Flub-Free Home Videos Made Easy

I’m not likely to win any Oscars or Emmys, but I just created a pretty slick-looking home video using my PC, a camcorder, a videocassette recorder and VideoDirector Studio 200 from Pinnacle Systems.

The $299 VideoDirector Studio consists of software, a video mixer and a set of cables and controllers that allow you to connect a PC to a standard camcorder and videocassette deck to preview, transfer and edit videotapes.

You need a Windows-ready PC, a standard VCR and any 8-millimeter or VHS-C camcorder that has a LANC connector, five-pin Panasonic connector or infrared remote control.

In addition to editing and copying, the product can be used to add titles, transition sounds and other special effects, and capture still images from tape or a live camera. Although a far cry from a professional editing system, VideoDirector does let you add some pretty fancy effects: wipes, fades and dissolves between scenes, and transparent or solid titles that can fly into or out of a scene from just about any angle.

In addition to the sound on your source tape, you can add audio from MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) files, wave files or an audio CD. Of course, I didn’t use any copyrighted songs from a CD on my tape, lest I get into a legal battle when my home video is accepted as the “Movie of the Week.”

Installation is easy. The external video mixer, about the size of a small paperback book, plugs into your PC’s parallel port. The SmartCable that controls the tape position on the camcorder and VCR connects to the PC’s serial port.

The only hassle, for most users, is that it’s not that common to have your PC in the same room as your VCR and TV. Because it doesn’t take up any slots, though, the product works on notebook PCs too.

Although it can be used to capture still-frame images from your source tape, VideoDirector does not transfer moving video images to your PC’s hard disk. For that, you need a video capture card such as the ATI All-in-Wonder card or the soon-to-be-released Buzz Box from Iomega.

Instead, the VideoDirector turns the PC into a smart controller, which copies selected video segments from one recorder to another, a process known as linear editing. Besides, storing video on a PC’s hard disk takes up an enormous amount of space--at least 2 gigabytes per half an hour when compressed to slightly lower than VHS quality.

Creating a tape is a three-step process. First, you insert a source tape into the camcorder and allow the program to log the tape. It does this by playing the entire tape once and automatically breaking it into scenes or segments, guessing where one scene ends and another begins by sensing a change in the amount of light on the image. This is far from foolproof, but you can always go back and manually edit scenes.

At each scene change, the software marks the beginning and ending time of the sequence and displays a still picture of the first frame of that scene. You can also give each scene a name and description.

The next step is to put together your video by selecting the scenes you wish to include by dragging them, in any order, to a storyboard. Next, you add special titles, special effects, music and transitions between scenes. When you’re done, the storyboard will show the first frame of each scene as well as representations of special effects between scenes.

The final step is to put a blank videotape in the target VCR and wait while the system automatically locates scenes on the camcorder’s source tape, transfers them to the VCR and adds special effects when necessary. The SmartCable controls both tape decks so you don’t have to touch the controls. The process can take awhile, but you don’t have to hang around unless you need to change source tapes.

My final result, though far from professional, was a relatively smoothly edited tape without any pictures of the floor, the inside of my camera bag, Aunt Linda blowing her nose or any of the other flubs that typically plague unedited home videos.

Proud as I am of my family home video, it’s nowhere near broadcast quality. For that, you need some pretty fancy equipment, not to mention talent. But professional editing equipment also is coming down in price, thanks to PCs and some innovative companies.

Play Inc. of Rancho Cordova, Calif., for example, plans to start shipping a $4,995 professional editing system that could almost be described as a TV studio in a box. Its Trinity system is capable of simultaneously handling up to eight input sources, including tape decks and live cameras.

The 17.5-by-25.5-by-19-inch box plugs into the PCI port of a Pentium-based Windows PC. It supports switching, character generation, virtual sets, still stores and includes a paint, animation and compositing tool. The basic system can be used for tape-to-tape linear editing, but for an additional $6,000, you can purchase a storage system that will allow you to do nonlinear disk-based editing of up to half an hour of video.

I saw the system used last month at PC Expo in New York to control a live TV program featuring “Computer Chronicles” host Stewart Cheifet. The program used three mounted cameras, a roving camera and live screen shots from a PC. It was directed and engineered by one person, who controlled the entire show from his PC’s keyboard.

The system, which is far cheaper and more portable than a room full of specialized video production tools, did a great job on the live broadcast, and it can also be used for post-production work where a variety of input sources are used to create a final program. The system, according to company spokesperson Racine Mason, is suitable for TV networks and other broadcast professionals but also is being targeted at small and medium-sized companies that need professional-quality training and marketing tapes.

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Lawrence J. Magid can be reached via e-mail at magid@latimes.com. His World Wide Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com