By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 02/11/99
The 17 million US households that own both a camcorder and a personal computer also own something else, according to Griffin Dix Research: an average of 20 videotapes they rarely watch.
One reason, as many of us with camcorders have found, is that what seemed like endlessly fascinating graduation ceremonies, Little League games and baby feeding sessions at the time we were rolling tape turned out to be a little tedious on playback.
Programs that plug into your personal computer to help you edit down and jazz up your videos are becoming one of the hottest new markets in home electronics. Dataquest, a multimedia market-analysis firm, estimates that shipments of these products rose from 471,162 units in 1996 to more than 1 million in 1997, and probably more this year.
More than a dozen products priced for home use are on the market, with new ones seeming to come out every month. They include Ulead Systems' VideoStudio 3.0, Adaptec's VideOh!, Iomega Buz, Avid Cinema (a Power Macintosh product), Dazzle Digital Video Creator, and MGI Software's Videowave.
One of the least expensive, versatile and klutz-forgiving systems is Studio 400 by Pinnacle Systems, which went on the market in April and normally retails for $199 or less.
While some systems require you to undertake the frightening task of opening up your computer to plug in a device that translates tapes into digital bits for storage and editing on your hard drive, Studio 400 uses a paperback-book-sized device that plugs into your serial and parallel ports like a printer.
To make it work, you need a Pentium-class computer running Windows 95 or 98, a VCR that can be controlled by an infrared remote and can be plugged in somewhere close to the PC, and a couple of specialized cables to hook up the VCR and camcorder to your computer.
It's also worth checking at this Web page - www.pinnaclesys.com/framesets/support.html - to make sure your camcorder will work with Studio 400. (Generally, Sony, JVC, and Panasonic camcorders and all other camcorders that support 8mm tape or have what is called a Panasonic 5 pin will work out, according to Pinnacle.)
Once everything is hooked up, you play back the tape. To conserve memory, the system transfers to your computer memory a lower-resolution version of the tape - 160 by 120 pixels - that should take up no more than 150 megabytes per hour of tape.
The program automatically determines the beginning of each ''scene'' on your tape, sensing when you stopped or paused the camcorder while recording.
The first frame of each scene shows up as a still picture in an ''album'' on your computer screen. Using your mouse, you drag images to what is called the ''storyboard,'' recombining scenes in whatever order you want and omitting the boring stuff.
You can also add in up to 100 different transitions (the new scene spins out of the old one, for example), fadeouts, 200 different styles of titles, as well as background music (classical, country, jazz, rock, and so on) or your own voiceover.
You can preview what different editing approaches will look like before committing to them. When you have finished tweaking the captured version of your tape, Studio 400 goes to work playing back the actual version, inserting the special effects you have chosen and outputting the whole package to your VCR tape. What comes out is a full-resolution video. Or, if you have the hard-drive space, you can keep a version on your computer.
Pinnacle also says you can use the system to create video to send to other people by e-mail or post on a Web page and, if you are daring enough, push the system to use as a sort of video phone with someone else who has it.
All in all, it seems to be much simpler than some of the earlier approaches to PC-based video editing, but it's not a piece of cake.
Edward Buckingham, an analyst with International Data Corp.'s desktop multimedia and graphics group, told Computer Dealer News in a recent survey of the field that many people might find editing programs a bit frustrating.
''The trouble is, the PC is really not powerful enough for most video applications, and users are not sophisticated enough,'' Buckingham told the trade magazine. ''Today's PC applications are kind of like driving a car - you go left, right, front back. You add video, and it's like going from driving a car to flying a plane, in that it requires experience and training to get it right.''
But Andy Fischer, senior analyst with John Peddie Associates of Tiburon, Calif., asserts in a Pinnacle press kit that because of its memory-conserving features, ''Studio 400 is the first product to make basic video editing with transitions, voice- and music-over and high-quality titling practical for consumers with typical home computers.''
Bear in mind that, like Hamburger Helper, the ultimate result will depend heavily on the quality of the ingredients. Unless you use a tripod and professional lighting, don't expect your videos to come out looking like a network show - but they might come out looking as good as home video spliced into an evening newscast, and certainly in a more brisk, entertaining package.
Given the cost and complexity of using the system, it might make a perfect self-serving ''gift'' for a group of siblings, cousins or friends to give to a technophile: Slip it under Uncle John's Christmas tree, then give him the treat of paring down your endless family videos.
And finally, as impressive and versatile as all of Studio 400's features seem to be, my wife and I have discovered a highly functional peripheral on our home entertainment system that can accomplish the level of editing we find we really need.
It's called the pause button, part of the no-name VCR my wife's father bought her from a mail-order electronics house 12 years ago. We hook up our camcorder to the TV set, pop in a tape to the VCR and start recording, then pause the VCR tape when we think Aunt Sylvia has probably seen enough of little Susannah spooning oatmeal approximately into her mouth, unpausing before she performs her next brilliant trick.
It's a great way to turn 60 minutes of adoring parents who can't stop the camcorder into 15 minutes of video for far-flung aunts, uncles, and grandparents.
But undoubtedly many people far more skilled with electronics than us will love the chance to trim, rearrange, and transition their memories. Studio 400 could be a fun, reasonably priced way for you to play professional videomaker.
Peter Howe writes the Brainstorms column on patents issued to Massachusetts inventors and covers local environmental issues for the Globe.
