Capturing Video

Connecting your camera

Kino has good support for the IEE1394 standard. You will need both a PC and a camera with this type of interface. IEE1394 connections come with 4 or 6 pins, laptops and cameras usually have a 4 pin connection, PC boxes the 6-pin connection. Connect your DV camera to the PC using a an IEE1394 cable.

A 4-pin IEEE1394 port connector on the side of a laptop.

A 4 pin cable

A 6-pin, 3 connector Firewire card one with a cable attached.

A 6-pin cable

Opening Kino

Before opening Kino turn the camera on and go to Playback (or VCR) mode. On your PC open a terminal window and type the command line 'kino'. Press Enter and Kino opens.

The Kino Layout

The Kino layout is straightforward and is divided into three main columns:

Storyboard for arranging clips
Main window video and mode options
Function buttons for different editing modes

The Toolbar at the top adds quick access to the more commonly used features in Kino.

The Transport Controls below the main window let you playback your footage:

Scrub bar: Click and drag to view the project video clips
- Transport
- For playing, advancing and rewinding.
- Shuttle
- Plays the project at different speed. The speed will display bottom left of the Kino window.

Kino Help: Press the F1 key when Kino is open for help file.

Preferences

Before capturing check Kino preferences. Open Edit > Preferences and select the options below:

Defaults
PAL; 48khz; 4:3;
Capture
DV AVI type 2;
Audio
Enable Audio Scrub;
Other
2Pass Encoding.
- See the appendix for more detailed information on defaults.

Capture location

To set the where captured video is stored on your hard drive, click on the folder icon above the transport controls. Create a folder and add a file name and Kino will do the rest, sequentially numbering clips and adding the file extension.

Remember to Save your work regularly: File > Save.

If you want to undo any changes made select the Edit mode then Edit > Undo

Camera Control

Select the AV/C tab to activate the cameras VCR controls. Hover the mouse over a button to view function information. Play, capture and stop the footage as required.

If your camera doesn't support this then use the in-camera VCR controls. The recorded clips will appear in the storyboard window. Repeat the process until the footage is in the computer.

The clips are displayed in the storyboard window. To view the different properties of a clip use the Time pull down list below the transport controls.

Editing Clips

Once the clips are in Kino they can be re-ordered in Edit mode. Click on a clip then drag and drop it into a different position on the storyboard.

The scrub bar below the main window is divided into sections that correspond to the storyboard scenes. You can play the movie using the transport controls. Alternatively click onto the play-head (the scrub triangle) and drag it along the scrub bar to view the footage.

The Timeline

Select the Timeline tab and the selected clip displays as a sequence of frames. This mode provides a basic visual storyboard. The clips are un-editable in this mode.

To display the full movie increase the End number to its maximum.

Trimming clips

The captured clips may require topping and tailing. Select a clip that requires further editing and go to Trim mode.

Using the scrub triangle or transport controls move the play-head to the in point that you want your clip to start from. Trim the front of the clip by clicking on the black triangle right of the 'In' box. The same routine applies to setting a new out point, only use the right black triangle. The greyed out portion of the scrub bar is the excluded video, it's still there, it just won't be played.

Alternatively click and drag the small triangle immediately below the scrub bar to a new start point position.

To set the new points select the 'Overwrite' mode and click on Apply. The clip on the storyboard will change to reflect the modifications.

Importing Video

There are two ways of importing footage into a project. If you want to quickly assemble footage then use the import buttons. This will insert a clip before / after the selected clip on the timeline.

If your clips require trimming or cutting up into sections then it may be more convenient to trim the clips as you import them. If this is the case then import into Trim mode. Choose the 'Insert' mode and browse for a file using the folder icon left of the 'Before' button. The video comes in ready for trimming.

Adding titles and credits

If you want to add titles or credits to your video you'll need the 'dvtitler' plugin installed. For more information see:

http://dvtitler.sourceforge.net

Click on the FX tab and a 2-column window opens.

The first column has Output and Preview settings that have self-explanatory options to select from. The video preview will play in this column once effects are added.

The second column has a selection of audio and video filters that can be applied to your movie. Before looking at specific effects let's look briefly at the difference between the Overwrite and Create options.

Overwrite and Create modes

An important point to note is the difference between the choices to Overwrite and to Create. Overwrite writes the titles on top of the video. Create adds titles onto a background of your choice.

A typical title may be a centrally aligned text that fades in and out on top of the footage. To create this, select the first clip in the sequence and choose Overwrite mode. In order to set the duration of the title sequence, first check the 'Limit to' box and select the 'Opening' option. Enter 45 frames in the selection area. This is equivalent to about 2 seconds of video.

Next click on the Video filter tab and from the dropdown menu select 'DV Titler'

Text options

The DV Titler input area is displayed.

Type in your title, in this example I use 'Our Gran's Joint'.

From the options click the font box and select Sans (default font) and choose size 72.

Set the FG (text colour) to white and the BG (background) to black.

Set Align to Center, as this will keep the text centrally aligned if it expands to more than one line. Next set Padding to 6 – this extends the background colour of the text box and makes the text more prominent on the selected clip.

Set both text positions to Center (In order to animate the text, select different positions for the Initial position and the Final position.)

Set the Fade in and Fade out frames to 6.

Click on the Preview button to view the title as it will appear in the video. This screenshot shows the titles as they fade in.

When you're happy with the result click the Render button and a new clip appears in the Storyboard window. It's named as a kinofx.dv file.

Create mode

We'll look at the other way of creating titles, having them scroll on black. This method is often employed for the credit sequences. Select the Create mode option. In the first options box choose Fixed Colour and type in the number of frames you wish.

In the DV Titler options set the font size to 36, the foreground colour to white. The background can be left as the chequered design (this indicates that it will be transparent). Set the Align, Initial position and the Final Position all to Center.

If you wish the credits to scroll then select Initial position to Bottom Off, and the Final Position to Top off. Now add a 6 frame Fade in and out and type in your credits.

Preview the Credits and then render.

The new clip drops into the Storyboard. Place the credits to the end of the clip sequence.

Black Video

It's good practice to put in a section of black video at the start and at the end of the video if the movie is being run back to DV tape. Here's how to create it:

Select the Create tab.
Enter the Frames number you want. Choose 250 for 10 seconds of video.
Choose Fixed Colour & select the colour Black.
Select the 'Before current edit frame' radio button.
Select the video Transition 'No Change'
Render. A new black video clip is placed in the Storyboard.
Drag it to the front of the sequence.
Copy the clip (Edit > Copy)
Drag the copy to the end of the clip.
Save your work.

Transitions and effects

Adding transitions

Kino provides a number of transition effects, with many additional ones available in the 'timfx' and 'Kino Plus' plugins. Transitions are used to join movie clips together and can add something extra to a movie when used thoughtfully. The most commonly used transition is where one clip fades into another. It is sometimes referred to as a cross dissolve or Fade.

To create a fade from one clip to another in Kino first select the clip the transition will start from; choose Overwrite and specify the duration. In this example the limit is set to 10 frames.

Select Fade Video from the Transitions pull-down menu and Preview the transition then click Render. A new clip drops into the Storyboard window.

The image above shows the transition effect that's been added to the project.

This image shows the cross fade preview between clips.

Audio Filters

Audio filters work in much the same way as video filters except you don't need to select overwrite or create options. There are only a few audio filters and transitions but they're useful for basic editing.

Their titles describe their function so explanations aren't really necessary. Dub means that the original audio will be replaced with the selected audio file. Firstly select your clip, Preview then Render. If you wish to replace the whole audio with a single audio file then render your movie first, import this into a new project and dub the clip. For more advanced audio editing export your audio file and edit in a sound-editing programme such as Audacity.

If you want to add external audio files to Kino these should be in the 'wav' format.

Images of audio transitions and audio clips.

Exporting Video

Once your movie is edited you can complete it by making (or rendering) the movie as a single AVI file or exporting the finished movie back to DV tape. Other options include exporting the movie as stills, as audio, as MPEG (DVD and VCD and SVCD) and DV Pipe for importing into another programme.

Exporting to tape

With your video camera turned on, cued up and ready to receive a video input through the IEEE1394 port (check your camera's manual). Select the Export tab and choose IEEE1394. Press the Export button and the camera will start to record the footage. If there are issues you may need to experiment with changing the parameter values on this page. Note that some IEEE1394 cards will not export back to tape. See http://www.linux1394.org/ for compatibility information.

Export as AVI

To create a single movie clip select the DV File tab and specify the name and location for the finished movie.

Next select your file type; DV AVI Type 2 is a more compatible format, if you intend sharing your movie as an AVI it's advisable to select this option, though file sizes are larger. Click on Export.

Export to DVD

Please refer to Kino Help pages and http://www.tappin.me.uk/Linux/dvd.html for more information.

Creating a movie slideshow

Select the FX tab then click on the Create tab. Choose Multiple Image Import from the pull-down list and select files for the project. You can specify where you want the sequence to begin in the edit, how many times you want the image to repeat and whether you want the image aspect ratio honoured.

More Help

For more help with Kino you can try these avenues:

Kino Documentation

should first look at the very good documentation at the developers site:

Online Forums

You can also try searching through the forums for information.

The forums contain a lot of postings from users on many topics. You can use the search system to locate topics or just browse the categories. If you don't find what you want then try subscribing to the forums and posting your question to the relevant category. There are a few things to keep in mind when asking a question in a forum or to a mailing list. First, be as clear as you can with your question and provide any infromation that you might think would help some to try to help you. You might, for example, include information about the operating system you are using, or various specifics that relate to what you are terying to achieve. Additionally, it is always good practice to also post back to any forum or mailing list if you manage to solve your query and include clear information on how you solved the puzzle. This is so that someone else that may have the same issue can resolve it using what you have found out. If possible post back to the same thread (discussion topic) so tha tanyone searching through the forum can follow the discussion including the solution.

Web Search

Searching the web is always useful. If you are looking for problems arising from errors reported by the software then try entering the error text into the search engine. Be sure to edit out any information that doesn't look generic when doing this. Some search engines also enable you to try searches of mailing lists, online groups etc, this can also provide good results.

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists are good places to look through for answers to questions. The archives are located here :

You can also subscribe to the mailing lists and ask a question:

Please note the suggestions about posting to forums and mailing lists in the above section.

IRC

IRC is a type of online chat. it is not the easiest to use if you are not familair with it but it is a very good system. There are a variety of softwares for all operating systems that enable you to use IRC. The IRC channel for VLC is where a number of the developers are online and some 'superusers'. So logging into this channel can be useful but it is very important that you know exactly what you are trying to find out before trying this route. The protocol for using the channel is jus tot log in, and ask the question immediately. Don't try and be too chatty as you are probably going to be ignored. It is also preferable if you have done some research using the other methods above before trying the channel. The details for the IRC channel are:

IRC network:
Channel: #

License

All chapters copyright of the authors (see below). Unless otherwise stated all chapters in this manual licensed with GNU General Public License version 2

This documentation is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this documentation; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Authors

This manual originally forged at Your Machines : http://www.yourmachines.org/ . Check out Your Machines for other very interesting and well written manuals! Many thanks for to Simon Yuill for porting the manual from Your Machines and agreeing to re-licensing it under the GPL.

_{Free manuals for free software}

General Public License

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
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Preamble

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