Ulead Learning Center - General Video Info - Getting Video Into My Computer

Home > Support > Learning Center > General Video Info

General Video Info

| Page 1 2 3

Getting Video Into My Computer

Reference

Installing a Video Card into Your Computer The computer manufacturer can either pre-install a video capture card into your computer or you can buy and install one yourself. Some of them even double as a display card that sends the video signal from your computer to your monitor.
Installing a video card into your machine might seem scary but it's quite easy. It often involves taking off the computer's cover, finding the right socket to push the card into (visually illustrated on the included instructions), and possibly hooking up a cable for audio. That's it! The more difficult part most often is installing the software driver from the included CD to make sure the capture card works correctly. These issues can easily be resolved by talking to the hardware manufacturers technical support department.

Connecting to Existing Ports
Some video capture cards are actually external boxes or devices that hook up to a port on the back of your computer. These could include a USB connection, a 1394 connection or a Serial Port connection. Installation of these cards is very straightforward. Be aware that although these external devices are convenient, sometimes they offer lower video quality compared to what you would get from an internal video capture card.

Digital Formats
A digital video format is simply video that has been brought into your computer and converted into a file type that the computer can read. With analog capture devices, there are a couple of different file formats that are created. Most companies that make such cards will create their own proprietary file format. It is good to know the specifications of your particular capture card's format, such as frame size, frame rate, data rate, etc. This will better help you match those specifications when you are making decisions in buying a video editing program.

For example, if your video capture card can capture video at 352 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, then it would not be a good choice to try to convert your video to 720x480 pixels (this is what the DV format uses). The video quality would be poor because you start out with a smaller video frame.

Some of the digital video formats are:

AVI	A Microsoft video standard	For all types of uses
MOV	A Macintosh video standard	For all types of uses
DV (AVI or MOV)	A strict standard that is found in DV camcorders and will work with 1394 devices	For high-quality playback and for going back to DV and D8 camcorder tape.
MPEG-1	A VHS-type quality format that has very small file sizes	Great for Powerpoint, high-bandwidth e-mail and Video CDs (VCD)
MPEG-2	A DVD-type quality format that has very small file sizes	Used to make high-quality DVD videos (special software is needed to play these files on a computer)

DVD/VCD Discs
A DVD, just like the one's you rent from your favorite Hollywood video store, can now be made by anyone thanks to hardware manufacturers like Pioneer, Panasonic and Hewlett Packard. DVD burning drives can now be bought for around $55. Not interested in spending that much? There are two other media disc types that you can make that act just like a DVD. Those are called VCDs (Video CDs) and SVCD (Super Video CDs). You can make these two types of discs easily with your CD recordable burning drive which costs around $22. You need software especially designed for DVD authoring to put your video on these discs.

For a more detailed discussion on the differences between these three formats, check out Intro to Video CD Authoring

| Page 1 2 3