Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Spring 2015 Video and Audio Digitization Workshop - March, 2015

Transcription

1 Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Spring 2015 Video and Audio Digitization Workshop - March, 2015 Angie Schmidt, Alaska Film Archives, Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks Contact info: (907) ajschmidt@alaska.edu Why digitize? For preservation purposes? To share images and memories with loved ones? To share images and memories with the world? To create new objects by mixing footage and adding titles and music or a voiceover? What digitize? Everything? The most unique and important? A representative sample? How digitize? Using equipment at hand? Outsourcing/Using a professional service? What software for capture and edit? What file types? How manage? DVDs? Cloud storage? Hard drives? How are you going to track all of this? Item names? File names? How and where store copies? What about the original film or video? How share? DVD copies? You Tube? Facebook? Dropbox? Other? 1

2 MAKE A PLAN AND THE IMPLEMENT IT! Organize, clean, number, label and inventory your materials! Don't know what format it is? Look it up online! Make a spreadsheet (see example below) Determine condition and priority of items to digitize. Decide if you re going to do-it-yourself or send it to a lab 2

3 Do it yourself for video involves: Video deck that plays the format you have Cables that connect video deck to video capture device* Video capture device (analog to digital converter) (sometimes called a VHS to DVD converter) index.html?cmpid=mppc-vhs_to_dvd_converters_review-ecomm- P1&pkw=vhs%20dvd%20converter&s_kwcid=AL!3987!10! ! &ef_id=URVqEAAABSInEz5R: :s Cables that connect video capture device to computer Computer with video editing software OR Digital camcorder that plays the format you have Cables that connect camcorder to computer* Computer with video editing software OR FOR VHS tapes, use a Combo VCR/DVD recorder to copy VHS to DVD Then rip the DVD using free or purchased software ( *Depending on your equipment, you may be able to digitize analog video from any of several signal types, including component video, composite video, and S-Video cables. ***Test equipment first if it hasn't been used in many years!*** Do it yourself for film involves: Ingenuity and a bit of know-how If flicker is a problem, here are some answers: To simply view what s on a film, use a pair of rewinds and a film viewer/editor or even more simply - use a light table and film loupe Sending to a lab for video and film involves: Many pricing options and service levels Expect to spend 25 cents to $2.25 per foot for film (100 = 5-6 minutes) DON T SEND EVERYTHING AT ONCE and don t be afraid to send out a test item Shop around online to get a feel for the average going rates for your formats Call around to see who digitizes locally ask where they send items for digitizing Do they digitize to DVD? Blu-ray (film)? Digital file? 3

4 Now, have fun with your digital files! When adding a voiceover to your digital files, be sure to identify yourself by full name, and say where you are, and say what the date is INCLUDING YEAR! You can also give a little bit of background: This is Suzy Smith and my husband Bob Smith is here with me. We re in our kitchen in Fairbanks, Alaska, and today s date is Sunday, December 3 rd, Today we re going to tell you a little bit about the Smith family films that Bob and I made as our three kids Suzy, Bill, and Jane were growing up during the 1960s in Fairbanks. Bob and I were married in Wyoming in 1963 and moved to Fairbanks in 1964, and this first film shows Jane just after she was born on June 10, 1965 (etc) Share your creations with family and friends, but consider who can see your stuff online! Uploading to You Tube from your desktop computer: 1. Sign into YouTube. 2. Click the Upload button at the top of the page. 3. Before you start uploading the video you can chose the video privacy settings. 4. Select the video you'd like to upload from your computer. To upload videos for Facebook: 1. Click at the top of your News Feed or Timeline 2. Click Upload Photos/Video and choose a video file from your computer 3. Click Post 4. Your video will need to process before others can see it on Facebook. When it's ready to view, you'll get a notification. Go to the video and click Edit to add a title, tag friends, choose a thumbnail and more. LOCKSS - LOTS OF COPIES KEEPS STUFF SAFE IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE, LABEL YOUR ORIGINAL MEDIA AND NAME FILES WELL!!! 4

5 Exercise: 1. Turn computer on 2. Turn VCR on 3. Open VIDBOX for Mac 4. VCR >> 5. RCA>> 6. Connect>> 7. Set recording time at 1 minute (00:01:00) 8. Save location as listed >> 9. Insert VHS into VCR and push play 10. Hit record button on computer screen 11. After 1 minute, recording auto-stops 12. Select imovie 13. Clip and drag media from bottom screen to top screen 14. Name Project: OLLI-test1 15. Choose aspect ratio of 4:3 (for analog media) 16. Select voiceover icon in imovie 17. De-select play project audio while recording 18. Click on clip at top of screen to being recording 19. Speak as video plays 20. Click on clip to stop recording 21. Go to Share Export Movie 22. Export as a file named OLLI test1 to Desktop (select large file size) 23. Drag and drop to file in Dropbox 24. Wait a few minutes and view through Dropbox on mobile device 5

6 How to Digitize Your Videos, Records and 8mm Films While it may not be worth the time to turn your old Beatles albums into MP3s or Disney Movies to DVDs, there are some home movies or vinyl classics that you just have to keep. Here's how to to make your own, home analog-to-digital transition. By Seth Porges Apr 30, 2009 Entropy conquers all analog media, forcing records and video to slowly crumble, warp and fade threatening memories and music with oblivion. Digitizing these treasures can ensure that, no matter what mischief takes place in the attic, the good stuff will endure in an easy-to-copy format. But before you go about the tedious task of digitizing a massive record or VHS collection, ask yourself whether it's worth it. In many cases, it's impossible to digitize media in faster-than-real time. If you have hundreds of LPs, this can take days. And if something is readily available in a digital format, chances are that the professionally made version will look or sound a lot better than any copy you can produce. That being said, digitizing analog media can be a lot of fun. It's a great excuse to go through old records or view dusty home movies. Here's my rule of thumb: Digitize only things that are rare, irreplaceable or deeply personal. The footage of your kid's first steps? Back it up. A much-played VHS copy of It's a Wonderful Life? Toss it and buy the DVD. Music I've got a large collection of vinyl LPs mostly hand-me-downs from my father. And while most of these records are readily available as MP3s or CDs Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel a few of them will never find their way onto itunes. A vinyl recording of my father's performance in the 1962 New Jersey State High School Orchestra, for example this I want to digitize. For records, the process is straightforward. Plug the turntable into an audio amplifier (this is typically done through dual red and white RCA jacks), then plug the amp into a computer's sound input jack using an RCA-to-headphone cord. (The RCA end goes into the amp's output slot, and the headphone jack into the computer's audio input jack.) To save music from the LP to your computer, you'll need an audio-editing program. I like Audacity. It's free and it's easy to use. Just turn the turntable on and click the Line In button in the program. To save the songs, click on File, then Export, and choose a name and file format for your tracks. The process for converting other analog audio is almost identical swap in a cassette or eight-track player for the turntable. Some newer record players even have a USB output that plugs directly into the computer. Others make it still easier: The new Ion Audio LP Dock has a built-in ipod dock that transfers vinyl directly to an MP3 player no PC required. 6

7 VHS If you want to digitize VHS movies, you have several options. Using a professional service to transfer home movies to DVD is fairly inexpensive often it costs as little as $20 per tape but the job is also easy to do yourself. The easy way: Get a combination VHS and DVD recorder. These can be found for under $100; they allow users to easily transfer their movies without a TV or PC hookup just put in the old tape, pop a blank DVD-R in the DVD recorder, hit play on the VHS side and record on the DVD side. That's it. The slightly harder way: Plug a VCR into a device that allows it to connect to a computer, and then record the footage using a video-editing program. This device can be either an internal video-capture card, an external video-capture device or a camcorder. Using a yellow composite video cable or S-video cable, connect the VCR to the capture device's input jack. Open a video-editing program, such as Windows Movie Maker or imovie, then hit the play button on the VCR and Record in the program. Once the video is saved on a PC, it can easily be burned to a DVD or uploaded to the Web. Reel-to-Reel Many people's oldest and most treasured videos aren't videos at all they are movies recorded on 8 mm. And while professional services can digitize these for you, the fees tend to be very high usually several hundred dollars per reel. So it may be best to copy these yourself. The quality won't quite equal the professionals', but with proper preparation, it can be good. Digitizing film yourself means going pirate: Project your film onto a wall, and record the images using a camcorder. Of course, anybody who has ever glimpsed a bootleg movie knows that this method has its problems even if you don't need to worry about noisy moviegoers and their silhouettes, it's still an uphill battle against poor picture quality. For best results, you'll need the following equipment: a variable-speed reel-to-reel projector, a camcorder, a tripod and a TV. One thing you don't need is an expensive projection screen a piece of poster board taped to the wall will do. It's best to do this at night, in the darkest room you have. Lower shades, turn off lights and do all you can to minimize ambient light. Slowly tweak the projector's speed until there is no flickering in the camcorder's picture. Adjust the projector so that the picture is in focus and a bit more than a foot tall (the smaller the image, the more detail it keeps), then mount the camcorder on its tripod and connect it to a TV so that the screen acts as a giant viewfinder. Place the camera near the projector so that the angle is as close to straight-on as possible, but doesn't interfere with the view. Then, zoom in on the picture so that it precisely fills the frame. Manually focus the camcorder's image the autofocus could cause it to drift in and out of focus during the projection. If the movie is silent, be sure to mute the microphone on the camcorder. If there is sound, connect the audio output of the projector directly to the camcorder's audio input. And, of course, don't be afraid to try several takes until you produce a movie you're happy with. 7