How do I get my video into the computer and ready for use with Transana?
Chris Fassnacht has written an article called Preparing Video for Transana. That’s a good place to start, and is full of links to good resources. Another excellent resource is the web site videohelp.com, particularly the “How to Convert” sections. Briefly, you plug your digital camcorder into your computer using the firewire port, then tell your video software to “import” or “capture” from the camera. Depending on the software, you will probably then have to tell it to “export” or “save as” to one of the Transana-friendly video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, MOV, MP4, or WMV) described below. This process is described in detail in an article called How to Capture Video by David Woods. Although this article describes the process using Vegas Video 6.0, the general steps described in the article will work with other software packages as well. If you have analog video (VHS or Hi-8, for example), the process is a little more complicated. You need a video capture device, which serves the same
