Videoguys' Desk Top Video Glossary

Here are some of the more common terms used in explaining Desk Top Video products. I hope you find it useful.

3D Transitions
A 3D transition allows video one to flip, fly & change size and shape. A great example of this is a page-peel.
A/B Roll
Creating fades, wipes and other transitions directly from one video source to another
Anti-Aliased Fonts
Computer generated fonts that have been digitally rounded for smooth edges
Batch Capture
Combining your video capture card with deck control so that you can define your in and out points first, then capture only the footage you want.
Chroma-Key
Superimposing one video source over another using a key color (usually blue)
CODEC
COmpression/DECompression. The algorithm used to capture the moving video onto your hard drive.
Control L (LANC)
An editing protocol built into Sony 8mm camcorders and clones that allows 2 way communication between camcorder and computer
Data Rate
Also called throughput. The higher the data rate of your video capture, the lower the compression and the higher the video quality. The higher the datarate, the faster your hard drives must be.
Desk Top Video (DTV)
Use of a desktop computer for video production
Digital Video Effects (DVE)
Special computer generated effects that manipulate video. Video footage that bends, rolls, bounces or wraps around objects
Direct Draw Overlay
This is a feature that lets you see the video full screen and full motion on your computer screen while editing. Most new 3D graphics cards support this. If yours does not, it simply means you will need an external monitor to view the video. Direct Draw Overlay has absolutelt nothing to do with your final video quality.
Edit Decision List (EDL)
Master list of all edit in and out points, plus any transitions, titles and effects to be used in the video production
FireWire (IEEE1394)
The hottest new technology in video. FireWire is a special hi speed bus standard capable of over 100 mega bits /sec (12.5 megs) sustained data rate.
Frame Capture (Frame Grabber)
Taking one frame of video and storing it on your hard drive for use in various video effects
GUI
This is the Graphical User Interface of the program. I really like a plug-in that has a simple to use GUI. Even better is a GUI that incorporates a selection tool with animated thumbnails and presets. Throw in a few templates and wizards and you'll be adding broadcast quality transitions and FX with a few mouse clicks!

Hybrid Editing
Combining Non Linear Edited video files with Linear (deck to deck) segmants of footage.
Keyframing
This very important feature allows you set points in the timeline of the transition or effect. You set what you want the video to look like at these key points, and the software fills in the rest. As an example, lets use a 10 second picture in picture effect. I set my in point at the upper right hand corner. 3 second into the video I want the PIP to expand to ¼ screen in the lower left hand corner. At 7 seconds I want the PIP to start expanding to fill the entire screen by second 10. Without keyframing I would not be able to control where and when my FX and transitions take place. Keyframing is VERY cool!

Linear (Assembly) Editing
Copying wanted footage from one video tape to another, in any order, end to end for a finished production
Non Linear Editing (NLE)
Video is digitized and stored on your hard drive using video compression technology. You can then access any part of the video and edit the footage just like re-arranging paragraphs in a word processing program.
OHCI
This term is used to describe inexpensive DV/FireWire/iLink/IEEE1394 capture cards. These cards use Microsoft's built in FireWire drivers and CODEC.
PCI bus mastering
This is the key technology that has allowed under $1000 video capture cards to achieve such hi quality levels. With PCI bus mastering you get perfect audio sync and sustained throughput levels over 3 megs per second.
Plug-Ins
Software programs that can install into your main non linear editing software to give you additional features and/or specs
RAID
Using more then one drive to achieve either higher throughput, security or both. New technology has made it possible to create EIDE RAID systems that give excellent performance ant a very low cost.
Real-Time
Real-Time editing systems allow you to playback video directly from the timeline without having to render transitions or effects.
Rendering
This is the process by which the video editing software and hardware convert the raw video, effects, trnsitions and filters into a new conituos video file.
SCSI
Pronounced Scuzzy. Special type of disk drive designed for moving very large amounts of infomation as quickly as possible.
Scan Converter
External device that converts your computer’s VGA output to video, so you can display it on a TV or VCR
The Electronic Mailbox
The source for all your desk top video editing and production needs.
Time Code
Special information added to video tapes that allows for extremely accurate editing.
Time Line
This is the graphical interface used by most Non Linear Editing software. You simply drag & drop your clips onto the timeline then your transitions, effects, filters and titles.
Ultra SCSI (ULTRA WIDE SCSI)
The newest and best kind of drives for DTV. New technology makes these drives better then AV optimized.
Video Compression (M-JPEG / MPEG/ MPEG2)
Both these standards use special hardware & software to store video directly on your hard drive. Video compression is done in various ratios. (eg 10:1,5:1) The higher the ratio, the more video can be stored per meg, and conversly the lower the compression the higher the video quality. See CODEC
Video Streaming
New technologies used to send video information over the internet. Rather then wait for the whole file to download, the video streaming technology lets the clip begin playing after only a few seconds.

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