January 06, 2009
Happy New Year! Welcome to this edition of Desktop Video News. In this issue, we'll be talking about codecs and why it's important to 'stay in your plane' when filming a digital video. Enjoy the newsletter!
Term Of The Week
Codec - A codec is really a short name for 'coder-decoder'. This is the software that takes in a raw video data file and turns it into a compressed file. Since we have a compressed file, the codec is essentially a piece of translation software that decides what data is discarded from the raw file and what data is retained.There are many different codecs out there and they each translate raw data in different ways. For example, a file compressed using the Cinepak codec, would differ from a file compressed with the Intel Indeo codec. There are usually some settings you can play with in the codec program to achieve the best balance of compressed file size to video quality.
Tip Of The Week
If you're shooting a video, just image imagine that there's a horizontal line between you and your subject. Keep a more natural perspective by staying on your side of this horizontal line. When editing footage that disobeys this 'horizontal line' rule, you can try using a b-roll between cuts. This will make the transition feel more natural.
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A guide to selecting a computer for digital video editing
A guide to buying a computer for digital video editing. Learn how to choose a quality desktop or laptop system.
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For more articles, be sure to visit Desktop-Video-Guide.com.