In video editing, a composite is a video image that incorporates two or more separate visual media elements together on the screen. These elements can be video streams, words, pictures, drawings, graphics or 3D animations. In short, anything you can see (and digitally image), you can composite. The

When you only want to edit and edit fast, you might consider a Video Editing Appliance. Video editing appliances (VEA) are dedicated and proprietary devices specifically designed for video editing. They are self-contained units about the size and shape of a VCR, although they share more in common wi

The VCR has enjoyed a 25-year life span in the world’s living rooms. If yours is shaking in the corner whenever you walk past it, nervously blinking away, it could be because it knows its days are numbered: there’s a standalone DVD recorder in your TV room’s future. We’re not

Surrounded by so much video technology, it’s easy to forget that video hasn’t always been a part of our world. In fact, the entire concept of “video” — starting with broadcast television and running through today’s landscape of camcorders, VCRs and DVRs — i

As the desktop computer market branches out and diversifies, the borders sometimes blur between video editing products and digital video recording (DVR) devices, such as TiVo. Adaptec’s VideOh! Media Center is an external video capture device that provides DVR functions along with basic DVD cr

$350 Maxtor Corporation 500 McCarthy Blvd. Milpitas, CA 95035 (408) 894-5000 www.maxtor.com Remember when $600 was a good price on a 13GB Seagate Barracuda A/V hard disk? Analog MJPEG capture rates needed 10,000 rpm drives that sounded like Everglades fan boats and were hot enough that the kids cou

$330 Lite-On IT 726 S. Hillview Dr. Milpitas, CA 95035 (408) 935-5353 www.liteonit.com The VCR isn’t quite dead yet, but inexpensive DVD recorders are whispering "The end is near." Only a year or so ago, there were a couple of boxes that ran $1,000 each. Then a couple more came out

$699 Macromedia, Inc. 600 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 252-2000 www.macromedia.com Flash is not primarily a video tool. Instead, it is a (very) widely supported Web design, animation and presentation application that you have definitely seen before (think: "Skip Intro"). Fla

Last month, we covered the preliminary planning you need to do before you begin your video project. And we outlined a typical workflow for logging and capturing the clips that will form the building blocks of our family history video. This month, we move on to building our timeline, ordering and tri

$795 Serious Magic 2870-B Gold Tailings Ct Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 (916) 859-0100 www.seriousmagic.com We get lots of questions from readers wondering how to create a good chromakey. Most of these questions come from folks who just want to play around and don’t actually have a use for keyin

The sub-$100 capture-edit-burn software field is a crowded one. When you first run CyberLink PowerDirector 3.0, you might be forgiven for mistaking it for Ulead’s VideoStudio 7 or Pinnacle Studio 9. These products often come bundled with hardware products, such as capture cards or, more freque

$699 Medea Corporation 26707 Agoura Rd Calabasas, CA 91302 (888) 296-3332 www.avid.com/US/resources/medea FireWire drives have become much more common in video editors’ workspaces over the last few years as bridge chips and hard drives have finally evolved to deliver the high data transfer s

Video effects products come in many shapes, sizes and price points. In a field populated by software that ranges from simplistic, fun-loving home video filters to high-end compositors, animators and 3D titlers, Boris FX occupies the middle ground. This is a place where independent event, corporate a

Audio cables can be the weakest link in the chain of sound recording. When deploying external microphones, videographers need to know the difference between unbalanced and balanced cables. The best way to understand the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables to think in terms of signal se

I was a little surprised when my Aunt Betsy ambushed me at Cousin Tia’s wedding, announcing that she wanted to buy a video editing system. She still uses 110 film and finds automobiles “upsettingly modern.” But when she mentioned that it was for my 18-year-old cousin Scooter, who i

chromakey Method of electronically inserting an image from one video source into the image of another through areas designated as its "key color." It is frequently used on news programs to display weather graphics behind talent. compositing Superimposing multiple layers of video or images.

with Stephen Muratore, Chuck Peters, Tony Kilcollins and Charles Fulton Throughout the course of a year we have a unique opportunity to see, play with, test and review all of the latest and greatest video toys. At the end of each year, we take a step back to look at the whole and publish a list of o

Sony Releases DSR-PD170 DVCAM Camcorder Sony’s Professional Division has released the DSR-PD170, an update of the DSR-PD150. The camcorder uses three 1/3-inch CCDs. Compared to the PD150, the PD170 improves on low-light sensitivity, down to one lux. The viewfinder and viewscreen can operate s

If you have taken that big step from creating an occasional video on the side, to full-time video production, you have to work efficiently. If you are the sole owner and operator of a boutique production house, work at a local cable access facility, college or corporate media center, anything that c

Okay – I admit it, I have a problem. I walk fast. I don’t know why, I just do. If I get out of the car at the same time as my wife and son, I’m almost always inside the store before they are. And my 10-year-old is usually trailing far behind my wife, particularly if there’s a