How do Cassie users upload to YouTube?

[Dave Watterson]

We are starting to get questions from some of the IAC's many Casablanca edit system users about how they might put their films onto YouTube/Google Video.

(As a sidenote it is interesting that Cassie dealers assume most of their customers buy the system because they do not want to have a PC or Apple at home. IAC people tend to have both. They choose Cassies for the ease of editing and PCs to look at the web, send emails etc.)

My starting point for answers is:

A. Cassie users without a PC or Apple should make friends with someone who owns one of those!

B. Cassie users with a PC or Apple can connect the machines through firewire or S-video IF the PC or Apple has appropriate connections. New Macs seem not to have firewire any more. PCs will usually only have such connections if they are used as editing machines ... unlikely if there is a Cassie in the house.

C. The practical way seems to be to cut a DVD in the Cassie, put that into a DVD drive in the PC/Apple if it has one and rip it (i.e. take a copy of the video from the DVD). The two transcode programs mentioned on the main website, Super C and MediaCoder can both accept VOB files as input. So find the correct VOB file in the Video_TS file (usually the largest file) and process that as described in the articles on the main website.

SO ... can any of you wise people suggest better options?
AND ... can anyone with a Mac/Cassie pairing tell me more about ripping DVDs in Apples without having to spend a lot of money on special programs?

All help gratefully received!

Dave

[billyfromConsett]

I don't have the knowledge about casablancas output, but they should hopefully output with firewire. If that's the case then it might be possible to capture into a computer's firewire port directly. If the movie needs to copied onto miniDV tape first, then captured by a PC capture app then it's an extra step.

If the casablanca only has analogue outputs, then a digital camcorder with analogue inputs could be used for intermediate capture onto miniDV tape, before it exports via firewire into a computer.

Once the AVI file is in the internet computer, then a cheap file conversion app - like Quicktime Professional, may convert the movie into mpeg4 (or the less good but ok mpeg2) file format, which will reduce its filesize massively.

So uploading to Youtube, Vimeo or one of the others is there to happen.

[Dave Watterson]

Good points, Billy. But how many PC's that are not fitted with video editing systems actually have firewire ports? And in a household with a Cassie why would anyone have a PC-based editing system?

Though Apple championed that connection system their latest models seem to have abandoned it!

Cassies do output to miniDV anyway so that part is no problem.

Dave

[chetdavis]

Greetings,

Hope you don't mind a reply from across the 'pond'
A colleague alerted me to this post and thought I could offer some thoughts...

1. I would say if the person was editing a Casablanca II and IF they had access to a Mac/PC with firewire port that would be best option... least amount of signal compression and the quickest. If a reader is in that situation - here is my tutorial on using that method http://www.casablancaexpert.com/articles/youtube
I prefer staying away from DVD creation if I can as I attempt to avoid that additional level of compression.

2. If a person was using a Casablanca II editor running OS Smart Edit 6 or higher and a Mac/PC without DV ports - and if they were using an external HDD with both DV and USB ports, they could save their file via the Storyboard Archive out to the HDD and then disconnect from Casablanca, reconnect via USB to computer and then transfer the file using either a freeware file converter on Windows or using either iMovie or QuickTime Pro on Mac.

3. If you were using a Next Generation Casablanca (S4000/PRO or S2000) you could use the internal Media Manager to convert the file/s over to a MOV file (found under Export: Apple devices sub menus). Then you could transfer that file either on DVD or on USB Flash Media into computer of preference.

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Chet

[Dave Watterson]

Great!
Thanks, Chet.

Part of the problem is that, as their owners are fond of saying, "Cassies just work!"

People who use them do not have to worry about file names, or even most of the technical possibilities the system makes available. They load in their movies, edit them and produce miniDV and DVD output ... simple. That allows them more time and energy to worry about getting the editing right.

Chet Davis is one of the people who do know more, a whole lot more.

He is well-known to North American film makers as a great champion of and expert in the Casablanca range of editors. His seminars and presentations at their conventions have always been popular.

As part of his new business Chet runs "webinars" - seminars on the web - as well as offering tutorials, advice and even training DVDs. Cassie owners know their system works well ... Chet knows how they can do even more and even better work. Visit him on http://www.chetdavis.com and http://www.CasablancaExpert.com

Dave

[billyfromConsett]

Also Dave many ordinary computers not set up for editing have a firewire input, though mostly branded makes only. Or you can can buy a firewire card for about £10 - it will work as soon as it's put into a PCI slot.