Video editing is an essential part of the video making process. It’s editing that makes it possible to set the mood, pace and atmosphere of your video shoot. It also enables you to add titles and effects, shorten or lengthen sequences, and much more.

For a long time, video editing was a somewhat laborious process, not least because video footage had to be edited sequentially. This meant that if you wanted to go from a scene that was five minutes into your recording to another, at say, the 17-minute point, you had to spool through metres of the tape to get to the right spot. Even when using sophisticated video editing decks that could assemble a series of edit points throughout a tape, it was still a long-winded process.

Now, thanks to desktop video editing, this has changed. That isn’t to say that the video editing process has become less challenging, but simply that editing tools have become faster, easier, more flexible and more versatile thanks to desktop video editing technology.

In a desktop video editing system, a computer and editing software are the main tools used in a video project. The first task is to transfer the video from the camcorder to the computer. With analogue video, this meant installing a video capture card in the PC so that the video could be digitised. But as HDV is a digital format, this process can be avoided. Instead, the video can be transferred directly from camcorder to computer using an IEEE 1394 terminal (also known by a variety of names including, Firewire). Most video equipment supports the IEEE 1394a standard, which offers a top data speed of 400 Mbit/sec, although a more recent standard - IEEE 1394b - offers almost twice the maximum data rate. All HDV camcorders have an IEEE 1394 terminal and many PCs now include the connection as standard. To connect camcorder to computer, you use an IEEE 1394 cable (these come in four- and six-pin configurations). This enables the raw video footage to be transferred to the computer. The IEEE 1394 connection can transfer audio, video and time code data, and its fast, sustained data transfer rate makes it ideal for transferring video footage.

Source: cpn.canon-europe.com