File limit set in most cameras!
Most vendors change their compression routines from model to model, leaving you with a mixture of different types of video files. If you use a converter box, to save all your files, you can select a codec of your choice (best choice: xvid) and digitize all videos for one project into the same format - independent of the camera used for recording.

Test different codecs before digitizing all material - To spare yourself unnecessary frustrations, do some tests to determine the optimal quality/performance/size combination and test a sequence in INTERACT as well, checking the control functionality. Some Codecs promise high quality pictures at a very small size, but those Codecs require much CPU power during playback, which again requires powerful computers. Additionally, they codecs usually work with 'dropped frames' to catch up with reality. During playback they are simulating a constant frames per second value, which is never 100% accurate and therefore not suited for frame accurate analysis.

Digitize with the lowest possible frame rate - In most cases you do not need the full 30 (or 25) frames per second with which the video was taped. Reducing the frame rate to 15 fps will reduce the file size noticeably and (in case of software-based compression) can even prevent the dropped frame issue mentioned before.

Use a hardware encoder to digitize your videos -This is much faster than with software and also a lot safer, because performance problems on the computer do not result in 'dropped frames'. You cannot see this with the naked eye, but loosing 2 frames per second will result in a time difference of 40 seconds for a 10 minutes video sequence - if digitized with 30 frames per second.

Check the time information - As mentioned before, there are many video codecs available and not all of them are able to provide INTERACT with correct time information. Before you start coding (and best before you start digitizing all material), perform the steps as described in Accuracy Test for Multimedia control.

Software video conversion - Video files that are uncompressed or use an unknown or uncontrollable video format, can also be converted by software. One of the best tools for that is Xmedia-recode, which is freeware (www.xmedia-recode.de).
Our Mangold VideoConverterPro can be used to convert MPEG2, MOD and special *.H264 video files. It can also be used to join multiple video files into one file, during conversion. Many other tools (like Format Factory), install a bunch of codecs that ruin the codec setup on your system.

IMPORTANT: Make sure your system has sufficient resources to complete the conversion without the need of dropping frames. Certain activities, like a virus scan, can influence the conversion results.

Check codec information - If you suffer from a Codec related problem, follow the directions in Identify Video Codecs to identify the current situation. Based on that information, the correct codec can be found.