DVD Xpress ­ Quick Tips Thanks for Purchasing DVD Xpress! We hope you enjoy your DVD Xpress ­ we have designed it to be as fun and easy to use as possible. Here are some product Highlights: · The most affordable hardware based USB MPEG capture device on the market. This means you can produce Hollywood quality VCD's, SVCD's and DVD disks using the same hardware MPEG encoder chip found on professional level DVD recorders, but at a fraction of the price. It's compatible ­ you can use DVD Xpress on PC's with USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 connections with perfect results. USB 2.0 will allow you to capture at higher bit rates, and the CapWiz application is smart enough to know how you are connected to make perfect captures easy! The easiest and most flexible video capture utility ­ Your DVD Xpress includes CapWiz, a very easy way to capture and preview your video. You can start capturing video in seconds, but once you get familiar with the software CapWiz also offers you more flexibility with custom capture settings than any other video capture product on the market today. You have complete control over capture resolutions, video bit rates, variable or constant bit rate captures, audio formats and more. Easy to use, but Powerful flexible features are at your finger tips when you want to do more. Capture from the Video Editor ­ DVD Xpress gives you more ways to capture! Capture from CapWiz or within Video Studio 7 SE DVD. Video Studio 7 lets you capture and edit or if you just want to Capture and burn you can do that fast and easy as well because Video Studio 7 SE DVD is a complete capture, edit and burning application. · · · CapWiz Tips · Try CapWiz first ­have video playing from your camcorder, VCR or DVD player, follow the Wizard steps and choose "View in DVD (MPEG-2)" in Step 4, then press PREVIEW on the CapWiz interface and you will see video fill the preview window. Not only can you capture Video, but you can see it at full broadcast resolution. With CapWiz, what you see is what you get. What ever video type (VCD, SVCD or DVD) you select, you will see it displayed in the proper size within CapWiz. No Tiny Video Preview Window Here! No other video capture application lets you do this. You always know what "Good, Better and Best" quality mean and you can see the difference! Custom Settings ­ You may find you want to go beyond the "Good, Better and Best" settings and customize your video capture settings. CapWiz gives you that flexibility. o Choose Variable bit rate ­ this uses a special algorithm to analyze the video as it is compressed and automatically adjusts the video bit rate based on the amount of motion in the scene. The result is better quality video and smaller file sizes. o MPEG Video is like Golf ­ the lower score Wins -good quality at a low file size (capture bit rate) is the goal. You'll probably want to fit as much video on a CD or DVD disk as possible. Play around with captures at 3 Mb/sec. with Variable bit rate turned on and we'll bet you'll be surprised at the video quality. With 3 Mb/sec and MPEG Audio, you should be able to get about 2 ½ hours of movie on to a single DVD disk! You can't do that with competing products! o Noisy old Video Tapes? Video tapes degrade over time, so you'll want to get all of your family memories and video tape collection on to disk before they fade away. Try the Video Pre-processing Filters to help remove some of the noise. The Temporal filter removes noise detected across 2 or more frames of video. The Spatial filter looks for noise within each field of video. Use these filters in combination for the best noise reduction for your tape. Don't over use the filters as they may soften the image too much. And you · · won't notice any change if the video source is DVD because there is probably no noise to remove. Timed Recording Options ­ On the CapWiz Interface click the Options menu, then Click Options for Recording. o Delayed Recording ­ Click "Prompt for Recording Delay", when you click Record, you enter the amount of time delay before recording starts. o Record Duration ­ Click the box to enable this feature and then enter the record duration. Now you can record unattended knowing that you will record just the amount of time you want. Perfect for getting that 30 minute TV show you have on tape on to your computer and ready for burning. o Use Time Delay and Record duration together ­ Use the 2 capabilities together to customize recording options ­ connect to your satellite TV receiver and set to capture when your show comes on! Tips for Video Studio 7 SE DVD Video Studio is the EVERYTHING application ­ you can capture, edit and burn all from this single application ­ no jumping from one program to another. Video Studio guides you step by step in the capture and editing process, but you can jump from Capture to Edit to Titling or direct to SHARE for burning in any order you like. · Quick Capture and Burn ­ With Video Studio you can Capture video much like you do in CapWiz and then go directly to the burn step, or you can capture in CapWiz and import files to Video Studio for burning. o Capture ­ Click "Capture" at the top of the screen to move to Capture mode­ Click "Options" and then MPEG Settings to choose video source and video capture settings, then Click the Capture Video button to capture video. Click "Esc" on the keyboard to stop capturing and a video thumbnail will appear in the video storyboard below. o Burn ­ Click the "SHARE" button at the top of the screen, Click the "Create Disk" Icon and give your video a name. Now the DVD Authoring Window appears. o Get Fancy with Menus ­ You can set chapter points here if you want or just Click Next and you can select your menu back ground or import an image file to make it totally custom. Click Next again to preview your DVD movie with chapter buttons. o One last Click and you are ready to burn your DVD! o With just a few clicks you were guided through a wizard driven DVD authoring program and burned your first DVD movie! o You can get fancier than that with multiple clips and sub-menus, but the process above is just about the fastest way to Capture and burn a DVD on the planet! · Real Time Preview of Effects and Titles ­ you added a 3D transition between 2 clips or you created an animated title and you want to see how it will look. o Hold down the "SHIFT" key on your keyboard and click the "PLAY" button. Now only your transition or animated title will play and in real time! o If you want the transition or title to last longer, just go up to the duration timer and increase the number of seconds the effect will last. Burning after Editing ­ With Video Studio 7 you don't need to make a Final Movie file before you go to the burning step. When you are finished editing your clips, adding your background music and added your animated titles, go to the "Share" step and click "Create Disk" and begin creating your DVD. The video transitions and titles will be rendered during the DVD burning process which saves you precious time. · We hope this overview and helpful tips will make your experience with DVD Xpress more fun and exciting. ...