Beyond the Office [Digital Video Tips: Best Ways to Share Videos - 12/20/2005]

December 20th, 2005

Digital Video Tips: Best Ways to Share Videos

PC World Contributor Richard Baguley

Whether they capture your daughter's first birthday party or your
latest assault on the twin peaks of Kilimanjaro, videos are for
sharing. These tips will help you keep your audience's attention as
they view the show on the Web or play it from a DVD.

Read "Mastering DVDs" for tips on using Adobe Premiere Elements to
produce a DVD:
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,tk,box,00.asp

Film a lot, but edit down: When you are having your adventures, shoot
as much video as you can. When you get home, edit it down to the
scenes you really want to show people. Your audience won't be
interested in your entire 45-minute cruise around San Francisco Bay,
but they will want to see a minute or so of the Golden Gate Bridge,
Alcatraz, and Sausalito.

Use credits for the details: Instead of sticking the trip itinerary at
the start of the video, position it at the end (much the way studios
append the credits on movies and TV shows). That way, viewers who
aren't interested can skip that info.

Play It on the Web

Pick the right format: Before you can put your video on the Web, you
must do some serious compressing. A good video editing program will
let you squish the videos and convert them to the right Web format:
Windows Media (.wmv), QuickTime (.mov), or Flash (.swf). Your video
editor should offer presets for various connections, too; pick a slow
frame rate and/or a small playback window size, unless you're certain
that viewers will be using broadband connections. Microsoft's free
Windows Movie Maker video editing program for Windows XP will
automatically encode the video and upload it to a video-hosting
service such as Neptune MediaShare (starting at $59 per year with
150MB of storage; free three-day trial) or MyDeo (starting at $5 per
minute of video and 200 views). Note that Neptune MediaShare requires
using the Internet Explorer browser.

You can download Windows Movie Maker from us:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...,tk,box,00.asp

Neptune MediaShare:
http://www.neptune.com/

MyDeo:
http://www.mydeo.com/

Host your video on the Web for free: Several Web sites will compress
and host your video for free after you register, letting anyone with a
Web browser watch it. YouTube, Ourmedia, and Google Video are among
such sites.

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/

Ourmedia:
http://www.ourmedia.org/

Google Video:
http://video.google.com/

Send video by e-mail: Windows Movie Maker lets you compress video so
that it won't overload the recipient's inbox: Select Send in e-mail on
the program's Finish Movie menu, and follow the prompts to compress
your video and attach it to an e-mail message. For more, visit
Microsoft's Movie Maker tutorial:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...eos/share.mspx

Put It on DVD

Use chapters for navigation: Some video editing programs (not Windows
Movie Maker, though) let you organize your home movies into chapters
like those commercial DVDs use to help viewers find a particular scene
in a movie. Simply put a chapter pointer in the video as you edit it:
In Ulead's $50 DVD MovieFactory, for instance, you can add chapters
either manually at specific points or automatically with the program's
scene detection feature; visit the PC World Product Finder for pricing
and availability:
http://pcworld.pricegrabber.com/sear...2196660/tk=box

For more on making chapters, plus other editing tips, read "Give Your
Videos the Hollywood Treatment":
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,tk,box,00.asp

Use a still frame in a menu: A frame from your video can be a backdrop
for your DVD's menu. Most video editing programs (but not Windows
Movie Maker) let you pick a frame from the video in a couple of mouse
clicks. Check the documentation for the specific process; many
programs refer to this as a frame grab. Read "Polish Your Videos With
a DVD Menu" for more ideas:
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,tk,box,00.asp

Use the highest quality settings: You might be tempted to use the
higher compression settings since the resulting files require less
disk space, allowing you to put more videos onto a single DVD--but
you'll pay a big price in playback quality. Put less video on each
disc, even if that means stretching a long movie over two discs.
Alternatively, you could take it as a sign that your movie is too long
and needs to be edited down. This means you, Kevin Costner.

Put the movies on good discs: Employ discs that are made to last; keep
them in their cases when they aren't in use, and store them in a cool,
dry place. Browse Melissa Perenson's columns for valuable advice:

"Picking the Right Media, Part 1"
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,tk,box,00.asp

"Picking the Right Media, Part 2"
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,tk,box,00.asp

"Ten Tips for Durable DVDs"
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,tk,box,00.asp

Make a nice label: It's no sweat--both Avery and Fellowes provide
downloadable DVD-label design templates on their Web sites. And
Melissa has lots of advice on this topic:

"The Joy of Labeling"
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,tk,box,00.asp

"Is Labeling Software Worth the Hassle?"
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,tk,box,00.asp

Visit our Digital Entertainment for digital camcorder and
video-editing software reviews:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/info...,tk,box,00.asp

Have a question or comment? Write to Richard Baguley:
makingmovies at pcworld.com

Read Richard Baguley's "Making Movies" columns:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/colu...3,tk,bo,00.asp

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"I don't care (if I get booed). I don't know any of those people. As long as my kids tell me that they love me, I'm fine. My motto is, when people talk about me, I say, 'Who are they? They're not God.' If God was out there booing me, I'd be upset."
-- Bonzi Wells, Sacramento Kings
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