Print it!: Getting that video ready to use. (Office Technology).

It's been a long road to this point, but we're almost there. Hopefully, you've shot your video, written your voiceovers, decided on any background music and procured the rights if necessary. The next step is to start pulling everything together.

Previous columns have discussed the differences between shooting your video in analog or digital format. If you've shot in analog format, you will have to use one of the devices, such as a video card with video capture capability, or the Dazzle Video Creator II, to get the video onto your hard disk. With a digital camcorder, the video editing software that came with an IEEE-1394 FireWire adapter, or if your PC has this capability built in, with your personal computer (PC), will also control the digital camcorder and save the video to your disk drive.

A third choice, which hasn't been discussed until now, is Dazzle's Hollywood DV Bridge. This is a small converter box that plugs into an IEEE-1394 port on your PC and lets you use a digital camcorder, analog camcorder, or VCR or DVD player as your video source.

A two-step process

Many of the software applications discussed in this month's column bill themselves as a one-step solution to creating a videoCD, DVD, or tape. While several software packages are fairly appropriate for this use, you will probably be better off using two different applications, one to edit the video, the other to create the videoCD or DVD.

The reason is pretty simple. The packages that excel in editing capability are pretty sparse in features when it comes to actually putting together a DVD or videoCD. The reverse is also true. Since many of the applications we are talking about cost $100 or less, there's no real economic reason for not using the best tool for each task.

Editing the video is step one. When you are originally shooting the video, chances are that you didn't bother shooting only the scene that you needed. While you may have downloaded only the specific frames of video that you intend to use, this degree of control in the download process is unnecessary, and often too finicky to accomplish well.

A video editing application, also called a non-linear editor because there is no need to edit the video scenes in the linear sequence that will be used, is the answer. This application lets you trim a video clip to precise length, advancing the clip frame by frame so that you can actually find the exact start and end points that you want for a shot.

When you are happy with the results, you can combine clips by dragging them to a timeline, and then add voiceovers, transition effects, and even background music.

Two of the more popular applications for this use are Ulead Systems' VideoStudio 5 and MGI Software's VideoWave 4. If you have a big budget, and lots of time to learn to use them, Adobe System's Premier and After Effects are high-end video editing and effects packages that let you produce commercial-grade video. Together, however, the two packages cost more than $1,000, and take many hours of training to use effectively.

Many of the video capture devices discussed in previous columns come with either VideoStudio or VideoWave. Give the package that you have a try, then if you don't like the way it works, or how easy it is to use, you can try the other.

If you have access to a high-speed Internet connection, download the trial versions from each vendor's Website, and try them both out to see which you prefer. You probably won't want to take the approach with a standard dial-up line, however, as the download for VideoStudio 5 is about 35MB, while MGI Software's VideoWave 4 trial is 25MB.

Both of these applications, and others, such as the more comprehensive Adobe Premier, let ... you put together a linear coherent video. If this is primarily what you want, you may be able to get by with just one of these packages. All of them also have the capability of burning a VideoCD or DVD. Which format you choose depends upon the capabilities of your target audience, as well as the length of your video.

Let's examine the last of these constraints first. A standard 650MB or 700MB CD-R can hold about 10 minutes of video in MPEG-2 format. This is called a VideoCD, and can be played back on almost any current Windows-based PC that has a suitable player. The newest version of Microsoft's Media Player 7.0 handles these files very nicely, and is free for the downloading, though you can't just download it yourself and put a copy on the CD that you are creating.

You can arrange with Microsoft for permission to include it on your CD (look at the Corporate section, of Microsoft's Web site (www.microsoft.com) for a contact. Or, you could just point the recipient of your videoCD to the Microsoft Web site so they can download it themselves. If the recipient of your CD is running the new Windows XP operating system, they already have a copy of this Media Player.

For longer running videos, or an interactive DVD, you will need to burn a DVD. This requires that you install a special DVD-R drive (if you don't already have one of the Compaq, Apple, or Dell PCs that provide this drive), and use DVD-R discs with a capacity of 4.7GB. These drives can also create CD-R and CD-RW discs, so they are a good upgrade should you need the capability. You can, however, create an interactive CD using a standard CD-RW drive. It just can't contain more than 10 or 15 minutes total video.

Step two is creating an interactive videoCD or DYD. This requires a different application from the ones already discussed. There are three really good ones, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. DVDit!, from Sonic Solutions, is a professional level application, but is still very easy to use. It lets you create highly-interactive videoCDs and DVDs, with menus, buttons, and lots of transitions. A more consumer-oriented package called MyDVD is distributed with many PCs that contain a DVD-R drive.

Mediostream also offers an easy-to-use DVD authoring tool called NeoDVD. This is priced under $100, and there's a trial copy available for download from the vendor's Web site.

A nice compromise between low-end starter products and higher-end professional applications comes from Pinnacle Systems. Pinnacle Studio Version 7 is priced at about $100 (without a FireWire card, or $149 with one), and is very easy to use. It does, however, give you a lot of control over adding menus, buttons, and transitions.

As with many of the products discussed in this column, you can download a trial version from the vendor's Web site.

All of the products discussed this month let you easily assemble a disc that contains your video, assembled in the order you need to present it in. Once you've made your "Master Disc," and are happy with the way it looks, the only things left to do are to duplicate them, and add the finishing touches like a label. We'll finish off our video production series next time with a look at making these finishing touches.

Ted Needleman is the former associate publisher and editor-in-chief of Accounting Technology magazine. He is now a technology consultant and writer based in Stony Point, NY.