Software Review

One of the best products that I've ever used for video editing is Scenalyzer Live. Most people have never heard of Scenalyzer and that's unfortunate because it is the best video capturing software out there.

Scenalyzer is a specialized program that allows you to capture video from your analog or video tapes. I have hundreds of tapes and it used to take me hours to fast forward through tape after tape looking for a particular scene.

I use Scenalyzer to create a visible representation of the tape (called an index) so that I can see exactly what is on the tape from beginning to end. With digital video I can see the time and date of every clip as well.

Recently I made a video for my daughter that chronicled her progression with the violin from the age of 6 to 12 years old. It would have been ridiculously time consuming to look for all that footage over dozens of tapes. With Scenalyzer I was able to look over the "index" of each tape, select the scenes I wanted within the tape (I looked for my daughter holding her violin), and create a new "batch capture list".

Then all I had to do was put the tape into my camera and tell Scenalyzer to go through the tape and only capture the scenes that I had selected. The program controls the camera and I can leave and come back later with all my clips captured and stored on my hard drive.

Scenalyzer has several additional features, but the indexing and batch capturing features alone make it worth the price.

Scenalyzer is available for download http://www.scenalyzer.com/main.html (I haven't seen it any stores). You can download Scenalyzer and try it out before you buy it.

What kind of video camera should you buy?

I've purchased over 20 video cameras since 1993 when I bought my first Sony 8mm camcorder. Things have improved tremendously since then. But they've also gotten much more complicated. There weren't many choices back in 1993. My camera had a black and white viewfinder, weighed a couple of pounds and recorded fuzzy video.

Today's cameras are broadcast TV quality wonders of size and quality. But with all the different choices out there, finding the perfect camera can be very confusing.

When looking for a new camera, here are the features that I find most important.

1. SIZE--The bigger (or heavier) the camera, the less likely you are to use it. Get the smallest camera you can find that meets your other criteria.
2. LCD panel--One of the best inventions to come along. The LCD allows you to make videos without having the camera plastered against your forehead.
3. STABILITY--Most new cameras feature some sort of stabilization system. The smaller the camera, the more important it is. Make sure your camera has it.
4. EXTERNAL MICROPHONE JACK--Many of the newer cameras are leaving this feature out. If you want to make creative videos that sound good, a microphone jack is essential.
5. HEADPHONE JACK--Another feature that is beginning to disappear in newer cameras. Sound is extremely important and a headphone jack allows you to monitor the sound without external noise.

That's pretty much it when it comes to finding the right camera. All the other stuff is pretty much fluff unless you are getting paid for the videos you make.

Most people just want to make decent home movies for their friends and families. Most people never use most of the extra features on a camcorder (and honestly, most of the features shouldn't be used anyway).

Here is a work in progress for the opening to one of the Niftyvid videos due out on DVD in 2008. Everything (video, effects, music) was created on my laptop with cheap software you can easily find.