Using an analogue video camera
Analogue video has to be digitized before it can be edited on a computer whereas digital video can be transferred directly into the computer often using a firewire card. To capture digital video from a standard analogue video camera without a digital-out capability you will need to buy an analogue video capture card for your computer and these can be very expensive. To capture digital video you might need to buy a firewire adapter but these are very cheap and often come installed as standard.

Digital video equipment offers a higher quality both for video and audio than analogue video and can be transferred to the computer more quickly - it is better to use digital video as a starting point for further work..

Using a digital video camera
You can capture video from a range of different sources. The best quality method of capturing video to your computer is to use a digital video camcorder via a ‘Firewire’ (IEEE 1394) cable. Video can be transferred via USB but Firewire is a far faster transfer technology and is the standard on many cameras and also on many modern laptops. Firewire connectors come with 4 pin or 6 pin plugs - usually the 6 pin connects to the computer or laptop and the 4 pin end connects to the camera - you should check the size of the sockets before committing to buying a cable

"Digital Video in" capability
By default all digital video cameras are capable of outputting digital video. However, digital video cameras which can except a digital input are classed as video recorders and subject to additional EU tax making them slightly more expensive. Often "Digital Video in" enabled cameras have an “i” at the end of the model number to indicate that they are "DV in" capable.

The advantage of "DV in" capability is twofold:

• You can put your edited video from the computer back into the digital video camera tape and therefore run copies off onto VHS tapes for distribution.
• You can record VHS analogue tapes into your "Digital Video In " enabled camera, and then transfer the video into your computer for editing.

Resolution and file size
When capturing digital video the defaults picture size is usually 720X576 pixels which is the size needed to fill the screen of a TV when played back after editing. The down-side of this that it creates huge file sizes.

When saving in Movie Maker if you ‘Save to Web’ the size is 150x 119 pixels and the drop in quality is huge. However if you want to put your videos on the web and allow people to download or stream them then you do have to consider the file size before the issue of quality.

Sound files
In addition to the sounds captured with the video image Microsoft Movie Maker allows you to lay down one additional track of sound (this is the biggest draw back of Movie Maker). Sounds - in particular background music can be taken from many sources.

• You can narrate straight into Movie Maker if you have a microphone.
• You can turn music from CD’s to WAV’s or MP3’s from a CD using a CD ripper program such as Windows Media Player.
• If the final destination of your video is a computer then MP3 is probably the best format. If you intend to output your video as a DVD then the extra quality of a WAV file may be needed. (A WAV file roughly 10 times the file size of the same audio in MP3 format).

Adding extra sounds in Microsoft Movie Maker
If you wish to add more soundtracks then you have to do what is called "bouncing down". This means creating your film with a narration on it then opening the resulting file up again in a new Movie Maker project. You will then have gained a spare audio track to put the music on because your narration will be included in the original movie. Alternatively use a more powerful video editor, or an audio editing software programme that allows you to mix multiple tracks, then to add that to your finished video.

Video formats
The most common types are

• WMV Windows Media Video – compressed video viewable in Windows Media Player
• AVI An uncompressed video format – large files! (a Microsoft standard)
• Mpeg 1 The standard to use if you want to produce video CD’s (VCDs)
• Mpeg2 The standard to use if you want to produce DVDs
• RealVideo These files require Real Player to view these but uses good compression techniques so that videos can be shown over the Internet
• Quicktime (.mov) Another file type with good compression for streaming video over the Internet (an Apple standard). Requires Quicktime Player to view these files

Microsoft Media Player only produces videos in the Windows Media Video format

Titles
Though you can create titles in Microsoft Movie Maker you may want to produce your own titles in JPG file format in an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks..

You will have to consider the size of the picture for your title. If you work on a canvas size of 720x 576 then it will be the right size to go directly into Movie maker and most other video editors.
If you make it larger than this then Movie Maker and most other video editors will resize it to fit and there should be no problem. If you make your title smaller than a canvas size of 720x 576 then Movie Maker and most other video editors will resize the image upwards and the title will become pixellated. Remember your titles should be on a ratio of roughly 4:3 otherwise they would also become stretched and distorted.