Advanced Computer Video Editing

History
The term "Non-Linear Editing" (NLE) basically encompasses any video editing technique where your pictures and sound are stored on "random access" media, such as a computer's hard drive or one of the new high capacity solid state memory cards. For almost 90 years before NLE was invented, the only way to edit movies or television was to fast forward and rewind, to 'jog' and 'shuttle' through reels of 'linear' (tape or film) media, to painstakingly find the starting and ending points of shots and scenes.

Traditional film and video editing was done in darkened suites by extremely patient people with years of training and experience. They worked carefully and methodically in front of flickering screens, always aware that a mistake could mean starting all over and going through the entire arduous process again.

Starting around 1990, technology advances reached the point where 'Desktop Non-Linear Video Editing' became possible, although not yet affordable for hobbyists. At the time, no IBM PC computer had anywhere near the power to be used, so the first computer NLE systems were built using the Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga.

In the late 1990's several techological innovations at last brought video editing within the reach of home computer users.

SIDEBAR: The Amiga desktop computer was released in 1985. It was a highly advanced system that included ideas and concepts only just making their way into other PC's today. Unfortunately, the Amiga was mismanaged and badly marketed to the point where the company when out of business by the mid 1990's, leaving the Mac and PC to battle it out for leadership. Many believe that had the Amiga survived, competitive forces would have pushed our modern PC's 5 years farther ahead. Alas, it was not to be.

Advances in compression techniques and the development of the DV format for consumer video cameras brought good quality digital video down to desktop computer size. Apple's FireWire serial bus (IEEE-1394) made real-time transfer of DV video/audio possible. And the technology of IBM PC computers finally caught up to a point where they could compete with Macs in the desktop video arena. In 1999 Apple released for the Macintosh the first version of the NLE software called 'Final Cut Pro'. FCP has evolved and developed over the years to become a leader in desktop video editing, even being used for major Hollywood movies.

Now, as we near the end of the first decade of a new century and new millennium, we can seriously talk about editing High Definition wide-screen video on our home computers, either Mac or PC. Desktop HD has been made practical through further developments in compression such as HDV and the newer AVCHD. With HD camcorders now entering consumer price range, the power to create high quality movies is become ever more reachable. The next young Steven Spielberg could be a serious teenager using the family HDV camcorder and editing in his or her bedroom.

Resources
If you are interested in editing High Definition video on your home computer, the first thing to consider is that you will need a new (or almost new) computer with as much processing power, RAM memory, hard drive space, and the best video subsystem available within your budget. Be wary of the "minimum system requirements" you see listed on the sides of boxes. The information is generally valid, but going with the minimum can result in instability (especially on a PC) and extremely slow operation.

Microsoft's Utopian Vision
Microsoft Windows for the IBM PC started out as an Operating System (OS). It was fairly small and efficient, and performed the core functions of an OS; to provide a user interface and control programs for attached peripherals and storage devices. The original Windows graphical interface was strongly influenced by the Apple Macintosh OS pioneered in the 1980's. The Apple Macintosh OS was patterned after a revolutionary iconic Graphical User Interface system created at the Xerox PARC laboratory in 1975.

While other Operating Systems (such as Linux) have generally remained small and resource efficient, Microsoft has chosen the opposite path in an attempt to incorporate as many high level functions and utilities into Windows as possible. This "all things to all people" approach has led to each successive release of Windows becoming larger and more resource hungry. Microsoft argues that the marginal cost of computer resources (processor power, RAM memory, bus designs, and hard drive storage) has come down so fast that the Total Cost of Ownership of Windows has reduced even as it's power has increased. That may well be true, but the result for PC owners is that, essentially, in order to maintain the same level of performance you must buy a new computer every time a new version of Windows is released. That may be acceptable for large businesses, but for home computer owners it can be difficult or impossible. As a result, large numbers of PC owners stay at least one Windows release behind as long as possible in order to be able to continue to use their older hardware. Microsoft tries to discourage this by encouraging software publishers to make their updates and new releases only compatible with the newest version of Windows.

The bottom line on computing resources is that if you own a PC and want to run Windows Vista, you are going to need 1 gigabyte of RAM to efficiently run Vista alone. If you intend to edit HDV (the newer compressed High Definition Video format) on the PC you are going to need at least another gigabyte of RAM. In addition, the computer will need the latest multi-core processor (or more than one CPU).

This is not intended as a criticism of Microsoft; their products; or their tactics. It is simply a statement of things as they are. If your PC computer is three years old running Windows XP, you may be able to successfully edit HDV, but you may not be able to see real-time previews and you may have long waits during certain operations. On the other hand, if you are not interested in making the jump to HD just yet, an older computer running Windows XP works just fine for editing SD (Standard Definition video).

The Hardware Decision
If you need to edit High Definition video on your PC, you need a new computer with as many internal resources as you can afford. If video editing is your primary activity, or if it is a very important part of your computer usage, you should consider making the leap and getting a Mac. It may be a difficult decision, because the Mac platform no longer has the clear technology advantage it once did. Both platforms have their ardent proponents who will happily extoll the virtues of their choice (generally while condemning the other). In reality either will do a terrific job. The Mac does have a greater acceptance among professional editors and independent film producers, and therefore some of the higher end software becomes available for Mac first. On the other hand, powerful hardware add-ons are available for PC such as the Canopus/Grass Valley DVStorm cards (packaged with the Edius NX Express system, featured below).

What is Advanced?
As time passes and technology develops, whole categories of powers and abilities pass from being reserved for "advanced only" into the realm of affordable consumer hardware and software techniques. Recently, multi-track video editing timelines were in the arena of professional hardware/software only. Now, even most software selling for less than $100 and designed for home computers often supports adding two or more stacked video tracks that can be switched, keyed, or blended in ways limited only by your own creativity. One limitation that remains for all but the most powerful home computers is the need to 'render' transitions and many special effects before they can be viewed in real time. Rendering is a process where a complex effect is made into a computer file in a format such as AVI so it can be played on the timeline at speed. Many effects and transitions are too mathematically complicated and memory intensive for a single processor PC to create on-the-fly at 29.97 frames per second, so the only way to preview them in real-time is to render those sections into files. Certain hardware add-in cards such as the Edius NX Express system (or it's older brother the Canopus DVStorm system) permit most transitions to be previewed without rendering, but it is unrealistic to expect complex multi-track High Definition effects to be instantly viewable unless your computer is a server class multiprocessor workstation specifically built for the task.

The most advanced color correction and sound sweetening tools tend to be reserved for the higher end software, but that is probably market driven, since average consumers are generally not interested in learning the deeper complexities of those tools. Still, with every generation the capabilities of consumer NLE software improve and the line between beginning and advanced continues to blur.

Recommended for PC/Windows: Grass Valley Edius NX Express High Definition Video Editing Hardware/Software (formerly from Canopus) View or Buy at Amazon.com: Edius Nx Pci Express INCLUDES Grass Valley EDIUS Pro 4 NLE Software for Editing DV, HDV, HD Let the groundbreaking Grass Valley EDIUS NX Express take you to the world of high definition video production. Use any mix of HD and SD video content; work with unlimited video, audio, title and graphics layers and any combination of realtime effects; and, most importantly, preview your work in progress in high-quality, full resolution — in realtime — on the type of video monitor on which it is intended to be displayed — even HDTV. Many of the HDV editing systems currently available compromise video quality in order to provide realtime editing functionality. Grass Valley EDIUS NX Express delivers genuine realtime HD resolution editing including full quality, full frame rate HD output — to an HD video monitor — from the timeline. Two important workflow benefits are derived from a genuine realtime HDV editing system like EDIUS NX Express: No rendering is required to preview edited sequences; results are displayed instantaneously — on HD video monitors. The original video and audio data can be preserved at every step of the editing process. You can always be assured that the format you start with is exactly what will be delivered. This eliminates any guesswork when applying the multitude of realtime effects featured with the system. EDIUS NX Express: Key Features Realtime mixed format editing of HD, HDV, DV, MPEG-2, uncompressed and lossless video with Grass Valley EDIUS Pro editing software Realtime HD/SD resolution conversion and output Realtime aspect ratio conversion and output, including 16:9-4:3 Realtime frame rate conversion and output, including NTSC-PAL Realtime HD/SD effects, keyers, transitions and titles High-quality proprietary software codecs, including the award-winning Canopus HQ codec High-speed, hardware-based SD MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 timeline export High-quality analog and digital inputs/outputs for DV, S-Video, composite video and unbalanced audio Hardware-based video overlay design for accelerated HD/SD editing Realtime, full resolution, full quality component HD and SD video output Filtering and noise reduction technology for analog input Bidirectional analog/DV conversion (ADVC technology), available from within any Windows-based NLE software Direct-to-DVD timeline export Optional* video I/O modules available for XDCAM, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, P2 and VariCam Future-proof codec and performance scalability Capture/video output plug-in for Adobe® Premiere® Pro v1.x** and video output plug-ins for Adobe After Effects® and Adobe Photoshop® 64-bit PCI-X version available: Ask your Dealer or Canopus Representative for details 3-year limited warranty on hardware; 90-day limited warranty on software EDIUS NX Express: Specifications Package Contents: EDIUS NX Express (NHX-E2) PCI Express x1 bus card HD/SD component output and SD MPEG-2/MPEG-4 encoder PCI Express x1 bus card 1 x FireWire cable (4-pin – 4-pin) 1 x board connection cable EDIUS software installation DVD-ROM (includes bonus utilities and sample content) EDIUS Pro USB dongle EDIUS Pro user manual Video Formats (Capture) Canopus DV - 720x480/59.94i (NTSC), 720x576/50i (PAL) YUY2 (Uncompressed) - 720x486/59.94i (NTSC), 720x576/50i (PAL) Canopus Lossless - 720x486/59.94i (NTSC), 720x576/50i (PAL) HDV/Canopus HQ - 1080/59.94i (NTSC), 1080/50i (PAL), 1080/30p (NTSC), 1080/25p (PAL), 1080/24p, 720/30p (NTSC), 720/25p (PAL), 720/24p, 720x480/60p (NTSC), 720x576/25p (PAL), 720x576/50p (PAL) Video Formats (Output) DV/DVCAM - 720x480/59.94i (NTSC), 720x576/50i (PAL) HDV - 1080/59.94i (NTSC), 1080/50i (PAL), 1080/30p (NTSC), 1080/25p (PAL), 1080/24p, 720/30p (NTSC), 720/25p (PAL), 720/24p, 720x480/60p (NTSC), 720x576/25p (PAL), 720x576/50p (PAL) S-Video, composite - 720x480/59.94i (NTSC), 720x576/50i (PAL) BNC component - 1080/59.94i (NTSC), 1080/50i (PAL), 720x480/59.94i (NTSC), 720x576/50i (PAL) Digital Video Input/Output 1 x 4-pin FireWire 1 x 6-pin FireWire Analog Video Input/Output 1 x S-Video and composite combined (7-pin miniDIN) input 1 x S-Video and composite combined (7-pin miniDIN) output 1 x component (BNC Y, Pb, Pr) output Analog Audio Input/Output 1 x stereo (3.5mm, unbalanced) input 1 x stereo (3.5mm, unbalanced) output 1 x stereo (RCA, unbalanced) output MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Export Video Resolutions MPEG-2: 720x480, 720x576, 704x480, 640x480, 480x480, 352x480, 352x576, 352x240, 352x288, 320x480, 320x240, 176x120 MPEG-4: 720x480, 720x576, 704x480, 640x480, 480x480, 352x480, 352x576, 352x240, 320x240, 176x120 MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Export Video Frame Rate MPEG-2: 29.97fps (NTSC), 25fps (PAL) MPEG-4: 15fps (NTSC), 30fps (NTSC), 25fps (PAL) MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Export Video Compression MPEG-2: (ISO/IEC 13818-2) Main Profile @ Main Level (I, B, P frames) I-frame support only MPEG-4: (ISO/IEC 14496-14) MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Export Video Bitrate MPEG-2: 128kbps - 15Mbps MPEG-4: 32kbps - 8Mbps Variable (one-pass) and Constant Bitrate support MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Export Audio Sampling Rates MPEG-2: 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz MPEG-4: 24kHz, 48kHz MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Export Audio Compression MPEG-2: MPEG-1 Layer 2 MPEG-4: AAC MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Export Audio Bitrates MPEG-2: 96 to 384kbps MPEG-4: 32, 48, 64, 96, 128, 144, 182, 224, 256, 288kbps Minimum System Requirements EDIUS NX Express is capable of editing both SD and HD content in realtime, however the system requirements for realtime HD editing are significantly higher than for SD editing. The requirements shown here are for realtime HD editing. Intel® Pentium® D 3.0GHz or higher (Multi-processor and Hyper-threading technology supported) 1GB RAM Two free PCI Express x1 slots 800MB free disk space DVD-ROM drive for software installation ATA100/7200rpm or faster hard disk, capable of sustaining at least 20MB/sec data transfer. A RAID stripe set of two or more hard disk drives is required for multiple HD stream output Graphics card with at least 128MB of video RAM and hardware-based DirectDraw overlay and 32-bit color display at a 1024x768 resolution One free 5.25-inch mounting bay Windows® XP Home or Windows® XP Professional (Service Pack 2 or later) DirectX 9.0 or later Soundcard

Recommended for MAC: Apple Final Cut Studio 2 (Includes Final Cut Pro v6) View or Buy at Amazon.com: Apple Final Cut Studio 2 (Mac) The Editor's Choice Final Cut Studio 2 is fast, fluid, and flexible. Use a laptop on location and a desktop in the studio. Start with the tools you already use today and extend your reach when you're ready. Final Cut Studio 2 has everything you need in a single product. Edit. Use Final Cut Pro 6 for native editing of virtually any format--from DV and SD up to HDV, XDCAM HD, DVCPRO HD, and fully uncompressed HD. Or use ProRes 422, a new post-production format from Apple that offers uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes. Drag clips with different formats and even different frame rates into the new open format Timeline. Animate. Create stunning 2D and 3D motion graphics in real time with Motion 3, the fastest and most intuitive way to animate and express your creative vision. Just drag and drop to make dramatic particle effects explode into 3D space; form vector-based paint strokes with the swish of a pen. New Motion master templates let you edit text and drop in video without leaving Final Cut Pro. Mix. Record and edit dialogue, add music and effects, and complete your mix with ease. Soundtrack Pro 2 lets you work faster than ever in its new streamlined interface. You can even produce in surround sound using innovative visual tools. If you make changes to your edit in Final Cut Pro, you can rapidly update your audio mix with the powerful Conform feature in Soundtrack Pro. Grade. Give your production a signature look or create a consistent feel for shots from different sources. Color is the newest member of the Final Cut Studio family, offering professional color grading that can elevate the quality of any production. Deliver. Use Compressor 3 to create pristine-quality output for a wide range of delivery formats--including the web, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, and broadcast servers. A streamlined new interface lets you batch-process encoding with point-and-click ease. If film is your destination, use Cinema Tools 4 to output film lists that combine timecode and keycode in a single list. Or use DVD Studio Pro 4 for professional DVD authoring and mastering. The first choice of professional editors worldwide, Final Cut Pro 6 delivers high-performance digital nonlinear editing, native support for virtually any video format, and facility-class extensibility and interoperability. Its workflow extends through the other Final Cut Studio applications and Final Cut Server for even more power. Whether you’re working solo or collaborating with a team, Final Cut Pro gives you more creative options and technical control than ever before. Broad Format Support With native support for virtually any format, Final Cut Pro lets you edit everything from uncompressed SD to HDV, DVCPRO HD, and uncompressed HD — as well as Panasonic P2 and Sony XDCAM HD tapeless formats. Or use ProRes 422, a new post-production format from Apple that offers uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes. Mix and match a wide range of formats and even frame rates in the open format Timeline. If you edit film, use the redesigned interface in Cinema Tools 4 to work faster than ever, with customizable lists that let you combine timecode and keycode in a single document. Incredible Real-Time Effects Final Cut Pro is built for speed. RT Extreme delivers real-time performance for more than 150 filters and effects as well as for multistream video. Dynamic RT adjusts image quality and frame rate on the fly for optimal playback on any system. Use the SmoothCam feature to automatically stabilize shaky shots while preserving standard camera moves. Easily swap out video clips and edit text in motion graphics without leaving Final Cut Pro, using editable Motion 3 master templates. Comprehensive Editing Tools A complete set of professional editing and trimming tools lets you work quickly, while a full range of customization options gives you flexibility and control. Use powerful multicamera editing tools to view and cut video from multiple sources in real time. Mix up to 24 channels of audio with the onscreen mixer or use a Mackie Control Protocol device with faders. When you’re finished, output frame-accurate video at stunning quality. The Hub of Final Cut Studio Final Cut Pro 6 extends its capabilities through the other applications in Final Cut Studio 2. Send your project to Color for professional color grading, complete with sequence metadata from Final Cut Pro. Use the new Conform feature in Soundtrack Pro to automatically update your audio project to match your video edit after you make changes in Final Cut Pro. You can also send files round-trip between Motion and Final Cut Pro. When you save a change in Motion, the update appears in Final Cut Pro. Send files to Compressor for batch processing and output to multiple formats, all at pristine quality. Or send your Final Cut Pro project to DVD Studio Pro along with chapter markers from your edit. In larger workgroups, multiple Final Cut Pro editors can share media using a consolidated storage pool powered by Xsan. For deeper workgroup support, Final Cut Server — with or without Xsan — offers powerful media asset management and workflow automation that is closely integrated with Final Cut Studio. Open, Extensible Architecture Open standards such as QuickTime and FxPlug encourage interoperability with a host of third-party tools. Build a custom facilitywide solution around Final Cut Pro using its open, standards-based XML interchange format.