Video Editing with Sony's
MICROMV (Sony
MovieShaker, Pinnacle Studio 8,
Ulead Video Studio 7)
Douglas Dixon, Manifest Technology, www.manifest-tech.com
MICROMV
Format
MPEG Issues
Sony
MICROMV Camcorders
Sony
MovieShaker
Pinnacle
Studio 8
Sony
EZ Editor
Ulead
VideoStudio 7
Prime-Time
MPEG
References
Sony's MICROMV format has
brought the trend of miniaturizing
video equipment to a whole new
level. If you thought
"Mini" DV tapes and
camcorders were small, then this
next step was certainly to
"micro" -- with 70 percent
smaller tape cartridges, and cameras
that weigh under one pound. Even
compared to Mini-DV camcorders,
these MICROMV units are
significantly lighter to pack and
carry, and small enough skip the
camera case and just carry in a coat
pocket (www.sony.com/micromv).
MICROMV cassette
How small is the MICROMV
cassette? You can describe it as
smaller than a matchbox, or about
the size of two quarters, or smaller
and thinner than half a MiniDV
cassette. That is small, indeed.
As this kind of equipment gets
smaller and smaller, however, there
comes a point when the trade-offs
become too severe, as the LCD
screens get too small to view
details and the buttons become too
tiny to control reliably with your
fingers. These really are personal
preferences, however, and depend on
how the camcorder fits into your
hands and with your shooting style.
But MICROMV also introduces
another significant trade-off: while
these camcorders connect to your
computer with a FireWire interface,
they do not record digital video in
DV format. As a result, they do not
interface directly with the wide
variety of video editing and DVD
authoring tools that can capture and
process video directly from DV
equipment. Instead, Sony provides
its own MovieShaker video editing
application with to import and edit
digital video. MovieShaker also can
convert MICROMV video to other
formats (including DV), and convert
video files back to MICROMV format
to export back to the camera.
This situation improved in early
2003, as Sony introduced new MICROMV
camera models. At the same time, new
versions of the Pinnacle Studio 8
and Ulead VideoStudio 7 consumer
video editing tools were introduced
with some MICROMV support. However,
you will see from my experience in
working with these new products, the
MICROMV experience is still nowhere
near as smooth as working in DV
format.
The basic concept with MICROMV
was to shrink the size of the tape
cartridge in order to also reduce
the size of camcorders that use the
format. As a result, there is less
tape surface in the cartridge than
in a Mini-DV cassette, which means
fewer bits available to store an
hour of video on a tape. As a
result, MICROMV requires more
aggressive compression of the video
data.
Sony DV and MICROMV Camcorders
DV compresses video to 25 Mbps
(million bits per second), which is
relatively light compression that
gives very high quality video. (If
you compare this to using JPEG
compression on each individual frame
as if it were a digital photo, it's
equivalent to compressing 720 x 480
photos to around 100 KB, which still
is plenty of bits for great looking
images.)
In comparison, video for DVD is
typically compressed to around 4 to
6 Mbps using the MPEG-2 format.
Since it is highly compressed, MPEG
is thought of as a delivery format
for the final output of an edited
production, while DV is an editing
and archival format to save the
original video. While DV compression
can be done in real time on low-cost
chips in any DV camcorder, getting
great looking MPEG video for DVD
requires significantly more
processing and sometimes manual
tweaking.
For MICROMV, Sony also uses
MPEG-2 format, but at a higher 12
Mbps rate. By increasing the data
rate, the camcorder hardware can be
designed to still create
good-looking video while compressing
in real time. You may notice more
artifacts such as color fringing
than with DV, especially in
difficult shooting situation, but
the end result is certainly quite
good quality. MICROMV also is prone
to introducing blockiness at the
start of clips and a freeze-frame at
the end of each clip, so you will
need to be careful to keep the
camera running a little longer so
you can trim your captured clips.
But using MPEG-2 for MICROMV
creates other trade-offs. First, the
format is incompatible with the wide
variety of existing software that
can interface to DV camcorders
through FireWire connections. After
the DV / FireWire interface finally
has become ubiquitous and reliable,
we're back to square one in
requiring special software to
interface to video capture hardware.
Second, the MPEG data from the
MICROMV camcorders is stored as a
MPEG-2 "transport" stream,
a format for packaging video
intended for transmitting data.
Unfortunately, most video editing
tools are designed to read MPEG-2
"program" streams, the
expected format for packaging and
storing MPEG-2 video and audio in
files. This means that the MMV files
created by Sony's MovieShaker
application cannot be read by many
video player and editing tools.
Finally, because of the basic
nature of MPEG-2 compression, video
files in MPEG-2 format are difficult
to rapidly search, and not really
amenable to frame-accurate editing.
Unlike DV, which compresses each
frame individually, MPEG-2 achieves
much better compression by storing
some frames only as differences from
adjacent frames. After all, since
video frames are shot only 1/30th of
a second apart, consecutive frames
really do not change very much. MPEG
takes advantage of this by analyzing
the movement between frames (from a
panning camera or motion in the
scene), and then describing a frame
in terms of background and
foreground information from adjacent
frames.
MPEG-2 uses an "IBP"
compression pattern, with groups of
frames starting with a larger I
(Intra) frame, compressed
individually, followed by smaller P
and B difference frames (Predicted
and Bidirectional). The B frames
actually use difference information
from both proceeding and following
frames. (MPEG-1 uses a much simpler
format, and therefore is easier to
edit but obviously does not produce
the same compression quality.)
Now imagine trying to rapidly
shuttle through a MPEG-2 video
stream. You cannot easily jump to a
specific frame, since consecutive
frames vary wildly in size. If you
start trying to decode an arbitrary
P or B frame you will end up with a
blocky mess, because they depend on
previous and even following frames
that you do not have available.
Even worse, even if you find the
right frame where you want to make a
frame-accurate edit, the repeating
IBP pattern of the data means that
you cannot simply slap in a new
frame exactly where you want it. You
can either just force all edits to
the closest I frame, as some
applications do, or you need to
uncompress the entire IBP group,
edit in your changes, and then
recompress the block again. This is
not only a lot of work, but
continued decompression and
recompression of already
heavily-compressed MPEG-2 video will
quickly cause visible artifacts.
More fundamentally, since MPEG-2
is designed as a delivery medium for
playing full-motion video, when you
step in slow motion through
individual frames the stand-alone I
frames clearly look better than the
P and B difference frames. As a
result, you may not like the visual
effect of a cut at the exact frame
where you would like to make it.
As a result of all this, while
many video player applications now
can play MPEG-2 files, they can be
sluggish when skipping or shuttling
through MPEG-2 files, much less when
trying to step backwards. Similarly,
many video editing tools really are
not designed for MPEG-2 editing.
They may import MPEG-2 material, but
again they struggle when moving and
positioning within the files, and do
not support actually editing the IBP
data, but instead decompress into a
more convenient format.
Working with MPEG-2 really
requires an editor that understands
and processes MPEG-2 in its native
format. Otherwise, your best
solution is to transcode from MPEG-2
to a better-supported format like DV
to use for editing in your favorite
applications.
I tried out the Sony DCR-IP55
MICROMV camcorder, introduced in
August 2002. It is actually a bit
larger than the previous DCR-IP5,
introduced in January 2002, which
weighed only 12 oz, with battery,
and measured 1 7/8 x 4 x 3
1/8". The upgraded features in
the DCR-IP55 include 520 lines of
horizontal resolution and a 1
megapixel imager for still images (MSRP
$1,499). It includes 10X optical
zoom, pop-up flash, NightShot mode
for dark scenes, and Memory Stick
media for still photos and MPEG
movies.
Sony DCR-IP5 &
Sony DCR-IP55
MicroMV camcorders
The DCR-IP55 has several
interesting design elements to
accommodate its small size (15 oz
without battery, and 2 3/8 x 2 7/8 x
5 1/8"). Since there is limited
room for dedicated buttons on the
case, the swing-out 2 1/2" LCD
has a touch screen, with both play
controls and access to the menus
through a tabbed interface. Sony
also designed a swing-down handgrip
on one side of the cam to make it
easier to hold the camera steady.
The handgrip covers the tape door,
and actually holds the removable
battery.
The DCR-IP220 Network Handycam
Camcorder has an very different
design, with a larger lens barrel
and the camcorder mechanism along
the side (at 1 lb. 2 oz, and 3
7/8" x 3 x 5 3/8). It has 530
lines of resolution and a 2
megapixel imager (MSRP $1,999).
(See
Camcorder Review section for more
details & special deals)
These cameras include Bluetooth
networking technology and can
actually take video and still images
recorded on the Memory Stick and
email or post them to the Internet
using a Bluetooth modem.
All MICROMV camcorders include
FireWire interfaces, also called
IEEE 1394, or iLINK by Sony. The
cassettes hold 60 minutes of video.
All MICROMV cassettes include a 64
Kb Cassette Memory chip that
provides a visual index of the clips
on the tape.
Sony's MovieShaker
application version 3.1 ships with
the MICROMV camera, and is
explicitly designed to support the
format and camera features on
Windows machines. It imports and
exports clips directly from and to
the camera, and reads and writes
clips to disk in MMV format.
The MovieShaker interface has a
center Monitor panel area, with a
Clip tray on the left, a Tool panel
on the right, and the Product tray
on along the bottom. The MovieShaker
workflow follows the tabs above the
Monitor to progress from Capture to
Editing, first importing clips into
the Clip tray, then assembling them
as a storyboard in the Product tray,
applying edits from the Tool
palettes for Effects, Text,
Transitions, and Narration, and then
clicking Export to save the
resulting movie.
One major advantage of using
MovieShaker for importing from the
camera is the ability to preview the
clips stored on the tape. Click the
Scan button under the Capture tab,
and MovieShaker will shuttle rapidly
through the tape, extract thumbnails
for each clip, and display them in
the Index tray in the Tool palette.
You then can select individual clips
and click Batch Capture to have
MovieShaker capture them. Or click
Dubbing to capture all the index
clips from the tape.
You also can use MovieShaker to
import and export video from and to
the camera, and to convert to DV or
another format to process the video
using your other favorite tools. The
MMV files created by MovieShaker are
in MPEG-2 transport stream format,
and therefore are not directly
readable by many applications. I
found that QuickTime Player 6 could
import and play some MMV files
reasonably well, although it could
not handle others. Microsoft Media
Player also could play the files,
but only after they were renamed to
MPG.
When you use MovieShaker to
convert to DV format, it warns that
the operation is going to take a
long time. This is irritating in
these days of real-time software DV
to MPEG transcoding and DV-based
previews, but not much slower than
similar applications.
Pinnacle Studio 8,
released in June 2002, combines
video editing with DVD authoring (www.pinnaclesys.com).
It can transcode during capture from
DV to MPEG, and can import and edit
MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files. For DVD
authoring, Studio can create DVD,
VideoCD, and Super VideoCD, supports
nested menus, and motion menus and
buttons. Studio 8 is available for
$99 
, or bundled with a FireWire card
for $129 (MSRP) 
.
Studio 8 supports importing video
directly from a MICROMV camera,
using device control to position the
tape from the Studio interface. It
also can export video back to the
camera, after you have manually
positioned the tape and started
recording.
As Studio imports the MICROMV
video, it converts it on the fly to
a standard MPEG-2 program stream
before writing the data to disk.
Because of this processing, it does
not display the incoming video while
capturing. The captured video then
is stored as a MPG file, which means
it can be read and processed by a
wider range of applications.
Even though Studio can read
MPEG-2 files, it is not a native IBP
MPEG-2 editor. Shuttling through a
MPEG-2 file during editing was
sluggish on my system, so you really
need to convert MPEG-2 data to DV
before doing any interesting editing
with it.
Studio 8 also is bundled by Sony
in its EZ Editor product. The
Sony EZ Editor Video Editing Kit for
MICROMV 
cameras includes all the hardware
and software needed to hook up to a
MICROMV camcorder, including a
FireWire (IEEE 1394) PCI card,
Pinnacle Studio software version 8
SE, plus a FireWire cable, a MICROMV
cassette and a CD-R, for $99 (MSRP).
Ulead VideoStudio 7,
released in February 2003, provides
real-time capture, edit and output
in a consumer-level video editing
tool (www.ulead.com/vs).
It adds support for Windows Media
and DivX format. For DVD authoring,
VideoStudio 7 supports VR format
from set-top DVD recorders and can
create a DVD from the editing
project without needing to first
save the output video. VideoStudio 7
is available for $99 (MSRP).
VideoStudio 7 supports MICROMV
format in that is has a new capture
plug-in that can import video from a
MICROMV camera and write it to disk
in MPEG format. VideoStudio also
cannot read the MMV format files
created by MovieShaker.
VideoStudio 7 is described by
Ulead as a native MPEG-2 IBP video
editor, and ships with sample MPEG
clips. Unfortunately, VideoStudio
hung for tens on seconds on one of
my test systems whenever I moved the
jog bar to jump around in the file,
and still worked fine on another
system. Unfortunately, this kind of
behavior is still too common under
Windows as you load multiple
applications on a system along with
their support files, and find them
interfering with each other to
access their preferred interfaces to
decoders, encoders, capture devices,
and other kinds of drivers.
Unfortunately, MICROMV's MPEG-2
video just is not yet a prime-time
format for editing with common
PC-based tools. Beyond the lack of
support and sluggish behavior of
video players and editors when
moving around MPEG-2 files, you
really cannot edit and re-edit
MPEG-2 video without quickly causing
visible artifacts.
Another issue is that while
MICROMV video has shot time
information like DV, this data is
lost in converting to other formats.
And even if you use MovieShaker to
automatically capture your video
into individual scenes, you then
have to manually export each shot
into a separate file to import into
another application.
In addition, even the captured
and transcoded MICROMV video
exhibited various problems. Some
clips broke up with blockiness or
green blotches, especially between
different shots when the camera was
stopped and restarted. Some longer
clips exhibited choppy audio or
audio sync problems, sliding more
than a second within a ten-minute
clip. Other files seemed to end with
bad data, as tools like Adobe
Premiere 6.5 could play the file
cleanly, but hung when trying to
transcode the last few frames to DV.
Even with these frustrations in
working with the MICROMV format, it
still is clear that things are
improving and that there are
effective options for editing
MICROMV video. The cameras are
wonderfully light and easy to use
and the video quality on the tiny
tapes is reasonable. Just be aware
that the software side is still
limited, and so you will need to
experiment with the different
options.
Much like getting used to working
with such a small camera depends on
your personal preferences, working
with MICROMV video on your computer
also depends on your ability to
adapt to the available software
tools.
Sony - MICROMV
www.sony.com/micromv
Pinnacle Systems - Studio 8
www.pinnaclesys.com
Ulead Systems - Ulead VideoStudio
7
www.ulead.com/vs
Manifest
Technology®
Copyright 1999-2003, Douglas
Dixon, All Rights Reserved
Manifest Technology
is a registered trademark of Douglas
Dixon
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