Video Editing
Here's a few tips and tricks on how to work with the video off the cameras. These instructions are for the cameras listed on this site, but should work for most handheld cameras. Its also focused around Windows based PCs.
When working with video its always best to edit the original video, then do a conversion at the end - this will give the best results in the final image.
Retriving the Footage
The first step is to get the footage off the camera and onto the PC. Simply turn on the camera and connect it to the computer via USB. Your operating system will most likely have the required drivers installed, so that there will be one (Otek DVS) or two (Rigidmount HD Cam) new "drives". You then navigate to the "DCIM" (digital camera images) folder, which will contain the videos or a few subfolders with videos.
Simply cut and paste these .MOV files to a directory on your PC, which will make them easier to work with.
What can you do?
If you just want to upload upload the video (and maybe do some small cuts or joins) without adding any effects etc, the quick way is to use Avisynth and virtualdub. Both are
free programs, quick and simple to use and you can use VirtualDub to do the cutting & joining
VirtualDub: http://www.virtualdub.org/
AviSynth: Avisynth
AVIsynth
AVIsynth is used to do what is called "frame serving", basically it can open many video formats, do a few tricks to them, and present the video output to any other program.
I use it to serve the MOV files to virtualdub, as virtualdub cannot open MOV files by itself.
You use scripts which are simple text files, you simply create a text file and add the required lines.
To open a MOV file in Windows7, create the script file filename.avs which contains:
DirectShowSource("filename.mov")
You then open the AVS file in virtualdub and not the video itself.
Top open a MOV file in WindowsXP, you first need to install Quicktime7, then the AVS file will contain:
QTInput("FileName.mov", color=2, audio=true)
Again, you simply open the AVS file in virtualdub.
Cutting the Footage
If you want to edit the footage after conversion, cut it down or join clips etc - a great free program is VirtualDub (download). Its fast and easy to use and does most of the very basic editing out of the box. It can do complex effects - which are called "filters", you download them separately and they are of course free.
Splitscreen
To play multiple videos side by side you can use AVIsynts "splitscreen" feature. In your AVS file it should look like:
a = DirectShowSource("new.mov")
b = DirectShowSource("old.mov")
StackHorizontal(b,a)BilinearResize(1920,540)
This will open both side by side and resize the final video to 1920x520.
An example of splitscreen: is here
Add a timestamp
This is pretty useful if your camera doesnt have the feature, it prints a watermarked timestamp - basically a little digital clock readout on top of your video.
This is achieved with a virtualdub filter called "add frame number" - get it from here
Set it up like any other filter in virtual dub, the splitscreen video above shows it working in the lower left corner.
Virtualdub Filters - deShaker and Logo/Watermark
Virtualdub is open source which means it has a plethora of "filters" which provide special effects for videos. The two I mainly use are the deshaker and logo.
Logo enables you to put a watermark on your video like this:
Add the filter through the menu: Video --> Filters --> Add --> Logo, then you can configure the settings:
Deshaker removes the shake and rolling shutter effects, as seen here in before and after videos:
Download the filter here
Add the filter through the menu as per the logo filter above, and a good starting point for the settings are as follows:
For Road bike footage (i.e. small, sharp bumps at high speeds):
For mountain bike footage (i.e. larger, softer bumps at low speeds):
