Creative Audigy 2 ZS User manual

Contents ii

Contents

Movie Creation Guide

Software Applications .............................................................................................................................................. 1-1

Computer Configuration ...................................................................................................................................... 1-2

Optimizing Your Computer ........................................................................................................................ 1-2

Processor speed and RAM memory ......................................................................................................... 1-3

Hard drive space ............................................................................................................................................ 1-4

DVD writer ....................................................................................................................................................... 1-4

USB 2.0 ............................................................................................................................................................... 1-5

Windows XP .................................................................................................................................................... 1-5

Graphics Cards ................................................................................................................................................ 1-5

Capturing Video from a Video Source

Step 1: Install Hardware ................................................................................................................................ 2-1

Step 2: Start Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3 ............................................................................................... 2-2

Step 3: Set Video Capture Parameters .................................................................................................... 2-3

Step 4: Set Audio Parameters ..................................................................................................................... 2-4

Step 5: Perform the Capture ....................................................................................................................... 2-5

Capturing Video Using Direct to Disc

Starting DVD MovieFactory 3 .............................................................................................................................. 3-1

Using Direct to Disc ...................................................................................................................................... 3-1

Contents iii

Creating a WMV file for Zen Portable Media Center

Starting VideoStudio 8 ............................................................................................................................................. 4-1

Creating a WMV file from an existing video file ............................................................................................. 4-2

Capturing a WMV file .............................................................................................................................................. 4-6

Taking Control of Your DVD Project

Planning Space and Organizing Your DVD ....................................................................................................... 5-1

Organization ..................................................................................................................................................... 5-3

Capturing in MPEG or DV/AVI .................................................................................................................. 5-4

Capturing in DV ............................................................................................................................................... 5-4

Capturing in MPEG ......................................................................................................................................... 5-6

Controlling the MPEG Capture Parameters .......................................................................................... 5-7

Setting Capture Properties .......................................................................................................................... 5-9

Controlling the Project Settings for Output ........................................................................................ 5-10

Change MPEG Settings ................................................................................................................................ 5-11

Selecting the DVD Format and Media Type

Select a DVD format ...................................................................................................................................... 6-1

Video and Audio Monitoring

About Monitoring ..................................................................................................................................................... 7-1

Television Display ..................................................................................................................................................... 7-2

Audio Monitoring .................................................................................................................................................... 7-3

Technology Glossary

DoMiNoFX™ ........................................................................................................................................................... A-1

Contents iv

PerfectView® Pro MPEG encoding .................................................................................................................. A-2

TrueView™ Pro: Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering ................................................................... A-3

Video Formats ........................................................................................................................................................... A-3

Analog Television Video Formats – NTSC, PAL and SECAM ................................................................... A-4

Video Transmission — Composite Video and S-Video (SVHS) ............................................................... A-5

Digital Video Formats – DV and MPEG ............................................................................................................ A-6

Digital Audio Formats ........................................................................................................................................... A-8

Digital Video and Audio Resolutions and Bitrates ......................................................................................... A-9

DVD Format ............................................................................................................................................................ A-12

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions About Video .......................................................................................................................................... B-1

General Usage ............................................................................................................................................................ B-2

General Precautions ................................................................................................................................................. B-4

Movie Creation Guide 1-1

Movie Creation Guide

This guide will help you use Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor to

produce quality DVDs and movies on your computer. Read ahead to learn how to:

• capture video using Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor into a digital video file on your

computer and make professional-looking DVDs or SVCDs (See "Capturing Video

from a Video Source" on page 2-1)

• archive your home movies quickly and burn them to disc using Direct to Disc

(See "Capturing Video Using Direct to Disc" on page 3-1)

• create Windows Media Video (WMV) movie files for your Zen Portable Media

Center (See "Creating a WMV file for Zen Portable Media Center" on page 4-1)

Software

Applications

Your Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor software package contains:

•

Ulead DVD MovieFactory™ 3 SE to create movies and slideshows on VCDs,

SVCDs and DVDs. You can use MovieFactory for all of your DVD projects that

need basic editing facilities. You can also import edited videos from Ulead

VideoStudio.

•

Ulead VideoStudio™ 8 SE to edit your video. You can capture, edit and create

final MPEG or DV(AVI) files for use in MovieFactory. In VideoStudio, you can use

advanced editing features not found in MovieFactory, especially timeline editing

operations.

•

Ulead DVD Player to view your DVDs on your computer.

The following diagram illustrates the steps in creating a movie:

For instructions on how

to use your Audigy 2

ZS Video Editor or the

Creative and Ulead

software package, read

the User’s Guide, and

the online Help.

Video

Capture and Compress

Edit

Burn

Movie Creation Guide 1-2

Computer

Configuration

Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor features hardware MPEG encoding, which greatly reduces

the burden on your computer during video capture.

However, working on your DVD project will be easier if you have a computer

configured for video capturing and editing. Performing basic computer

maintenance can also make a difference when working on your video project.

A recommended computer configuration is:

• 1.5 Ghz processor or better

• 256 to 512 MB RAM

• 20 GB of available hard drive space

• DVD writer or recorder drive

• Available USB 2.0 port

• Microsoft® Windows® XP

Optimizing Your

Computer

Each video project may have different requirements in relation to system speed

and resources.

To check your system’s specifications, click

Start → Settings → Control Panel →

System

. Or, for device-specific information, click Start → Settings → Control Panel

→ System → Hardware and select Device Manager.

Before starting a video project, you should:

• Defragment your hard drives

• Enable DMA for your hard drives for optimal performance, as indicated in the

Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor User’s Guide.

• Uninstall previous video and audio device applications before installing Audigy 2

ZS Video Editor, to reduce the possibility of software conflicts.

• Install the latest drivers, firmware and application updates and patches for your

operating system, DVD recorder drive, graphics card, BIOS and your Audigy 2

ZS Video Editor.

• Close all non-Ulead applications, to minimize system resource conflicts.

The recommended

configuration discussed

in this section will

serve most purposes,

but it is not required.

You can still perform

video editing and make

DVDs on a computer

with a slower

processor or less RAM

than recommended.

Movie Creation Guide 1-3

Processor speed

and RAM memory

The more RAM and the faster the processor you have, the more responsive your

computer will be during the editing and rendering phases.

While editing, for example, you would preview the results of your latest edit in

real-time. Most of your edits are accumulated in a “non-destructive” way called an

edit list – the underlying video files are not actually modified as you make the

edits. On lower powered computers, this can result in slow video previews or jerky

video as your computer labors to display 30 frames per second in the Preview

window.

You should have 256 MB of RAM for basic Windows XP operations with video

applications; 512 MB will improve performance on complex projects. More than

512 MB will not improve performance significantly for most projects.

Movie Creation Guide 1-4

Hard drive space The amount of available hard drive space you need varies from one project to the

next. One important factor is whether you will be capturing and editing in DV or

MPEG. See "Digital Video Formats – DV and MPEG" on page A-6.

The amount of storage you need for your project is the total of:

• All the raw video you will capture — 10 minutes of DV will take up

approximately 2 GB while 10 minutes of MPEG2 video will take up between 300

– 700 MB depending on the level of compression

• 5-10 GB of temporary storage — needed to render the image of a DVD before it

is burned to the DVD media

• storage for other media files, such as audio and pictures

Fast hard drives (7200 RPM) are preferred as they improve the speed of real-time

Preview and video output operations, however hard drives at 5400 RPM also give

good performance. A computer system with a hard drive dedicated to video editing

can make data management easier as well as offer speed improvements when the

drive is on a separate IDE channel from the system drive. Hard drives formatted

with NTFS file systems are preferred over FAT32 since NTFS has no file size limit,

while FAT32 imposes a limit of 4 GB per file.

DVD writer A DVD writer that can handle all the different DVD media types (DVD-R, DVD-RW,

DVD+R and DVD+RW) is preferable. Some consumer DVD players only support

limited formats, so you should ensure that your DVD player supports the same

formats as your DVD writer.

Burning speeds are important as well, as faster writers can greatly speed up the

burning process. As mentioned in the note above for external drives, 1394

connectivity is preferred so there is no bus contention with the Audigy 2 ZS Video

Editor, but USB works well too. See "Selecting the DVD Format and Media Type" on

page 6-1.

External IEEE 1394

hard drives are

preferable over USB

hard drives because

the full USB bandwidth

can be dedicated to

Audigy 2 ZS Video

Editor. USB hard drives

are best connected

directly to the host

system, preferably on

a separate USB hub

from that of Audigy 2

ZS Video Editor, but

can also be connected

to the USB inputs on

Audigy 2 ZS Video

Editor itself.

Movie Creation Guide 1-5

USB 2.0 Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor will work well with either USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 connections

to your computer; Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor also serves as a USB hub. For

flexibility, USB 2.0 is preferred. USB 1.1 does not support the data transfer speed

required for capturing DV. However, Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor can encode video

into MPEG and USB 1.1 will support MPEG bitrates that give excellent results for

DVD projects (the Ulead applications allow up to 5 Mbps for USB 1.1).

To see if you have USB 2.0 on your system and to ensure you have the right driver

software to enjoy full USB 2.0 transfer speed, click Start

→ Settings → Control

Panel

→ System → Hardware and select Device Manager. Look under

Universal Serial Bus controllers. One or more of your controllers may say “USB

2.0”. Under the Properties of such a controller, look at the Driver tab to

determine if you have the latest high speed drivers. These may be obtained from

the website for your computer or motherboard manufacturer, or the Intel website.

Windows XP Use Windows XP because of its USB 2.0 support, general reliability and improved

media functionality.

Graphics Cards Your graphics card needs to be compatible with Direct X (in particular, to support

Direct X 9) but does not need 3D performance – video applications use 2D, which

is adequately supplied by all modern graphics cards.

Capturing Video from a Video Source 2-1

Capturing Video from a Video Source

Follow the next few steps to successfully capture video. Your Quick Start guide has

full instructions on how to connect your Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor.

Step 1: Install

Hardware

1. Be sure that you have properly connected and turned on your video source

and Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor. See your Quick Start guide.

2. Put your video device into Play, playback or VCR mode. Do not start playing

video at this time.

Connect Audigy 2 ZS

Video Editor to the USB

port you used during

installation. If you

connect Audigy 2 ZS

Video Editor to a

different USB port, the

operating system may

indicate a new device

has been detected and

attempt to locate

drivers.

Capturing Video from a Video Source 2-2

Step 2: Start Ulead

DVD MovieFactory

3

1. Run DVD MovieFactory and click Create

Video Disc.

2. Select the

New Project option and select

the Output disc format option you require

(either DVD, VCD, SVCD or DVD-VR). Click the

OK button to proceed.

3. In the Add Media window, select Capture

Videos from a Video Device.

Disable any scheduled

tasks on your

computer, such as

virus scans, so that

they do not interfere

with the video capture

process.

Capturing Video from a Video Source 2-3

Step 3: Set Video

Capture

Parameters

1. In the Capture Video window, select

the pull-down button to expose the

Advanced Capture settings.

2. Select a Format option suitable for

your project.

The options available are appropriate

for common tasks; however you can

adjust the format parameters with

Capture Properties in Advanced

Settings - see "Planning Your DVD

Project" on page 5-1.

3. In the Capture Mode list box, select

Marked Capture.

This enables you to use the mark-in

and mark-out timecode controls to

mark the start and stop recording

points in your video.

Use this mode only with digital video

sources.

4. Select Advanced Settings and click the Capture

Properties option. Set the Input Source

according to how your video device is connected

to the Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor.

Select VCR Input when capturing from a VCR;

this allows the Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor to

stabilize video from older VCRs.

You do not need to

select the Source

device listed at the

top of the Capture

Video window – this is

a logical name

indicating which

software driver

components will be

used for the capture

and may change

depending on the

Format and Input

Source selections you

make.

You should defragment

your hard drive before

capturing video. Also,

make sure your hard

drive has enough free

space for your video

capture. See "Hard

drive space" on page

1-4.

mark-in and mark-out

timecode controls

Capturing Video from a Video Source 2-4

Step 4: Set Audio

Parameters

1. Go to Start -> Programs/All Programs ->

Creative -> Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video

Editor ->

Creative Speaker Settings and select

the Speaker or Headphone settings.

2. Go to

Start -> Programs/All Programs ->

Creative -> Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Video

Editor -> Creative

EAX Console and enable or

disable any environmental effects. For

example, disable CMSS-3D in order to monitor

the audio exactly as it is on your video source.

Capturing Video from a Video Source 2-5

Step 5: Perform

the Capture

1. Start your video device playing in order to preview your video before

capturing. This can be done manually, or in the case of a DV camera, with the

buttons underneath the Capture Video window. At this point you should see

your video displayed in the Preview window. If not, see "Frequently Asked

Questions" on page B-1.

Tip: If your video is too dark, light, faded or grainy – for example, if it was

recorded in low-light conditions - consider performing the capture in VideoStudio

which allows real-time color adjustments in hardware during the capture. This is

preferable to using software video filters after capture to make color adjustments.

Videos captured in VideoStudio are easily imported into DVD MovieFactory.

2. Stop and reposition the video source to the desired capture location and click

the Capture Video button.

3. Start your video source (it will start automatically for DV cameras with camera

control). You can manually stop the video capture by clicking Stop Capture,

or it may stop automatically due to running beyond the set time length.

After Stop Capture, DVD MovieFactory may be unresponsive for a short period

as it finalizes the operation.

During video capture,

do not disconnect or

turn off Audigy 2 ZS

Video Editor, stop the

video device or start

other CPU-intensive or

USB-intensive tasks on

your computer.

The colors in the

Preview video may not

exactly match the

colors seen on a TV or

camera, due to

differences in color

conversion.

Capturing Video Using Direct to Disc 3-1

Capturing Video Using Direct to Disc

The Direct to Disc function in DVD MovieFactory enables you to quickly capture

videos from a video device, like your digital video camera or your VCR, and burn

the video directly onto a DVD in one operation. For example, using Direct to Disc,

you can archive your home movies into DVD or other available format.

Starting DVD

MovieFactory 3

1. Be sure you have properly connected and turned on your video source and

Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor. See your Quick Start guide.

2. Insert a blank DVD into your DVD recorder.

3. Launch DVD MovieFactory 3.

Using Direct to

Disc

1. Click Direct To Disc.

Capturing Video Using Direct to Disc 3-2

2. In the window that appears, select

an Output disc format (DVD).

3. Select the drive that you want to

use to burn the DVD.

If the drive you want does not

appear, check your drive

connections.

If you have a blank DVD in the

drive, disc information appears in

the window.

4. Check the details of the DVD you

have in the DVD drive. If the Free

space is insufficient for your video,

use another disc. Be sure that the

Disc type is supported by your DVD

writer.

Capturing Video Using Direct to Disc 3-3

5. In the dialog box that appears, select a DVD

recording format.

Select:

• DVD-Video when you have no need to later

edit or append to the DVD. This format is not

as fast as the next format.

• DVD-Video (fast re-editable) when you

will be adding more video to the disc or for

the quickest, on-the-fly, recording to DVD

• DVD+VR only if you have a +VR compatible

playback device. This format allows flexible

on-disc editing.

For more information on DVD recording formats, see

"Selecting the DVD Format and Media Type" on page 6-1.

6. Click the OK button.

7. In the window that appears, configure the settings for video capture:

• Select Fixed duration as the capture mode, and set the duration of your

video.

• Click the Burner Settings icon to set DVD writer settings.

• Click the Create Menu icon to configure your DVD menu.

• Click the Create Chapter icon to configure your DVD chapters.

• Click a Format option to set the DVD capture quality (this affects how

much space is taken up). See "Capturing Video from a Video Source" on

page 2-1.

• Click the Capture Folder entry box to specify the folder to store your

captured video.

• Click the Advanced Settings icon for other technical capture settings. See

"Capturing Video from a Video Source" on page 2-1.

Capturing Video Using Direct to Disc 3-4

8. On your video source, find the capture start point.

9. Click the record button. Click the pause button to

pause the recording. Click the stop button to end

the recording, and burn your project to the DVD.

When the DVD burning is complete, a dialog box

appears.

Capturing Video Using Direct to Disc 3-5

10. Click Return to Start page option to save your video project and start a new

one. Click

Continue to burn another copy of your project, or to burn a new

DVD with different settings. Click

Close to save your project and close

MovieFactory.

Use Ulead DVD player to view your new DVD!

Creating a WMV file for Zen Portable Media Center 4-1

Creating a WMV file for Zen Portable Media Center

Use Ulead VideoStudio 8 Editor to create specially configured Windows Media

Video (WMV) files for your Creative Zen Portable Media Center. These files have

faster transfer times to your player than other types of digital video files. With

VideoStudio, you can apply a wide range of video edits and effects, as well as

optimize the video files for quick transfers to your Zen Portable Media Center.

Working with video files requires a large amount of hard disk space, depending on

how large your original video file is. Be sure to have sufficient free hard disk space

for your computer to create the new video file.

This section shows you how to create WMV files from an existing video file, and by

direct capture from a video source.

Starting

VideoStudio 8

1. Be sure that you have properly connected and turned on your video source

and Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor.

2. Launch Ulead VideoStudio 8.0 SE.

3. If a VideoStudio 8 dialog box appears, click the VideoStudio Editor option.

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Creative Audigy 2 ZS User manual

Creative Audigy 2 ZS User manual

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