Windows XP [Electronic resources] : Visual Quickstart Guide, Second Edition نسخه متنی

Capturing and Importing Content

You edit and create movies with Movie Maker by using footage transferred from camera to computer.

Capturing is the process of recording audio and video as digital data in a file.

Tip

Captured and imported content appears in the My Videos folder inside your My Documents folder. My Videos also contains sample video files that you can practice on. To view My Videos, choose View > My Videos Folder.

To capture video:

1. Connect your camera to your computer (see the sidebar in this section).

2. Choose File > Capture Video (or press Ctrl+R).

or

In the Movie Tasks pane, below Capture Video, click Capture from Video Device.

3. Follow the onscreen instructions in the Video Capture Wizard.

The wizard lets you choose a capture device, specify video settings, and select a capture method (Figures 11.2 and

11.3 ). You can capture:

The entire video from a tape in a DV camera

Parts of video from a tape in a DV camera

Video from tape in an analog camera or VCR

Live video

Movie Maker imports the captured content into a new collection with the same name as the specified video file.

Tips

For help choosing video settings, choose Help > Help Topics > Index tab; type the keyword

video; then double-click the Capturing subtopic.

Copy-protected tapes may show up as onscreen garbage.

Your movie can combine footage that you've captured from your video camera with audio clips, still photos, and other video files that you've downloaded from the internet, copied from CDs, transferred from a digital camera, or scanned into your computer.

To import existing pictures, sounds, and video:

1. Choose File > Import into Collections (or press Ctrl+I).

or

In the Movie Tasks pane, below Capture Video, click one of the Import links.

2. In the Import File dialog box, locate the file that you want to import. You can import these types of files:

Audio and music files: .aif, .aifc, .aiff, .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav, .wma

Picture files: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, .wmf

Video files: .asf, .avi, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, .wmv

For a description of each file type, go to http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316992, "Windows Media Player Multimedia File Formats."

3. If you're importing a video file, check Create Clips for Video Files to have Movie Maker separate the video automatically into smaller, more manageable clips. Or uncheck the box to import the video as one whole clip.

4. Click Import.

Tips

When you capture or import a file, a new clip appears in the Contents pane (Figure 11.4 ).

If you create clips in step 3, Movie Maker uses

clip detection to begin a new clip each time it encounters a substantial change from one frame of the video to the next. (The minimum duration of a clip is 1 second.) To create clips

after you've imported or captured a video, select the clip in the Contents pane; then choose Tools > Create Clips.

Imported files actually remain in their original locations. Movie Maker doesn't create copies; instead, a clip in the Contents pane is a shortcut that points to the source file. If you move, rename, or delete a source file after you import it, you'll break the link. Movie Maker tries to find moved or renamed files automatically, but sometimes, you'll have to import them again.

Movie Maker 2 and later versions import and upgrade your Movie Maker 1 clip collections automatically, so you don't have to reimport files. To import a Movie Maker 1 collection manually, choose Windows Movie Maker 1.x Collection Files from the Files of Type list in the Import File dialog box (step 2).

Connecting a Video Camera to Your Computer

Chapter 8 for tips on installing hardware.

Analog cameras and VCRs. Connect a VCR or analog camcorder (which uses VHS, 8mm, or Hi-8 tapes) to a

video capture card installed in your PC

, which provides extra video and probably audio ports. For video capture, you can connect your camera's video line-out to the card's video line-in port. For audio capture, you could then connect the left and right audio lines (usually, through RCA-style single-channel connectors to a 3.5mm stereo plug Y-adapter) to the line-in port on a sound card or a video capture card with audio ports. If both your camera and video capture card have

S-video connectors, you can attach those connectors to record video while the attached audio connectors capture sound.

Digital cameras. Connect a digital camera (which uses miniDV, microMV, or Digital8 tapes) to your PC's IEEE 1394 port (also known as a FireWire or i.Link port). If your PC didn't come with IEEE 1394 ports, you'll have to buy and install a card that provides them. These connections transfer high-quality content very quickly because they're designed to transmit digital data like your camera's audio and video information. Use the cable that came with your camera to connect the camera's DV-out port to the IEEE 1394 port. The cable transfers both audio and video. Many digital cameras also have analog outputs, which you can connect to a video capture card to transfer video and audio to your computer, but converting the signal from digital to analog and back again will degrade picture and sound quality.

Web cameras. A webcam connects to a USB port, to an IEEE 1394 port, or (if it's a video composite camera) to a video capture card. Some webcams have a built-in microphone for capturing audio too.

Audio only. To capture audio only, you can use a stand-alone microphone connected to a sound card's line-in port or to a USB port.

TV. You can capture video from TV if you have a TV tuner card installed in your computer.