Video Cut with Ubuntu

[Larry Grover]

Keywan Najafi Tonekaboni wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> for our Youth Center [1] we want to buy a computer for video cut. It
> should have Firewire, an analog to digital converter card with an
> "mpeg-chip" to convert old videotapes to videofiles and a dvd burner.
> 
> I have some question and hope some of you have experience with similiar
> stuff and could help us.

I've used ubuntu, running on an Apple iBook, which has a built in 
firewire port, to capture analog video for conversion to DVD.

I used a Canopus ADVC-100 to convert analog video (old VCR tapes) to 
DV.  I have used the kino program to capture and edit the video.

If you want to put the video onto DVD, and be able to play it on a DVD 
player and TV, you'll need to convert (transcode) it to mpeg2 format. 
  The linux tools for this are all command line (mjpegtools, mencoder, 
transcode), but kino provides a convenient graphical front end for 
them.  Transcoding takes a lot of CPU, so you will either need a fast 
machine or lots of time.

You'll also need the right tools to author and then burn the DVD. 
Again, these tools are command line (dvdauthor, and dvdrtools which 
has growisofs, mkisofs), but there are GUI frontends if you prefer 
(dvdstyler, qdvdauthor; I think ubuntu has dvdstyler, but not qdvdauthor).

> 1) Is there an hardware-information website, like linuxprinting, where i
> could find out, which cards and chips works with linux/ubuntu?

Here's a few links that I have found helpful:

(1) For linux hardware compatibility information: 
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php

Unfortunately, in my experience, for most of the hardware you will 
find in stores, there is little or no information on linux 
compatibility (manufacturers change model numbers more quickly than 
products are reviewed -- sometimes a small change in model number is 
insignificant, other times it signals a major change, like a different 
chipset which is not supported under linux).  Try to buy from some 
place where return/exchange is easy.

(2) For firewire information:  http://www.linux1394.org/

(3) For DVD burning in linux:  http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/

(4) For general video and DVD information:  http://www.videohelp.com/

Not linux specific, but there is lots of useful information on this 
sit.  They have a linux video forum: 
http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=19

(5) Canopus (the maker of the analong-DV converter that I use):
http://www.canopus.com/Index.asp
http://www.canopusgmbh.de/Index_DE.asp

They don't list the device that I use (ADVC-100), but do list two 
other devices which should work (all of these devices are proprietary, 
but as far as I know firewire-DV is a standard and therefore well 
supported under linux):
ADVC-110:  http://www.canopus.us/US/products/ADVC110/pm_advc110.asp
ADVC-50:  http://www.canopus.us/US/products/ADVC-50/pm_advc-50.asp

> 2) I know "kino", is this the software of first choice or are other
> programms for working with videos you suggest.

For a nice graphical frontend for DV capture and transcoding, and also 
for simple editing, Kino is my first choice.  You can find a fairly 
complete list of linux programs for video capture, editing, dvd 
authoring and burning at:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=23#23

> 3) Are all DV-Cameras with Firewire compatible with Linux or are the
> problems to copy the video data to computer.

I have zero experience with this (no video camera), but I have read 
that this is true.

> 4) Is something else i should take care, when i buy or setting up a
> computer for this tasks.

If you're going to transcode video, buy the fastest CPU you can 
afford.  Buy lots of RAM and a large, fast hard drive (video files can 
be huge -- 2 hours of DV will take something like 25-30 GB of space).

At the top of this email, I mentioned that I have used my iBook (800 
MHz G3) for analog-DV video capture, editing and transcoding.  While 
it works fine for DV capture (the harddrive, at 30 GB, is really too 
small, but I used it with a 200 GB external firewire drive which is 
nice and big and plenty fast), its waay to slow for efficient 
transcoding (and doesn't have a dvd burner anyway).

The iBook is nice and portable, though, so I used it to capture the 
video onto the firewire drive, and then connected the firewire drive 
to a faster system for transcoding and burning to DVD.

> Thanks,
> 
> Keywan
> 
> P.S.: I just want to use free software, except codecs (but prefer free
> codecs)
> 
> [1] http://www.az-muelheim.de


I hope this is helpful,

Larry