In This Issue:

Tarpon Movie...Read

Tarpon Terror...Read

Will Fish For Gas...Read

Boat Sinks...Read

Fish n' Clips™ Making DVDs

We encourage anyone to add any suggestions they have for making good fishing DVDs. The Fish n Clips Forum has a section devoted to videography. Check it out to get more information on this topic or to post new information.

Here are a few DVD tips that we've picked up over the years:

Software
We've found that not all software is the same. Some of the editing software produce very poor quality DVDs and some of the free software for doing just the DVD work fine. Ulead's Movie Factory has worked well in producing the DVD from our .AVI files. A simple program to use, it allows formatting of the menu and comes with various templates.

Setup
You can import your edited video as a file or you can capture video straight from your camera. If using the capture mode be aware that the editing is limited in these smaller programs. Try editing it first in the editing software and then using the converter or burner software to get it onto a DVD. After you have the video selected create a menu.

Menu
The menu is added to the front end of the video. You can determine the number of chapters you want the video broken up into to make searching the video faster or let the software do it automatically creating X number of chapters depending on the video length. The menu will come out looking just like any professionally done movie menu. You can even add music, menu fades, styles and much more.

Burning to the Disk
Burning to the disk is no different than burning a CD with one exception... Time. The video must be rendered and burned to the disk and this can take some time depending on the video. Just follow the instructions and in no time you'll have a show quality DVD.

Finished Video Doesn't Look Right
Everyone gathers around the TV to see the fruits of your video labor. A little popcorn, a drink and with the remote in hand you all enjoy the great menu introduction to your video. You press "Play" and as the video begins you notice that it doesn't look just like it did on your computer screen. Well there are a few problems in converting the files. The format you saved the video in to be writable on the DVD was the Mpeg4. An inherent problem seems to be color. The reds will be too red and many colors will seem way more vibrant than you see on your computer. Don't worry, it's not your settings in the editing. I've spent countless hours trying to resolve this issue and finally came to the realization that even toning down the color levels makes no difference. With video editing and making DVDs on your computer in its developmental stage there are still a few bugs to work out.