A multi-volume archive will come with extensions like .rar, .r00, .r01, .r02 etc.

To play the video files on your computer you will need to reconstruct the archive into one video file.

A popular choice to decompress RAR files is WinRAR. However I’m going to show you how to decompress RAR files with one of my favorite tools 7-Zip.

You can download and install 7-Zip from here. One thing I really like about 7-Zip is that’s it’s FREE and open source software. It is incredibly easy to use and handles just about any type of compressed files you can throw at it including ZIP, GZIP, TAR, RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, MSI, WIM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS.

Locate the video files on your computer. In the case of multi-volume archive all you really care about is the file with the .rar extension.

Right click on the .rar file and select 7-zip\Extract Here. 7-Zip will begin to combine all of the smaller files into one large video file and place it into the current folder.

You can then play the video file with your favorite video player.

I did a little research and found that the HP ScanJet 5530 Scanner had an autofeed feature, but the reviews are kind of crappy.

I went to the Epson web site saw they have a photo feeder that can be adapted to fit on a scanner. You simply remove the cover of the scanner and replace it with the auto feeder. It works with the Epson Perfection 2480 or 2580 scanners. I think it may also work with the 3490 & 3590 Scanners.

These scanners are no longer in retail stores but they can be found on ebay.

So for about $240 I was able to assemble an automatic photo scanner.

It works really well ! You can load about 25 pictures into the tray. It takes about 15-20 minutes to scan 25 pics. It isn’t terribly fast but you can do other things while the pics are scanning. You can scan hundreds of pictures in a day no problem.

Although the SD1000 may not be the best digital camera to take videos with it has some compelling modes not usually found on other cameras. Naturally it can take 30fps movies at 640 x 480 pixels. In addition there is something Canon calls the “Fast Frame Rate” which is a 60fps 320 x 240 mode. This mode would be great for slowing down high speed action. For example taking videos of a baseball hitter or a golf swing and then slowing them down to analyze the swing. It’s just a shame it’s not offered in 640 x 480 at the higher rate.

Another cool mode (though technically not video) is the time lapse mode. It will take 640 x 480 shots at 1 or 2 second intervals.

One reason I said the PowerShot SD100 may not be the best for video is that it stores videos in the motion JPEG format. The better would have been to use MPEG4 H.264.

• Camcorders that that still photos
• Cameras that can take videos

The Sanyo CG65 Camcorder is the former, and reports are that it does it quite well.
As it stands these hybrid devices can’t match the quality of a dedicated camera or camcorder. But these devices are a lot easier to pocket and carry with you everywhere.

The CG65 records video in MPEG4, H.264 format. You can fit about 2.5 hours of video on a 4GB SDHC card in the HQ setting 640 x 480, 30fps at 3Mbps.

Here’s the kicker. I have seen actual footage in low light situations and I have to say I was pretty impressed. More to come on these devices.

Casio just announced two new cameras with a YouTube capture mode. The Exilim EX-Z77 and the slimmer Exilim EX-S880 These cameras feature settings and bundled software to provide ideal settings for recording, storing and uploading video to Youtube.

At first glance this seem like a cheap marketing ploy. Uploading a video to Youtube isn’t exactly hard.

However a close look at the specifications reveal these are more than existing models with Youtube sticker plopped on them.

For starters these cameras have the EXILIM Engine 2.0 image processing module. This engine reduces noise in images, improves image quality and lowers power consumption.

Like other cameras in the Exilim line these cameras have a massive 2.8-inch LCD screen. Casio cameras have the best screen in the business and they work great in all lighting conditions including bright sun.

Perhaps the biggest improvement is that these cameras record video in H.264 standard, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10. Files are created with the MOV extension. Most digital cameras record in “Motion Jpeg AVI” or MPEG1. H.264 is superior to these other two standards. It can create much smaller files at much better quality.

The reported list price for the EX-Z77 is $229. The slimmer EX-S880 is listed at $299.

I know people sometimes people associate Casio with cheap watches and their cameras are often overlooked. casio cameras use the same sensor (made by Sony) as most of the other portable digital cameras, so picture quality is just as good as most other cameras out there. Nobody has a screen as nice as the Casio’s. Take a look at some reviews for Casio cameras, people love them.

There is no date yet announced when these cameras will become available. I’m sure it will in time for the fall holiday season.

In the editing section I mentioned that I save my edited movies in the AVI format and then bring them into Ulead DVDMovieFactory to author the DVD’s.

I also mentioned that the any video length over an hour would have to compromise quality to fit onto a DVD. You can stretch this to close to two hours thanks to the AC3 encoder in DVDMovieFactory and the excellent MainConcept Encoder that DVDMovieFactory uses behind the scenes.

MPEG movies consists of two parts. The video and the sound. Most cheaper encoders only allow you to encode with something called Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM). This format can take up almost 1/4 of the space of a movie. If we could use less space for the soundtrack we then have more space available for the audio. That’s where AC-3 audio encoding comes in.

Dolby Digital is the trademarked marketing name for Dolby Laboratories’ “lossy” AC-3 format. You can think of AC-3 as a cousin of MP3. The same sound quality as LPCM but with a lot less space.

Ulead DVDMovieFactory has the option to encode audio as AC-3. Something no other program has in it’s price class. For the most part you should always choose AC-3.
BitRates And Video Size
In very simplistic terms the bitrate controls how much information is sent to the screen or display. A lower bitrate may produce visible artifacts. The picture will have more of a “mosaic” look to it. Usually fast action sequences require a higher bitrate.

The total bitrate for a DVD can be about 10Mbs (Megabits/second). There are reports that anything over 9MBS may cause problems with certain DVD players.

Choosing a bitrate is all about compromise. If you encode at higher bitrates you may exceed the space on the DVD. Too low and the quality will suffer.

A way to determine the maximum bitrate to encode at is to use a bitrate calculator like this one:
VideoHelp.com BitRate Calculator
or you can try my own bitrate calculator.

You simply enter the length of your movie and the calculator will tell you what to set your bitrate to.
How Low Can You Go ?
You can go as low as what looks good to you. Personally I don’t like to go below 5.6Mbs (5600 Kbs or about 1 3/4 hours).

There are some graphs at DigitalFaq.com that show rather nicely the correlation between quality and bitrate. Keep in mind you will be looking at the 720X480 chart.

In summary a range 5.6-8 Mbs is what you will be working in most of the time.
Burning Your Masterpiece
As mentioned before some authoring software titles will allow you to burn to a DVD. Some people like to burn with other programs like Nero. More about burning here.

It is worthwhile to discuss test burns. Nothing is worse than wasting a few hours encoding and finding out your DVD looks like crap on the TV.

I like to create small clips (1-5 minutes) of the movie and burn them at the calculated bitrate onto a DVD-RW. I then play on the TV to see if the quality is what I expect. If it’s not looking too good I may try to increase the bitrate or reduce the length of time from the movie to reach a certain bitrate.

Whichever method you choose I think it’s a good idea to create either a DVD VOB(Video Objects) or an image file on your hard drive first and then burn to the DVD. The reason I like to do this is in case I need to make multiple copies. It just seems to make subsequent burns go faster. I like to save the VOB to my hard drive so I can watch it with a DVD player on my PC.

Media Choices
In all the years I have been burning CD’s I never though about what brand of media I was using. Unfortunately it is not the same way in the DVD world.

+R or -R ?
Blank DVD’s come in two major flavors +R and -R. Overall there seems to be just about equal compatibility with players between the two formats. Ultimately I chose to use -R.

• It works on all the players in my house.
• It’s the format all local wedding and event videographers use to create disks
• I have created and sold hundreds of -R disks and have not received any complaints.

Quite honestly I wouldn’t hesitate to use +R either. It’s just that at this point I know what to expect with -R.
Media Brands
This is where things get crazy and honestly I wish ignorance was bliss. DigitalFAQ.com (by Kevin Pieper aka LordSmurf) maintains one of the most comprehensive pages on the subject.

The current list of decent quality disks from a recent post by LordSmurf at VideoHelp.com:
Sony DVD+R (made in Japan) = YUDEN media
Sony DVD+R (made in Taiwan) = SONY media
Sony DVD-R (made in Japan) = TY or SONY media
Fuji DVD+R (made in Japan) = YUDEN media
Fuji DVD-R (made in Japan) = TY media
Verbatim DVD-R (made in Taiwan) = MCC media
Verbatim DVD+R (made in Taiwan) = MCC media
Maxell DVD-R (made in Japan) = MXL media
Maxell DVD+R (made in Japan) = MAXELL media
TDK DVD-R (made in Taiwain) = TDK media

Each Brand uses different companies to manufacturer their disks. It’s not the label on the package important but the media code of the disk, which is usually not printed anywhere on the disk. You must insert it into your PC and read it from the disk with software. Some burning software titles have the ability to read the media code.

There is absolutely no consistency between brand and manufacturer. Sometimes the supplier of the disk is different between 25 or 50 packs of the same brand. The 25 pack of BrandX may be Made In Japan but the 50 pack is Made in Taiwan. Also brands frequently change their suppliers. You need to stay on top of the changes until the manufacturing becomes consistent.

If your in a bind and need to buy disks locally I would look for disks manufactured in Japan.

The one manufacturer that seems to consistently receive favorable reviews is Taiyo Yuden.

WARNING ! These instructions are intended for experienced computer users. Editing your registry can cripple your PC. If you are using XP I would do a System Restore Point.

Install Instructions:

* Download here
* Unzip the files and right click on PANADV.INF and select install.
* That’s it !

To use the codec in VirtualDub select Video/compression from the menu. Select the Panasonic DV Codec.

UnInstall Instructions:
Here’s where things get tricky. You have two choices here, and both involve editing the registry.

* Open the registry editor by clicking on the Start button and then click Run.
* Type in regedit.
* You can disable the codec by navigating down to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32\vidc.dvsd=pdvcodec.dll and rename vidc.dvsd to xidc.dvsd
* If you need to enable the codec in the future just rename it back

Alternatively you can delete the files pdvcodec.dll and panadv.inf from your System or System32 directory. Then remove the following entries from the registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\drivers.desc] “pdvcodec.dll”=”Panasonic DV Codec” [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32] “vidc.dvsd”=”pdvcodec.dll” [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaResources\icm\vidc.dvsd] “Driver”=”pdvcodec.dll” “Description”=”Panasonic DV Codec”

The Panasonic codec only works with Type-2 DV files. For Type-1 DV files the directshow built-in MS DV codec gets used.

VirtualDub is a poplar free product that allows you to install filters and apply them to an AVI. However it required the Panasonic DV codec, which was not installed on my system.

I installed the codec along with some filters and ran my video through VirtualDub. The filters worked very well for cleaning up the video. I was pretty impressed.

Everything worked great until I went to author the DVD in Ulead DVD Movie Factory. All of the sudden some of the AVI’s would not work in MovieFactory. What was puzzling is that the clips I ran through VirtualDub looked fine but other AVI’s were having issues. I re-rendered a few of the bad AVI’s and discovered that if I rendered as Type 1 AVI they worked fine in MovieFactory.

After a few hours of investigation I learned that the Panasonic DV codec can cause problems with other applications. This codec is for the older Video For Windows (VFW) format. When you install the codec it adds a line to the registry that tells programs to use the codec for that file type of DVSD.

In the header of an AVI file there is something called a 4CC (4 character code) code. This let’s Windows know which codec is needed to play an AVI file. On my XP machine this registry entry is at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32\vidc.dvsd=pdvcodec.dll

When software encounters an AVI with a 4CC of dvsd it knows to use the Panasonic codec.

The Panasonic codec only works with Type-2 DV files. Also VirtualDub must use Type-2 DV since it is a VFW based program.

There are two types of DV format. Type-1and Type-2. Type-1 has the video and audio in one interleaved stream. Type-2 splits the video and audio into separate streams. Not all software will open both types. Type-1 DV AVI files are not compatible with VfW.

VFW(Video For Windows) is the old standard developed to allow Windows software to interface with a wide variety of Video hardware such as Capture cards, webcams and TV-cards. It’s been around since Windows 3.1 and although it is widely supported Microsoft is phasing it out in favor of WDM and DirectShow. DirectShow allows complete access to type-1 and type-2 files.

So anyways…
Ulead MovieFactory was getting confused on which codec to use for the AVI’s I ran through VirtualDub.
There are multiple codecs that can play 4cc(four character codes)=DVSD including
Microsoft DirectShow qdv.dll
Panasonic Codec VFW
For type 1 DV avi files, the directshow built-in MS DV codec gets used.

I had to go into the registry to disable the Panasonic Codec by renaming vidc.dvsd to xvidc.dvsd. Everyting worked great after this.

It’s a pain but I now leave the Panasonic Codec disabled most of the time unless I am going to be using VirtualDub. To enable the Panasonic Codec I go onto the registry and just rename xvidc.dvsd back to vidc.dvsd

What I found is that DV pass-thru is available on most DV cameras except for the lowest priced models. Pass through does not seem to be as common on DVD camcorders. I suppose it doesn’t make sense to have pass through on a DVD camera but it would be nice to have analog inputs to record to the DVD.

As I mentioned in the capturing section one of the best ways to convert analog sources like VHS and 8mm is to use the pass through feature of a DV camera. When I was starting out I looked at a few different hardware solutions to convert analog sources to DV. I was able to buy a Canon ZR60 camcorder to do the conversions. The fact that I also got a nifty little camcorder out of the deal was a bonus.

You may be able to score a good deal on Ebay for an older Canon or Sony. Just make sure you check the manuals to make sure the camera has pass through capabilities. Pass-through is not always listed as a feature and you may need to dig through a manual at the manufacturers site.

Canon
ZR60
ZR100
ZR200
ZR300
ZR400
Elura 80
Elura 85
Elura 90
Optura S1
Optura 50
Optura 60
Optura 400
Optura 500
Optura 600
No pass through on the DC10 or DC20

Sony
DCR-HC42
DCR-HC32
DCR-PC55
DCR-HC90
DCR-PC1000 (3cc)
DCR-HC21-NO analog
DCR-TRV480
DCR-TRV460

JVC
GRD72US
GR-D73 and GR-D93
GR-DF430US
GR-DF450US
GR-DF550US
GR-DZ7US has analog input but not sure about pass-thru
GR-X5US has analog input but not sure about pass-thru

Panasonic
PV-GS120
PV-GS150
PV-GS250
PV-GS400
PV-DV852

Samsung None