Makin' a video cd

[Digital Aura]

Okay. Now that I'm a pro (cough* cough*):p I'd like to make a video cd. My wife and I will be travelling to Russia in 2 months to adopt and I'd like to be able to use my A70 to capture both pictures and videos to chronicle the whole event.
What program will incorporate video, pictures, music and text into a presentation that can be played on my DVD player (which plays VCDs too).
Here's what I have: Windows XP Home, Paintshop Pro, CD-RW, Canon A70, Korg Trinity (for composing music).

- Digital Aura :)

[stopbath]

The A70 makes a poor excuse for a real video camera. At most it make video snap shots. There is no continuous adjustment for exposure, focus or white balance once the shot starts. Plus there is a limit on the time (30 seconds maximum for 640 resolution)

Since you're documenting a once in a lifetime event, you might want to consider purchasing a real video camera, and using that instead of stringing together a lot of moving snapshots.

The resulting video will likely be much more rewarding than what the A70 can provide.

Being that, the A70 comes with bundled software that can be used to compile movie clips from the A70 (though I haven't used it out yet...)

[BroHogan]

While I would agree in principle with "stopbath’s" comment, I wouldn’t want you to be discouraged. I have put together some very enjoyable movies that I have taken with my S230 - both in 640x480 and even 320x240 res. Personally, I enjoy working with the 30 second clips. They really get you involved in every second of the movie and they are fun (in a strange way) to put together and edit. It is true that the exposure, focus, etc. is set only at the beginning of the shot, however, I have not felt it to be a problem. In fact, you can make exposure adjustments to the clip or sections of the clip using the video editing software.

I have been using Ulead Video Studio 7 and am pretty satisfied with it. You add in all your clips, arrange and edit them, add music, narration, and stills and then burn either a VCD or an SVCD which looks pretty good when played though your DVD player.

Have a great trip and congratulations.

[Digital Aura]

PERFECT! Thx Bro....exactly what I was lookin' for!
Stopbath is correct in that the A70 is no substitute for a video camera, but my intent was not to shoot a movie, but to capture just the more interesting "blurps" - say a 20 second candid moment where my wife gets to hold the baby or in passing the Kremlin in the bustling streets of Tverskaya Ulitsa or sneaking a quick video pan of the Pushkin monument.... you know.
I want the rest of my memories to be like snapshots. I chose the A70 for its ability to capture those moments in all their glorious "roughness".
I'll try that program BroHogan...its just what I was looking for!
Thanks again.

- Digital Aura

[Conk]

Congrats Digital and I hope to see the results here when you return. God Bless.

[matrad]

use pinnacle studio 7 or 8

[Digital Aura]

Thanks Conk.
I will - but don't be too harsh...Im new to this photography stuff!

hehehe :p

I'll have a look at that one Matrad!

- Digital Aura

[michelle]

If you use Windows XP doesn't it have built in software to make movies? I have used the Movie Maker in XP to splice my video clips together with music etc, but I do not know how to copy it to a disk. When I hit the Copy tab it seems to be copying to a CD but when I play it, I just get the music and no picture. My laptop has a CD burner that plays DVD's. Do I need to go to another software to get the movie onto a disk? Thanks and sorry for highjacking this thread.

[Digital Aura]

Michelle,

I also tried the Windows XP Movie Maker. I found that it took me less than an hour to string together some mpeg files, photos and a sweet backing soundtrack (mp3) to make a GREAT!! movie that had transitions and cool effects to make even George Lucas green with envy (what! It could happen!).
I was disappointed though that I couldn't play it with Windows Media Player or anything and the resolution was terrible!!! Couldn't watch it fullscreen -- it was really BAD! I wanted something on VCD so I could see CRISP photos on my TV as they should be!
Perhaps I never played with it enough; It was cool for small videos but what good is that?

- Digital Aura :p

[cA70]

stopbath: doesn't VCD get resized down to 355x something. So the size is fine. But i agree with the quality of the video taking. Its just locking the exposure that is really anoying to me.

The bundeled software that comes with i don't use anymore. I now use Adobe Premiere for editing videos, its alot more complicated but the results are alot better.

All the standard software can do it just cut n paste clips together and put transitions between them. If thats all your after then go for it.

I agree with all the comments on "just for short clips" thats all the camera's good for. Like on the weekend, we went down really steep slops on kids toys, good for a laugh.

As for the VCD, i use Nero 5. Rather than burn it all in just one clip, this alows you to put alot of smaller clips on it and u can skip over them like a music cd, hence the V!cd. The other program's might and most probally do that aswel, just haven't tried it myself.

[quriousman]

I've tried to convert the Canon IXUS II AVI (MJpeg) to MPEG1/VCD file format using TmpGenc.
Adjust the resolution to PAL -> 352x288 res, 25fps, keep aspect ratio, etc. And it worked well.
But the problem is that the sound of the movie sounds distorted, it had a high pitch sound.
Is it because the frame rate conversion effect ?
How can I keep the quality of the original movie sound ?

Thanks!

[atotos]

I did some video editing several years ago with Ulead Media Studio Pro 5.2 and it was quite a good software that allows you ample possibilities. The audio editor was pretty good too.

I recently tried pinnacle studio 8 trial version, but I remember MSP as being easier to use. It's a question of tastes, so I think I'll soon download a MSP trial version and see which one I prefer.