Supplied by matrox

Many an amateur videographer is lured by the promise of editing “home
movies” on the PC only to find out it is a frustratingly slow process or
the quality is marginally better than grainy web-based video. Often home video
camera owners have visions of grandeur thinking they’ll create the next installment
of War and Peace with their $49.95 video editing software. They quickly reach
the conclusion that video editing software is slow and cumbersome and thus,
in a lot of cases, never touched again.

Matrox has a solution with the RT.X10
Xtra. Get the inside information right from a professional in broadcast
video. Most of us make the mistake of spending thousands on a camera, editing
software and equipment without knowing how to properly use it. There art of
video editing takes time to learn and perfect but there are important steps
and information you should know when it comes to building and using a PC for
video editing. Read on to learn how to make your projects enjoyable for both
you and your audience.

Getting the most from the non-linear video editing experience is much more
than meets the eye. It is the complete process from before the camera rolls
to the final output. This article begins with basic rules to for planning and
shooting an event and moves through the basics of organizing a project, software
and hardware choices and what to expect, to the final video. It’s the
basics for the novice and a few tips to correct bad habits for the amateur enthusiast.

The beginner’s guide to non-linear editing with
the Matrox RT.X10 Xtra.

PC prices have plummeted while capabilities in processing power and storage
have skyrocketed. DV cameras are almost as common as cell phones. It seems that
everyone has a HI8, DV or Mini-DV video camera and all over the world hours
upon hours of memories are dumping to tape; birthday parties, reunions, vacations
and so on. Many budding videographers shoot everything that moves and then burden
an unsuspecting viewer with watching endless footage of some child’s birthday
party.

Software makers have jumped on the home video market by delivering products
with promising statements like “Edit like the pros” or “Edit
your home movies with amazing effects!”

It’s just not true…sort of.

The art of video editing is an education within itself. One does not simply
picture the talents of Picasso or DaVinci in their heads and then create masterpieces
having never picked up a brush. To put it another way the likes of Steven Spielberg
or Spike Lee are not achieved first time out with a video camera or edit suite.
This is not meant to discourage the enthusiast video shooter/editor. Video story
telling is a process of trial and error learning from both theory and practical.

Here are a few simple rules to make your life easier.

Rule 1: This is a story.

Video editing is storytelling. Reams of useless or uncessary footage can be
tossed into the digital trash leaving only the important nuts and bolts to be
assembled into a story. It is important to stay focussed on the story. The story
can be as simple as a child’s birthday party but it can be told in such a way
to enjoyably lead the viewer through the day’s events as if he or she
were actually there.

Rule 2: Where, what and why?

Before the shot is composed through the viewfinder is the where, what and why.

Where are we?

What are we doing?

Why are we doing it?

Where are we? At a child’s birthday party. We are in the living room
with a lot of people. This is the big or “wide shot” allowing the
viewer to see the “big picture” of the environment that the story
may be taking place in.

What are we doing? We are listening to Grandma telling a story. Get a closer
shot of Grandma telling the story. The wide shot has been previously established
with Grandma in it so the viewer can see where Grandma is sitting in the room
in relation to everyone else. Now cut to the close up of Grandma telling the
story because this is whom the viewer is supposed to pay attention to.

Why are we doing it? Perhaps this is a funny or endearing story that Grandma
tells about the day the birthday child was born.

This is the most basic of scene cutting rules and can be applied to each new
situation or “scene”. If the birthday party kids move to the backyard
for a treasure hunt, then start with the where: the wide shot of the backyard
showing the kids being told about the treasure hunt. Then focus on the “what
are we doing”: person explaining the treasure hunt and finally the why
which is the anticipation of the eager young treasure hunters.

Audience memories are short and it is always a good idea to return to the “where
are we?” wide shot so the viewer can re-orient themselves with the environment
in which all the action is taking place. An audience can easily get “lost:
if the story is an endless series of close up shots. A good way to experience
this is to look through the camera viewfinder with the camera zoomed in. Now
stumble around the house or the backyard only looking through the viewfinder.
Do you find that you occasionally need to look away from the viewfinder, taking
a look at the “big picture”, in order to get a bearing on where
you are?

Rule 3: Have a shooting plan.

A shooting plan is crucial even if the task is simple like shooting a child’s
birthday party. Professionals always have a plan before the cameras roll. Professionals
go to painstaking measures to plan a shoot before the crew and equipment arrives.
It isn’t expected that days or weeks of preparation should take place in advance
of a child’s birthday party but a good plan would be to assess the environment
in which the shooting will occur. Where are the best angles to get a big room
shot? Where will the birthday child be sitting? Can the camera get in close
to the guest of honor? Take a few minutes to make a mental note of these things
before shooting begins.

Rule 4: Don’t zoom.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule but many amateur videographers abuse the zoom
buttons. A personal rule I use is “our eye’s don’t zoom…so
don’t do it with the video camera.”

It’s annoying when the shooter is standing in the corner of a room and
zooming in and out to various people. You’ve seen them. They stand in the corner
50 feet away from you and yell “say something funny” meanwhile they
have zoomed in so you are a close up in the frame and bouncing around as if
in a 9.0 earthquake.

The zoom feature is like holding a stick. The shorter the stick the easier
it is to point at a dot on the wall. The camera zoomed out to the widest shot
shortens the stick. Zoom all the way in and now you’ve got a situation akin
to holding a 100-foot stick. The task of pointing at that dot becomes much harder.

A good solution is to move the camera. Get off your duff and get closer, if
possible, or use a tripod.

A zoom can be used and is most commonly used as a transition from place to
place but not person to person. In the child’s birthday party scenario a storyteller
may start on the wide shot of the house exterior and then zoom into the front
door. During the zoom could be a dissolve to the wide shot of the living room.
This simple two shot process moves the viewer from the exterior to the interior.

Think of the camera like a human being. We don’t have bionic eyes (refer to
the TV show “The Six Million Dollar Man” 1973-78). Our eyes cannot
telescope in to see an object in detail that is 20 feet across the room. What
do we do? We walk over to it. Video editing allows for the unnecessary or time-wasting
shots to be compressed for time or discarded.

Rule 5: Avoid being a “pan-aholic”.

Many videographers spin themselves and their audience into the ground. They
start on one side of the room and pan 180 or more degrees and thus the viewer
forgets where they started. A pan that is too long will disorientate the viewer.
A good rule of thumb is to pan approximately 25 degrees. Look through the viewfinder.
If the pan is to the direction of your right then the object that may be just
outside of the right side of the frame should end up just outside of the left
frame. You can, of course, use less of a pan.

Rule 6: Steady up!

Use a tripod. Put the camera on a solid object. Lean against a wall. Your viewers
will love you if the shot isn’t bouncing around like you were on a trampoline.

Rule 7: Don’t be a hummingbird.

Don’t focus on someone or something and then dart off to something or someone
else two seconds later. Don’t lead your viewers to “look at that!”
and by the time they say “look at what?” the shot is already on something
else.

Simple rule: give your viewer time to absorb what it is you want them to see.

Rule 8: Tape is cheap.

Don’t be afraid to overshoot while learning how to tell a story. Take the extra
time to shoot a few variations of an object or person when time allows. As you
learn the craft you may be thankful that you had that extra shot that was level
or didn’t have the car passing in front or those tourists giving you the royal
salute.

Rule 9: Don’t treat your video camera like a still camera.

It seems that everyone with a video camera on vacation poses the family in
front of the sign at the entrance to the park or building and has them all stand
and smile. It’s great for that still photograph but this is real life and it
moves. Capture life and not still life.

Rule 10: Get out from behind the camera.

Part of being a good storyteller is to experience the stories. Don’t spend
every moment peering through a viewfinder. Get out and enjoy life! It will make
the video story that much richer.

Assembling the big picture.

Video editing software and hardware capabilities can be easily misunderstood.
This is a good time to delve into commonly used words in the video editing game;
“professional”, “rendering” and “realtime”.

To be professional doesn’t necessarily mean that someone or something is better
at a task. In human terms professional simply means that they are paid for the
given task. The term “edit like the pros” is better stated as “edit
with similar capabilities to professional equipment” but the former is
a better marketing hook. If professional editing hardware is the goal then expect
to spend like the pros. Professional editing gear is guaranteed to be out of
the acceptable budget range of most everyone.

“Realtime” editing means the equipment (hardware and software)
has the ability to instantaneously play back video clips and effects.

Rendering is the process of building a finished animation or video segment
frame by frame. Video is a series of still images shown at a frame rate that
simulates fluid motion. There are times where the video look exceeds the capabilities
of the software and hardware for realtime playback. This is usually caused by
the combination of many video layers or effects simultaneously required. The
computer needs to put these layers and/or effects together into one file or
“render”.

In the following example the first video clip transitions to the next via a
dissolve.

Some non-linear editing programs will have to “build” or render that
dissolve.

Most programs that are completely software based or if the footage is at a
high quality setting will need to render the video clips and the transition
in order for the user to view the effect.

This can be a time consuming and frustrating process as any time an adjustment
is made the program may to rebuild the effected part or the complete video in
order for the user to view the change. How can a program make the claim to realtime?

Realtime isn’t always real all the time

Realtime editing can be a misleading marketing term to the novice non-linear
editor. WindowsXP Windows Movie Maker is a very simple to use editing software
package that allows a user to import and edit DV video. Many transitions are
included and can be, depending on processor speed, in realtime.

One of the secrets that software makers use to achieve realtime editing is
compression. The rule of thumb is simple; the smaller the file size means the
easier it is for the PC to play it back. The problem when video is compressed
is that the compression can degrade video quality. In order to combat the degradation
a CODEC is applied.

CODEC is derived from the words “Compressor” and “Decompressor”.
Others define it as “coder/decoder”. The purpose of a CODEC is to
pack (and unpack) digital data therefore CODEC is not uniquely applicable to
just digital video. A CODEC reduces the original file size in the encoding process
by applying an algorithm (a specialized program). This is the compression stage.
Compression algorithms are not easily explained but, in layman’s terms, the
algorithm works by eliminating the number of redundancies in data.

In the following example the following picture was originally saved in a higher
quality TIF format and the picture file size was 417 kb. It was converted using
a GIF CODEC and the new file size was just over 1 kb. The CODEC algorithm basically
“looked” at the pixels in the image and found that information only
had to be stored for 2 colors and the rest was just spatial geometry.

The image is 430×323 pixels for a total of 138,890 pixels. Since there were
only two colors the color description information doesn’t have to be stored
nearly 150,000 times. The information for the color BLUE can be stored once
then repeated by the algorithm for the other applicable pixels. Think of it
like a 10 question math test. If you knew that every answer came to the number
“5″ then the test could be completed that much faster. Time would
not have to be spent working out each problem.

CODECs are much more complicated than that and how they work and the final
quality varies with each type of CODEC. That is why there are CODECS like AVI,
MPEG, DIVX, QuickTime and so forth. The ultimate goal of a CODEC is to make
the file size smaller and thus more manageable by the computer for playback.

How well a video file plays can depend on both processor speed and CODEC used.
A CODEC that applies a lot of compression in order for a file to play back smoothly
will result in a combination of a smaller image size and degraded quality. Better
quality will require more horsepower from the CPU and/or other hardware devices.
There comes a point when even the top end processors fizzle out when the PC
user wants to retain original quality and image size.

This is the compromise that a lot of very inexpensive or free video editing
software makes. In order to achieve realtime the sacrifice of video quality
or output size is made. If quality is to be maintained then the only option
that is left is rendering….a lot of rendering…minutes…even
hours. Continually waiting to see an effect or even a video clip only leads
to frustration. Take our advice and don’t even attempt non-linear video
editing without the proper software and hardware tools if quality is the goal.
“Cheap” software may be attractive financially but it will only
turn you off the non-linear experience when it comes to maintaining image quality.

The next step

Enter the next stage that is a step up to software/hardware processing of the
video file. A third party device is used to assist the playback of the digital
video file. The amount of assistance is directly proportional to the amount
of money spent. Broadcast non-linear editing cards can and often do convert
any file it has to play back using its own CODEC that is hardware driven independently
of the CPU. Some effects and transitions can also be driven by the non-linear
editing card. This allows real time playback and manipulation of a very high
quality image that can be nearly identical to the source. Expect to spend in
the neighborhood of $10,000 USD for an entry level broadcast non-linear hardware
and software package. From there the sky is the limit. This does not include
the PC or other playback and record hardware such as tape machines.

The Matrox RT.X10 Xtra.

Matrox answers the call with the RT.X10 Xtra. It is an input/output device
for digital and analog video and sound. It comes bundled with Adobe Premiere
6.5 (with a free upgrade to Adobe Premiere PRO), Sonic DVD-IT for DVD authoring.
Matrox Tools for camera capture and, most importantly, REALTIME editing. All
of this is at a lesser price of the standalone Adobe Premiere 6.5 software.
In other words you’d be nuts to only buy the software.

The RT.X10 Xtra adds a tremendous amount to Adobe Premiere. The Matrox RT.X10
Xtra frees the user to explore their creativity.

• 4 layers of transparency (2 video and 2 graphic channels).
• 1 channel of cropping.
• 2 channels of color correction.
• 2 channels of fast and slow motion on video.
• 1 3D perspective effect.
• 1 Flex 3D effect.

The Power of X

Matrox coins a new marketing phrase in “the
Power of X“. Here’s what Matrox says:

The Power of X – that’s what we call the ability of the new generation
of Matrox products to leverage the scalable power of your CPU with the explosive
performance of dedicated hardware for the ultimate real time video editing
experience.

Read through the white paper and you’ll come to the conclusion that the Matrox
RT.X10 Xtra is a dedicated hardware device that works cooperatively with the
non-linear editing software package to utilize the scalable power of the CPU
more efficiently and provide dedicated hardware boost to certain functions.
In layman’s terms the RT.X10 could be thought of as a supercharger on
a car. This Matrox “supercharger” still uses the engine and the same
fuel but makes the operation more efficient and with greater horsepower. There
are reasons why the Matrox RT.X10 Xtra is a benefit and advantage to the amateur
non-linear editing enthusiast.

To understand what the RT.X10 does is to understand what can’t be done without
it. This is the place where a novice non-linear editing enthusiast may become
confused. Adobe Premiere is a highly versatile and powerful non-linear editing
software program but without the Matrox RT.X10 it can be challenging. Editing
without realtime takes time. Every effect and transition has to be rendered
in order to be viewed. Sometimes, with some non-linear editing software, even
the video clip itself has to be rendered.

The first reason is realtime playback of video. A lot of software including
Microsoft’s free Movie Maker can play back digital video in realtime but
this is at a cost. This cost may be quality, output size and/or frame rate.
The RT.X10 Xtra maintains quality, frame rate and screen size.

The second is effects and transitions. Transitions can be as simple as a cut
or dissolve between clips or as complicated as wipes, page curls, or other DVE
(digital video effects) moves. Effects can be used as transitions between clips
but they are more complicated such as the outgoing video clip warping into a
cube to spin off revealing the second video clip. Again some software may be
able to reproduce these but at a cost of quality, frame rate and/or screen size.
The RT.X10 Xtra delivers a host of transitions and effects in realtime including
many effects that can be user modified.

Third are the graphic channels. Graphics can be simple text titles or imported
elements that are superimposed over video clips. Again the RT.X10 delivers not
one but two channels realtime.

These are the basic working areas for non-linear editing. Most non-linear editing
software can approximate some of these features but at a compromise of frame
rate, quality and screen size. The RT.X10 Xtra doesn’t compromise.

The Matrox RT.X10 Xtra allows the non-linear editing enthusiast to work at
full screen size and quality, like your television, without significant loss.
A great many transitions and effects can be applied and viewed instantaneously
without rendering. Two graphic tracks are available in realtime as well. In
a nutshell the Matrox RT.X10 Xtra allows for a lot of creativity in realtime.

This realtime “cut and paste” and “drag and drop” working
environment lets the editor see and revise work instantly.

Another advantage to the Matrox RT.X10 Xtra is realtime color correction. If
the video is dark or slightly off-color it can be adjusted in the timeline clip
by clip in realtime.

The RT.X10 Xtra can also capture from DV, miniDV, VHS, S-VHS, HI-8 and Digtial-8
sources and output back to them including realtime output to an NTSC or PAL
video monitor. This is acheived by way of a breakout cable which puts analog
audio/video connections including SVHS within easy reach and not tucked in behind
the PC.

The breakout cable plugs into the RT.X10 card and Matrox includes stereo 1/8″
jacks to patch the audio card output through the RT.X10 card.

When not in use the RT.X10 card simply passes through regular audio leaving
the stereo PC sound unaffected.

A 1394 connection is seen next to the breakout cable connector on the RT.X10
and Matrox bundles a 1394 cable with the RT.X10 package.

Matrox doesn’t want you to have to reach to plug in the camera.

The RT.X10 is a longer card and make no mistake that the RT.X10 is a video
card. It is not. It is a dedicated hardware component for the process of video
editing. It is seen in the following image in comparison to the newer and smaller
Matrox Millennium P750.

Documentation with the RT.X10 is superb. The RTX.10 manual is thick and a must
read.

Release notes and quick start guide are current.

As previously mentioned the RT.X10 Xtra package comes with the Matrox MediaTools
and Sonic’s DVDIT.

Adobe Premiere 6.5

Matrox bundles a full version of Adobe Premiere 6.5 with the RT.X10 Xtra package.
Be warned that the learning curve for Premiere is quite steep. If you’ve never
worked with non-linear editing software it is imperative to read the manuals
carefully. It will take some time to become familiar with all the features of
Premiere, and Adobe Premiere isn’t perfect. Many users have commented that Premiere
crashed to the desktop often. “Often” in this case was once in a session.
Even the very expensive professional broadcast non-linear editing software and
hardware crashes once in a while. It happens so take our advice, as with any
computer work, and adopt our mantra;

SAVE EARLY…SAVE OFTEN.

Our insight into this software will be brief as this article is focussed on
the Matrox RT.X10. Adobe Premiere may be a bit too complicated for the beginner.
The RT.X10 just makes the input, output and usability of Premiere that much
more enjoyable.

It is important to stress that this article-review is not focussed on the Adobe
Premiere 6.5 software but on what the Matrox RT.X10 card DOES for Adobe Premiere
6.5.

Does Realtime require real horsepower? System recommendations.

Our advice is to always go big or go home. According to the Matrox website
the RT.X10 Xtra requires the following minimum system configuration:

• Microsoft Windows XP Home or Professional, or Windows 2000 Professional
  with Service Pack 2 or later.
• Intel Pentium III at 1 GHz, Pentium 4 at 1.8 GHz, or AMD Athlon XP 1500+.
• 256 MB physical memory (RAM).
• Free PCI slot.
• Display card (Matrox Millennium G550, P650, P750, or Parhelia recommended).
• 16-bit sound card (DirectSound-compatible).
• CD-ROM drive for software installation.
• At least 500 MB of free space for software installation on system drive
  (considerably more if installing all files to be able to switch video standards).
• Separate hard drive for A/V content.
• Video camera or VCR.

Matrox recommended system configuration:

• Pentium 4 at 2.2 GHz, AMD Athlon XP 2000+, or faster.
• 512 MB RAM.
• Service Pack 1 for Windows XP, or Service Pack 3 for Windows 2000.
• DV-1394 camcorder or VTR.
• NTSC or PAL video monitor.

Our test system packed a bit more horsepower behind the Matrox RT.X10. We chose
a pair of AMD
Athlon MP 2800+ processors.

Now that you are serious about non-linear editing you should have some serious
rendering horsepower and nobody delivers more bang for the buck than AMD. Adobe
Premiere can utilize dual processors. It does not do it as well as other programs
but it can benefit from the shared workload. The reason for dual processors
of this caliber is rendering.

The Matrox RT.X10 Xtra is realtime. Why would rendering power be needed?

Indeed the Matrox RT.X10 allows a non-linear editor to work in realtime but
not all of the effects, transitions or functions are realtime. Some have to
be rendered to be viewed. The RT.X10 needs to work in its own AVI standard to
be realtime; A quicktime file would have to be converted to the Matrox AVI standard
to play back in realtime.

Another benefit of greater CPU horsepower is with the output of the finished
product. How much the processor has to calculate depends on the output format
of the finished product. Playback to a tape deck will take less horsepower due
to the fact the timeline is mostly in realtime format. Output a timeline for
use in DVD, VCD or CD will require tremendous conversion time and the more processing
power you can throw at this task the better.

Complicated timelines that exceed the realtime capabilities is another reason
for rendering horsepower. A project may combine many video clips simultaneously
such as a quad split of four different clips. This exceeds the capabilities
of most hardware/software packages like the Matrox RT.X10 and thus the layers
have to be rendered to one file to be seen.

AMD MP processors are also extremely affordable. The benefits and advantages
of an AMD dual processor system with non-linear editing are worth every penny.

Drive space is another area that should be as big as can be afforded and a
RAID 0 drive configuration is a superior choice for A/V drives (Audio – Visual).
Let’s talk about A/V drives in a computer system. The first rule is that the
programs and operating system should be on a separate drive from the A/V drives.

The Gigabyte 7DPXDW+ test motherboard featured an onboard Promise RAID controller,
which made this easy. The operating system/program drive could be on IDE 1 or
2 while the A/V drives could be in a RAID 0 configuration on the Promise RAID
controller. A third party PCI slot based RAID controller will also solve this
problem if the dual motherboard of choice does not feature on-board RAID.

RAID 0 means speed. Two drives work together as one to provide faster data
transfer. It is essential to be able to capture and deliver video quickly and
efficiently. Broadcast non-linear editing suites work with SCSI RAID systems
and better for this exact reason. We tested the RT.X10 Xtra with a single Maxtor
ATA100 60 GB drive and had no problems. Drives are very inexpensive and a pair
of 80 GB drives or even 120 GB drives in RAID 0 configuration would be better.
You will be surprised at how quickly the proverbial bucket fills up with chunks
of video.

Matrox requires the A/V drives to be NTFS in order to support single files
larger than 4 GB. This may not be as crucial when capturing video but it most
certainly will be during the output to hard drive phase. Video can chew up a
lot of space in a hurry and if the drives are kept as FAT32 the output process
may be prematurely halted due to the fact FAT32 cannot support a single file
size larger than 4 GB.

RAM is an important component. Matrox recommends 512 MB but 1 GB would be a
better choice. If a dual processor AMD system is used then remember that DDR
266 will be sufficient to match the 266 Front Side Bus speed of the MP chips.
Registered ECC RAM is typically the best RAM for dual processor boards especially
when 4 DIMMS are filled.

One of the best ways to work with non-linear editing software is with dual
monitors. Room is needed to spread out to accommodate the timeline window, toolbars
and bin windows and a single monitor configuration will only be confining.

Matrox has just introduced the very affordable P650
and P750
series of multi-monitor video cards.

This series of video cards provides all the desktop flexibility and quality
of the more expensive Parhelia, though with less memory and for video editing
that isn’t terrilbly important. The dual monitor support lets a user have
elbow room; a must have for video editing.

The P750 can also support TripleHead and Dual-display plus TV output (both
cards to dual DVI). See our full
review of the Matrox Millennium P650 & P750 for more information.

Enjoy the edit session

There are a few basic rules for a successful editing session.

Rule 1: Review your footage.

It isn’t going to wear out the camera if you sit down and watch the footage
once before the process of digitizing begins. This familiarizes the editor with
the footage and notes can be taken, mentally or on paper, on what shots should
be captured. This pertains directly to rule 2.

Rule 2: Don’t dump everything in one pass.

A lot of editors make the mistake of dumping everything to the hard drive as
one big file. They press play on the camera and start recording to the hard
drive and don’t stop until the footage is done. The yellow line represents the
complete section of digitized video.

This is a HUGE mistake and here’s why. Think of a video clip as a stick. If
all the video is captured in one clip the stick gets mighty long. The non-linear
editing enthusiast may think that they can cut up the video on the timeline
and throw away what wasn’t used.

This couldn’t be more wrong.

The video clips that are seen in the software are just pointers. They are graphical
representations of where the video begins and ends. They only point to the place
on the stick where the video starts and ends. The top yellow broken lines represent
the actual used footage which is part of the complete digitized section. The
dark blue area represents the unused footage.

The stick itself remains in its entirety on the hard drive and cannot be cut
up. Therefore if 10 minutes of footage where captured as one clip that may equal
a 4 GB single video file. If only 1 minute of that 10 minute capture were used
the 4 GB file would still have to remain. Another way of looking at this is
to compare actual digitzed video (yellow) with unused footage (blue).

Nearly one half of the digitized footage is unecessary. These are, perhaps,
those sections where the lens cap was left on or the camera was pointing at
the ground. How can this be solved?

Rule 3: Capture in pieces.

Start and stop the capture process by scenes. This cuts down the amount of
wasted hard drive space. If the camera is left on while shooting and there was
10 minutes of the lens cap on then there is no point capturing that mistake.
(See rule 2). This process is similar to “chopping up” the stick.
That CAN be done during the capture phase but not during the editing phase.
This produces individual files that can be easily organized and/or discarded
if not used. The project could be archived to a DVD ready to re-edit in the
future.

Rule 4: Put footage in bins.

Learn a term for editing. “Bins” are the name for folders that footage
is stored in. Think of organizing bins like the task of cleaning up a messy
garage. You can dump everything into one big bin but then it would be time consuming
to dig through that one big bin to find what you were looking for. If several
bins were used then the task would be that much easier. There comes a point
where too many bins can be used but that is up to the editor’s preference.

If the home video is of a child’s birthday party the editor may want to have
a bin called “birthday cake shots” and in that folder would be the
captured shots of the birthday cake. Another bin may be called “backyard
play” where the shots are stored of the children playing in the backyard.
More organization may result in another bin called “backyard play-treasure
hunt”.

This organization will only result in a more efficient and productive editing
session. It only frustrates an editor having to hunt for footage.

Rule 5: Be a little sloppy.

We aren’t saying to throw away the previous rules. We aren’t saying to leave
your clothes on the floor and the dishes unwashed. We are saying to capture
2-4 seconds before and after the shot or scene that you like. This “slop”
will give you breathing room for transitions or effects if needed. For example
if you like the shot where the child blows out the candles on the cake and you
start capturing just as the child starts blowing then there isn’t time or footage
to dissolve to that shot. Give yourself a couple of seconds before and after
the part of the shot you want to use.

Rule 6: Label your tapes.

There is nothing worse than searching through the tape drawer trying to find
which tape the birthday party was on or what year it was. Do yourself a favor
and write label the tapes with important information such as the date and subject.
It may sound trivial but you’d be surprised at how many, even in the broadcast
industry, that don’t label tapes with accurate information or any at all.

Rule 7: Clean up after yourself.

So now the video is done. Clean up that project. Delete any unused clips or
old versions and prepare the project for archiving. DVD burners are becoming
more affordable and it is quite feasible that the project can be burnt to a
DVD disc. This doesn’t mean making a DVD for playing in a DVD player. This means
using the DVD as a data storage medium. The Premiere project could be transferred
to a DVD disc or two complete, with the footage files you captured. This means
that you could store the project off the hard drive ready for a day where you
may want to revise it or add to it. If you only store a finished output version
then the proverbial scrambled egg is hard, or near impossible, to unscramble.

Conclusion.

Non-Linear editing has become affordable for the masses. The Matrox RT.X10
Xtra is an entry level package for those that are a little more serious about
video editing. At a suggested retail price of $499 USD it has the advantage
of price and a free upgrade to Adobe Premiere Pro which retails for $699 USD
for the software only. Premiere 6.5 sells for $549 USD. The Matrox RT.X10 is
an input/output device for both digital and analog cameras, tape decks and monitors.
(analog only for TV monitors). The breakout cable puts the input/output connections
within easy reach and there is a separate 1394 cable. It also comes with Sonic
DVDIT authoring software.

The Matrox RT.X10 Xtra boosts the included full version of Adobe Premiere 6.5
to realtime making the non-linear editing experience a joy. The Matrox MediaTools
DV provides a flexible and powerful capturing software interface. Matrox also
adds a selection of special effects and transitions that can be user modified.

As we said before….you’d be nuts to buy the software separately.

The learning curve for Adobe Premiere 6.5 is quite steep. It isn’t a software
package for beginners but it isn’t impossible to master. All non-linear software
isn’t impervious to crashes or glitches and Premiere is no exception.

The RT.X10 Xtra doesn’t do what the broadcast hardware does and that is convert
all footage or elements to a native CODEC. The RT.X10 does use its own AVI CODEC
during the capture phase but if a video file, such as a QuickTime movie, is
imported then it needs to be converted to the Matrox AVI CODEC before realtime
playback can occur. The CODEC is not entirely hardware driven either. This isn’t
a big concern when compared to the highly affordable price point of the RT.X10
package. Hardware that does this usually comes in complete hardware/software
solutions costing tens of thousands of dollars. The Matrox RT.X10 is powerful
enough for the amateur video editor and very affordable.

In plain, simple language I would not recommend editing video without a product
like the Matrox RT.X10….period. Non-linear video editing should be a creative
and enjoyable experience. If the expenditure has been made on a camera that
captures moments and memories in a high quality format then the video editing
tools used should maintain and improve this experience. Higher resolution video
editing requires more than just software and the Matrox RT.X10 Xtra has the
long-standing reputation of Matrox image quality and experience behind it. It
is an absolute must to consider if you want to make the non-linear editing experience
more enjoyable for both you and your audience.

Our thanks to Matrox
for their continued support of this site.