Chapter 8: Editing Media Using DirectShow Editing Services

Chapter 8

Editing Media Using DirectShow Editing Services

PC-based video editing is one of the most exciting developments to emerge in the field during the last half-dozen years. After Web browsing and e-mail, video editing might be the next most compelling reason to purchase a new, powerful PC. Now regularly equipped with IEEE 1394 connectors, ready for digital camcorders, most PCs ship with a copy of Microsoft Windows Movie Maker, a video capture and editing package written using Microsoft DirectShow. Although Windows Movie Maker isn t as full-featured as the professional-grade products such as Adobe Premiere or Avid Xpress DV (which can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars), it s an entry-level tool that allows a novice user to capture video from a camcorder, place it onto a timeline, add an audio track (if desired), and then render a new movie. Then the user can write the movie to a disk file in various Windows Media formats for easy streaming over the Internet or to be dropped into an e-mail. The movie can also be recorded back to a digital camcorder so that it can be viewed on a TV, transferred to a VHS tape, and so on.

Such capabilities are a big deal with proud new parents, for example, who shoot hours and hours of footage of baby s birth, first step, first birthday, and so on, and use Windows Movie Maker to make short films for the grandparents, siblings, friends, and anyone else who ll sit still long enough to watch them. The day after my own nephew, Alex, was born, I made a 3-minute movie/birth announcement that I sent out to friends and family around the world. Filmmaking is a fun hobby, and although most of us will never approach the artistry of professional filmmakers, with tools such as Windows Movie Maker, near- professional-quality films can be handcrafted at home on the family PC.

DirectShow includes a complete set of functionality known as the DirectShow Editing Services (DES), which can easily add powerful editing features to any DirectShow application. Although Windows Movie Maker uses these services, the application barely scratches the surface of what s possible with DirectShow. As the video-editing public becomes more sophisticated, there s a greater need for ever-more-powerful tools. To that end, Microsoft recently upgraded Windows Movie Maker and added features that allow the application to analyze video clips and even assemble these clips into short movies, without much user input. Soon, a homemade movie will be no more than a few mouse-clicks away.