Avid Xpress DV Getting Started Guide 1.0 Windows NT Gs

User Manual: avid Xpress DV - 1.0 - Windows NT - Getting Started Guide Free User Guide for Avid Xpress Software, Manual

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tools for storytellers™
Avid Xpress® DV
Getting Started Guide
Release 1.0
for the Windows NT® Operating System
2
© 2000 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.
Avid Xpress DV Getting Started Guide for the Windows NT Operating System • Part 0130-04379-01 Rev. A •
February 2000
3
Contents
Chapter 1 Setting Up Your Avid Xpress DV System
Check List for Setting Up Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Turning On Your Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Preparing Your Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Overview of Partitioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Supported File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Checking Your Internal Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Creating Primary Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Formatting Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Creating a Disk Configuration Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Testing Drives on Windows NT Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Installing Avid Xpress DV Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Installing Avid Xpress DV Software and All Components . . . 24
Installing Selected Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Performing a Custom Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Modifying, Repairing, or Removing Avid Xpress DV. . . . . . . . 29
Installing AvidNet Transfer Tool Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Installing EDL Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Creating an Emergency Repair Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Installing the Avid Xpress DV Tutorial Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Turning Off Your Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 2 About Avid Xpress DV
About DV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Nonlinear Editing with Avid Xpress DV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4
Avid Xpress DV Terms and Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Subclips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Attic Folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Avid Xpress DV File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Project Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Starting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Preparing to Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Editing a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Generating Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Chapter 3 Learning How to Use Avid Xpress DV
Using the Tutorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Using Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Opening and Closing the Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Getting Help for Windows and Dialog Boxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Getting Help for Screen Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Printing Help Topics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Using Online Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Tips and Other Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chapter 4 Starting a Project and Creating a Simple Sequence
Starting Avid Xpress DV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Using the Open Project Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Creating a User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Selecting and Opening a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Creating a Simple Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Closing the Project and Quitting the Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Chapter 5 Playing and Marking Clips
Exploring the Project Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
The Bins Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
The Settings Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Info Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Opening a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Viewing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Using Text View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Using Frame View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Switching Between Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Playing Clips in a Source Pop-up Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using the Keyboard to Play Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using Buttons and the Position Indicator to Play Clips . . . . . . 79
Marking IN and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Marking the First Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Marking Another Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Playing a Sequence in a Source Pop-up Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Using Timecode to Find a Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
About Timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Using Timecode to Mark IN and OUT Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Using Frame Offset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Creating Subclips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Clearing IN Points and OUT Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Saving Your Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter 6 Creating a Sequence
Working in the Avid Xpress DV Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Minimizing Avid Xpress DV Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Default Locations for the Avid Xpress DV Windows . . . . . . . . 94
6
Making the First Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Playing a Video Clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Dragging a Video Clip and Creating a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Moving and Renaming the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Opening a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Opening and Using the Tool Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Opening and Tearing Off the Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Displaying Button Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Splicing in an Audio Clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Using Digital Audio Scrub to Locate a Specific Frame of
Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Playing IN to OUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Splicing in the Clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Reviewing Your Edits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Exploring the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Displaying More or Less Detail in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Navigating in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Using the Position Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Using the Scroll Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Using the Track Selector Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Selecting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Monitoring Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Splicing in a Video Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Adding Additional Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Splicing in the Clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Splicing a Clip into the Middle of a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Moving to the Head of a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Splicing in the Clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Undoing an Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Splicing in a Music Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Opening and Marking the Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Patching Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Selecting the Tracks to Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
7
Splicing in the Clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Reviewing Your Edits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Confirming the Duration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chapter 7 Building a Sequence
Storyboard Editing the Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Marking IN and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Creating the Storyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Editing the Clips into the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Overwriting Clips into a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Backtiming an Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Rearranging Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Overwriting with a Three-Point Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Using Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Changing the Order of Clips in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Removing Footage from a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Removing Footage and Closing the Resulting Gap . . . . . 125
Removing Footage and Retaining the Resulting Gap . . . 126
Replacing a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Adjusting Both Sides of a Transition (Dual-Roller
Trimming). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Single-Roller Trimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Adding the Final Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Working with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Adjusting Audio Pan (Balance) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Adjusting Audio Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Chapter 8 Adding Effects
Effects Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Transition Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8
Segment Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Dissolving Between Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Creating a Series of Dissolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Rendering a Series of Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Adding Additional Dissolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Changing the Position of a Dissolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Adding a Picture-in-Picture Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Displaying the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Using the Second Video Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Creating the Picture-in-Picture Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Resizing the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Previewing the Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Adjusting the Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Fading In and Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Rendering the Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Adding a Flop Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Chapter 9 Creating Titles
Creating a New Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Adding a Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Positioning and Aligning Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Saving a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Editing the Title into the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Fading a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Editing a Saved Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Changing Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Saving the Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Editing the Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Renaming Your Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
9
Chapter 10 Generating Output
Creating a Movie for the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
About RealMedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Preparing the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Creating a RealMedia Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Exporting a QuickTime Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Using the QuickTime DV Codec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Exporting the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Outputting a Digital Cut to Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
About Remote and Local Deck Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Changing the Timecode of the Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Configuring Your Camera or Video Deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Recording a Digital Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Chapter 11 Backing Up and Deleting a Project
Backing Up Project Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Backing Up Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Deleting a Project Folder and Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Deleting a Project Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Deleting Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Appendix A Connecting Your Editing Equipment
Connecting the Application Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Connecting the External SCSI Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Installation Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Placing the Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Cabling the Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Determining the SCSI IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Setting the SCSI IDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Connecting the Editing Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Overview of the Hardware Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
10
Cables Needed to Connect the Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Cables Shipped with the Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Optional Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Connecting a Digital Video Deck or Camera to the
Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Connecting an Analog Video Deck to the Computer. . . . . . . . 216
Controlling an Analog Video Deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Index
11
Figures
Figure 1-1 Example of Local Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Figure A-1 Application Key Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Figure A-2 Placing the External SCSI Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Figure A-3 Example of a Chain of SCSI Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Figure A-4 Cable and Terminator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Figure A-5 Connecting the Adapter Cable to the SCSI Board. . . 202
Figure A-6 Connecting the Adapter Cable to the First
SCSI Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Figure A-7 Connecting the Interconnect Cable Between
SCSI Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Figure A-8 Connecting the LVD Terminator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Figure A-9 Setting the SCSI IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Figure A-10 SCSI ID Switch Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Figure A-11 SCSI ID Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Figure A-12 Computer Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Figure A-13 Connecting the Digital Video Deck or Camera . . . . . 213
Figure A-14 Connecting an Analog Video Deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Figure A-15 Analog Video Deck Control Cabling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
12
Tables
Table 1-1 Check List for Setting Up Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Table 1-2 Custom Installation Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Table A -1 Numbers Associated with SCSI Switch Letters. . . . . 208
Table A -2 Connecting the Digital Video Deck or Camera . . . . 214
Table A -3 Connecting an Analog Video Deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
13
CHAPTER 1
Setting Up Your
Avid Xpress DV System
This chapter describes how to set up your Avid Xpress DV system. It
consists of the following sections:
•Check List for Setting Up Your System
•Turning On Your Equipment
•Preparing Your Drives
•Installing Avid Xpress DV Software
•Installing AvidNet Transfer Tool Software
•Installing EDL Manager
•Creating an Emergency Repair Disk
•Installing the Avid Xpress DV Tutorial Files
•Turning Off Your Equipment
14
Check List for Setting Up Your System
The check list in Tab le 1-1 lists the tasks you need to complete before
you can use your Avid Xpress DV system.
Table 1-1 Check List for Setting Up Your System
To See
Set up your computer hardware:
computer, monitor, mouse, keyboard,
and speakers
Instructions shipped with the
computer
Connect your optional external drives Appendix A
Install the application key and printer Appendix A
Connect your camera or video deck
(you can connect these after you install
the software if you prefer)
Appendix A
Turn on your equipment “Turning On Your Equipment” on
page 15
Prepare your drives “Preparing Your Drives” on page 16
Install Avid Xpress DV software “Installing Avid Xpress DV
Software” on page 24
Create an emergency repair disk “Creating an Emergency Repair
Disk” on page 34
Install Avid Xpress DV tutorial files
(optional)
“Installing the Avid Xpress DV
Tutorial Files” on page 35
15
Turning On Your Equipment
After you have connected your equipment, turn on the various
components. If you have connected external drives, you need to shut
down and restart your computer before the computer can detect and
use the external drives.
If any part of your system fails to turn on, make sure its electrical cord
is plugged snugly into an appropriate electrical outlet or power strip.
For more information, see the instructions for setting up your
computer hardware.
cIf you fail to follow the proper sequence for starting your system,
you could damage your computer or storage drives.
Turn on the components in the following order:
1. External media drives: Your system might include one or more
external media drives. Turn on the drive or drives before starting
the computer. Allow 10 to 15 seconds for the drives to spin up to
speed before starting your computer.
2. Other peripheral hardware: Turn on all other peripheral units,
such as monitor and speakers. If you have connected a camera,
transcoder, or deck, turn them on now.
3. Computer:
a. Turn on your computer.
The computer goes through a self-check routine, and the
Windows NT startup screen appears.
For information on your
Windows NT features,
such as the desktop and
icons, see your
Windows NT
documentation.
b. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and log on.
The Windows NT desktop appears.
16
cTo avoid system damage, do not disconnect or turn off the external
media drives while the computer is on.
Preparing Your Drives
To use Avid Xpress DV software on a Windows NT system, you need
to partition and format the drives properly. Partitioning divides a drive
into sections, and formatting places a file system on each partition.
Your computer contains two internal disk drives. One drive is already
partially partitioned and formatted (see “Checking Your Internal
Drives” on page 18). This partition contains the Windows NT
operating system. That’s why the Windows NT operating system
appears automatically when you turn on the computer.
This section includes the following information:
•Overview of Partitioning
•Supported File Systems
•Checking Your Internal Drives
17
•Creating Primary Partitions
•Formatting Partitions
•Creating a Disk Configuration Floppy Disk
•Testing Drives on Windows NT Systems
Overview of Partitioning
Windows NT allows you to create multiple partitions on a single
physical drive as a way to manage projects and files. The following are
two ways you can partition your drives.
The letters G through J
used are examples only. • You can partition your drive as one primary partition, having the
partition represented by a drive letter.
• You can have up to four primary partitions per drive. Each
partition is assigned a drive letter and cannot be further
subdivided.
For specific recommendations for partitioning your drives, see
“Creating Primary Partitions” on page 20.
G
One partition
Drive G
GHIJ
Four partitions
Drives G – J
18
nYou can also create a partition across more than one drive, which is
called striping drives. You do not need to stripe drives when you use
Avid Xpress DV. See the Windows NT documentation for striping
information.
Supported File Systems
Windows NT supports two file systems: the File Allocation Table
(FAT) and the New Technology File System (NTFS). FAT is primarily
used when backward compatibility is needed on operating systems
such as MS-DOS® or Windows NT. In general, FAT file systems should
be limited to a 2-GB partition size to maintain this backward
compatibility. NTFS affords the user security, compression, and other
file recovery features. Drives employing NTFS support partitions of
any size. Avid recommends that you choose NTFS when you partition
your disk drives.
cOne of your internal disk drives has a partition (designated drive C)
that contains the Windows NT operating system stored on a FAT file
system. You should not reformat this partition unless you need to
rebuild your system disk drive.
Checking Your Internal Drives
Your computer contains two internal disk drives. The first drive has a
2-GB partition that is formatted with a FAT file system. This partition
is your system or boot drive, which is designated drive C in the factory
default configuration. The remaining portion of this drive needs to be
partitioned and formatted before you install Avid Xpress DV software.
The second drive is intended to be used as a media drive (see “Media
Files” on page 40). You need to partition and format this drive also.
19
To check if you need to partition and format these drives:
1. Start Windows NT 4.0 and log in to an account with
administrative privileges.
2. Click the Start button, point to Programs, point to Administrative
Tools, and select Disk Administrator. The Disk Administrator
window opens.
3. Look at Disk 0 and Disk 1.
Your Disk 0 should look similar to Disk 0 in Figure 1-1. The figure
shows Partition C on Disk 0, with a stripe across the top, with
IBM® Preload and a FAT file system.
cYou should not partition and format the partition that contains the
Windows NT operating system. In the factory default configuration,
this partition is designated drive C, as shown in Figure 1-1.
Any remaining portion of Disk 0 or Disk 1 that shows Free Space
(as shown in Figure 1-1) needs to be partitioned and formatted.
Figure 1-1 Example of Local Disks
9420 MB
18428 MB 18 MB
Needs partitioning and formatting
Already partitioned and formatted
20
Creating Primary Partitions
To create a primary partition:
1. Start Windows NT 4.0 and log in to an account with
administrative privileges. If you do not have administrative
privileges, see your system administrator to get privileges.
2. Click the Start button, point to Programs, point to Administrative
Tools, and select Disk Administrator. The first Disk Administrator
window opens.
3. From the Windows NT Disk Administrator, use the pointer to
select the portion of the disk on which you are going to create one
or more primary partitions.
4. From the Partition menu, choose Create.
The Create Primary Partition dialog box appears.
5. Choose the size of the primary partition by typing a number or by
clicking the up or down arrow.
Avid recommends creating a second partition on the first internal
drive (Disk 0), using all the remaining space. Avid also
recommends creating one large partition on the second internal
drive (Disk 1). In both cases, use the maximum size for the
partition.
21
If you want to create multiple partitions, you can divide the
maximum size of the partition by the number of partitions (up to
4). Type that number in the Create partition of size text box.
6. Click OK to create the primary partition.
7. If you are formatting multiple partitions, repeat steps 3 through 6
to create up to four primary partitions.
8. From the Partition menu, choose Commit Changes Now.
The first Confirm dialog box appears.
9. Click Yes.
The following Disk Administrator dialog box appears.
10. Click OK.
Formatting Partitions
To format the primary partitions you created:
1. From the Windows NT Disk Administrator, use the pointer to
select the primary partition that you are going to format.
22
2. From the Tools menu, choose Format.
The Format window opens.
3. Choose NTFS File System.
4. Type a Volume Label Name that helps you define that partition.
You can enter up to 14 characters.
5. Select Quick Format.
6. Click Start to begin formatting.
The Format warning dialog box appears.
23
This warning refers only to the new partition, not previously
formatted partitions.
7. Click OK.
The Format Complete dialog box appears after formatting and
tells you the total disk space and the total disk space available on
the volume.
8. Click OK.
9. Repeat steps 1 through 8 until you have formatted all of the
primary partitions you created.
Creating a Disk Configuration Floppy Disk
You should now save the new disk configuration on a floppy disk.
To create a configuration floppy disk:
1. Start Windows NT 4.0 and log in to an account with
administrative privileges. If you do not have administrative
privileges, see your system administrator to get privileges.
2. Click the Start button, point to Programs, point to Administrative
Tools, and select Disk Administrator. The first Disk Administrator
window opens.
3. Choose Configuration from the Partition menu and select Save.
4. A dialog box appears asking you to insert a floppy disk into the
floppy drive.
5. Click Yes.
Store the configuration floppy disk in a safe, dry, static-free location.
nWhenever you change your disk configuration, create a new configuration
floppy disk.
24
Testing Drives on Windows NT Systems
The Windows NT operating system contains a disk-checking feature in
the Properties section of each drive and a program named CHKDSK.
For information about how to use this feature and program, see the
Windows NT documentation.
Installing Avid Xpress DV Software
This section describes how to install the Avid Xpress DV application
and its related components from the installation CD-ROM.
nIn order to install or remove the application software, you need to use an
account with administrative privileges.
cThe following third-party software applications have been modified
to work properly with Avid software: RealProducer G2, LSX-MPEG,
ASF NetShow™, and QuickTime®. Downloading newer versions of
these applications before they are supported by Avid might cause
problems. Avid recommends not updating any of these applications
until they are officially supported by Avid. Check the Customer
Service section of the Avid Web site at www.avid.com.
Installing Avid Xpress DV Software and All Components
To install the Avid Xpress DV software and all related components:
1. Quit all Windows NT applications.
2. Insert the Avid Xpress DV application CD-ROM into the CD-ROM
drive.
25
If the installation program doesn’t start automatically:
a. Double-click the My Computer icon.
b. Double-click your CD-ROM drive icon.
c. Double-click the Launch icon.
The opening window of the installer opens.
3. In the opening window, click Installers.
4. Click Install Avid Xpress DV.
nIf you have not partitioned and formatted the second internal disk drive (in
addition to drive C) or additional external drives, a message appears. This
message informs you that you need at least two partitions to run
Avid Xpress DV. One partition is the boot drive (drive C), and the other
partition is used to store media. For instructions on partitioning and
formatting drives, see “Preparing Your Drives” on page 16.
If you have previously installed Avid Xpress DV, the Welcome
window for the Setup Maintenance program opens. Follow the
steps in “Modifying, Repairing, or Removing Avid Xpress DV”
on page 29
5. In the Welcome window, click Next.
6. In the License Agreement window, read the agreement, and then
click Yes to accept the terms of the agreement.
7. In the Choose Destination Location window, accept the default
path for the application folder (on drive C) by clicking Next. The
default path is:
C:\Program Files\Avid\Avid Xpress DV
8. In the Setup Type window, select an option:
• Select Typical to install all components. This is the
recommended installation.
• Select Custom to select the components you want to install.
See “Performing a Custom Installation” on page 28.
26
9. After you have selected an option, click Next.
The AVX_Plug-In Location window opens and displays the
default destination as:
C:\Program Files\Avid\AVX_Plug-ins
10. Click Next to accept the default path.
11. In the Application Data Location window, indicate a location for
the application files (project folders and user folders).
nAvid recommends that you install these files on a drive or partition other than
drive C.
To change the default path:
a. Click the Browse button.
b. In the Path text box, type:
drive
:\Avid\Avid Xpress DV
c. Click OK.
A message asks if you want to create the folder.
d. Click Yes.
12. Click Next.
The installation begins. During the installation, you see
installation programs for a series of components. For
RealProducer G2, a Welcome window opens.
a. Click Next
b. In the License Agreement window, click Yes.
c. In the RealProducer G2 Setup Complete window, click Finish.
When the Avid Xpress DV installation is complete, another Setup
Complete window opens and asks if you want to restart the
system.
13. Click Yes, and then click Finish.
27
Installing Selected Components
You can install some Avid Xpress DV components separately. These
components, which create movies for Internet distribution, include:
• RealProducer G2
• LSX-MPEG
• ASF NetShow
•QuickTime
To install a selected component:
1. Quit all Windows NT applications.
2. Insert the Avid Xpress DV Installation CD-ROM into the CD-ROM
drive.
If the installation program doesn't start automatically:
a. Double-click the My Computer icon.
b. Double-click your CD-ROM drive icon.
c. Double-click the Launch icon.
The opening window of the installer opens.
3. In the opening window, click Component Installers.
4. Select the component you want to install and follow the on-screen
instructions.
28
Performing a Custom Installation
You can perform a custom installation to install particular files from
the installation CD-ROM. Tabl e 1- 2 lists the components available
when you use the Custom option of the Avid Application Installer.
To perform a custom installation:
1. Follow steps 1 through 7 in the procedure “Installing Avid Xpress
DV Software and All Components” on page 24.
2. In the Setup Type window, click Custom and then click Next.
3. In the Select Components window, click the check boxes next to
the components you want to install. A check mark indicates the
component is selected.
4. After you have selected the components to install, click Next.
5. In the Application Data Location window, indicate a location for
the application files (project folders and user folders).
nAvid recommends that you install these files on a drive or partition other than
drive C.
Table 1-2 Custom Installation Components
Component Description
Avid Xpress DV Installs the application and all the necessary
supporting files, except the Help files.
Help files Installs the appropriate Help files.
29
To change the default path:
a. Click the Browse button.
b. In the Path text box, type:
drive
:\Avid\Avid Xpress DV
c. Click OK.
A message asks if you want to create the folder.
d. Click Yes.
6. Click Next.
The installation begins. When the installation is complete, a
message asks if you want to restart the system.
7. Click Yes, and then click Finish.
Modifying, Repairing, or Removing Avid Xpress DV
If you have installed Avid Xpress DV and need to reinstall or remove
it, you use the Setup Maintenance program.
To modify, repair, or remove Avid Xpress DV:
1. Quit all Windows NT applications.
2. Insert the Avid Xpress DV application CD-ROM into the CD-ROM
drive.
If the installation program doesn’t start automatically:
a. Double-click the My Computer icon.
b. Double-click your CD-ROM drive icon.
c. Double-click the Launch icon.
The opening window of the installer opens.
3. In the opening window, click Installers.
4. Click Install Avid Xpress DV.
30
The Welcome window for the Setup Maintenance program opens.
It presents three options:
• Modify: Select this option to add new program components or
remove currently installed components.
nIf you choose to remove currently installed components, this option does not
remove registry entries or icons in the Start menu. To fully uninstall
Avid Xpress DV, select the Remove option.
nIf you want to remove Avid AVI Codec, RealProducer G2, LSX-MPEG
(Ligos), ASF NetShow, or QuickTime, use the Add/Remove Programs dialog
box. To access Add/Remove programs, click the Start menu, point to Settings,
click Control Panel, and double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
• Repair: Select this option to reinstall the components that you
previously installed.
• Remove: Select this option to completely uninstall all
components of Avid Xpress DV.
5. Select one of the three options and click Next.
• If you selected Modify, the Select Components window opens.
Components that are already installed are selected. Select the
new components you want to install. The installation
proceeds, as described in steps 12 and 13 in “Installing Avid
Xpress DV Software” on page 24.
cIf you deselect an installed component, the installation program will
remove the component from the Avid Xpress DV system.
• If you selected Repair, the installation proceeds, as described
in steps 12 and 13 in “Installing Avid Xpress DV Software”
on page 24.
• If you selected Remove, a message box asks you to confirm
that you want to delete the files. Click OK. When the
Maintenance Complete window opens, click Finish. Click Exit
to quit the installation program.
31
Installing AvidNet Transfer Tool Software
The AvidNet™ Transfer Tool is an application that allows you to
transfer media and files over a network. For information on using the
AvidNet Transfer Tool, see the AvidNet Transfer Tool User’s Guide,
available on the Avid Xpress DV Online Publications CD-ROM, and the
Avid Xpress DV Release Notes.
nBefore installing the AvidNet Transfer Tool, you should first install
Avid Xpress DV. The installer can find media drives already configured on
the system only if you install the AvidNet Transfer Tool after you install
Avid Xpress DV.
To install the AvidNet Transfer Tool software:
1. Quit all Windows NT applications.
2. Insert the Avid Xpress DV application CD-ROM into the CD-ROM
drive.
3. If the installation program doesn’t start automatically:
a. Double-click the My Computer icon.
b. Double-click your CD-ROM drive icon.
c. Double-click the Launch icon.
The opening window of the installer opens.
4. In the opening window, click Installers.
5. Click Install AvidNet.
6. In the Welcome window, click Next.
7. In the License Agreement window, read the agreement, and then
click Yes to accept the terms of the agreement.
8. In the Choose Destination Location window, accept the default
path for the application folder (on drive C) by clicking Next. The
default path is:
C:\Program Files\Avid\AvidNet
32
If you have installed the AvidNet Transfer Tool previously, a
dialog box asks you if you want to uninstall files. Click Yes, and
then follow the on-screen instructions.
9. Select a media drive for Incoming Media Files and click Next.
10. Select a destination location for Incoming Files and click Next.
If you select a location on drive C, a message tells you that you
need to select an NTFS drive for compatibility with Macintosh
files. For compatibility, click No, select a drive other than drive C,
and click Next.
11. Select a destination location for Incoming Compositions and click
Next.
12. Select a directory in which to place the AvidNet log file and click
Next.
13. In the Enter Information window, leave the selection as No BWM
Server and click Next.
14. In the Start Copying Files window, review the current settings. If
you agree with those settings, click Next to copy the files.
15. Click Yes to view the ReadMe file when prompted in the Question
window, or click No to complete the setup.
16. In the Setup Complete window, click Yes to restart the computer,
and then click Finish.
33
Installing EDL Manager
EDL Manager is an application that allows you to generate EDLs (edit
decision lists) from sequences exported from any Avid video-based
editing product. For information on using EDL Manager, see the
Avid EDL Manager User’s Guide, available on the Avid Xpress DV Online
Publications CD-ROM.
You can install EDL Manager on another computer. For example, you
might want to install EDL Manager on a portable computer that you
can take with you to an online suite, or on a computer located at the
online suite.
To install EDL Manager:
1. Quit all Windows NT applications.
2. Insert the Avid Xpress DV application CD-ROM into the CD-ROM
drive.
3. If the installation program doesn’t start automatically:
a. Double-click the My Computer icon.
b. Double-click your CD-ROM drive icon.
c. Double-click the Launch icon.
The opening window of the installer opens.
4. In the opening window, click Installers.
5. Click Install EDL Manager.
If you have previously installed EDL Manager, the Setup
Maintenance Program window opens. Follow the steps in
“Modifying, Repairing, or Removing Avid Xpress DV” on
page 29.
6. In the Welcome window, click Next.
34
7. In the License Agreement window, read the agreement, and then
click Yes to accept the terms of the agreement.
8. In the Choose Destination Location window, accept the default
path for the application folder (on drive C) by clicking Next. The
default path is:
C:\Program Files\Avid\EDL Manager
9. In the Setup Type window, select Typical and click Next.
The installation proceeds and the Setup Complete window opens.
10. Do one of the following:
• To quit the installation procedure and start EDL Manager,
select Launch EDL Manager Now, and click Finish.
• To quit the installation procedure without starting
EDL Manager, deselect Launch EDL Manager Now,
and click Finish.
Creating an Emergency Repair Disk
Avid recommends that you update the emergency repair disk (ERD)
each time you add or change hardware or software to your system.
The ERD is a floppy disk that contains the latest information about
your system configuration. It is needed in case your system is
damaged and you need to rebuild your system from scratch. If you
have a problem, search for Emergency Repair Disk in the Windows NT
Help.
35
To create a repair disk:
1. Start Windows NT 4.0 and log in to an account with
administrative privileges. If you do not have administrative
privileges, see your system administrator to get privileges.
2. Click the Start button and select Run. The Run window opens.
3. Type rdisk /s and press the Enter key.
4. Follow the instructions to create a repair disk.
Store the emergency repair disk in a safe, dry, static-free location.
Installing the Avid Xpress DV Tutorial Files
The Avid Xpress DV Tutorial CD-ROMs contain all the files you need
for the tutorial chapters of this guide, including DV media that is
ready for you to use. The tutorial files are shipped on two CD-ROMs,
in either NTSC or PAL format.
You will need approximately 1 GB of free space available on a media
drive. It takes approximately 10 minutes to complete the installation
program.
To install the tutorial files:
1. Quit all Windows NT applications.
2. Insert Avid Xpress DV Tutorial CD 1 into the CD-ROM drive.
If the installer doesn’t start automatically after you insert the
application CD-ROM, do the following:
a. Double-click the My Computer icon.
b. Double-click the CD-ROM to open it.
c. Double-click the Launch icon to start the installer.
The opening window of the installer opens.
36
3. In the opening window, click Installers.
4. Click Install Tutorial.
5. In the Welcome window, click Next.
6. In the Choose Destination Location window, accept the default
path and click Next.
This path should add the Avid Projects folder to the path you
selected for application data when you installed Avid Xpress DV.
See “Installing Avid Xpress DV Software” on page 24.
7. In the Select a Drive window, select a drive for the tutorial media
and click Next.
The installation begins. When the installation is finished for CD 1,
a message asks you to insert Avid Xpress DV Tutorial CD 2 into
the CD-ROM drive.
8. Insert CD 2 into the CD-ROM drive and click OK.
9. When the installation is complete, the Setup Complete window
opens. Click Finish.
10. Click Exit to quit the installation program.
The installation program copies the following folders to your system:
•Introducing Avid folder: This folder contains the project and bins
you need for the tutorial and is copied into the Avid Projects folder
on your hard drive.
•OMFI MediaFiles folder: This folder contains the media files you
need for the tutorial and is copied to a media drive.
37
Turning Off Your Equipment
When you are finished using your system and want to turn it off
completely, follow these steps to avoid damaging your computer or
media storage drives. Make sure to quit Avid Xpress DV before
turning off your equipment. See “Closing the Project and Quitting
the Application” on page 68.
To turn off your equipment:
1. Choose Shut Down from the Start menu.The Shut Down Windows
dialog box appears.
2. Select the Shut down the computer option and click Yes.
3. When the system displays a message telling you it is safe to turn
off your computer, press the Power button on the computer.
4. Turn off your speakers and monitors.
5. Turn off each external media drive.
6. Turn off all other hardware.
cNever remove external media drives from your Avid Xpress DV
system when it is turned on. Shut down the computer before you
move drives.
38
CHAPTER 2
About Avid Xpress DV
This chapter explains the basic concepts and terminology that you
need to be familiar with to edit video with Avid Xpress DV. These
concepts include:
•About DV
•Nonlinear Editing with Avid Xpress DV
•Avid Xpress DV Terms and Concepts
•The Avid Xpress DV File System
•Project Workflow
39
About DV
The initials DV in the product name Avid Xpress DV stand for digital
video. More specifically, they refer to digital video that is transferred
through equipment conforming to IEEE Standard 1394. This
equipment (cameras, video and audio decks, cables, connectors, and
processing boards) is sometimes referred to as FireWire® or I-Link™.
DV connections let you transfer digital data (both video and audio)
directly from a DV camera to a digital, nonlinear editing system with
no conversion losses. DV technology simplifies the process of bringing
footage from your camera into your Avid Xpress DV system, and gives
you high-quality video at low cost.
Nonlinear Editing with Avid Xpress DV
In traditional video editing, you electronically copy (dub) video and
audio footage from a source tape to a master tape. This process is
tedious, however, and it is difficult to make changes to your work.
By contrast, when you edit with Avid Xpress DV, you don’t have to
dub footage onto a master tape. Instead, you manipulate Avid Xpress
DV clips, which are segments of the media that contain pointers to
your digital audio and video files. Avid Xpress DV allows you to
experiment with every edit you make. You can trim, move, delete,
duplicate, or modify individual frames or entire segments, and
immediately see the results. This type of editing is called nonlinear
because you are not limited by the traditional video editing need to
dub one shot after another.
40
Avid Xpress DV Terms and Concepts
This section explains the following terms and concepts to help you
understand the Avid Xpress DV editing process:
•Media Files
•Clips
•Subclips
•Sequences
•Bins
•Projects
•The Attic Folder
•Programs
Media Files
Media files store source
material. When you record source material from a camera or deck, or when you
import computer graphic files into your Avid Xpress DV project, the
material is saved in media files on your system’s media drive or drives.
One media file is created for each track of video or audio. For a video
with a stereo sound track, three media files are created: one track of
video and two tracks of audio. Media files are stored in the OMFI
MediaFiles folder; and each media drive has its own OMFI MediaFiles
folder.
nEven though your media files contain the actual source material for the
program, you never manipulate the media files directly. Instead, you move,
copy, and edit clips, subclips, and sequences, which are pointers to the media
files.
41
Clips
Clips point to media
files. When you record media, Avid Xpress DV creates another file, called a
master clip, on your system’s internal drive. The master clip is simply a
pointer to its corresponding media file, which is located in the OMFI
MediaFiles folder on a media drive. A media drive can be inside the
computer (an internal media drive) or outside the computer (an external
media drive).
While editing your video, you create other clips, such as graphic clips
and effects clips. You make your edits by modifying clips, and the
corresponding media files remain unchanged. This feature allows you
to easily create and undo edits without destroying your original
material.
Because you work with clips instead of media files, you can create
virtually unlimited versions of a program without creating multiple
copies of the source material, which is stored in extremely large files.
Subclips
Subclips are sections
that you mark within
clips.
Subclips are sections of clips that you want to use in your program. You
create a subclip by marking IN (start) and OUT (end) points in a clip,
Video deck
Master clip
Media drive
OMFI
MediaFiles
42
pressing and holding the Alt key, and dragging the clip to the bin. The
subclip is composed of the material between the IN and OUT points.
cA subclip points to a media file’s master clip. You must not delete
the master clip from which a subclip was created. If you delete the
master clip, you will lose the information in the subclip.
Sequences
A sequence is a
program created from
one or more clips and
subclips.
You can join different clips and subclips to create a sequence. A
sequence can include edited material from master clips and subclips,
new clips created when you add effects during the editing process,
and material from other sequences.
Master
Subclip
clip
Sequence
Subclip
Master clip
Sequence
Handle
IN point OUT point
Handle
43
A sequence is composed of marked material from clips, subclips, and
other sequences. The material outside the IN and OUT points remains
in the media file’s master clip. These segments of material are called
handles. Handles are important; you need them to trim cuts and create
transition effects between segments. For more information about
trimming cuts, see “Trimming” on page 127. For more information
about transition effects, see “Effects Editing” on page 137.
Like clips and subclips, a sequence contains pointers to media files,
which are stored in the OMFI MediaFiles folder. If you delete a clip
used to create a sequence, the sequence still displays the media,
because the sequence contains its own pointers to the media files.
Bins
You organize your
footage in bins. Clips, subclips, and sequences are organized and stored in bins.
Traditionally, a bin is a place where film editors store reels of film. In
Avid Xpress DV, bins represent a database for organizing the material
for a project.
Projects
A project consists of one
or more bins.You edit
within a project.
You gather the material you need to create a program in a project. Each
project contains information about bins, clips, subclips, sequences, and
the program in the Timeline. You might have several projects on your
system, but you can work on only one project at a time.
Sequence
Clip
Subclip
OMFI
MediaFiles
44
The Attic Folder
For a complete
description of retrieving
bins from the Attic
folder, see the Avid
Xpress DV User’s Guide
or Help.
Avid Xpress DV saves copies of your current project and its bins at
regular intervals and whenever you save or close a project or bin.
These auto-save files are stored in the Attic folder at the top level of the
internal hard drive. If you lose work due to a power outage or system
error, open the Attic folder and look for a project or bin of the same
name with the file name extension.bakxx, where xx is the version
number. For example, the first backup file for the bin Rough Cut
would be named Rough Cut.bak01. Later versions would be named
Rough Cut.bak02, Rough Cut.bak03, and so on.
Programs
A program consists of one or more sequences. You can use clips,
subclips, and sequences to build a program. A program is your final
creation; you can output your program to tape, CD-ROM, or the Web
when you are finished.
45
The Avid Xpress DV File System
The following illustration shows the different kinds of Avid Xpress DV
files and where they are stored. The Avid Xpress DV application folder
is stored on your computer’s internal hard drive. The Avid Projects
folder is also stored on an internal drive; the location varies,
depending on your installation. An OMFI MediaFiles folder is stored
on each media drive. Media files must be stored on a separate, Avid-
approved media drive that is guaranteed to be fast enough to support
video playback.
For complete
information about
folders and files, see the
Avid Xpress DV User’s
Guide or Help.
Media drive
Avid Avid
Project
Project
Bin A Bin B
Supporting
Avid Xpress DVSettings
Help
OMFI
MediaFiles
Projects
Xpress DV
Files
46
Project Workflow
The following sections illustrate the four stages of a typical
Avid Xpress DV project: starting a project, preparing to edit, editing a
sequence, and generating output.
Complete procedures for each stage are included in the printed
manuals, online books, and Help.
47
Starting a Project
1. Turn on your
equipment in the
correct order and start
the software. (Speakers
and external media
drives are optional.)
2. Select or create a new
user and project: the job
that will result in one or
more finished sequences.
3. Create and organize
bins.
4. Back up your project
on a regular basis.
Starting a project involves the following steps:
2. Select or create a user and project.
3. Create and organize bins.
4. Back up the project.
1. Turn on and start your Avid system.
48
Preparing to Edit
1. (Optional) Import
your log files into the
bins, or log the material
manually.
2. Record your DV
footage, creating media
files and master clips.
3. Work with bins and
clips to organize your
source material for easy
access during editing.
4. (Optional) Build a
storyboard to begin
previsualizing your
final cut before editing.
Preparing to edit involves the following steps:
3. Sort and organize clips in the bins.
4. Previsualize with storyboards.
2. Record footage, creating
master clips and media files.
1. (Option) Import shot logs into the bin.
49
Editing a Sequence
1. View your clips in
advance and mark IN
points and OUT points,
or create subclips based
on selected portions of
your master clips.
2. Build your sequence
using editing controls
with the Timeline,
Source pop-up
monitors, and the
Composer monitor.
3. Fine-tune your edits
and effects by using
functions of the various
edit modes, such as
Segment mode, Trim
mode, and Effect mode.
4. Adjust and mix
multiple audio tracks
and prepare for final
playback or output,
using the Audio tool and
Audio Mix tool.
5. Return to editing if
further adjustments are
required.
Editing a sequence involves the following steps:
Composer
monitor Source
pop-up
Timeline
2. Edit with Timeline and monitors.
3. Fine-tune edits and effects.
4. Fine-tune audio pan, volume, and EQ.
5. Screen and
1. Screen, mark, and subcatalog footage.
continue editing
as necessary.
monitor
50
Generating Output
Export material for
audio sweetening or
graphics enhancement
in a third-party
application, for
incorporating into a
multimedia project, or
for publishing on the
Internet.
Record the final
sequence to tape as a
digital cut.
Generate an EDL for
online videotape
editing.
Generating various forms of output based on your sequence involves
selecting among several options:
Export material for additional processing,
for incorporating into a multimedia project,
Record a digital cut directly to tape.
Generate an EDL for online
videotape editing.
or for publishing on the Internet.
D
V
51
CHAPTER 3
Learning How to Use
Avid Xpress DV
This chapter explains the different resources that can help you learn
how to use your Avid Xpress DV system. This chapter contains the
following sections:
•Using the Tutorial
•Using Help
•Using Online Documentation
•Tips and Other Resources
52
Using the Tutorial
The self-paced tutorial chapters in this guide are designed as guided
Avid editing sessions, using the basic features of the Avid system. In
this tutorial, you’re going to edit a 1-minute sequence about Avid
Technology, Inc. This sequence is typical of a short piece you might
create for your own organization. You can publish the sequence on
tape or CD-ROM, or stream it across the Internet.
The footage for the sequence is supplied on the Avid Xpress DV
Tutorial CD-ROMs that came with your system. This footage is DV
media that has already been recorded and is ready for you to use.
Footage is supplied in either NTSC or PAL format, which is indicated
on the CD-ROMs.
This tutorial does not cover the process of recording video and audio
from a camera or video deck. You can find instructions for recording in
the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide and Help.
Before you begin, make sure you have installed the tutorial media and
project files (see “Installing the Avid Xpress DV Tutorial Files” on
page 35).
Depending on your level of expertise in editing on Avid systems, you
can choose to work through the tutorial in either of two ways.
• If you have no experience with Avid Xpress DV or other Avid
systems, you should go through the entire tutorial.
• If you have used other Avid systems, you might want to read
certain chapters to understand the specific features of Avid Xpress
DV and complete the tutorial tasks in that chapter. For most
chapters, you can load a sequence that includes the work done up
to that point.
You can create a short sequence in 5 minutes (see “Creating a Simple
Sequence” on page 62). Completing the entire tutorial can take from
3 to 4 hours.
53
Using Help
Avid Xpress DV has a comprehensive Help system that includes all
information contained in the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide, and most of
the information contained in the Avid Xpress DV Effects Guide. In
addition, you can get information on windows, dialog boxes, and
screen objects by pressing the F1 key or clicking the right mouse
button.
Opening and Closing the Help System
The Help system is also
included on the
Avid Xpress DV Online
Publications CD-ROM.
To open the Help system, choose Avid Xpress DV Help from the Help
menu. The Help Topics dialog box appears. Use the Contents, Index,
and Find tabs to access the information you need.
These tabs work the same way as most Windows Help systems. For
more information, see the section “Using Help” in the Help system or
click the Question Mark button in the title bar of the Help Topics
dialog box.
To close the Help system, click the Close button in each Help window.
The Help system automatically closes when you close the last open
Help window.
Getting Help for Windows and Dialog Boxes
The Help system provides you with context-sensitive Help for
windows and dialog boxes, such as tools and settings.
To get Help for windows and dialog boxes:
1. Make sure the Avid application is active.
2. Position the mouse pointer in the window or dialog box for which
you want Help.
3. Press the F1 key on the keyboard.
54
nIf there is no information about a window or dialog box, the Help Topics
dialog box appears.
Getting Help for Screen Objects
You can use What’s This? Help to find out about buttons and other
screen objects.
To get Help for screen objects:
1. Using the right mouse button, click on the screen object (for
example, a button).
A pop-up menu appears.
2. Choose What’s This? from the menu.
A pop-up window opens with an explanation of how you use the
item.
nIf you press the F1 key when the mouse pointer is on a button or other screen
object, you get Help for the window or dialog box, not for the button or other
screen object.
Printing Help Topics
You can print a single Help topic or a group of topics listed in the
Contents.
To print a Help topic:
1. Open or click the topic to make it active.
2. Click the Print button in the topic window.
3. Select the print options.
4. Click OK.
55
To print a Help topic from the Contents tab:
1. Select the topic you want to print.
2. Click the Print button at the bottom of the tab.
To print a book of related topics from the Contents tab:
1. Select the book you want to print.
2. Click the Print button.
If you select a book, all topics within that book, and all topics in other
books contained in that book, will be printed. The system sends each
topic as a separate print job to the printer; therefore, printing can take
a long time. You can more easily print large sections of user
information from the Avid Xpress DV Online Publications CD-ROM.
You can print a pop-up window by clicking the right mouse button
and selecting Print.
Using Online Documentation
The Avid Xpress DV Online Publications CD-ROM includes:
•Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide
•Avid Xpress DV Effects Guide
•Avid Xpress DV Getting Started Guide (this book)
• Avid Xpress DV Help
The books are PDF files. You can view them with the
Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can install from the CD-ROM.
56
These online books enable you to:
• Navigate by using bookmarks and hyperlinks.
• Speed up information retrieval by performing keyword searches.
• Annotate the books with your own notes.
• Zoom in on a page, enabling closer review of text and images.
• Print any or all pages.
• View the books with full-color graphics.
• View movies that illustrate Avid Xpress DV effects.
nAvid gives you permission to print up to three complete copies of each book.
Tips and Other Resources
The following are a few tips for taking full advantage of the
Avid Xpress DV documentation and other resources:
• Complete the tutorial chapters in this guide before starting a
project.
• Begin learning about basic procedures by using the default
settings. As your confidence increases, explore additional
procedures and settings.
• Instead of using the standard menus to find the command you
need in a window, try using shortcut menus. Using the right
mouse button, click on a window to open a shortcut menu that
shows the most frequently used commands for that window.
• Keep the Avid Xpress DV Quick Reference available during editing
sessions.
• Read Avid’s newsletters, mailings, and other trade publications.
57
• Make use of additional training resources provided by Avid
whenever possible, such as classes and instructional videotapes.
For more information, contact Avid at 800-867-2843.
• Check the following Avid Web site for listings of courses,
schedules, and locations:
www.avid.com/services/training/training.html
58
CHAPTER 4
Starting a Project and
Creating a Simple Sequence
This chapter begins the tutorial section of this guide. In this chapter
you’ll practice the following tasks:
•Starting Avid Xpress DV
•Using the Open Project Dialog Box
•Creating a Simple Sequence
•Closing the Project and Quitting the Application
Before starting this chapter, make sure you have installed the tutorial
files (see “Installing the Avid Xpress DV Tutorial Files” on page 35).
59
Starting Avid Xpress DV
You can create a
shortcut on the desktop
and start the
application by double-
clicking the icon. See
your Windows NT
documentation.
You start the Avid Xpress DV application the same way you start most
Windows applications.
1. Click the Start button.
2. Point to Programs, point to Avid, and select Avid Xpress DV.
The first few times you start Avid Xpress DV, a window opens that
contains the License Agreement.
3. To accept your Avid Xpress DV product license electronically:
a. Read the License Agreement, and then click the Accept button
or the Decline button at the bottom of the screen.
The agreement appears the first several times you start
Avid Xpress DV. After several starts, a new button appears at
the bottom of the screen labeled Accept and Don’t Show
Again.
b. If you don’t want to see the License Agreement again, click the
Accept and Don’t Show Again button.
A dialog box appears.
c. Enter the name of your organization in the dialog box, and
click OK.
After you accept the License Agreement, the Open Project dialog
box appears. If you are the first user on the system, the Open
Project dialog box appears as shown in the following illustration.
60
For this tutorial, you will use the project called either Introducing
Avid (NTSC) or Introducing Avid (PAL).
Using the Open Project Dialog Box
To open a project, you select a user and a project from the Open Project
dialog box. You also use this dialog box to create a new user or a new
project.
Creating a User
For this tutorial, create a new user.
1. Click the New User button in the Open Project dialog box.
The New User dialog box appears.
61
By default, the Windows NT login name appears.
2. Delete the default name, type your name, and click OK.
The Open Project dialog box reappears with your name
highlighted in the list of Avid Users.
Selecting and Opening a Project
For this tutorial, we’ve already created a project for you.
1. Select Introducing Avid (NTSC) or Introducing Avid (PAL) from
the Avid Projects list.
2. Click OK.
The Project window opens.
62
Look at the title bar of the window. It contains the name of the project
and the name of the user. In this example, the user is named Editor.
Your project window will contain your user name.
Two other windows appear: the Composer window and the Timeline
window. You’ll learn about these windows in Chapter 6.
Creating a Simple Sequence
Before continuing further in the tutorial, you can create a simple
sequence right away. A sequence is a program made up of one or more
clips (see “Sequences” on page 42). These steps will get you started
quickly; you’ll find more thorough instructions and explanations later
in the tutorial.
The sequence uses footage from the Introducing Avid project that you
just opened. The following illustration shows the Project window.
Source Clips bin
63
Follow these steps to create a sequence:
1. In the Project window, open the Source Clips bin by double-
clicking the bin icon.
The Source Clips Bin window opens and displays a list of clips.
2. From the list of clips, double-click the icon for the Editor at
keyboard clip.
The Editor at keyboard clip opens in a window. This window is
known as a Source pop-up monitor.
Editor at keyboard clip
64
3. Click the Mark Clip button, which is located at the bottom of the
Source pop-up monitor.
IN and OUT points appear at the beginning and end of the clip,
which indicate that the entire clip will be edited into the sequence.
Mark Clip button
IN point OUT point
65
4. Click the image area of the Source pop-up monitor and drag it
anywhere in the Timeline window.
nIf you have more than one bin open, a dialog box appears and asks you to
select a bin in which to store the sequence. Select Source Clips.
Congratulations! You’ve just created your first sequence. The clip
appears in the Timeline and in the Composer monitor.
Notice the vertical blue line at the end of the Timeline.This line is
called the position indicator. The position indicator is parked on the
Position indicator
66
last frame of the sequence, so this frame is the one displayed in the
Composer monitor.
5. Now add some music to the sequence.
a. In the Source Clips bin, double-click the icon for the Music
track clip.
The clip opens in a Source pop-up monitor. There is no image
because the clip has only audio.
b. Click the image area and drag the clip to audio track A1 in the
Timeline. Drag the clip so that the A1 track is outlined, as
shown in the following illustration, and then release the
mouse button.
If you make a mistake,
choose Undo from the
Edit menu to undo your
last action.
6. In the Timeline, make sure the position indicator is at the
beginning of the sequence. If not, drag the position indicator as far
as you can to the left.
Drag the position indicator here.
67
7. Click the Play button below the Composer monitor to review your
sequence.
Press the Play button again to stop playing the sequence at any
time.
Now look in the Source Clips bin. The sequence is saved in the bin
with the name Untitled Sequence.01. Delete the sequence. You’ll
create a new one in Chapter 6.
8. In the Source Clips bin, click the Untitled Sequence.01 icon and
press the Delete key on the keyboard.
The Delete dialog box appears.
Play button
68
9. Click OK.
You’ve deleted the sequence, but not the source footage.
10. Close the Source Clips bin by clicking the Close button in the
upper right corner of the window.
Next Steps
You’ve finished this chapter of the tutorial. You can either:
• Close the project and application and continue the tutorial at a
later time.
• Continue on to the next chapter.
Closing the Project and Quitting the Application
To close the project and
quit the application
immediately, choose
Exit from the File menu
or click the Close button
in the Avid Xpress DV
title bar.
If you want to close the project and quit the application:
1. Click the Project window to activate it, and then click the Close
button.
The system saves and closes the project. The Open Project dialog
box appears.
2. Click Quit.
A dialog box appears and asks if you want to quit the application.
3. Click Leave.
The application quits and you see the Windows NT desktop.
The next time you open the project, choose your user name and project
name, and resume the tutorial with the next section.
Close button
69
CHAPTER 5
Playing and Marking Clips
In Chapter 4 you learned how to start a project. In this chapter you’ll
practice the following tasks:
•Exploring the Project Window
•Opening a Bin
•Viewing Clips
•Playing Clips in a Source Pop-up Monitor
•Marking IN and OUT Points
•Playing a Sequence in a Source Pop-up Monitor
•Using Timecode to Find a Frame
•Creating Subclips
•Clearing IN Points and OUT Points
•Saving Your Work
If you have worked on the previous chapters but have quit
Avid Xpress DV — Start the application, choose your user name and
the Introducing Avid project, and then click OK.
If you have not worked on the previous chapters — Start the
application, create a new user, choose the Introducing Avid project,
and then click OK.
70
Exploring the Project Window
Click in the Project
window and press the
F1 key to open Help for
the Project window.
The Project window must remain open whenever you are working in
Avid Xpress DV. Depending on the button you click, the Project
window displays a list of bins, a list of settings, or information about
your system.
nIf the Project window becomes hidden by other windows, bring it forward by
choosing Project from the Tools menu.
The Bins Display
The Bins display lists the bins, or storage areas, created to hold your
clips and sequences (you’ll learn more about bins later in this chapter).
For the Introducing Avid project, we’ve supplied you with three bins:
• QuickTime Movies
• Sequences
• Source Clips
71
The Settings Display
Click the Settings button at the top of the Project window. A list of
settings appears. This list is called the Settings scroll list. Settings are
groups of options you can select, depending on your needs and
preferences.
The right column
displays the type of
setting. User settings
are associated with the
current user, and Project
settings are associated
with the project. For
more information, see
the Avid Xpress DV
User’s Guide or press F1
for Help.
Especially important for Avid Xpress DV are the Video Display
settings. Check the settings now.
1. Scroll down the list of settings and double-click Video Display.
The Video Display Settings dialog box appears.
72
For information on
connecting a camera
and Client monitor, see
Appendix A.
The top part of the dialog box gives you a choice for how to
display video on your desktop.
2. If you have a Client monitor (a separate monitor that displays
NTSC or PAL video) and camera attached to your system, select
the following options:
• DV camera supports digital video input
• External video (client monitor enabled)
• External Video Source (S-Video or Composite, depending on
the connection between your camera and the capture board.
73
To learn more about these options, see the Avid Xpress DV User’s
Guide or press the F1 key for Help. All Settings dialog boxes have
context-sensitive Help.
3. Click OK to close the Video Display Settings dialog box.
The Info Display
Click the Info button at the top of the Project window. You see the
format of the project (NTSC or PAL). You can get information about
your system by clicking the Fast Menu button in the lower left corner
of the screen, and then choosing Profile, Memory, or Hardware from
the pop-up menu.
Click the Bins button to return to the Bins display.
Opening a Bin
The term bin comes from film editing and refers to a container for
holding film clips (see “Bins” on page 43).
Let’s open a bin now. In the list of bins in the Project window,
double-click the Source Clips icon. The Source Clips bin opens.
Most of the clips you’ll use in your sequence are displayed in this bin.
Fast Menu button
74
Viewing Clips
You can view the information in a bin in two different ways:
•Text view displays columns of information about your clips.
•Frame view displays each clip as a single representative image.
Using Text View
Let’s look at Text view.
1. Click the Text View button (T) in the lower left corner of the bin.
If the button is highlighted, you are already in Text view.
The bin displays columns of information about each clip. For
explanations of these columns, see the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide
or press the F1 key for Help.
Text View
Frame View
Name heading
button button
75
You can rearrange the clips in the bin by sorting on a particular
column. Let’s sort alphabetically by clip name.
2. Click the Name heading in the bin.
3. Choose Sort from the Bin menu.
The clip names are rearranged in alphabetical order.
Using Frame View
Now let’s look at Frame view.
1. Click the Frame View button (F) in the lower left corner to see a
picture-frame representation of each clip in the bin.
nThe order of clips is different from the order in Text view. You can rearrange
clips in either view independently of the other.
You can change the size of the frames if you want.
2. Choose Reduce Frame or Enlarge Frame from the Edit menu.
76
To change frame size at the keyboard, you can also press Ctrl+K
(Reduce Frame) and Ctrl+L (Enlarge Frame).
3. Choose Fill Window from the Bin menu.
The clips are arranged in neat rows and columns in the bin.
4. If some clips are now off the screen, click and drag the window
corner in the lower right corner of the Source Clips bin.
Switching Between Views
It’s easy to switch between views: click the T button for Text view and
the F button for Frame view. For this tutorial, you can use whichever
view you prefer, except when performing a storyboard edit (see
“Storyboard Editing the Clips” on page 117).
Playing Clips in a Source Pop-up Monitor
A Source pop-up monitor is a window in which you play the clips for
your project. You can play clips in three different ways:
• Using the keyboard
• Using the buttons on the screen, below the Source pop-up monitor
• Using the blue position indicator (the “blue bar”)
In this section you’ll try different ways to play clips. As you edit, use
the ones you prefer.
Using the Keyboard to Play Clips
Your system is shipped
with a set of labels that
you can place on the
keys of your keyboard.
The keyboard for your Avid system includes many special control
keys, as shown in the following illustration.
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This illustration shows the U.S. English keyboard. For layouts of other
keyboards, choose Keyboard from the Settings scroll list.
In this section you’ll experiment with different ways to play clips.
1. In the Source Clips bin, open the clip named Editor at keyboard
by double-clicking the icon (in Text view) or anywhere in the
image (in Frame view).
The Editor at keyboard clip appears in a Source pop-up monitor.
Stop key
Play/Step/Shuttle keysStep keys Home key
End key
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2. Press the Home key (between the main keyboard and the numeric
keypad) to move the position indicator to the start of the clip.
3. Press the End key, just below the Home key, to go to the end of the
clip. The blue position indicator moves to match your directions.
4. Press the Home key again to go to the start of the clip.
5. Press the L key (Play) on the keyboard to play the clip forward at
normal speed.
There is no audio for the Editor at keyboard clip.
nThe small size of the Source pop-up monitor might cause the footage to look
jerky. The footage will look smoother in the Composer monitor and the Client
monitor.
6. Press the space bar on the keyboard to stop playback at any point.
7. Press the L key again to play the clip forward at normal speed.
Press the key repeatedly to play the clip forward at 60, 90, 150, and
240 frames per second (NTSC) or 50, 75, 125, and 200 frames per
second (PAL).
8. Press the J key (Reverse Play) on the keyboard to play the clip
backward at normal speed. Press the key repeatedly to play the
clip backward at 60, 90, 150, and 240 frames per second (NTSC) or
50, 75, 125, and 200 frames per second (PAL).
9. Press the K key (Pause) on the keyboard to pause playback.
10. To move forward or backward at slow speed, press and hold the K
key while you press and hold the L or J keys.
11. Use the 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys to step through the footage forward or
backward in 1-frame or 10-frame increments.
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Using Buttons and the Position Indicator to Play Clips
Two additional ways to play clips are:
• Clicking buttons that appear under a Source pop-up monitor
• Dragging the blue position indicator through the position bar to
scroll through a clip
Now play through the Editor at keyboard clip by using buttons and
the position indicator.
1. Click the Play button under the Source pop-up monitor.
2. Click the Play button again to stop playback at any point.
To step forward or
backward 10 frames,
hold the Alt key while
you click the Step
Forward or Step
Backward
button.
3. Step through the footage forward or backward in 1-frame
increments by using the Step Forward and Step Backward buttons
under the Source pop-up monitor.
4. Locate the blue position indicator in the position bar in the Source
pop-up monitor.
Step 10
Frames Backward Step 10
Frames Forward
Step 1
Frame Backward Step 1
Frame Forward
Play
Position
bar
Step Step
Position indicator
Backward Forward
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To step several frames
forward, click just to the
right of the position
indicator.
5. Click to the left of the position indicator to step several frames
back in the clip.
6. Step through the clip by clicking different spots in the position bar.
7. Drag the position indicator to the left, then to the right, to scroll
through the clip.
Marking IN and OUT Points
Before you start to create your sequence, you need to mark the
segments of the clips you want to use. In this section you’ll mark
IN and OUT points for some clips you’ll use later to build your
sequence. You’ll also learn how to use timecode and frame offset to
locate IN and OUT points.
nThe instructions in this section use the keyboard to mark IN and OUT points,
but you can also click the equivalent buttons below the Source pop-up
monitor.
Marking the First Clip
Let’s mark IN and OUT points for the Editor at keyboard clip.
1. Go to the head (start) of the clip by pressing the Home key. Then
use the Step Forward and Step Backward (3 and 4) keys to locate
the frame where the letter A begins to appear on the monitor
screen.
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Your clip might already have IN and OUT points. Your new edit
points will overwrite the old edit points.
2. Mark an IN point by pressing the Mark IN (I) key.
A white sawtooth pattern appears on the left edge of the frame.
3. Drag the position indicator toward the end of the clip, where the
explosion appears on two monitors, and before it fades away.
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4. Mark an OUT point by pressing the Mark OUT (O) key.
A white sawtooth pattern appears on the right edge of the frame.
The system saves your IN and OUT points until you change them.
5. Close the Editor at keyboard clip by clicking the Close button.
The system automatically saves your IN and OUT points.
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Marking Another Clip
Now mark the IN and OUT points for the Eyeball clip. This time,
instead of using the Step keys, use the J-K-L keys to play the clip.
1. Open the Eyeball clip.
nIn this tutorial, “open a clip” means to double-click its icon in a bin, so that it
opens in a Source pop-up monitor.
2. Locate the frame where the letter A of the word Avid appears in
the pupil of the eyeball (after the second blink). Press and hold the
K key and press the L key to go forward or the J key to go
backward in slow motion.
Use the 3 and 4 keys to locate the precise frame.
3. Mark an IN point by pressing the I key.
4. Step forward a few frames after the D appears.
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5. Mark an OUT point by pressing the O key.
6. Close the Eyeball clip.
Playing a Sequence in a Source Pop-up Monitor
So far you have played clips in Source pop-up monitors. You can also
play a sequence (a program made up of one or more clips) in a Source
pop-up monitor.
You might be curious to see what your final sequence will look like.
We have supplied a finished sequence for you. To play it:
1. Click the Project window to display and activate it.
The Project window might be hidden behind the Source Clips bin.
You can choose Project from the Tools menu to bring the window
forward.
2. Open the Sequences bin.
3. Open the Introducing Avid sequence.
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4. Press the Home key to go to the beginning of the sequence. Play
the sequence in the Source pop-up monitor, using the keyboard or
buttons, or a combination of both.
5. Close the Introducing Avid sequence.
6. Close the Sequences bin.
Using Timecode to Find a Frame
Your Avid Xpress DV system uses timecode to identify each frame of a
clip.
About Timecode
Timecode is an electronic indexing method that denotes hours,
minutes, seconds, and frames that have elapsed on a videotape. For
example, a timecode of 01:03:30:10 denotes a frame that is marked at
1 hour, 3 minutes, 30 seconds, and 10 frames.
NTSC video (the video format used mainly in the United States) uses
one of two formats: drop-frame timecode and non-drop-frame timecode.
Drop-frame timecode is designed to match the NTSC scan rate of 29.97
frames per second (fps). Two frames of timecode are dropped every
minute except for the tenth minute. No video frames are actually
dropped. Drop-frame timecode is indicated by semicolons between
the digits; for example, 01;00;00;00. DV cameras that use the NTSC
format use drop-frame timecode.
Non-drop-frame timecode tracks NTSC video at a rate of 30 fps and is
indicated by colons between the digits; for example, 01:00:00:00. Non-
drop-frame timecode can be easier to work with, but does not provide
accurate timing for NTSC broadcast.
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PAL video (the video format used in many countries other than the
United States) uses a scan rate of 25 fps. Timecode is indicated by
colons. There is no need for drop-frame timecode in PAL video.
You can change the starting timecode of a sequence or, for NTSC
projects, the type of timecode. See “Changing the Timecode of the
Sequence” on page 180 and the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide.
Using Timecode to Mark IN and OUT Points
You can mark IN and OUT points by using timecode as your reference
point. If you know the timecode for the frame you want to mark, you
can go to that frame instantly by typing it on the numeric keypad.
In this section, you’ll use timecode to reach a specific location. First,
you need to display the appropriate timecode information in the
Tracking Information display.
1. Open the Hand and keyboard clip.
2. Place the pointer in the gray title bar area over the Tracking
Information display, until the pointer changes to a downward
arrow.
3. When the pointer changes to a downward arrow, click to display
the Tracking Information pop-up menu, and then choose TC, V1
(timecode for track Video 1) from the menu. A check mark means
it is selected.
Tracking Information display
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For information about
the other choices in the
Tracking Information
menu, see the
Avid Xpress DV User’s
Guide or place the
pointer over the
Tracking Information
display, click the right
mouse button, and
choose What’s This?
The timecode refers to the frame displayed in the Source pop-up
monitor.
nAfter you change the display for one Source pop-up monitor, all subsequent
Source pop-up monitors you open use the same display.
4. Use the Play and Step buttons to locate the frame with the
timecode 01:08:14:18 (NTSC) or 00:01:42:23 (PAL). Look for the
number in the Tracking Information display.
5. Click the Mark IN button.
6. Let’s use 2 seconds of this clip. You can determine the OUT point
by adding 2 seconds to the timecode of the IN point, as shown in
the following examples:
01:08:14:18 (NTSC)
+ 2:00
01:08:16:18
or
00:01:42:23 (PAL)
+ 2:00
00:01:44:23
Because Avid Xpress DV counts the frame it is parked on, you will
actually mark one frame more than 2 seconds.
7. Type 01:08:16:18 (NTSC) or 00:01:44:23 (PAL) on the
numeric keypad.
Timecode shows the following:
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Frames
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nYou don’t need to type zeros that start the timecode. In addition, the system
inserts the colons for you. So you only need to type 1081618
(NTSC) or
14423 (PAL). This guide provides the complete timecode, but you can use
these shortcuts to type the numbers.
As you start typing, a window opens in the middle of the Source
pop-up monitor, showing the numbers you type.
8. Press the Enter key on the numeric keypad. The position indicator
locates the specified frame.
The Timecode window displays the current number.
nTo locate frames by using timecode and the numeric keypad, you must show
timecode in the Tracking Information display. For example, the display must
show track V1 to go to a specific frame on the V1 track.
9. Click the Mark OUT button.
10. Close the Hand and keyboard clip.
Timecode
entered
Tracking Information
display
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Using Frame Offset
Whenever you use the
numeric keypad, you
must press the Enter
key on the numeric
keypad after typing the
number.
You can also use the numeric keypad to move the position indicator
forward or backward a specified number of frames. This technique is
called frame offset. Let’s mark an IN point for the Editor at keyboard 3
clip and then use frame offset to locate the OUT point.
1. Open the Editor at keyboard 3 clip.
2. Use the numeric keypad to type 01:23:24:02 (NTSC) or
00:03:07:15 (PAL), and then press the Enter key.
3. Click the Mark IN button.
4. Advance 29 frames (NTSC) or 24 frames (PAL) by typing +29 or
+24 on the numeric keypad and pressing the Enter key.
Advancing 29 or 24 frames is the equivalent of advancing
1 second, because Avid Xpress DV counts the frame it is
parked on.
5. Advance 2 more seconds by typing +129 (NTSC) or +124 (PAL)
and pressing Enter. The system inserts the colons for you.
If you want to move
back a certain number
of frames, type a minus
sign (–) instead of a
plus sign (+) in front of
the number.
6. Mark that frame as the OUT point by clicking the Mark OUT
button.
7. Close the Editor at keyboard 3 clip.
Creating Subclips
Now you’ll copy portions of one clip into shorter clips, called subclips
(see “Subclips” on page 41). Subclipping is a great way to organize
your footage into manageable units.
1. Open the Lab clip.
2. Go to the start of the clip.
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3. Review the clip by clicking the Play button or by dragging the
blue position indicator. There are two parts of the clip that you’ll
copy into separate subclips.
4. Use the numeric keypad to type 01:24:53:19 (NTSC) or
00:04:10:22 (PAL), and then press the Enter key.
5. Mark an IN point.
6. Type 01:24:57:16 (NTSC) or 00:04:14:20 (PAL).
7. Mark an OUT point.
8. Press and hold the Alt key, click the image area of the clip, and
drag it from the Source pop-up monitor to the Source Clips bin.
As you begin dragging, the pointer changes to a hand attached to
a small box.
The subclip has the
name of the original
clip, followed by Sub.n,
where n is the number
of times the master clip
has been cataloged to
that bin.
A new item called Lab.Sub.01 appears in the Source Clips bin.
The name is highlighted.
9. Delete the name Lab.Sub.01 and rename the subclip Lab 1A.
Clearing IN Points and OUT Points
Now you’ll clear previous IN and OUT points, mark new IN and OUT
points, and create a new subclip.
1. Bring the Lab clip forward by choosing Lab from the Windows
menu.
2. Press the Clear IN key (D) and Clear OUT key (F).
You can also click the corresponding buttons beneath the monitor.
3. Mark an IN point at 01:25:00:11 (NTSC) or 00:04:17:03 (PAL).
4. Mark an OUT point at 01:25:07:16 (NTSC) or 00:04:25:12 (PAL).
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5. Press and hold the Alt key, click the image area of the clip, and
drag it from the Source pop-up monitor to the Source Clips bin.
The clip name is highlighted in the Source Clips bin.
6. Delete the name Lab.Sub.02 and rename the subclip Lab 1B.
7. Close the Lab clip.
8. Close the Source Clips bin.
Saving Your Work
By default, Avid Xpress
DV includes an Auto-
save function set at 15
minutes. You can view
or change this setting in
the Bin settings box,
which you access from
the Settings scroll list in
the Project
window.
You’ve done a lot of work marking clips. Saving your bins and other
project information would be a good idea.
1. Click the Project window to activate it.
2. Choose Save All from the File menu.
Next Steps
You’ve prepared some clips that you’ll use in your sequence. In the
next chapter you’ll start to edit your sequence. You can continue to the
next chapter, or quit this session (see “Closing the Project and
Quitting the Application” on page 68). The next time you open the
project, the windows will be in the same position.
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CHAPTER 6
Creating a Sequence
In this chapter, you begin editing the Introducing Avid sequence by
completing the following tasks:
•Working in the Avid Xpress DV Window
•Making the First Edit
•Opening a Sequence
•Opening and Using the Tool Palette
•Splicing in an Audio Clip
•Exploring the Timeline
•Splicing in a Video Clip
•Splicing a Clip into the Middle of a Sequence
•Undoing an Edit
•Splicing in a Music Track
If you have worked on the previous chapters but have quit
Avid Xpress DV — Start the application, choose your user name and
the Introducing Avid project, and then click OK.
If you have not worked on the previous chapters — Start the
application, create a new user, choose the Introducing Avid project,
and then click OK.
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Working in the Avid Xpress DV Window
You’ve been working in a single large window, labeled Avid Xpress
DV. Like other Windows NT windows, you can minimize it, maximize
it, and close it by using the buttons on the right side of the title bar.
Within the Avid Xpress DV window, you can manage the Timeline,
bins, and Source pop-up monitors in the same way. The difference is
that, when you reduce or resize these windows, they remain within
the Avid Xpress DV window, rather than appearing on the Windows
desktop.
nYou cannot minimize the Composer window.
Minimizing Avid Xpress DV Windows
To get more space
below the Timeline,
right-click the
Windows toolbar,
choose Properties from
the pop-up menu, and
deselect the Always on
Top check box.
Try minimizing some windows now.
1. Open the Source Clips bin.
2. Click the Minimize button on the Source Clips window and the
Timeline. The windows shrink to small title bars at the bottom of
the Avid Xpress DV window.
3. Close the Source Clips bin by clicking the Close button.
4. Return the Timeline to full size by clicking the Restore button.
Managing your Avid Xpress DV windows will become more
important as your projects become larger.
Minimize
Maximize
Close
Restore button
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Default Locations for the Avid Xpress DV Windows
The Composer, Timeline, and Project windows have default sizes and
locations to maximize the available space on your desktop, as shown
in “Dragging a Video Clip and Creating a Sequence” on page 95.
If you want to return these windows to the default locations, click the
window and choose Home from the Windows menu.
Making the First Edit
In this section, you’ll make your first edit and create a sequence by
completing the following tasks:
•Playing a Video Clip
•Dragging a Video Clip and Creating a Sequence
•Moving and Renaming the Sequence
Playing a Video Clip
Let’s start by playing the clip that will begin the sequence.
1. In the Project window, open the QuickTime Movies bin.
2. Double-click the Opening logo.mov clip to display it in a Source
pop-up monitor. Play the clip through.
Notice the .mov file name extension. This indicates that the clip is
a QuickTime movie that was created by using a special effects
program. You can import a QuickTime movie into Avid Xpress
DV, which changes the QuickTime movie to a DV clip. We’ve
already imported the movie for you.
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Dragging a Video Clip and Creating a Sequence
Now edit the clip to create a sequence.
1. Make sure the Timeline is open and visible. If it is not, choose
Timeline from the Tools menu.
2. Click the Source pop-up monitor that contains the Opening
logo.mov clip. If the monitor is not visible, open it from the
QuickTime Movies bin.
3. Click the Mark Clip button on the Source pop-up monitor.
The Mark Clip button marks IN and OUT points at the beginning
and end of the clip, so that the entire clip is edited into the
sequence.
4. Click the image area of the clip and drag it to the Timeline
window.
You’ve just created a sequence.
nIf you have more than one bin open, a dialog box appears and asks you to
select a bin in which to store the sequence. Select QuickTime Movies.
Look at the Timeline. You should see the Opening logo.mov clip
in track V1. The first frame is the IN point you marked in the clip;
the last frame is the OUT point you marked. The position indicator
rests on the last frame of the clip, as shown in the following
illustration.
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The sequence also appears in the Composer monitor. The image is
black because the last frame of the clip is black. Notice the right
angle and vertical line in the lower right corner of the Composer
monitor. The right angle indicates the end of a cut and the vertical
line indicates the end of the sequence.
Position indicator
Right angle and
vertical line
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When you want to
bring an open bin or
monitor to the
foreground, you can
click anywhere in it or
choose its name from
the Windows menu.
5. Click anywhere in the Composer monitor to activate it.
6. Press the Home key to move to the head of the sequence.
7. Click the Play button at the bottom of the Composer monitor to
play the clip in the sequence.
8. Close the Opening logo.mov clip.
Moving and Renaming the Sequence
You can create a new
sequence by choosing
New Sequence from the
Clip menu.
Because the QuickTime Movies bin was the only bin open, the
sequence appears in that bin. By default, Avid Xpress DV names the
sequence Untitled Sequence.01. Now let’s move the sequence to the
Sequences bin and change its name.
1. In the Project window, click the Bins button.
2. Open the Sequences bin.
3. In the QuickTime Movies bin, click the icon in front of the name
Untitled Sequence.01 and drag it to the Sequences bin.
4. Click the name Untitled Sequence.01 to select it.
The name is highlighted.
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5. Type Rough Cut and press the Enter key.
This is the sequence you’ll be working with for this tutorial. The
sequences Rough Cut 1, Rough Cut 2, and Rough Cut 3 are
supplied for those who prefer not to build their own sequence (see
the notes at the beginning of each chapter).
6. Close the QuickTime Movies bin.
7. Close the Sequences bin.
By closing the Sequences bin, you also close the sequence.
Opening a Sequence
In Chapter 5 you opened a sequence in a Source pop-up monitor (see
“Playing a Sequence in a Source Pop-up Monitor” on page 84). To
open a sequence for editing, you need to drag it into the Composer
monitor or the Timeline.
1. Open the Sequences bin.
2. Drag your Rough Cut sequence to the Composer monitor.
The sequence appears in the Composer monitor and the Timeline.
You need to keep the Sequences bin open to continue working on
your sequence. You can minimize the bin to save workspace on your
desktop.
Opening and Using the Tool Palette
Before you continue with your editing, familiarize yourself with the
Tool palette. So far you have been using buttons that appear below the
Source pop-up monitor or keyboard equivalents. The Tool palette
provides you with additional buttons for navigating and editing.
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Opening and Tearing Off the Tool Palette
You can also open the
Tool palette from the
Fast Menu button on a
Source pop-up monitor.
Open the Tool palette by clicking the Fast Menu button under the
Composer monitor.
To use a button on the Tool palette, just click it. You can also “tear off”
the palette and drag it to a different location.
1. If the Tool palette is not open, click the Fast Menu button.
2. Drag the pointer over the buttons and then outside the border of
the Tool palette. You should see a dotted line outline. Drag the
outline to another location. You see the complete Tool palette, with
a title bar and Close button.
You can drag the Tool palette to a different location; just click and hold
anywhere on the Tool palette and drag it wherever you want. You can
also resize it to a square or a single row, to suit the way you want to
work.
All buttons in
Avid Xpress DV have
ToolTips.
To view the name of each button, slowly drag the pointer across each
button. You should see a small yellow window pop up with the name
of each tool. You’ve probably seen these pop-ups in other Windows
applications; they’re called ToolTips.
Fast Menu button
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Displaying Button Names
You can display a shortened name on the button itself by selecting an
option in the Interface Settings dialog box.
1. In the Project window, click the Settings button.
2. From the Settings scroll list, double-click Interface.
The User Interface Settings dialog box appears.
3. Select the option Show Labels in Tool palette.
4. Click OK.
You see names on the first row of buttons.
5. Click the border of the Tool palette and drag it until you see the
second row of buttons.
You can keep these names or remove them by deselecting the
Show Labels in Tool palette option in the User Interface Settings
dialog box. For this tutorial, you might want to keep the labels
visible.
6. Close the Tool palette by clicking the Close button.
Splicing in an Audio Clip
The next clip, Narration, provides the voice of an off-camera narrator,
or voice-over. This clip includes only audio.
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To edit this clip into the sequence, you’ll use the Splice-in button on
the Tool palette. Splicing is a film term that refers to joining together
two pieces of film.
nNow that you’ve had some experience marking and playing clips, the
instructions will be less specific about which keys to press or buttons to click.
1. In the Project window click the Bins button.
2. Open the Source Clips bin.
3. Open the Narration clip.
4. Go to the head of the clip.
5. Play some or all of the clip.
The clip appears black because it’s audio only.
Using Digital Audio Scrub to Locate a Specific Frame of Audio
The term audio scrub originated in the film industry. It describes the
process of “scrubbing” a magnetic audiotape across the playback
heads to monitor a portion of sound. This process helps isolate
portions of audio to accurately mark edit points.
Your Avid Xpress DV system uses a digital version of audio scrub to
locate a specific frame of audio. Use it now to locate the first frame of
audio in the clip.
1. Go to the head (start) of the Narration clip.
2. Press the Caps Lock key to activate digital audio scrub.
3. Play the clip again. Stop at the approximate place where the voice
begins.
4. Use the Step keys to locate the first frame of the voice.
When you use the Step keys, a frame of audio sounds scratchy or
buzzlike. You might need to increase the volume of your speakers
to hear the first frame of audio.
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5. After you have located the first frame of audio, step back one
frame and mark an IN point.
6. Go to the tail (end) of the clip.
7. Step back to find the last frame of audio, and then step forward
one frame.
8. Mark that frame as the OUT point.
Press the Caps Lock key again to deactivate digital audio scrub.
Playing IN to OUT
Now you can play only the marked portion of the clip to make sure
you have marked IN and OUT points correctly.
Press the Play IN to OUT (6) key on the keyboard.
The clip plays from the IN point to the OUT point. If the audio sounds
cut off, redo your IN and OUT points.
Splicing in the Clip
Now you’re ready to make the edit.
1. In the Timeline, make sure the position indicator is at the end of
the Opening logo.mov clip.
2. Click the Fast Menu button on the Composer monitor to open the
Tool palette.
3. Click the Splice-in button (the button with the yellow arrow) on
the Tool palette.
The second clip is now edited into the sequence. Your Timeline
should look like the one in the following illustration.
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4. Close the Narration clip.
Reviewing Your Edits
Review what you’ve done so far.
1. Click the Composer monitor and go to the head of the sequence.
2. Play the sequence.
You should see the opening logo without sound, followed by the
narration without video. You’ll be adding more clips later.
nIf you try to play a sequence, and the outline of the Composer monitor flashes,
another window is covering the Composer monitor. Click the Composer
monitor to bring it forward or move the window that is covering it.
Exploring the Timeline
You can get context-
sensitive Help by
pressing F1 or clicking
the right mouse button
and choosing What’s
This?
Before you edit in the next clip, take a few minutes to explore the
Timeline window. The Timeline is the graphical representation of the
clips, effects, and other elements that make up your sequence.
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Displaying More or Less Detail in the Timeline
The scale box on the scale bar, below the Timeline on the left side of the
window, expands and contracts the area centered around the blue
position bar. The scale box allows you to zoom in to focus on a specific
area of your sequence or to zoom out to see the whole sequence.
Scaling the Timeline is especially useful when you have a lengthy
sequence with many edits.
The Timeline always expands or contracts proportionally on both
sides of the position indicator.
1. In the Timeline, click the transition point between the first two
clips. A transition point or transition is where one clip ends and
another clip begins.
2. Click the scale box and drag it to the right.
As the Timeline expands, a second “shadow” position indicator
appears next to the blue position indicator showing the end of a
single frame, and the two continue to move apart as you expand
the Timeline.
Scale box
Scale bar
Position indicator Shadow position indicator
105
The position indicator and its shadow mark the beginning and
end of each frame.
3. Click the scale box and drag it to the left to contract the expanded
Timeline. You see less detail but more of the sequence.
Navigating in the Timeline
Two ways to navigate in the Timeline are by using the position
indicator and the scroll bar.
Using the Position Indicator
You have already used the position indicator — the vertical blue line
that marks your place in the sequence. You can drag it through your
sequence to play the sequence, or you can click on a particular
location, and the position indicator will jump there. Try it now.
The position indicator also determines how some of your commands
are interpreted. For example, when you perform an edit, the system
uses the location of the position indicator as the IN point, unless you
have marked a different IN point.
When you move the position indicator in the Timeline, the smaller
position indicator within the Composer monitor’s position bar also
moves. Drag the position indicator again. This time watch the position
bar of the Composer monitor.
Using the Scroll Bar
The scroll bar functions like any standard scroll bar.
Scroll bar
Scroll box
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If your Timeline is contracted and fits the window, you won’t be able
to scroll, and the controls in the scroll bar will be dimmed. If your
Timeline is expanded, you’ll need to use it.
Use the Scale box to expand the Timeline, scroll through it, and then
contract the Timeline.
Using the Track Selector Panel
The Track Selector panel, to the left of the Timeline, provides controls for
working with multiple tracks. With this one panel, you can select,
delete, monitor, enlarge, reduce, lock, patch, and move any video or
audio track.
The following illustration shows a sample Track Selector panel. The
panel might look different, depending on the source material or the
work under way in the sequence.
The source side (left side) of the panel displays only those tracks
available for the clip currently loaded and displayed in the Source
pop-up monitor. In this example, the clip has video on track V1 and
audio on track A1.
Source Track buttons
Sync Lock and Lock buttons
Record Track buttons
Audio Track Monitor buttons
Timecode button
Video Track Monitor buttons
Film Track button
Video Track Monitor button
Audio Track Monitor button
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The record side (right side) of the panel displays, by default, two
tracks of video and four tracks of audio. You can add two additional
video tracks and four additional audio tracks.
Selecting Tracks
There are also keyboard
equivalents for
selecting tracks. Check
the Keyboard settings
in the Project window
Settings scroll list.
When you edit a clip into a sequence, you must make sure that you
have selected the correct tracks to accomplish the edit you want. You
select tracks by clicking the track buttons in the Track Selector panel.
Selected tracks are colored (purple, by default), and deselected tracks
are gray (dimmed).
For example, if you want to edit only the audio from a clip, select only
track A1 on both the source and record sides and deselect the other
tracks. If you want to edit only the video, select only track V1 on both
sides.
Monitoring Tracks
By default, you monitor (view and hear) all tracks in your sequence.
For this tutorial, you shouldn’t need to change the monitoring.
However, you can change the monitoring by clicking a Track Monitor
button on either the source side or record side of the Track Selector
panel.
The Video Track Monitor buttons determine whether you see video
during playback. A Monitor icon indicates the top track that is
monitored for playback and output. When there are multiple video
tracks, all tracks below the monitored track are also monitored.
Video Track
Monitor icons
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The Audio Track Monitor buttons determine whether you hear audio
during playback. A Speaker icon (either solid or green) indicates that
the tracks are monitored for playback and output. However, only the
track with the green icon is monitored for audio scrubbing.
nBe sure to activate the topmost video track and all audio tracks to view,
render, or record all the tracks together. Unmonitored tracks are not included
in playback.
Splicing in a Video Clip
You’ve already marked IN and OUT points for the Editor at keyboard
clip. Now let’s add it to the sequence. Start by reviewing the clip.
1. In the Source Clips bin, open the Editor at keyboard clip.
Look for IN and OUT points. If there are no points, see “Marking
the First Clip” on page 80.
2. Play the marked portion of the clip by pressing the Play IN to OUT
(6) key.
Adding Additional Frames
Now extend the clip by adding a few more frames.
1. Snap the position indicator to the OUT point by clicking the Go to
OUT button on the Source pop-up Tool palette.
Audio Track
Speaker icons
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Whenever you use the
numeric keypad, you
must press the Enter
key on the numeric
keypad after typing the
number.
2. Type +6 on the numeric keypad and press the Enter key to add 6
frames to the clip.
3. Mark that frame as the OUT point.
The OUT point automatically moves to the new position.
nYou can press and hold the Alt key and click the Mark OUT button, or press
the O key, to go to the OUT point.
Splicing in the Clip
Now make the edit.
1. Select the tracks you want to edit:
a. On the source side of the Track Selector panel, make sure track
V1 is selected. The button should be highlighted in purple, not
dimmed (gray). If the button is gray, click it.
b. On the record side of the Track Selector panel, select record
track V1 and deselect all other video and audio tracks. Keep
the timecode track TC1 selected.
2. In the Timeline, move the position indicator to the first frame of
black after the Opening logo.mov clip. Look for the small white
right angle in the lower left corner of the Composer monitor.
3. Click the Source pop-up monitor for the Editor at keyboard clip.
4. Click the Splice-in button on the Tool palette or press the Splice-in
(V) key on the keyboard to splice the clip into the Timeline as the
third clip.
The Timeline should look like the one in the following illustration.
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5. Play some or all of the sequence to review it.
Splicing a Clip into the Middle of a Sequence
With nonlinear editing, you can splice a clip anywhere in your
sequence. Let’s try inserting a clip between the Opening Logo.mov
and Editor at keyboard clips.
1. Open the Eyeball clip.
You’ve already marked IN and OUT points for this clip. If an IN or
OUT point is missing, see “Marking Another Clip” on page 83.
2. Select the tracks you want to edit:
a. On the source side of the Track Selector panel, make sure track
V1 is selected.
b. On the record side of the Track Selector panel, make sure track
V1 is selected and all other video and audio tracks are
deselected.
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Moving to the Head of a Clip
You want to insert the edit between the Opening logo.mov and Editor
at keyboard clips. To move to the first frame of the Editor at keyboard
clip:
You can also use this
technique for snapping
to the last frame of a
clip. Click between the
position indicator and
the end of the clip.
1. In the Timeline, click in the middle of the Editor at keyboard clip.
2. Press and hold the Ctrl key and click between the position
indicator and the beginning of the clip. The position indicator
snaps to the first frame of the Editor at keyboard clip.
Splicing in the Clip
Now splice the clip into the sequence.
1. Click the Splice-in button on the Tool palette or press the V key on
the keyboard.
Whenever you splice a clip into the middle of a sequence, the rest
of the sequence is extended. Your Timeline should look like the
one in the following illustration.
2. In the Timeline, press the Home key and play the sequence to
review the new edit.
3. Close the Eyeball clip.
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Undoing an Edit
The Eyeball clip doesn’t seem to fit here. You can easily undo the edit
by choosing Undo from the Edit menu or by pressing Ctrl+Z. Try it
now.
You can also redo up to
32 previous edits.
The Undo feature is very useful. You can undo up to 32 previous
actions listed in the Edit menu.
Splicing in a Music Track
In this section, you lay down an audio clip that contains the music for
the sequence. The music has already been edited to approximately
1 minute, which is the length of the final sequence.
Opening and Marking the Clip
Open and mark the clip.
1. Open the Music track clip.
2. In the Source pop-up monitor, play some or all of the clip.
3. Click the Mark Clip button on the Source pop-up monitor.
Patching Tracks
Before you make the edit, look at the Track Selector panel.
Because the Music track clip has one audio track, the A1 button
appears on the source side, directly across from the A1 button on the
record side. If you make the edit now, the music will overwrite the
narration.
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You need to tell the system to edit track A1 from the source clip to
track A2 of the sequence. You do this by patching one track to another.
The term patching comes from the electronics field, where it refers to
temporarily connecting two components.
To patch the tracks, drag the pointer from the A1 button on the source
side to the A2 button on the record side.
While you are patching, you see a white arrow connecting the two
tracks. After the patch, you see that the button for source track A1 is
next to the button for record track A2.
Selecting the Tracks to Edit
Look at the Track Selector panel again. You need to deselect all record
tracks except A2.
1. On the source side of the Track Selector panel, make sure track A1
is selected (purple, not gray).
2. On the record side of the Track Selector panel, make sure track A2
is selected, and deselect all other video and audio tracks.
Splicing in the Clip
Now you’re ready to make the edit.
1. In the Timeline, go to the head of the sequence.
2. Click the yellow Splice-in button on the Tool palette.
The music track should now appear on track A2. Your sequence
now has one video track and two audio tracks.
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Reviewing Your Edits
Review what you’ve done.
1. Now that you have two tracks of audio, make sure that all tracks
are being monitored. Make sure the Speaker icons for tracks A1
and A2 are visible (see “Monitoring Tracks” on page 107).
2. Go to the head of the sequence and play through the sequence.
The music sounds a little loud for the narration. You’ll adjust audio in
“Working with Audio” on page 133.
Confirming the Duration
The next steps explain how to confirm the duration by displaying the
master timecode, which is the timecode of your sequence.
1. Look at the top left of the Composer window. If the master
timecode (Mas) is not displayed, click and open the Tracking
Information pop-up menu from the gray area above the Composer
monitor and select Mas timecode.
The master timecode displays the location of the position indicator
in your sequence.
2. Click the position indicator in the Timeline and drag it to the last
frame of the sequence.
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The master timecode should read 00;00;59;00 (NTSC) or
00:00:59:00 (PAL), which indicates that the sequence is 59 seconds
long.
3. Drag the position indicator through the sequence and watch the
master timecode change.
Now is a good time to close any open pop-up monitors. Close all bins
too, except for the Sequences bin.
Next Steps
You’ve started your rough cut. You’ll adjust the audio in the next
chapter. You’ll also add some clips to fill in the video gap and to
illustrate what the narrator is talking about.
You can continue to the next chapter, or quit this session (see “Closing
the Project and Quitting the Application” on page 68). The next time
you open the project, the windows will be in the same position.
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CHAPTER 7
Building a Sequence
You’ve started creating your rough cut. Now you can complete the
rough cut, trim your edits, and adjust the audio levels. In this chapter
you’ll practice the following tasks:
•Storyboard Editing the Clips
•Overwriting Clips into a Sequence
•Backtiming an Edit
•Rearranging Clips
•Trimming
•Adding the Final Clip
•Working with Audio
If you have worked on the previous chapters but have quit
Avid Xpress DV — Start the application, choose your user name and
the Introducing Avid project, and then click OK. If necessary, open the
Sequences bin, and then drag the Rough Cut sequence into the
Composer monitor.
If you have not worked on the previous chapters — Start the
application, create a new user, choose the Introducing Avid project,
and then click OK. Open the Sequences bin, and then drag the Rough
Cut 1 sequence into the Composer monitor. Make sure you are familiar
with marking IN and OUT points and performing splice-in edits.
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Storyboard Editing the Clips
Storyboarding allows you to set up a group of clips in a sequence of
events, and then load them into the Composer monitor all at once.
Marking IN and OUT Points
The first step in storyboarding is to mark IN and OUT points for each
of the clips you are going to use. We’ve already marked IN and OUT
points for you. If you need to reset them, refer to the following table.
Clip NameaIN Point
(NTSC)
OUT Point
(NTSC)
IN Point
(PAL)
OUT Point
(PAL)
Homicide logo 01:37:03:06 01:37:04:28 00:05:10:15 00:05:12:12
Newsroom 06;17;48;03 06;17;50;09 00:06:25:16 00:06:27:12
Editor at keyboard 2 01:26:59:00 01:27:01:04 00:02:37:18 00:02:39:23
Recording session 01:22:23:17 01:22:25:00 00:05:26:06 00:05:27:17
Special effects 01:01:40:20 01:01:42:21 00:03:28:15 00:03:30:15
Lab 1A 01:24:53:19 01:24:57:16 00:04:10:22 00:04:14:20
Lab 1B 01:25:00:11 01:25:07:16 00:04:17:03 00:04:25:12
Trade show 00;03;21;16 00;03;25;17 00:05:45:22 00:05:50:00
a. The NTSC version of these clips use either drop-frame timecode or
non-drop-frame timecode, depending on how the original footage was
shot. See “About Timecode” on page 85.
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Creating the Storyboard
Next you need to arrange the clips as a storyboard.
1. In the Source Clips bin, click the Frame View button.
2. If you need more space to view the clips, click the lower right
corner of the bin and drag it to enlarge the window.
3. Choose Fill Window from the Bin menu to arrange the clips in the
bin.
4. Arrange the following clips in two rows, from left to right, and top
to bottom, to form the storyboard. You arrange the clips by
clicking and dragging each clip. Make sure you maintain the order
of clips as listed below and shown in the following illustration.
• Homicide logo
• Newsroom
• Editor at keyboard 2
• Recording session
• Special effects
• Lab 1A
• Lab 1B
• Trade show
Arranging the clips in this way makes it easier to select the clips
you want to use in the storyboard. Separate the remaining clips, as
shown in the following illustration.
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Editing the Clips into the Sequence
Now you’re ready to edit the marked clips into the sequence.
1. Click the Composer monitor, make sure Mas is displayed in the
Tracking Information display, type 17;25 (NTSC) or 18:00
(PAL), and press Enter on the numeric keypad.
2. Mark an IN point.
3. Select record track V1 and deselect all other video and audio
tracks.
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4. Select the storyboarded clips all at once.
a. Position the pointer in the Source Clips bin in the blank area
above and to the left of the Homicide logo clip.
b. Lasso the clips by clicking and dragging the pointer to the
right and down, making sure to select all of the storyboarded
clips, and then release the mouse button. After you select the
clips, all the names are highlighted in blue.
5. Click on one of the clips (on the image, not the name), and drag
the group into the Timeline. Release the mouse button when a
yellow arrow appears in the Timeline.
The clips are spliced into the sequence in the order you specified.
6. Play the sequence to review it.
Overwriting Clips into a Sequence
In the previous chapter, you spliced clips into a sequence. In this
section you’ll learn how to overwrite clips into a sequence. An
overwrite edit replaces a section of a sequence with other source
footage. An overwrite edit is especially useful when you want to
replace footage but you don’t want to affect the clips that follow in the
sequence.
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The Editor at keyboard clip is a little too long. Let’s edit the next clip
over the last part of the Editor at keyboard clip.
1. Make sure the Composer monitor is active.
2. Make sure the Mas timecode is displayed in the Composer
monitor (see “Confirming the Duration” on page 114).
3. Mark an IN point at 00;00;07;08 (NTSC) or 00:00:07:06 (PAL).
4. Open the Source Clips bin.
5. Open the Eyeball clip.
6. Check the IN point and OUT points. If there are no points, see
“Marking Another Clip” on page 83.
When you open a clip,
source tracks are
selected automatically.
7. In the Track Selector panel, make sure record track V1 is selected,
and all other video and audio tracks are deselected.
8. Click the red Overwrite button on the Tool palette or press the B
key on the keyboard.
The clip overwrites part of the Editor at keyboard clip.
9. Close the Eyeball clip.
Add two more short clips following the Editor at keyboard clip. Using
the following clips and edit points, which you marked in Chapter 5,
follow steps 5 to 9 in the previous procedure. Make sure the position
indicator is parked on the last frame of the clip you just added.
Clip Name
IN Point
(NTSC)
OUT Point
(NTSC)
IN Point
(PAL)
OUT Point
(PAL)
Hand and keyboard 01:08:14:18 01:08:16:18 00:01:42:23 00:01:44:23
Editor at keyboard 3 01:23:24:02 01:23:27:00 00:03:07:15 00:03:10:13
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Backtiming an Edit
Backtiming an edit is effectively the reverse of the process you normally
use for marking footage; instead of marking from the IN points
forward, you mark from an OUT point backward.
In the sequence, there is a gap between the Editor at keyboard 3 clip
and the Homicide logo clip. Let’s fill this gap.
1. Go to the last frame of black before the Homicide logo clip and
mark an OUT point.
2. Go to the first frame of black after the Editor at keyboard 3 clip
and mark an IN point.
The gap changes to purple.
3. Open the QuickTime Movies bin.
4. Open the Globe.mov clip.
5. Mark an OUT point at 00;00;04;17 (NTSC) or 00:01:09:10 (PAL).
6. Click the red Overwrite button on the Tool palette or press the B
key on the keyboard.
The gap is now filled.
7. Close the Globe.mov clip and the QuickTime Movies bin.
Rearranging Clips
You can rearrange clips by overwriting material, switching placement
of material, lifting material, or removing material. Overwriting and
switching material doesn’t change the length of the sequence. Lifting
material leaves a gap (also known as filler) and doesn’t affect the
length of the sequence. Removing material shortens the length of the
sequence.
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Overwriting with a Three-Point Edit
A three-point edit is an easy way to replace a clip in a sequence. Use the
Mark Clip button to select the clip in the sequence (or mark an IN and
OUT point for a segment that’s more than a single clip), and mark
either the IN or OUT point in the source clip. The system calculates the
exact duration of the source clip to insert.
Let’s replace the Editor at keyboard 3 clip near the beginning of the
sequence with the L key clip.
1. To enlarge this area, in the Timeline:
a. Press the Home key.
b. Click the scale box and drag it to the right until you can read
the label Editor at keyboard 3.
2. Place the position indicator anywhere in the Editor at keyboard 3
clip.
3. In the Track Selector panel, make sure record track V1 is selected,
and all other video and audio tracks are deselected.
4. Click the Mark Clip button in the row of buttons below the
Composer monitor, or press the T key on the keyboard.
The IN and OUT points appear at the head and tail of the clip in
the TC1 track of the Timeline. The marked segment changes to
purple.
The IN and OUT points also appear in the Composer monitor’s
position bar.
5. In the Source Clips bin, open the L key clip.
6. Mark an OUT point at 01:11:40:15 (NTSC) or 00:02:03:04 (PAL). Do
not mark an IN point.
Make sure the V1 timecode is showing in the Tracking Information
display.
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7. Click the red Overwrite button on the Tool palette (or press the B
key on the keyboard) to make the three-point edit.
The L key clip replaces the Editor at keyboard 3 clip.
8. Click the scale box and drag it to the left to contract the Timeline.
9. Close the L key clip.
Using Segment Mode
Segment mode provides editing controls for moving, deleting,
marking, and editing entire segments in the Timeline. A segment is a
portion of the sequence that consists of one or more clips. There are
two buttons for editing segments or adding clips: Extract/Splice-in
(indicated by a yellow arrow) and Lift/Overwrite (indicated by a red
arrow). These buttons are located at the bottom of the Timeline
window.
Unlike traditional editing, Segment mode allows you to reposition
entire segments instantly by using visual controls as though you were
physically “dragging” portions of your sequence around on a tape.
You can move clips separately or together, and on one track or across
tracks.
Changing the Order of Clips in a Sequence
Let’s see what it looks like if we reverse the position of two clips in the
sequence. To move entire clips, use Segment mode.
1. Make sure the position indicator is parked in the L key clip (the
one you just edited into the sequence).
Extract/Splice-in button Lift/Overwrite button
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2. Click the Segment Mode (Extract/Splice-in) button, which is the
button with the yellow arrow under the Timeline.
When the button is activated, its background changes to light gray.
cDon’t confuse the Extract/Splice-in and Splice-in buttons. The
Extract/Splice-in button is located under the Timeline; the Splice-in
button is located on the keyboard (the V key) and on the Tool
palette.
3. In the Track Selector panel, make sure record track V1 is selected,
and all other video and audio tracks are deselected.
4. Click the L key clip, drag it to the left (so it is over the preceding
clip), and release the mouse button.
The L key clip should now follow the Eyeball clip.
5. Click the Extract/Splice-in button again to deselect it.
6. Click the Timeline anywhere in the Eyeball clip and review the
clips you just moved.
Let’s go back to the original order. Choose Undo from the Edit menu.
Removing Footage from a Sequence
You can remove footage from your sequence, and either close or retain
the gap that results. The Delete key closes the gap, and the Lift key
retains the gap.
Removing Footage and Closing the Resulting Gap
The Editor at keyboard 2 clip that was part of the storyboard is too
similar to the clips at the beginning of the sequence. Let’s remove it
from the sequence and close the gap that results.
1. Use the scale bar and scroll bar to locate the Editor at keyboard 2
clip.
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2. Click the yellow Segment Mode (Extract/Splice-in) button under
the Timeline.
To eliminate footage
that does not start and
end at a transition, use
IN and OUT points to
mark the segment that
you want to extract.
3. Click anywhere in the Editor at keyboard 2 clip on track V1.
The clip is highlighted.
4. Press the Delete key on the keyboard.
The selected clip is eliminated and the surrounding clips close the
gap.
5. Deselect the Extract/Splice-in button by clicking it.
6. Click the Timeline in front of the Recording session clip and play
the next few clips.
The video no longer matches the narration. You need to retain
rather than close the gap.
7. Choose Undo from the Edit menu to undo the edit and restore the
clip.
Removing Footage and Retaining the Resulting Gap
The Lift key retains the gap after lifting footage from the sequence. Use
the Lift key if you want to maintain the rhythm of a sequence or the
synchronization of the video and audio tracks.
Try the edit again, but this time use the Lift key, and replace the clip.
1. Click anywhere in the Editor at keyboard 2 clip.
2. Click the Mark Clip button below the Composer monitor to mark
IN and OUT points.
3. In the Track Selector panel, make sure record track V1 is selected,
and all other video and audio tracks are deselected.
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4. Press the Lift key on the keyboard to remove the segment.
The letter equivalent of the Lift key depends on the version of
your keyboard. For the location of the Lift key, choose Keyboard
from the Settings scroll list.
The selected segment lifts out and leaves filler in its place.
Replacing a Clip
Now fill the gap with a different clip.
1. Open the Corporate editor clip.
2. Mark an IN point for the clip at timecode 06;16;34;13 (NTSC) or
00:06:08:07 (PAL).
3. In the sequence, make sure the filler has IN and OUT points. If not,
click the Mark Clip button.
4. Click the red Overwrite button on the Tool palette or press the B
key on the keyboard.
The filler has been replaced by the new clip.
5. Close the Corporate editor clip and the Source Clips bin.
6. Move the scale bar all the way to the left to compress the Timeline,
which lets you see the entire sequence.
Trimming
Trimming allows you to adjust incoming and outgoing frames of your
clip. There are two types of trims: dual-roller and single-roller. When
you trim, you are working in Trim mode. In Trim mode the Composer
monitor changes and new editing buttons appear.
To trim a transition, at least one of the clips needs media in addition to
the media displayed in the Timeline (see “Sequences” on page 42).
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Adjusting Both Sides of a Transition (Dual-Roller Trimming)
Use a dual-roller trim to adjust both sides of a transition at the same
time, adding frames to one clip while subtracting frames from the
adjacent clip. The total duration of the sequence does not change.
Let’s tighten the Lab 1A/Lab 1B transition. (You’ll smooth the
transition with a dissolve effect in the next chapter).
1. Place the position indicator near the Lab 1A/Lab 1B transition,
and click the Trim Mode button on the Tool palette.
The position indicator snaps to the transition, and an icon
representing two rollers appears.
The Composer monitor shows the last (tail) frame of the Lab 1A
clip on the left, and the first (head) frame of the Lab 1B clip on the
right.
New buttons appear below the trim windows. During a dual-
roller trim, both frame counters are purple.
Dual-roller icon
at the trim transition
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2. Play the transition by clicking the Play Loop button.
The transition plays repeatedly.
3. To stop the playback loop, click the Play Loop button again.
4. Click the Trim Left 10 Frames button three times.
Transition Effect
palette
Outgoing clip Incoming
Frame
counters
Trim Frame buttons buttonPlay Loop
clip
Trim Right
10 Frames
Trim Right
1 Frame
Trim Left
1 Frame
Trim Left
10 Frames
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You can also trim by
dragging the Dual-
Roller icon.
This action adds 30 frames to the head of the incoming clip and
removes 30 frames from the tail of the outgoing clip. The duration
of the video track remains unchanged.
5. Play the transition again by clicking the Play Loop button.
6. Do one of the following to exit Trim mode:
• Click the Trim Mode button on the Tool palette.
• Press the Left Arrow key on the keyboard.
Single-Roller Trimming
In the previous trim, you trimmed both the head and the tail clips an
equal number of frames, adding to one side and subtracting from the
other. Now let’s trim the tail of one clip without affecting the head of
the next clip. This is a single-roller trim. You’ll also use a different way
of entering Trim mode.
The Trade show clip begins a little too quickly for the narration. Let’s
extend the Lab 1B clip while keeping the same start of the Trade show
clip.
1. In the Track Selector panel, make sure record track V1 is selected,
and all other video and audio tracks are deselected.
2. Move the position indicator to the Lab 1B/Trade show transition.
3. Enter Trim mode by lassoing the Timeline tracks.
a. Click the pointer above all the Timeline tracks, just to the left
of the transition, but below the title bar. In this example, click
above and to the left of the position indicator.
Click here to
lasso the
transition.
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b. Drag the pointer down and to the right to surround the
transition, and release the mouse button.
The trim rollers appear.
4. In the Composer window, click the left frame counter (A-Side Trim
counter).
Your trim will only affect the outgoing clip, which is in the left
Trim monitor. The left frame counter remains purple, while the
right one is deselected. A single roller appears in the Timeline.
5. On the numeric keypad, type +40 and press Enter.
This moves the transition 40 frames to the right.
Left frame
counter
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6. Play the transition by clicking the Play Loop button.
7. Exit Trim mode by pressing the Left Arrow key on the keyboard or
by clicking the Trim Mode button on the Tool palette.
Adding the Final Clip
We have supplied you with another QuickTime movie, titled Closing
logo.mov. This clip needs to be edited to sync with the music, so use
timecode to set the IN point in the sequence.
1. Open the QuickTime Movies bin.
2. Open the Closing logo.mov clip.
3. Click the Mark Clip button to mark the entire clip for editing.
4. Click the Composer monitor.
5. Mark an IN point at 00;00;44;02 (NTSC) or 00:00:44:02 (PAL).
Use the Mas setting in the Tracking Information display.
6. In the Track Selector panel, make sure record track V1 is selected,
and all other video and audio tracks are deselected.
7. Click the Overwrite button or press the B key to make the edit.
8. Close the Closing logo.mov clip and the QuickTime Movies bin.
9. Play your sequence to review your work.
There might be a small gap between the end of the Trade show clip
and the beginning of the Closing logo.mov clip.
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Perform a dual-roller trim to close the gap.
1. Place the position indicator on the first frame of black after the
Trade show clip and click the Trim Mode button on the Tool
palette.
You should see two rollers appear at the transition.
2. Drag the rollers until they reach the beginning of the Closing
logo.mov clip.
The rollers will stop when they reach the beginning of the next
clip.
3. Click the Left Arrow key to exit Trim mode.
4. Play the last two clips of the sequence.
Working with Audio
In this section, you work with the Audio Mix tool to adjust the balance
and volume of the sequence.
Adjusting Audio Pan (Balance)
The narration for the sequence plays out of one speaker and the music
plays out of another. You can adjust the audio pan (balance) so the
sound plays equally from both speakers.
1. Clear any IN or OUT points from the sequence by pressing the G
key on the keyboard.
2. Select record tracks A1 and A2.
3. Move the Timeline position indicator to any point in the Timeline
that includes both A1 and A2.
4. Choose Audio Mix from the Tools menu.
The Audio Mix tool appears.
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5. Click and hold the Pan Level box for track A1 to open the Pan
Adjustment window.
The Pan slider appears.
To snap the slider to
MID, press and hold the
Alt key and click the
Pan Level box.
6. Drag the Pan slider to the middle of the scale until it reads MID,
and then release the mouse button.
7. Open the Pan Adjustment window for track A2 and drag the Pan
slider until it reads MID. Release the mouse button.
You can change the pan
settings for an entire
project in the Audio
Settings dialog box.
8. Play a portion of the sequence to check the speaker balance.
Level sliders
Pan Level boxes
Drag the Pan slider.
Click and hold here to
open the Pan
Adjustment window.
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Adjusting Audio Level
The music is a little loud for the narration. Let’s raise the volume of the
narration by using the Audio Mix tool.
1. The Audio Mix tool should already be open. If not, choose Audio
Mix from the Tools menu.
2. Place the position indicator anywhere within the Narration clip.
3. In the A1 area of the Audio Mix tool, move the A1 Audio Level
slider to level +5.0 by doing one of the following:
• Drag the slider to level +5.0.
• Click the slider and type +5.
• Click the slider and press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key
on the keyboard to reach level +5.0.
4. Play a portion of the sequence.
Adjust the audio level further, depending on your preference.
5. Click the Close button to close the Audio Mix tool.
You can make further adjustments to the narration or music track by
using the Audio Gain Automation tool. See the Avid Xpress DV User’s
Guide or Help.
Next Steps
You’ve completed and refined your rough cut. You can continue to the
next chapter to add effects, or quit this session (see “Closing the
Project and Quitting the Application” on page 68). The next time you
open the project, the windows will be in the same position.
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CHAPTER 8
Adding Effects
Adding an effect to a clip enhances your sequence by fading in or out
of a scene, or adding video or a graphic on top of a clip. In this chapter,
you’ll add dissolves and other effects. This chapter covers the
following topics:
•Effects Editing
•Dissolving Between Clips
•Adding a Picture-in-Picture Effect
•Adding a Flop Effect
If you have worked on the previous chapters but have quit
Avid Xpress DV — Start the application, choose your user name and
the Introducing Avid project, and then click OK. If necessary, open the
Sequences bin, and then drag the Rough Cut sequence into the
Composer monitor.
If you have not worked on the previous chapters — Start the
application, create a new user, choose the Introducing Avid project,
and then click OK. Open the Sequences bin, and then drag the Rough
Cut 2 sequence into the Composer monitor.
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Effects Editing
The Avid Xpress DV system offers many effects that you can apply to
your sequences. This chapter explains how to apply effects to
transitions or segments (clips) in your sequence. After you have
selected the effect and have applied it to a transition or segment, you
can adjust the effect parameters to meet your requirements.
Effects need to be rendered before you play them in the finished
sequence. Rendering an effect creates a media file that plays with the
sequence. You can preview effects before rendering by “stepping
through” the sequence using the Step keys.
Some effects can be applied only to transitions, other effects can be
applied only to segments, and some effects can be applied to both
transitions and segments. In addition, some effects can be applied to a
single video layer, and others to multiple video layers.
For complete explanations of effects and how to use them, see the
Avid Xpress DV Effects Guide.
Transition Effects
A transition is the point where two clips meet. You apply a transition
effect to the cut point between two clips on the same video track. After
you apply a transition effect, you can adjust its relative position and
duration. Depending on the specific effect, other effect parameters
might apply.
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Segment Effects
You apply a segment effect to an entire clip or a group of clips. There
are two types of segment effects:
•A single-layer segment effect, such as a mask or a flop, is applied to a
segment on one video track.
•A multilayer segment effect, such as a Picture-in-Picture effect, is
applied to the top layer of segments that contain two or more
video tracks that will be played simultaneously.
You’ll add both types of effects in this chapter.
Dissolving Between Clips
Let’s start by adding a dissolve between two clips of the sequence. A
dissolve is a video or audio transition in which an image from one
source gradually becomes less distinct as an image from a second
source replaces it.
1. Clear IN or OUT points if they are marked on the sequence.
2. Select record track V1 and deselect all other video and audio
tracks.
3. Click the transition between the Editor at keyboard clip and the
Eyeball clip.
4. Click the Add Dissolve button on the Tool palette.
The Quick Dissolve dialog box appears.
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5. Let’s make the dissolve a little shorter than the default duration.
a. Choose Dissolve from the Add pop-up menu.
b. Choose Centered on Cut from the Position pop-up menu.
c. Type 20 (NTSC) or 16 (PAL) in the Duration text box. The
number 10 or 8 automatically appears in the Start text box.
6. Choose the drive on which the effect media file should be stored
from the Target Drive pop-up menu.
Boldface indicates the drive with the most space. The Film Clip
icon indicates the drive that holds the media for the outgoing clip
in the transition. For this tutorial, select the drive that holds the
media.
7. Click the Add and Render button to render the effect.
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A message box appears while the system creates a media file for
the effect. A progress indicator displays the percentage of the
rendering that has been completed. After the effect is created, a
rendered effect icon appears in the Timeline where you added the
effect.
8. Play the effect. Press the space bar to stop playback.
Creating a Series of Dissolves
After you create one dissolve, you can quickly add it to other
transitions in a sequence. Add the same dissolve you created in the
previous section to smooth the other three transitions in the opening
part of the sequence.
1. In the sequence, mark an IN point in the Eyeball clip, before the
transition to the Hand and keyboard clip.
2. Mark an OUT point in the Globe.mov clip, after the transition.
The IN and OUT points should include three transitions.
3. Click the Add Dissolve button.
The dialog box contains the same parameters you used to create
your dissolve.
4. Select the option Apply To All Transitions (In -> Out).
5. Click Add.
The system adds the effects, but does not render them. The blue dots
on the effect icons indicate that you need to render the effects. You can
save time by adding effects and rendering them later.
Rendered effect icon
Blue dots
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Rendering a Series of Effects
Now render the three dissolves you just created.
1. Make sure the sequence contains the IN and OUT points you
marked in the previous procedure.
2. Choose Render In/Out from the Clip menu.
The Render Effects dialog box appears.
3. For the Target Drive, choose the same drive that you selected in
“Dissolving Between Clips” on page 138. This drive will remain
the default target drive until you choose another.
4. Click OK.
The message box with a progress indicator appears. To see the
progress of rendering, press the T key.
After the effects are rendered, the blue dots no longer appear on
the effect icons.
5. Play the first part of the sequence to review your work.
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Adding Additional Dissolves
Now add two more dissolves.
1. In the sequence, mark an IN point in the Lab 1A subclip, before
the transition to the Lab 1B subclip.
2. Mark an OUT point in the Trade show clip, just after the transition
from the Lab 1B subclip.
3. Click the Add Dissolve button.
4. Select the option Apply To All Transitions (In -> Out).
5. Click Add and Render.
The system adds and renders the effects.
Changing the Position of a Dissolve
When Avid Xpress DV creates a dissolve between two clips, it needs
media in addition to the media displayed in the Timeline. This
additional source media (or handles) must be part of the master clip
(see “Sequences” on page 42). Let’s create a dissolve when one clip
doesn’t have enough extra source media.
1. Click the transition between the Trade sh o w and Closing
logo.mov clips.
2. Click the Add Dissolve button.
The Quick Dissolve dialog box appears with a message that tells
you that the incoming clip, in this case Closing logo.mov, doesn’t
have enough additional media to create a dissolve that is centered
on the cut.
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3. Choose Starting at Cut from the Position menu.
The message disappears, because in this case the system will use
additional media from the Trade show clip to create the dissolve.
4. Click Add and Render.
5. Play the transition.
The system created an acceptable dissolve.
Adding a Picture-in-Picture Effect
Let’s add an effect that illustrates the narration. Using a Picture-in-
Picture effect, you’ll show footage of a test engineer over the Lab 1A/
Lab 1B transition.
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Displaying the Effect Palette
Before you add your next effect, choose Effect Palette from the Tools
menu. The Effect Palette appears.
The Effect Palette contains most of the effects in the Avid Xpress DV
system. The exceptions are motion effects that you access from the Fast
menu on a Source pop-up monitor, the Freeze Frame effect that you
access from the Clip menu, and titles that you create with the Title tool.
You’ll be choosing Picture-in-Picture from the Effect Palette.
Using the Second Video Track
A Picture-in-Picture effect takes up two video tracks: in this sequence,
V1 for the lab footage and V2 for the test engineer. First, you have to
edit the Testing board clip onto track V2.
1. Select record track V2 and deselect all other video and audio
tracks.
2. Press the G key to clear IN and OUT points from the sequence.
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3. Mark an IN point at 00;00;00;30 (NTSC) or 00:00:00:30 (PAL).
Check the Mas timecode display in the Composer monitor to help
you mark the IN point.
4. Open the Source Clips bin and open the Testing board clip.
5. Mark an IN point at 01:14:36:00 (NTSC) or 00:04:49:01 (PAL) and
an OUT point at 01:14:39:18 (NTSC) or 00:04:52:19 (PAL).
6. Patch the V1 source track to the V2 record track by clicking the V1
Source Track button and dragging it to the V2 Record Track button
(see “Patching Tracks” on page 112).
7. Click the Overwrite button.
The clip is edited onto track V2.
8. Close the Testing board clip and the Source Clips bin.
9. Play the edited section of the sequence from a location before the
Testing board clip.
Creating the Picture-in-Picture Effect
Let’s place the new clip in a window by using the Picture-in-Picture
effect.
1. Make sure record track V2 and the record track V2 monitor are
selected.
2. Click the Effect Palette or choose it from the Tools menu.
3. Select Blend from the list of effect categories on the left side of the
Effect Palette.
The blend effects, including the Picture-in-Picture effect, are
displayed on the right side of the Effect Palette.
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4. Place the position indicator anywhere in the Tes t ing bo ard clip on
track V2.
5. Click the Picture-in-Picture icon from the Effect Palette and drag it
to the Testing board clip.
The Picture-in-Picture icon appears in the Timeline.
The Testing board clip appears in a box in the middle of the
Composer monitor.
Picture-in-Picture icon
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nIf the foreground image does not appear midscreen, make sure to choose
Render On-The-Fly from the Clip menu. A check mark should appear in front
of the menu choice.
6. Close the Effect Palette.
Resizing the Image
Now let’s enter Effect mode and enlarge the image slightly.
1. In the Timeline, make sure the position indicator is directly over
the Picture-in-Picture icon.
2. Click the Effect Mode button on the Tool palette to enter Effect
mode.
The Effect Editor appears, with parameters for the Picture-in-
Picture effect.
Foreground Background
filler (V1)
image (V2)
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In Effect mode, the Composer monitor changes to include only the
duration of the effect, with keyframe markers (pink triangles) at
the beginning and end of the clip. For more information about
using keyframes, see the Avid Xpress DV Effects Guide or Help.
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3. In the Effect Editor, click the arrow next to the word Scaling to
open the scaling pane.
4. Click the Fixed Aspect button to keep the image at the same
proportions. Make sure the button changes to pink.
5. Click either the Wid (Width) or Hgt (Height) slider so that the
slider changes to pink.
You can also drag the
slider. 6. Press the Right Arrow key on the keyboard 10 times. Both the
height and width change.
Keyframe markers
Width slider
Height slider
Fixed Aspect button
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Previewing the Effect
You can preview the effect before you render it by clicking the Play
Loop button on the right side of the Effect Editor. The clip with the
effect plays from beginning to end until you click the button again.
nIf you are in Effect mode, you can also click the Play button to preview the
effect. Outside of Effect mode, you need to render the effect before you can
view it.
Adjusting the Border
You can add to the effect by softening the border.
1. Click the Soft slider in the Effect Editor.
You can also drag the
slider or use the arrow
keys.
If you can’t see the Effect Editor, click the Effect Mode button on
the Tool palette.
2. Type 10 on the numeric keypad.
You can see the borders soften.
Soft slider
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Fading In and Out
The Picture-in-Picture appears and disappears suddenly. There’s a
special button you can use to fade the effect in and out.
1. On the Tool palette, click the Fade Effect button.
The Fade Title Effect dialog box appears.
2. Click in the Fade Up text box and type 10. Do the same for the
Fade Down text box.
3. Click OK.
You won’t see the fade until you render the effect.
Rendering the Effect
Now it’s time to render the effect.
1. On the Tool palette, click the Render Effect button.
The Render Effect dialog box appears.
2. Accept the default target drive and click OK.
A message box with a progress indicator appears. Because this
effect is more complex than a dissolve, it will take a little longer to
render (approximately 1 minute).To check the time elapsed and
time remaining, press the T key.
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3. When the rendering is complete, close the Effect Editor to exit
Effect mode.
4. Play the part of the sequence that includes the Picture-in-Picture
effect.
Adding a Flop Effect
In the Eyeball clip, the letters of the word Avid are reversed, as if
reflected in a mirror. You can use the Flop effect to display the letters in
the normal way.
1. Open the Effect Palette.
2. In the left column, click Image.
3. In the right column, click Flop and drag the icon to the Eyeball
clip in the Timeline.
4. Close the Effect Palette.
5. Click anywhere in the Eyeball clip.
The image is now reversed, or flopped.
This effect, and the dissolves on either side, have blue dots and
need to be rendered. Even though you rendered the dissolves
earlier, placing another effect on top of them requires you to
render all three effects.
6. Select record track V1 and deselect all other video and audio
tracks.
7. In the sequence, mark IN and OUT points that include all three
effects.
8. Choose Render In/Out from the Clip menu.
The Render Effects dialog box appears.
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9. Click OK.
10. Play the part of the sequence that includes the effects you just
rendered.
Next Steps
You’ve finished adding effects to the sequence. If you want, you can
take time to play with other effects, such as adding more dissolves,
changing the border of the picture-in-picture, or experimenting with
transition effects like edge wipes. In the next chapter you’ll add a title.
You can continue to the next chapter, or quit this session (see “Closing
the Project and Quitting the Application” on page 68).
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CHAPTER 9
Creating Titles
The Title tool lets you create text and graphics that you can edit into a
sequence. In this chapter you’ll add titles to your sequence by
completing the following tasks:
•Creating a New Title
•Saving a Title
•Editing the Title into the Sequence
•Fading a Title
•Editing a Saved Title
•Renaming Your Sequence
If you have worked on the previous chapters but have quit
Avid Xpress DV — Start the application, choose your user name and
the Introducing Avid project, and then click OK. If necessary, open the
Sequences bin, and then drag the Rough Cut sequence into the
Composer monitor.
If you have not worked on the previous chapters — Start the
application, create a new user, choose the Introducing Avid project,
and then click OK. Open the Sequences bin, and then drag the Rough
Cut 3 sequence into the Composer monitor.
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Creating a New Title
For complete
information on creating
and editing titles, see
the Avid Xpress DV
Effects Guide or Help.
Let’s create a title that illustrates part of the narration.
1. In the Timeline, place the blue position indicator in the middle of
the Testing board clip.
2. Choose New Title from the Clip menu.
The Title Tool window opens on top of the Composer and
Timeline windows.
Toolbar
Safe action
area
Video
background
Safe title
area
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The Title tool includes the following features:
To get information on
items in the toolbar,
position the pointer on
an object, click the right
mouse button, and
choose What’s This?
from the pop-up menu.
• Two grids that indicate areas of the image that are safe for
broadcast. The outside grid outlines the safe action area and
the inside grid outlines the safe title area. The safe title and
safe action areas do not apply if you are creating a video for a
CD-ROM or the Internet.
• Video background for the title, based on the location of the
position indicator when you open the Title tool.
• A toolbar that includes many controls for creating, adjusting,
and saving your titles.
3. Click the Text Tool button. If it is already selected on the toolbar,
the pointer changes to an I-beam when you click in the Title Tool
window.
4. Click in the left side of the safe title area, below the picture-in-
picture.
A blinking insertion point appears.
5. Type product innovation.
6. The following values might already be selected. If not:
a. Click the Selection Tool button on the toolbar, then click the
title text.
Object selection handles surround the title.
b. Choose 48 from the Font Point Size pop-up menu.
c. Choose Arial from the Font Selection pop-up menu.
d. Click the B button for bold and click the I button for italics.
Adding a Shadow
Adding a shadow to the title text will make it easier to read. Type a 5
in the Shadow Depth Selection text box and press the Enter key.
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By default, the Title tool uses a shadow that falls below and to the right
of the text. For more information about changing the type of shadow
and how it falls, see the Avid Xpress DV Effects Guide.
Positioning and Aligning Text
You might need to move the text so that it aligns with the edge of the
safe title grid.
1. Select the first line of text.
2. Choose Align to Frame Left from the Alignment menu.
Your title should look similar to the one in the following illustration.
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There are many adjustments you can make in the Title tool. For now,
let’s save the title.
Saving a Title
Now save your title.
1. Open the Source Clips bin. You’ll be storing the title here.
2. Click in the Title Tool window.
3. Choose Save Title from the File menu.
The Save Title dialog box appears.
4. Type product innovation in the Title Name text box.
5. Choose Source Clips from the Bin pop-up menu.
6. Accept the default drive and resolution.
7. Click Save.
The title appears in the Source Clips bin.
8. Click the Close button to close the Title tool.
Editing the Title into the Sequence
Now add the title to your sequence.
1. Double-click the product innovation title clip.
The title opens in a Source pop-up monitor.
2. Add a new video track (V3) by choosing New Video Track from
the Clip menu.
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3. Patch source track V1 to record track V3 by clicking the V1 Source
Track button and dragging it to the V3 Record Track button (see
“Patching Tracks” on page 112).
4. Make sure source track V1 and record track V3 are selected, and all
other video and audio tracks are deselected.
5. In the Source pop-up monitor, set an IN point at the beginning of
the clip.
6. In the Timeline, set an IN point at 00;00;31;22 (NTSC) or
00:00:31:22 (PAL) which is approximately where the narrator
begins to say “product innovation.”
7. Set an OUT point at 00;00;33;19 (NTSC) or 00:00:33:19 (PAL) to
sync with the end of the Te s ting b o a rd clip.
8. Click the red Overwrite button on the Tool palette.
This adds the title to the V3 video track. Now you have to render
the title, in the same way as you would render an effect.
9. In the Timeline, place the position indicator on the Title Effect icon.
10. On the Tool palette, click the Render Effect button and click OK.
The Avid Xpress DV system renders the effect and creates a file for
the title.
11. Close the product innovation title clip.
12. Play the part of the sequence that includes your title.
Fading a Title
You can have the title fade in and out:
1. Place the position indicator on the Title Effect icon.
2. Click the Fade Effect button on the Tool palette.
3. Type 10 frames in each of the text boxes.
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4. Click OK.
The effect now has a blue dot. You need to render the effect again.
5. Click the Render Effect button and click OK.
6. Play your sequence from just before the Testing board clip.
Editing a Saved Title
You can edit a saved title to change the content, font, and so on. You
can create a new title by editing a saved title and saving it with a new
name.
1. In the Source Clips bin, Ctrl+double-click the product innovation
title.
The title opens in the Title Tool window.
2. Make sure the Text Tool button is selected.
3. In the Title Tool window, click the beginning of the existing title
and drag the cursor to select the text.
4. Replace the text with the words a path to the future. Keep
the same settings as the previous title.
5. Click the Selection tool and then drag the title to the upper right.
6. Choose Align to Frame Right from the Alignment menu.
Changing Color
By default, the text is white. Let’s change the color of the new title.
1. Click the Selection tool and then click the title text.
2. Click and hold the Fill box.
The Title Tool Color Picker appears.
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You can “tear off” the
Title Tool Color Picker
window by dragging it
to another location.
3. Drag the mouse pointer over the band of colors at the top of the
Title Tool Color Picker. When you find a color you want to use,
release the mouse button
The color is applied to the title.
Saving the Title
Next, save the title with a different name.
1. Choose Save Title As from the File menu.
2. In the Title Name text box, type a path to the future.
3. Click Save.
4. Close the Title tool.
Editing the Title
Now edit the title into the sequence in the same way that you edited
the previous title.
1. Open the a path to the future clip.
2. Click the Timeline and mark an IN point at 00;00;35;19 (NTSC) or
00:00:35:19 (PAL), approximately where the narrator begins to say
“a path to the future.”
3. Mark an OUT point at 00;00;37;15.
4. Patch source track V1 to record track V3.
5. Click the red Overwrite button on the Tool palette.
6. Click the Fade Effect button.
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7. Render the title.
8. Play the sequence from the beginning to review your work.
Renaming Your Sequence
If you’re satisfied with your sequence, change the name from Rough
Cut to a name of your choice.
1. In the Sequences bin, click the name Rough Cut.
2. Type a new name, such as Final Sequence.
Next Steps
You’ve finished editing your sequence. There are probably changes
and refinements you’d like to make. If you have time, try making these
changes. Consult the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide, Avid Xpress DV
Effects Guide, and the Help for information on all the features of the
product and how to use them.
The next chapter describes how to output your sequence. You can
continue to the next chapter, or quit this session (see “Closing the
Project and Quitting the Application” on page 68).
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CHAPTER 10
Generating Output
You’ve finished your sequence. Now you’re ready to create an output
format and distribute it. Avid Xpress DV lets you output your
sequence in many different formats. This chapter covers three kinds of
output:
•Creating a Movie for the Internet
•Exporting a QuickTime Movie
•Outputting a Digital Cut to Tape
If you have worked on the previous chapters but have quit
Avid Xpress DV — Start the application, choose your user name and
the Introducing Avid project, and then click OK. If necessary, open the
Sequences bin, and then drag your final sequence into the Composer
monitor.
If you have not worked on the previous chapters — Start the
application, create a new user, choose the Introducing Avid project,
and then click OK. Open the Sequences bin, and then drag the
Introducing Avid sequence into the Composer monitor.
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Creating a Movie for the Internet
Avid Xpress DV includes software that is especially designed for
creating video that is formatted for distribution over the Internet.
These formats include:
• RealMedia™ G2
• MPEG - Ligos
• Microsoft® ASF
•QuickTime
This section describes how to use the RealProducer G2 application to
output a RealMedia movie. For information about other formats, see
the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide and Help.
nSoftware for these applications is installed when you install Avid Xpress DV
software. You can also install the applications separately. See
“Installing Avid Xpress DV Software” on page 24.
About RealMedia
RealMedia, developed by RealNetworks, Inc., is a streaming format.
Streaming is a technology in which viewers can watch a video clip or
movie over the Internet while it is being copied to their computer,
rather than forcing them to wait until the entire file is downloaded.
Avid Xpress DV and RealProducer G2 convert your sequence to a
streaming movie for viewing over a network or the Internet. To view a
RealMedia movie, you need RealPlayer® software, which is installed
with Avid Xpress DV. You can also download RealPlayer from the
RealNetworks Web site at www.real.com.
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Preparing the Sequence
Before you export your sequence, check the sequence to make sure
you have selected and monitored the tracks you want to use.
1. Start Avid Xpress DV and open your final sequence (or you can
use the prepared sequence titled Introducing Avid).
2. Make sure the Track Selector panel has the following record tracks
selected and monitored:
•V3
•V2
•V1
•A1
•A2
Track selector buttons for these tracks should be purple. Track
Monitor buttons should show a Monitor icon for track V3 and
Speaker icons on tracks A1 and A2.
3. Clear any IN or OUT points in the sequence.
4. If you want, play some or all of the sequence to make sure it is the
version you want to output.
Creating a RealMedia Movie
Now you’re ready to create the RealMedia movie.
For complete
information about
exporting, see the
Avid Xpress DV User’s
Guide or Help.
1. In the Sequences bin, select your final sequence.
2. Choose Export from the File menu.
The Pick Export Settings dialog box appears.
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The Export pop-up menu shows the Export settings that are in the
Settings scroll list. In this example, Untitled is the name of the
default setting.
The Settings scroll list includes export templates that make the
export process easier. In this example, you’ll use one of these
templates.
3. Choose RealMedia G2 from the Export pop-up menu.
4. Click OK.
The Export As dialog box appears.
5. Select a location for the RealMedia movie.
For this tutorial, the RealMedia movie requires approximately
2.2 MB of disk space.
6. Click Save.
The Avid Xpress DV system creates an intermediate movie. When
the processing is complete (for this tutorial, it takes approximately
1 minute), the first dialog box for RealProducer G2 appears.
nAvid Xpress DV saves the intermediate movie in a temporary folder. Make
sure the temporary folder is on a drive with sufficient space, typically a drive
other than drive C. You can view and change the location in the General
Settings dialog box, which you access from the Settings scroll list.
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For complete
information on using
RealProducer G2, click
the Help button.
7. Enter information about your RealMedia clip in the text boxes.
This information is optional. If you include the information, it will
appear in the RealPlayer when your movie is playing.
Click Next. The File Type dialog box appears.
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8. Select the type of RealMedia file that you will create. For this
tutorial, select SureStream.
SureStream allows you to create a single RealMedia clip that can
play across a variety of different connections. To take advantage of
SureStream technology, you must broadcast the clip using
RealServer G2.
Click Next. The Target Audience dialog box appears.
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9. Select the modem or connection speed of the target audience. For
this tutorial, select 56 Kbps Modem and Corporate LAN. The more
options you select, the larger your file becomes. RealNetworks,
Inc. recommends that you select only three or four options.
The maximum size of your output video image depends on the
target audience you select. For information about maximum
output sizes, click the Help button.
You can customize the target audience settings by clicking the
Settings button. For this tutorial, accept the default settings.
When you have selected your options, click Next. The Audio
Format dialog box appears.
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10. Select Voice with Background Music and click Next.
The Video Quality dialog box appears.
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11. Select Normal Motion Video and click Next.
The Save Settings dialog box appears.
12. Review the options you have selected. If you are satisfied, click
Finish.
Your sequence is exported as a RealMedia file. For this tutorial
sequence, the process takes approximately 6 minutes. When the
export is finished, the Conversion Complete dialog box appears.
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13. Click the Play button to view your RealMedia movie.
The movie appears in the RealPlayer.
You might need to minimize the Avid Xpress DV window to view
the RealPlayer.
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For complete information about using the RealPlayer, choose an
option from the RealPlayer Help menu.
For information about creating and publishing a Web page, see the
RealProducer G2 Help.
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Exporting a QuickTime Movie
Avid Xpress DV provides you with many options for outputting
(publishing) your sequence in formats suitable for digital distribution.
In this section, you’ll create a QuickTime movie, which is a format you
can use for distribution on CD-ROM or over the World Wide Web. For
information about using other formats, see “Creating a Movie for the
Internet” on page 164, the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide, or Help.
Using the QuickTime DV Codec
To create the QuickTime movie, you’ll be using the DV codec that is
built into the QuickTime software. A codec is software or hardware that
compresses and decompresses digital media (the word codec is a
combination of the words compressor and decompressor). The
QuickTime DV codec creates media files that are readable within
QuickTime applications. In the following procedure, the codec uses
the size, resolution, and other parameters of the Avid Xpress DV
sequence, which makes the export very fast.
When you select the Same as Source option, the QuickTime DV codec
maintains the dimensions of the media (720 x 480 pixels for NTSC,
720 x 576 pixels for PAL), which might not be appropriate for some
uses. For example, if the destination of your exported media is a
multimedia title, you can change the screen dimensions or use another
codec, such as Cinepak. Alternatively, you can use the QuickTime DV
codec to create a QuickTime file for further processing in another
application.
nQuickTime software is installed when you install Avid Xpress DV software.
You can also install it separately. See “Installing Avid Xpress DV
Software” on page 24.
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Exporting the Sequence
For complete
information about
exporting, see the
Avid Xpress DV User’s
Guide or Help.
To create a QuickTime or other digital movie, you need to export the
sequence.
1. Prepare your final sequence as described in “Preparing the
Sequence” on page 165.
2. In the Sequences bin, select your final sequence.
3. Choose Export from the File menu.
The Pick Export Settings dialog box appears.
The Export pop-up menu shows the Export settings that are in the
Settings scroll list. In this example, Untitled is the name of the
default setting.
The Settings scroll list includes export templates that make the
export process easier. In this example, you’ll create your own
template.
4. Click the Customize button.
The Export Settings dialog box appears.
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5. Choose QuickTime Movie from the Export As pop-up menu.
The dialog box changes to show options for exporting QuickTime.
177
For more information
about these options,
press the F1 key.
6. In the Save Setting As text box, change the name to QuickTime.
This setting will be saved in the Settings scroll list, and you can
reuse it later.
7. Select the following options:
• Use Enabled Tracks
• Same as Source
• Video and Audio
The Same as Source option maintains the size and resolution of the
sequence. This option also informs the system to use the
178
QuickTime DV codec to create the QuickTime movie (see “Using
the QuickTime DV Codec” on page 174).
8. Click OK to return to the Pick Export Settings dialog box.
The Export pop-up menu now shows QuickTime.
9. Click OK.
The Export As dialog box appears. This dialog box is similar to
other Windows Save As dialog boxes.
10. Select a different location for the QuickTime movie. For this
tutorial, the QuickTime movie requires approximately 220 MB of
disk space, so pick a drive that has sufficient space. In most cases
you should pick a drive other than drive C.
11. Click Save.
The Avid Xpress DV system creates the QuickTime movie. For this
tutorial sequence, the processing takes about 1 minute.
12. Minimize the Avid Xpress DV window, double-click My
Computer, and locate the exported QuickTime movie.
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13. Play your movie using the QuickTime player. If QuickTime is
properly installed, you can play the movie by double-clicking its
icon.
Using the default screen dimensions and DV codec creates a large
QuickTime movie that is best suited for further processing in
another multimedia development application. To change the
screen size and other options, select Custom in the Export Settings
dialog box. For more information, see the Avid Xpress DV User’s
Guide or Help.
Outputting a Digital Cut to Tape
For information about
connecting a camera or
video deck, see
Appendix A.
Avid Xpress DV provides you with options for outputting your
sequence to tape. This output is referred to as a digital cut. You can
output to your DV camera or video deck, or, if you have a transcoder
connected to the system, to a Betacam, VHS, or other analog video
deck. You can also output to an audio deck.
About Remote and Local Deck Control
The Digital Cut tool provides you with two options for controlling
your deck:
•Remote: Allows you to control the deck by using the deck
controller in the Digital Cut tool. This option provides frame-
accurate control when you record a sequence to tape. To use
Remote deck control, you need a tape that includes timecode
information (a prerecorded or blacked tape). For information
on creating a prerecorded or blacked tape, see the instructions
for your camera or deck.
•Local: Allows you to manually control the deck by using the
controls on the deck. This option is useful when you need to
use non-Avid-controlled decks, such as consumer-grade VHS
or Hi8, or if you do not have a tape with timecode.
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Changing the Timecode of the Sequence
Your sequence uses timecode that starts with 00;00;00;00 (NTSC drop-
frame timecode) or 00:00:00:00 (PAL timecode).
nTo record a digital cut to an NTSC DV camera or video deck, you need to use
drop-frame timecode in your sequence. For information about timecode, see
“About Timecode” on page 85.
You can change the timecode for the start of the sequence. This change
prevents problems if you try to record a digital cut starting at or near
the very beginning of a tape (00;00;00;00). For this tutorial, you’ll
change the timecode so that the sequence begins to record 30 seconds
after the start of the tape.
1. Make sure a sequence is loaded in the Composer monitor.
2. Click the Composer monitor.
3. Choose Get Sequence Info from the File menu.
The Sequence Info dialog box appears.
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You can change the
default starting
timecode in the General
Settings dialog box.
4. In the Start text box, edit the timecode so that it reads 00;00;30;00
(NTSC) or 00:00:30:00 (PAL).
5. Click OK.
The timecode displayed in the Timeline changes to match the new
starting timecode.
Configuring Your Camera or Video Deck
Before you record your digital cut, you need to select the camera or
video deck you are using so you can control the camera or video deck
through the Digital Cut tool.
1. In the Project window, choose Deck Configuration from the
Settings scroll list.
The Deck Configuration dialog box appears.
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2. Click the Add Channel button.
The Channel dialog box appears.
Channel refers to the signal path for deck control. If you have
connected a DV camera or video deck that supports IEEE 1394,
choose FireWire as the Channel Type and 1394 as the Port from the
pop-up menus.
3. Click OK.
A message box asks if you want to automatically configure the
channel.
4. Click No.
The Deck Configuration dialog box now includes a channel.
183
5. Click the channel box to select the channel.
A red outline indicates that the channel box is selected.
6. Click the Add Deck button.
The Deck Settings dialog box appears.
Channel
box
184
For information about
all Deck Settings
options, see the
Avid Xpress DV User’s
Guide or press F1 for
Help.
7. Choose the manufacturer and model of your camera or video deck
from the Deck Type pop-up menus. If you do not see the
manufacturer or model, choose Generic from the first pop-up
menu.
8. Click OK.
The Deck Configuration dialog box now shows the channel and
the connected camera or video deck.
9. In the Deck Configuration dialog box, make sure the channel box
is selected (outlined in red) and click the Apply button.
Your camera or video deck is now ready for recording.
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Recording a Digital Cut
Now you’re ready to record your sequence on tape.
1. Make sure your camera or video deck is properly connected (see
Appendix A) and turned on to the VTR setting.
2. Insert a tape that contains timecode (see “About Remote and
Local Deck Control” on page 179).
3. Prepare your sequence by making sure you have selected and
monitored the tracks you want to use (see “Preparing the
Sequence” on page 165).
4. Choose Digital Cut from the Clip menu.
The Digital Cut tool opens.
186
5. Select the tape as follows:
a. If the Select Tape dialog box does not appear automatically,
click the Tape Name button in the Digital Cut tool.
Enable Track buttons
Deck controls
Deck Selection pop-up menu
Sequence Track buttons Play Digital Cut button Halt Digital Cut button
Timecode text boxes
Tape Name button
187
b. Click the New button.
The name New Tape appears in the dialog box.
c. Type a name for your tape and press the Enter key on the main
keyboard.
d. Select the new tape name and click OK.
To get Help for the
Digital Cut tool, press
F1 or position the
pointer on an object,
click the right mouse
button, and choose
What This? from the
pop-up menu.
6. Use the following settings in the Digital Cut tool:
a. Select the Entire Sequence option.
b. Select the Remote option to control the camera or video deck.
c. Choose Sequence Time from the pop-up menu to start the
recording at a timecode existing on tape that matches the start
timecode of the sequence.
7. Select the video and audio tracks you want represented in the
digital cut by using the Sequence Track buttons. The selected
buttons should match the tracks that you selected in your
sequence. The Video Sequence Track button shows V2, which is
the top video track selected.
8. Select the video and audio tracks to record on the tape by using
the Enable Track buttons. They should match the selected
Sequence Track buttons.
Sequence
Tra ck
buttons
Enable
Tra ck
buttons
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9. Click the Play Digital Cut button.
A message box asks you to mount the destination tape in the video
deck. If you have already inserted a tape, click OK.
The system cues the video deck to the starting timecode of the
sequence, and then plays and records the digital cut. The playback
appears in the Client monitor (if one is connected).
To stop the recording at any time, press the space bar. When the
sequence finishes playing, a message box informs you that the
digital cut is complete.
10. Click OK.
11. Close the Digital Cut tool.
Next Steps
You’ve generated your final output. The next chapter describes how to
back up your project. You can continue to the next chapter, or quit this
session (see “Closing the Project and Quitting the Application” on
page 68).
189
CHAPTER 11
Backing Up and Deleting a
Project
Now that you’ve completed your sequence and created output, you
might want to save your work. You can then delete the project to save
space on your media drive or drives. In this chapter you’ll practice the
following tasks:
•Backing Up Project Information
•Backing Up Media Files
•Deleting a Project Folder and Media Files
If you have worked on the previous chapters but have quit
Avid Xpress DV — Start the application, choose your user name and
the Introducing Avid project, and then click OK. If necessary, open the
Sequences bin, and then drag your final sequence into the Composer
monitor.
If you have not worked on the previous chapters — Start the
application, create a new user, choose the Introducing Avid project,
and then click OK. Open the Sequences bin, and then drag the
Introducing Avid sequence into the Composer monitor.
190
Backing Up Project Information
Project information and User settings are contained in folders. You can
save these folders on a floppy disk or any kind of drive, including a
network drive.
The project folder does not include the media. It does include
information about the sequences, bins, master clips, subclips, effects,
and other components of the project.
The Introducing Avid project is a small one, so you can copy the
information onto a floppy disk.
1. Insert a formatted floppy disk into your floppy drive.
2. Minimize the Avid Xpress DV window to view the Windows NT
desktop.
3. Double-click the My Computer icon and locate the Avid Projects
folder.
The exact location of this folder depends on your installation. In
most cases it is located in the Avid\Avid Xpress DV folder on an
internal hard drive other than drive C.
4. Double-click the Avid Projects folder.
5. Select the folder for your project. The folder has the same name
that you see in the Open Project window, in this case Introducing
Avid.
6. Copy the folder to the floppy disk using any Windows NT
technique. For example:
a. Select the project folder.
b. Choose Copy from the Edit menu.
c. Double-click the My Computer icon and double-click the
floppy disk.
d. Choose Paste from the Edit menu.
191
7. After the folder is copied, label the floppy disk and store it in a
safe place.
Backing Up Media Files
The OMFI MediaFiles folders on your media drives contain the
individual media files created when you recorded source material.
Unlike the smaller Avid Projects and Avid Users folders, these folders
are too large to back up onto floppy disks.
The media files for the tutorial are stored on the tutorial CD-ROM that
came with your system, so you don’t need to back them up. For other
projects, the following are options for backing up media files:
• You can use the Consolidate feature to make copies of selected
media files on a target hard drive connected to the system. For
information on consolidating, see the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide
or Help.
• You can back up smaller projects to a removable storage device,
such as a hard drive.
• You can archive larger media files and folders to a network storage
device.
Deleting a Project Folder and Media Files
If you are finished with the tutorial and you want to create free space
on your drives, you can delete the project folder and media files. The
project folder consists of information about the clips and sequences,
but does not include the media. Media files consist of the recorded
video and audio data, and are stored on your media drive or drives.
192
Deleting a Project Folder
You can’t delete project information from within the Avid Xpress DV
application. You need to quit the application and delete the project
from your Windows NT desktop.
If you are finished with your project, delete the project information by
following these steps:
1. Quit the Avid Xpress DV application.
2. Double-click the My Computer icon and locate the Avid Projects
folder.
The exact location of this folder depends on your installation. In
most cases it is located in the Avid\Avid Xpress DV folder on an
internal hard drive other than drive C.
3. Double-click the Avid Projects folder.
4. Select the folder for your project, in this case Introducing Avid.
5. Press the Delete key or drag the folder to the Recycle Bin.
The Confirm Folder Delete dialog box appears and asks if you are
sure you want to delete the folder.
6. Click Yes.
7. Empty the Recycle Bin to remove the files from the system.
Deleting Media Files
The most efficient way to delete all media files for a project is by using
the Media tool. The Media tool is your window to the recorded video
and audio data files stored on your media drives.
If you are finished with the tutorial, delete the project’s media files by
following these steps:
1. Start the Avid Xpress DV application and open the project.
193
2. Choose Media Tool from the Tools menu.
The Display Media Selection dialog box appears.
3. Select the media drive for your media. To make sure the Media
tool displays all your media, click the All Drives button.
4. Select the Introducing Avid project.
5. Select all three types of files:
• Master Clips
• Precompute Clips (which are rendered effects)
• Media Files
6. Click OK.
The Media tool opens. Specific icons indicate the types of media
files.
194
7. Choose Select All from the Edit menu.
All files are highlighted.
8. Press the Delete key.
The Delete Media dialog box appears. The check boxes in the
dialog box indicate that you have selected all files for deletion.
Precompute
clip
Master clip
Audio master
clip
Media file
195
9. Click OK.
A dialog box appears and asks if you want to delete the media
files.
10. Click Delete.
The selected media files are deleted.
11. Quit the application.
Next Steps
Congratulations on completing the Avid Xpress Tutorial! We hope
you’ve enjoyed this introduction to the Avid editing process. After
mastering these skills, you can proceed to learn more advanced
techniques, as described in the Avid Xpress DV User’s Guide,
Avid Xpress DV Effects Guide, and Help.
196
APPENDIX A
Connecting Your Editing
Equipment
This appendix describes how to connect editing equipment to the
computer on which the Avid Xpress DV software will run. This
appendix contains the following topics:
•Connecting the Application Key
•Connecting the External SCSI Drives
•Connecting the Editing Equipment
197
Connecting the Application Key
The application key, commonly referred to as a dongle, allows
Avid Xpress DV software to run on your computer. You must connect
the application key to the printer port at the rear of the computer. The
computer system sees the application key when booting. If you
connect the application key after you boot the system, you must reboot
the system. You can connect a printer to the port by connecting the
printer to the female portion of the application key. Figure A-1 shows
how to connect the application key.
Figure A-1 Application Key Connection
cBe careful that you do not lose the application key. Your
Avid Xpress DV software does not function without it. If you lose
your application key, you must purchase another key from Avid at
the full market cost of your Avid Xpress DV software.
Application key
Female port connection
Computer
Printer port
for printer
198
Connecting the External SCSI Drives
This section explains how to connect external SCSI drives to your
Ultra2 LVD/SE SCSI board located at the rear of your computer.
Because the Ultra2 LVD/SE SCSI board has a 68-pin, high-density
connector, illustrations of SCSI drives show 68-pin, high-density
connectors.
nIf you purchased drives other than the illustrated ones, use the instructions
that came with your drives.
This section contains:
•Installation Overview
•Placing the Drives
•Cabling the Drives
•Determining the SCSI IDs
•Setting the SCSI IDs
Installation Overview
Installing external SCSI drives is not very difficult; however, you must
consider the following:
• Place the drives near your computer to save space, and position
the drives so they can’t fall over.
• Cable the drives from your computer to the last drive in the chain,
and terminate the last drive.
• Determine the SCSI IDs before you physically set them on the
drive.
• Set the SCSI IDs so the system software and the Avid Xpress DV
software can access them.
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Placing the Drives
Placing the external drives is an important part of the installation.
When you place the external drives, consider the following:
• Place the drives close to the computer. There is a maximum
cable-length restriction of 20 feet when you use wide-type drives.
• Do not place the drives on the floor. They can pick up dust and
dirt from the floor or carpet.
• When you have more than one external drive, you can stack the
drives so they take up a minimal amount of desk space. If you use
more than four drives, consider creating two drive stacks (see
Figure A-2).
cYou should not stack more than four external SCSI drives.
Figure A-2 Placing the External SCSI Drives
4
4
4
4
Two stacks of four drives
4
4
4
4
200
Cabling the Drives
Now cable the SCSI drives to the Ultra2 LVD/SE SCSI board.
Figure A-3 shows a chain of four SCSI drives.
Figure A-3 Example of a Chain of SCSI Drives
You will need the following to cable a chain of SCSI drives to the
68-pin, high-density connector on the SCSI board:
•Adapter cable — placed between the SCSI board and the first SCSI
drive. Where you have placed the computer and where you are
going to place the first SCSI drive determines the length of the
adapter cable.
•Interconnect cable — placed between each SCSI drive in the SCSI
chain. This cable is the same type of cable as the adapter cable, but
is usually 15 inches in length.
nYou might need a longer interconnect cable if you are connecting the top drive
in a stack of four drives to the bottom drive in another stack.
4
4
4
4
Adapter cable
Interconnect cables
Terminator
First SCSI drive
Last SCSI drive
to SCSI board
201
•LVD terminator — always placed on the last SCSI drive in the
chain to ensure reliable communication on the SCSI bus.
Figure A-4 shows an example of an adapter cable and an LVD
terminator. The cables that ship with the SCSI drives you purchased
should look similar.
Figure A-4 Cable and Terminator
Adapter cable
LVD terminator
202
To cable a chain of SCSI drives to the SCSI board:
1. Locate the adapter cable that goes between the SCSI board and the
first SCSI drive.
2. Connect one end of the adapter cable to the 68-pin, high-density
connector on the SCSI board at the rear of the computer (see
Figure A-5).
Figure A-5 Connecting the Adapter Cable to the SCSI Board
3. Secure the adapter cable to the SCSI board by using the screws in
the cable.
4. Connect the other end of the adapter cable to one of the 68-pin
connectors of the first SCSI drive (see Figure A-6).
SCSI board
Adapter cable
Screws
203
Figure A-6 Connecting the Adapter Cable to the First SCSI Drive
5. Secure the adapter cable to the first SCSI drive by using the screws
in the cable.
6. Locate the interconnect cable that goes between the first and
second SCSI drives.
7. Connect one end of the 68-pin, high-density cable to the 68-pin
connector of the first SCSI drive (see Figure A-7).
4
Adapter cable
Screws
First SCSI drive
204
Figure A-7 Connecting the Interconnect Cable Between SCSI
Drives
8. Connect the other end of the 68-pin, high-density cable to the
68-pin connector of the second SCSI drive.
9. Secure both ends of the cable to the drives by using the screws in
the cable.
10. Repeat step 6 to step 9 for the remaining SCSI drives (up to a
maximum of 13 drives).
4
4
Interconnect cable
First SCSI drive
Second SCSI drive
68-pin connector
68-pin connector
Adapter cable
from SCSI board
205
11. Locate the LVD terminator for the SCSI chain.
12. Connect the terminator to the 68-pin connector on the last SCSI
drive in the SCSI chain (see Figure A-8).
Figure A-8 Connecting the LVD Terminator
13. Secure the terminator to the SCSI drive by using the screws on the
terminator.
You should now determine the SCSI IDs for the SCSI drives that you
have connected to the SCSI board.
4
4
Terminator
Last SCSI drive
Screws
206
Determining the SCSI IDs
For each SCSI drive you connect to the computer, you must assign a
SCSI ID so the Avid Xpress DV software can find and access the drive.
When you are setting the SCSI IDs, remember the following:
• Each PCI-based SCSI bus has its own set of unique SCSI IDs from
0 through 6 and 8 through 15.
• SCSI IDs 0 and 1 are not available for use by external drives. The
two internal SCSI drives use those IDs (an internal drive can also
use SCSI ID 2).
• SCSI ID 7 cannot be used by external drives. SCSI ID 7 is used by
the SCSI accelerator board.
• You cannot have two SCSI drives with the same SCSI ID on the
same SCSI bus.
Avid recommends that you set the SCSI IDs for the devices on each
SCSI bus in sequential order; that is, starting with the device attached
closest to the computer and assigning it ID 3 (see Figure A-9).
nIf your internal SCSI drives have SCSI IDs of 0 and 1, you can set the
starting SCSI ID of your external drives at 2.
Figure A-9 Setting the SCSI IDs
ID 7
SCSI board
Computer
External SCSI drives
Terminator
SCSI cables
ID 3
ID 4
ID 5
ID 6
ID 0
ID
Internal
SCSI drives
1 or 2
207
Setting the SCSI IDs
The following illustrations show how to set a SCSI ID by using a
wide-type SCSI drive with switches and connections at the rear of the
drives. If the drives you purchased do not look like the drives shown
in the illustrations, use the installation instructions that came with the
drives you purchased.
nIf you are using the SCSI installation instructions that came with your
drives, you still need to use the information in “Determining the SCSI
IDs” on page 206.
To set a SCSI ID:
1. Locate the SCSI ID switch on the rear of the SCSI drive (see
Figure A-10).
Figure A-10 SCSI ID Switch Location
nBe sure the drive power is off when changing the SCSI ID switch. When the
drive is turned on, it will read the new SCSI ID.
2. Set the SCSI ID to an available SCSI ID on the SCSI bus by using
the SCSI ID switch (see Figure A-11). The current SCSI ID number
appears in the window in the middle of the switch.
• Press the top button to decrement the SCSI ID.
• Press the bottom button to increment the SCSI ID.
2
SCSI ID switch
208
Figure A-11 SCSI ID Switch
There are two SCSI ID switch versions used with the SCSI drives. One
version uses the numbers 0 through 15, and the other version uses the
numbers 0 through 9 and the letters A through F. Use Tab le A- 1 to
associate the letters A through F with a SCSI ID number.
2
-
+
Decrement ID
Increment ID
Current SCSI ID
Table A-1 Numbers Associated with SCSI Switch Letters
Switch Letter SCSI ID Number
A10
B11
C12
D13
E14
F15
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Connecting the Editing Equipment
Make sure that you have completed the setup information provided
with your computer. This information provides instructions for setting
up your computer, and attaching the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
cMake sure that your computer is turned off before you connect the
rest of the equipment.
Your editing equipment might be a camera, a digital video deck, or an
analog video deck connected to a transcoder. This section provides
illustrations and instructions to help you connect the cables between
the editing equipment and the computer.
nThe cameras, video decks, and transcoders in the illustrations represent the
type of equipment supported by Avid Xpress DV. Therefore, the illustrations
show cables that came with the camera, transcoder, video deck, or capture
board. You can also purchase other cables from a local audio or video store.
This section is divided into five parts:
•Overview of the Hardware Connections
•Cables Needed to Connect the Equipment
•Connecting a Digital Video Deck or Camera to the Computer
•Connecting an Analog Video Deck to the Computer
•Controlling an Analog Video Deck
nFor a list of supported cameras, transcoders, and video decks, check the
Customer Service section of the Avid Web site at www.avid.com.
210
Overview of the Hardware Connections
The type of data (digital or analog) you transfer between the editing
equipment and the computer is used for different purposes by
Avid Xpress DV. You should think of the data being transferred in
terms of how it is being used.
•Digital video and digital audio (DV) — used for editing
purposes. These signals come from either a digital video deck, a
digital camera, or a transcoder connected to an analog video deck
using a 4-pin to 4-pin IEEE 1394 cable (see Figure A-12) attached
to the capture board plugged into your computer. As an output,
the DV signals can be recorded and used to control a digital video
deck or camera.
•Analog video — not used for editing purposes. These signals
come from a digital video deck, camera, or transcoder to the
capture board. The capture board then loops the analog video to
an optional Client monitor. This process allows you to monitor the
video as you record the data or output the data. There are two
forms of analog data (see Figure A-12):
- Composite video using RCA® connectors
- S-Video using S-Video connectors
nThe analog connection is also used when your camera or transcoder is
connected to the computer and you play a clip from the Avid Xpress DV
software. See Ta b le A - 2, step 2 for more information.
•Analog audio — not used for editing purposes. The analog audio
output of a digital video deck, camera, or a transcoder connects to
the audio input at the rear of the computer. You can hear the
analog audio through the speakers during the record process or
when you play back the clips using the software.
211
Cables Needed to Connect the Equipment
You need cables to connect the computer to the camera, digital video
deck, or transcoder used with an analog video deck. You receive some
or all of these cables when you purchase most digital video decks,
digital cameras, or transcoders. Because Avid Xpress DV supports
many digital cameras, the number and type of cables you receive
cannot be determined. Given this fact, this section describes:
• Cables that ship with the Avid Xpress DV software and
computer, and how to connect them to either a camera or
transcoder
• Other cables, and what they are used for, in case you buy an
optional transcoder, Client monitor, or analog video deck
Most of the cables have different colors that define what the cable is
used for. Normally, you plug the cable into the same color connector
on your camera, digital video deck, or transcoder. The colors and their
uses are listed below:
• Yellow — used for video
• White — used for audio as one channel of a stereo pair or for
mono audio
• Red — used for audio as one channel of a stereo pair
nThe cameras, video decks, and transcoders in the illustrations represent the
type of equipment supported by Avid Xpress DV. Therefore, the illustrations
show cables that came with the camera, transcoder, video deck, or capture
board. You can also purchase other cables from a local audio or video store.
Cables Shipped with the Computer
Figure A-12 shows the cables shipped with the computer and their
functions.
212
Figure A-12 Computer Cables
Optional Cables
Depending on the options you purchased, you might need to
buy the following cables separately:
• RS-232 to RS-422 cable from an RS-232 serial port on the
computer to the RS-422 remote port of an analog video deck. You
might need an RS-232 to RS-422 adapter and two serial cables to
perform this remote control function (see “Controlling an Analog
Video Deck” on page 219).
• Composite RCA cable or S-Video cable from the capture board to
the Client monitor (if not provided with your camera).
• Various cables to connect the analog video deck to the transcoder.
The manuals provided with the transcoder, Client monitor, and video
deck explain how to connect cables to these components.
Male audio input Y cable — Analog audio from the camera, transcoder,
Cable Function
S-Video — S-Video In/Out from the camera, transcoder, or digital video dec
k
Male RCA — Composite video In/Out from the camera, transcoder, or
Female RCA Y cable — Adapter cable for male RCA connectors from
DV (4-pin to 4-pin IEEE 1394) — Digital audio and video In/Out from the
digital video deck to the input of the capture board
or digital video deck to the miniaudio input
the camera or transcoder to the miniaudio
input of the system
camera, transcoder, or digital video deck
to the input of the capture board
of the system
to the capture board.
213
Connecting a Digital Video Deck or Camera to the Computer
To connect the digital video deck or camera to the computer, you need
to have the cables from your digital video deck or camera and the
capture board available. Then, follow the steps that are shown in
Figure A-13 and explained in Tabl e A- 2 . Make sure to connect both
the DV and analog cables.
Figure A-13 Connecting the Digital Video Deck or Camera
DV
Out2
Out1
In2
In1
S-video
Video
Audio 1 (Mono)
Audio 2
DV Step 1
Step 2a
Step 3a
Step 4
Computer
Speakers connected
Step 2b
during system setup
Step 3b
Audio In
Audio Out
Representative connections
of a digital deck or camera Capture board
Client monitor
214
Table A-2 Connecting the Digital Video Deck or Camera
Step Description
1Connect the DV cable from the
digital deck or camera to the
capture board.
Connect a 4-pin to 4-pin DV-to-DV cable from the
digital deck or camera to the DV port on the capture
board. This provides DV video and audio to and from
the capture board. This cable must remain connected to
use the hardware codec (compressor/decompressor) in
the camera for display during editing.
2Connect the analog video from the
digital deck or camera to the
capture board.
Connect the analog signal with either an RCA cable
(step 2a) or an S-Video cable (step 2b). Perform step 2a
or step 2b, not both.
2a Connect an RCA-to-RCA cable
from the camera to the In1 port on
the capture board.
Provides a composite analog signal from the hardware
codec of the camera to the In1 port on the capture
board. The signal is looped to the Out1 port and used as
a composite output of the capture board to the Client
monitor.
The composite signal from the camera is also used
when you play a clip in the Source pop-up monitor or
Composer monitor. The data from the clip is sent as
output through the DV cable to the camera. The
camera’s hardware codec sends the signal as composite
video through the RCA cable to the In1 port of the
capture board. This signal is then sent to the monitors.
2b Connect an S-Video to S-Video
cable from the camera to the In2
port on the capture board.
Same as step 2a except the signal uses the In2 and Out2
ports.
3
n
Connect the capture board to the
optional Client monitor.
The Client monitor and its cables
do not ship with the computer and
must be purchased separately.
Connect the Client monitor with either an RCA cable
(step 3a) or S-Video cable (step 3b).
Perform step 3a if you used an RCA cable in step 2 or
perform step 3b if you used an S-Video cable in step 2.
215
3a Connect an RCA cable to the Out1
port on the capture board.
Attach the other end of the cable
to the Client monitor (this end of
the cable needs a connector to
match the input of the Client
monitor).
Provides composite analog video from the Out1 port,
looped from the In1 port connection, to the Client
monitor. You can see the incoming video during the
record process and when you play a clip, as explained
in step 2a.
3b Connect a cable with an S-Video
connector to the Out2 port on the
capture board.
Attach the other end of the cable
to the Client monitor (this end of
the cable needs a connector to
match the input of the Client
monitor).
Same as step 3a except the signal uses the In2 and Out2
ports.
4
n
Connect the Audio Out of your
camera or deck to the Audio In at
the rear of the computer.
Depending on the digital deck or
camera you have purchased, your
cables might be different than those
shown in Figure A-13.
The example shown in
Figure A-13 uses two male RCA
to male RCA cables attached to a
female RCA Y cable connected to
the Audio In at the rear of the
computer.
Provides audio output to the speakers during the
record process or when you are playing a clip.
You should have already connected the optional
speakers during the initial setup of the computer.
Table A-2 Connecting the Digital Video Deck or Camera (Continued)
Step Description
216
Connecting an Analog Video Deck to the Computer
An analog video deck connects to a transcoder, and the transcoder
connects to the computer. You need the cables from your camera and
the capture board available, and then follow the steps that are shown
in Figure A-14 and explained in Tabl e A -3 .
Figure A-14 Connecting an Analog Video Deck
IN
OUT
S-VIDEO
VIDEO
AUDIO
DV IN / OUTDC IN 6V L
R
DV
Out2
Out1
In2
In1
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3a
Step 3b Step 4a
Step 4b
Step 5
Speakers connected
during system setup
Audio Out
Audio In
Capture board
Client monitor
Representative connections
of a transcoder
Computer
217
Table A-3 Connecting an Analog Video Deck
Step Description
1 Connect the video and audio
cables from an analog video
deck to the input of the
transcoder.
Provides an analog signal to be recorded and used as
DV data. It also allows the composite video
signal and analog audio signal to be sent from the
transcoder back to the deck when you output the edited
file.
2Connect the DV cable from the
transcoder to the capture
board.
n
Connect a 4-pin to 4-pin DV-to-DV cable from the
transcoder to the DV port on the capture board. This
provides DV video and audio to and from the capture
board. This cable must remain connected to use the
hardware codec (compressor/decompressor) in the
transcoder for display during editing.
If your transcoder has a 6-pin output, you need a 6-pin
to 4-pin cable.
3Connect the analog video from
the transcoder to the capture
board.
Connect the analog signal with either an RCA cable
(step 3a) or an S-Video cable (step 3b). Perform step 3a
or step 3b, not both.
3a Connect an RCA-to-RCA cable
from the transcoder to the In1
port on the capture board.
Provides a composite analog signal from the hardware
codec of the transcoder to the In1 port on the capture
board. The signal is looped to the Out1 port and used as
a composite output of the capture board to the Client
monitor.
The composite signal from the transcoder is also used
when you play a clip in the Source pop-up monitor or
Composer monitor. The data from the clip is sent as
output through the DV cable to the transcoder. The
transcoder’s hardware codec sends the signal as
composite video through the RCA cable to the In1 port
of the capture board. This signal is then sent to the
monitors as a VGA overlay.
218
3b Connect an S-Video to S-Video
cable from the transcoder to
the In2 port on the capture
board.
Same as step 3a except the signal uses the In2 and Out2
ports.
4
n
Connect the Client monitor to
the capture board.
The Client monitor and its
cables do not ship with the
computer and must be
purchased separately.
Connect the Client monitor with either an RCA cable
(step 4a) or S-Video cable (step 4b).
Perform step 4a if you used an RCA cable in step 3 or
perform step 4b if you used an S-Video cable in step 3.
4a Connect a cable with an RCA
connector to the Out1 port on
the capture board.
Attach the other end of the
cable to the Client monitor
(this end of the cable needs a
connector to match the input
of the Client monitor).
Provides composite analog video from the Out1 port,
looped from the In1 port connection, to the Client
monitor. You can see the incoming video during the
record process and when you play a clip, as explained
in step 3a.
4b Connect a cable with an
S-Video connector to the Out2
port on the capture board.
Attach the other end of the
cable to the Client monitor
(this end of the cable needs a
connector to match the input
of the Client monitor).
Same as step 4a except the signal uses the In2 and Out2
ports.
You should have already connected the optional
speakers during the initial setup of the computer.
Table A-3 Connecting an Analog Video Deck (Continued)
Step Description
219
Controlling an Analog Video Deck
Your Avid Xpress DV software provides analog video deck control
through a remote serial control connector, which is available on most
analog video decks. You can control a single analog video deck using
an optional RS-232 to RS-422 serial cable or an adapter kit. Although
an adapter kit must be purchased separately, the following procedure
explains how to connect a sample adapter kit between your
computer and an analog video deck using the following:
• An RS-232 to RS-422 serial adapter
• Two serial cables with 9-pin male connectors at both ends
5
n
Connect the Audio Out of your
transcoder to Audio In at the
rear of the computer. You can
use the cables that came with
your transcoder.
Depending on the transcoder
you have purchased, your
cables might be different than
those shown in Figure A-14.
The example shown in
Figure A-14 uses two male
RCA to male RCA cables
attached to a female RCA Y
cable connected to the Audio In
at the rear of the computer.
Provides audio output to the speakers during the
record process or when you are playing a clip.
Table A-3 Connecting an Analog Video Deck (Continued)
Step Description
220
To connect a single deck to your computer:
1. Purchase an adapter kit.
2. Attach one end of the first 9-pin cable to the end of the serial
adapter labeled RS-232 (see Figure A-15).
3. Attach the other end of the first 9-pin cable to the serial port of the
computer.
Figure A-15 Analog Video Deck Control Cabling
4. Attach one end of the second 9-pin cable to the end of the serial
adapter labeled RS-422.
5. Attach the other end of the second 9-pin cable to the remote serial
port of the analog video deck.
To computer
Serial adapter RS-232 connection
RS-422 connection
To analog
video deck
221
Numerics
1394
described 39
A
Actions
undoing 112
Add Dissolve button 138
Adding
effects 136 to 153
Picture-in-Picture effect 143
shadows to titles 156
Adjusting
audio pan (balance) 133
Agreeing to electronic license 59
Analog audio data
how used 210
Analog video data
how used 210
Analog video deck
connecting 216
controlling 219
Application key
connecting 197
ASF format
exporting 164
Attic folder 44
Audio
locating specific frame of 101
Audio pan (balance)
adjusting 133
Audio scrub
described 101
Audio tracks
monitoring 107
Avid Projects folder
location 45
Avid Xpress DV
closing 68
default sizes and locations for windows 94
file system 45
installing 24
minimizing windows in 93
starting 59
terms and concepts 40
uninstalling 29
Avid Xpress DV window
using 93
AvidNet Transfer Tool
installing 31
Index
A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
222
B
Backing up
media files 191
project information 190
Bins
defined 43
opening 73
organizing footage in 43
saving 91
using Frame view 75
using Text view 74
viewing clips in 74
Bins display 70
Border
of Picture-in-Picture effect 150
Button names
displaying on Tool palette 100
Buttons
using to play clips 79
C
Cables
for editing equipment 211
for editing equipment (illustration) 212
Camera
configuring for output 181
connecting 213
Changing
order of clips 124
title color 160
Check list
for setting up system 14
Cinepak codec 174
Clearing
IN and OUT points 90
Client monitor
settings for 72
Clips
defined 41
dragging into a sequence 95
playing 76
playing IN to OUT 102
playing with buttons 79
playing with keyboard 76
playing with position indicator 79
rearranging 122
viewing 74
Closing
application 68
Help 53
project 68
Codec
defined 174
Configuration disk
creating 23
Connecting
application key 197
editing equipment 209 to 220
external SCSI drives 198 to 208
Context-sensitive Help
for screen objects 54
for windows and dialog boxes 53
Controlling
analog video deck 219
Correcting mistakes 112
Creating
disk configuration disk 23
emergency repair disk 34
new projects 60
new users 60
primary partitions 20
simple sequence 62
subclips 89
titles 155 to 162
Custom installation
performing 28
223
D
Deck configuration
setting 181
Decks
connecting analog video deck 216
connecting digital video deck 213
controlling analog video 219
Deleting
media files 192
project folder 192
Device numbering 206
Digital audio and video data
how used 210
Digital audio scrub
described 101
Digital cut
creating 179 to 188
defined 179
Digital video
described 39
Digital video deck
connecting 213
Disk configuration disk
creating 23
Dissolves
adding 138
changing position of 142
creating a series of 140
described 138
starting at cut 143
Dongle See Application key
Drives
checking internal 18
connecting SCSI 198 to 208
preparing 16 to 23
testing 24
Drop-frame timecode 85
Dual-roller trimming 128
Duration
of sequence 114
E
Edit decision list 50
Editing
effects 137
overview 49
preparing for 48
process of 40
with storyboard 117
Editing equipment
cables for 211
connecting 209 to 220
connecting analog video deck 216
connecting digital video deck or camera 213
overview 210
Edits
undoing 112
EDL 50
EDL Manager
installing 33
Effect mode
entering 147
exiting 152
in workflow 49
Effect Palette
displaying 144
Effects
adding 136 to 153
adding Flop effect 152
editing 137
fading 151
previewing 150
rendering 137
rendering a series of 141
Electronic license 59
Emergency repair disk
creating 34
End key 78
Entire Sequence option (Digital Cut tool) 187
224
Equipment
turning off 37
turning on 15
Exporting
QuickTime movie 174 to 179
External drives
connecting 198 to 208
turning on 15
Extract/Splice-in button (Segment mode) 124
F
Fade Effect button 151, 159
FAT file system 18
File system
Avid Xpress DV 45
Filler
described 122
FireWire
described 39
Flop effect 152
Footage
rearranging 122
Formatting partitions 21
Frame offset 89
Frame view 75
Freeze Frame effect
accessing 144
G
Generating output 163 to 188
Going back to previous actions 112
H
Handles
defined 43
needed for dissolve 142
Hardware information 73
Help system
closing 53
opening 53
overview 53
printing a topic from 54
What’s This? Help 54
Home command (Windows menu) 94
Home key 78
I
IEEE Standard 1394
described 39
I-Link
described 39
IN and OUT points
clearing 90
IN point
clearing 90
marking 80
Info display 73
Installing
Avid Xpress DV 24
AvidNet Transfer Tool 31
EDL Manager 33
external SCSI drives 198 to 208
selected Avid Xpress DV components 27
tutorial files 35
Internet
creating movies for 164
K
Keyboard
using to play clips 76
Keyframes 148
225
L
License agreement
accepting 59
Lift/Overwrite button (Segment mode) 124
Lifting 126
Ligos-MPEG format
exporting 164
Local deck control 179
LVD terminator 201
M
Marking
IN and OUT points 80
Mas tracking display 114
Master timecode (Mas) 114
Media files
backing up 191
defined 40
deleting 192
storing 40
Media tool
described 192
Memory information 73
Microsoft ASF format
exporting 164
Monitor icons 107
Monitoring audio/video tracks 107
Motion effects
accessing 144
MPEG-Ligos format
exporting 164
Multilayer segment effects 138
N
New Title command 155
Non-drop-frame timecode 85
Nonlinear editing 39
NTFS file system 18
Numeric keypad 89
O
OMFI MediaFiles folders
described 191
location 45
Online documentation
using 55
Online Help See Help system
Open Project dialog box 60
Opening
bins 73
Help 53
project 61
Tool palette 99
OUT point
clearing 90
marking 80
Output 163 to 188
overview 50
Overwriting clips
into a sequence 120
with three-point edit 123
P
Partitioning
creating primary partitions 20
formatting 21
Patching
defined 113
tracks 112
Picture tracks
monitoring 107
Picture-in-Picture effect
applying 143
226
Play IN to OUT key 102
Playing clips 76
at fast speed 78
at slow speed 78
backward 78
IN point to OUT point 102
using buttons 79
using position indicator 79
Playing sequences
in Source pop-up monitor 84
Pop-up monitor See Source pop-up monitor
Position indicator
positioning for title creation 155
using in Timeline 105
using to play clips 79
Preparing to edit
overview 48
Previewing effects 150
Printing
Help topics 54
Process of video editing 40
Profile information 73
Programs
described 44
Project information
backing up 190
deleting 192
saving 91
Project window
described 70
Projects
closing 68
defined 43
opening 61
selecting 61
starting 58 to 68
workflow 46
Publishing
for digital distribution 174
Q
QuickTime DV codec 174
QuickTime movie
exporting 174 to 179
Quitting
application 68
R
RealMedia G2 format
exporting 164
RealMedia movie
creating 165 to 173
format described 164
RealProducer G2
described 164
Rearranging clips 122
Redoing edits 112
Remote deck control 179
Remote option (Digital Cut tool) 187
Removing footage from a sequence 125
Rendering
a series of effects 141
described 137
Repair disk
creating 34
Resizing
image in Effect mode 147
RS-232 to RS-422 serial adapter 219
S
Saving
bins 91
titles 158
Scale bar 104
Scale box
resizing Timeline with 104
227
Scroll bar
using in Timeline 105
SCSI drives
cabling 200 to 205
connecting 198 to 208
determining IDs 206
setting IDs 207
SCSI IDs
determining 206
numbering 206
setting 207
switch versions 208
Segment
defined 124
Segment effect
multilayer segment effect 138
single-layer effects 138
Segment mode
in workflow 49
using 124
Selecting
a project 61
Sequence Time option (Digital Cut tool) 187
Sequences
adding clips to 110
creating a simple sequence 62
defined 42
editing (overview) 49
moving and renaming 97
opening 98
removing footage from 125
Serial adapter 219
Settings
defined 71
Video Display 71
Settings display 71
Settings scroll list 71
Shadows
adding to titles 156
Single-layer segment effects 138
Single-roller trimming 130
Source pop-up monitor
playing clips in 76
playing sequences in 84
Splice-in button 102
Splicing
described 101
Stacking drives 199
Starting
a project 58 to 68
a project (overview) 47
application 59
Help 53
Step keys 78
Storyboard editing 117
Subclips
creating 89
defined 41
in workflow 49
T
Temporary folder
for Avid Xpress DV 166
Terminators
for SCSI boards 201
Testing drives 24
Text view 74
Three-point edit 123
Timecode
changing for sequence 180
described 85
finding a frame with 85
Timeline
displaying more or less detail in 104
monitoring tracks in 107
navigating in 105
Track Selector panel 106
Title tool
See also Titles
creating a new title with 155 to 162
228
Titles
adding shadows to 156
changing color of 160
creating 155 to 162
editing saved titles 160
editing title into a sequence 158
fading 159
saving 158
Tool palette
displaying button names on 100
opening 99
tearing off 99
using 98
ToolTips 99
Track Selector panel
using 106
Tracking Information display 86
Tracks
monitoring 107
selecting and deselecting 107
Transcoder
connecting 216
Transition effects
applying 137
Transition point
defined 104
Trim mode
in workflow 49
Trimming 127
dual-roller 128
single-roller 130
Turning off
equipment 37
Turning on equipment 15
Tutorial
installing 35
instructions for using 52
U
Ultra2 LVD/SE SCSI board
described 198
Undoing edits 112
Uninstalling
Avid Xpress DV 29
V
Video decks
configuring for output 181
connecting analog 216
connecting digital 213
controlling analog 219
Video Display settings 71
Video editing
process of 40
Video tracks
monitoring 107
Viewing
clips 74
W
Web
creating movies for 164
What’s This? Help 54
Windows file systems
described 18
Windows NT desktop 15
Workflow
stages of a project 46

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