Overview OVERVIEW The PixeDV for Mac application allows you to do the following: • • • • • • Capture Real-Time from any video source into an MPEG1 or MPEG2 Movie Output MPEG1 or MPEG2 Video files to a VCR or TV Import other media(QuickTime, DV, Etc) into the PixeDV Album Manage and organize your media in the PixeDV Album Easily remove unwanted scenes from your captured MPEG movies.
LAUNCHING PIXEDV If you plan to capture video, make sure the USB Instant DVD , your video sources and your Macintosh are all connected properly. Please refer to the HARDWARE INSTALLATION section of this manual if you need help. Open the USB Instant DVD folder that you may have copied to your desktop or inside your Macintosh Hard Drive.
Depending on your View settings for OSX, this may appear as Icons, as a List or display in column mode. Double Click on the PixeDV Icon on your G3 or G4 Mac. You will see this startup Screen: You can click on any of the five functions at any time. The buttons are not sequential. Which means it would not matter whether you clicked Capty or Album first. Clicking Quit will exit the application.
CAPTURING VIDEO Clicking on the CAPTY button will take you to this window: The first step is to check your capture settings. Click on the tab that says capture.
From this window you can select: Video Input S-Video – Sometimes referred to as SVHS, select this input if you have a video source that is plugged into the S-Video connector on the USB Instant DVD for MAC Composite – Sometimes referred to as RCA jacks, select this input if you have a video source that is plugged into the Composite connector. Capturing Format MPEG1 Select MPEG1 if you plan to create a VCD Movie. Select your quality level.
Start capturing: Once you have selected all your settings, you can now click on the Start Capture button to start the capture process. Video should start previewing on the blue area of the interface about 1 second after you click Start Capture. This one second delay should be accounted for when you start capturing video.
To stop the capture process, click on the STOP Capture Button. A thumbnail of the file you just captured will appear, on the right. In the illustration shown above, 3 thumbnails are shown. This is for illustration purposes only. When you first start the program, you would normally not have any thumbnails shown until after capturing. The video that you just captured will be placed in the default album folder. Albums can be renamed, deleted, created etc.
EXPORTING VIDEO To export video back to a VCR , CAMCORDER or for preview on a TV MONITOR, click on the OUTPUT Button on the main CAPTY interface. Clicking on OUTPUT will take you to this screen. Drag thumbnails into the output box. You can drag as many files that you want in whatever order and play them back. Click on the START Button to start the export process. Click on the STOP Button to stop.
IMPORTING VIDEO Clicking on the IMPORT button from the MAIN SCREEN or the IMPORT button from MENU BAR will take you to this screen: You can browse easily to any directory on any drive (eg: local drive, firewire drives etc) and drag other media like DV, QUICKTIME, PICTURES or MPEG files into an album.
USING THE ALBUM Clicking on the ALBUM button from the MAIN SCREEN or the ALBUM button from MENU BAR will take you to this screen: ALBUM lets you organize your captured media and existing media in your Mac. It can see not only your capture MPEG files but existing DV files, QuickTime compatible files and pictures that you have imported into PixeDV for Mac via the IMPORT function.
Once you have files that you captured or imported into ALBUM, hold down the CONTROL KEY on the your KEYBOARD while you click on the thumbnail, the contextual menu options will be shown for that thumbnail: Change Thumbnail Size – Changes the Physical size of the Thumbnails in your ALBUM Use a Album Cover – Use the first frame of the video or picture as your ALBUM cover thumbnail Create a Play list file – Creates a play list of video files that can be played one after another without user intervention.
Album Menu Options On the upper right section of the ALBUM Screen, you can click on the ALBUM Button to manage your ALBUM. This is where you can delete the whole ALBUM, make a NEW ALBUM, RENAME ALBUMS ETC. You can also click on the SOURCE Button to manage the MEDIA Files that you have inside the hi-lighted ALBUM. Here you can Move, Copy, Delete, etc, any of the files that you might have in a specific Album.
TRIMMING VIDEO’S WITH MPEG CUTTER Although the PixeDV for Mac application DOES NOT offer EDITING functions where you can ADD transitions and titles to your Video’s, it does offer the ability to accurately trim and cut MPEG2 files. Cutting up MPEG2 files is very hard to do and the ability to do this is a very key feature of this software package. To open MPEG FILES in MPEG CUTTER, hold down the CONTROL Key and click on the MPEG file that you want to open in MPEG CUTTER. 1. Click on MPEG Cutter 2.
Importing a file into MPEG Cutter bring up this interface: A B The video file that got imported into MPEG CUTTER will be shown in the PREVIEW WINDOW. Drag the Slider to a part of the video (A) where you want to START trimming. A frame will display in this box (B) where you stopped the slider. Drag that frame into the box labeled START. Drag the Slider to a part of the video where you want to STOP the trimming process. A frame will display in this box where you stopped the slider.
The ORIGINAL File Size versus the file size for the newly created file will be displayed just above the EXECUTE Button. To SAVE your trimmed video, you have to click on the EXECUTE Button. This will save the TRIMMED FILE to your hard drive. The original file will be left untouched.
ONE STEP AMOUNT – Sets your step settings in relation to moving the current video frame via the one step arrow movement buttons as illustrated below: Arrows If you set your Step Amount at 1 Sec, clicking on the arrow Key’s will move the frame in the main PREVIEW WINDOW forward approximately 1 second. Setting up your Step amount for 1 Minute will moved the frame forward approximately 1 minute and so on.
EXPORTING FILES FOR USE IN DVD STUDIO PRO The USB Instant DVD for Mac hardware together with the PixeDV for Mac software, can capture analog video real time into an MPEG2 or MPEG1 file. The MPEG file that is captured is an industry standard MPEG file that can be used anywhere. Even on PC based DVD Authoring/Publishing Systems. Most AUTHORING/PUBLISHING Applications in the market will take a standard MPEG FILE. Some applications though require something called an ELEMENTARY MPEG2 FILE.
4. Browse to the location where you saved the ELEMENTARY MPEG2 FILES. PixeDV for Mac will split the files and sequentially save them in folders called DVD SOURCE FOLDER1 and so on. If you open the folder, you will see the MPEG2 AUDIO and VIDEO FILES. The .AIF extension is for AUDIO MPEG FILES. The .M2V extension is for VIDEO MPEG FILES. The files can now be easily imported into DVD Studio Pro via the File, Import Menu or you can drag the file into the ASSETS window of DVD Studio Pro.
MPEG AND QUICKTIME PLAYERS Clicking on the MPEG PLAYER Button from the MAIN SCREEN will take you into ALBUM Mode for MPEG FILES in your current ALBUM. DV Files, Pictures and other Media will not be shown in this mode. Double clicking on any of the video thumbnails will play the file in the MPEG PLAYER shown below. You can resize the window, change the volume level and start, pause and stop the video playback. The MPEG PLAYER will only PLAYBACK MPEG Files capture by USB Instant DVD for MAC.
