Many of us have old video recordings we’d like to remember as life events. They are on outdated cassettes and disks requiring noise reduction, brightness adjustment and recording compactly to 1 medium like DVD or Blu-Ray as a whole.

While 15-20 years ago such a task would be rather laborious, now it’s well done with modern computer power. Latest video editor versions work miracles by improving image quality, for example, via a noise filter or enabling to adjust color, lay extra effects on video and use additional sound tracks like with comments or pleasant music. Here’re some popular video editors with rich features to handle video and audio.

Adobe Premiere Pro & Adobe Premiere Elements
Ulead Video Studio & Ulead Media Studio
Pinacle Studio
Vegas Movie Studio

To this end, you’ll need an installed video editor, enough hard disk space and a video capture board if you don’t have previously recorded video like in AVI. If you did it before but the disk turned scratched, you’ll have to copy it on the hard disk and then do AVI fix by using video editor features or a video fixer like Digital Video Repair or DivFix++.

Processing your recordings requires the following steps:

Record video with the best possible quality for subsequent processing if you haven’t done this before. Use a Motion JPEG family video codec or the like.
Do initial edit by cutting out movie parts not planned for a final version. Use the cut operation to remove unwanted image pieces.
Set image brightness and contrast to make the picture more pleasant and improve subsequent video filter operation.
For images recorded from analog sources like VHS tapes, use a filter to do deinterlacing operation to remove the image comb effect.
In case of video noise, use a noise filter to improve its quality and compress an output file.
Resize a bit smaller to improve the result and output file size.
Lay necessary special effects to transfer from 1 plot to another.
If needed, add extra sound tracks with background music or comments.
Choose a video and audio compression format and record the result on the hard disk.
Burn the final video to an optical disk like DVD and make up its box.

For a better compression format, mind that if you want to show you movie to the friends from a stationary player, be careful in choosing audio and video codecs. Most contemporary video players support the AVI format with MPEG-4 (DivX, Xvid) compression unlike such computer formats as MP4, MKV, OGM and H.264 (upgraded MPEG-4) which provides far better compressed video quality with lower bitrates but fits few players. The most common audio codec is MP3 (MPEG Layer 3).

Pay special attention to choosing an optical disk for recording. For the longest life time, pick up a branded disk with an extra scratch-proof layer. If you have to transport the disk often, make sure the box is suitable fixating the disk tightly to prevent possible hit consequences when in motion.

Not to get lost in large disk collections, use cataloguer software and properly signed disk covers. So you can always find a necessary disk quickly and have other extra info without looking through all the recorded disks.

Approach preparing video creatively to get a quality result worth seeing in the family and showing to friends and acquaintances in your home.

Screen capture video is designed to capture and record screen activity in real time. With this video recording software you can capture the moving action on your computer screen and save it as an AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) video file. Screen capture and video recording provide an excellent tool to share your computer knowledge, demonstrate how to use software, show how to perform an activity or for training purposes. You can type text, move the cursor, highlight the cursor, click buttons, select menus and all this will be recorded on to video to save and play back. You can also record your voice as your are talking along with the screen activity.

You can use screen capture video to develop videos to demonstrate features of a new software, train people how to use that software, for tracking the progress of a program that executes for a long time, such as a Forex trade, for recording the sequence of steps that leads to an event, such as in faulty software. You can also speak into a microphone while recording is in progress to include real time audio with the recorded video.

Capturing and recording screen activity with screen capture video is really easy, all you have to basically do is select ‘Record’ and when you are finished simply click ‘Stop’. You do not need to be a media expert or a computer techie. You simply choose a pre-defined region of the screen, a fixed region or the full screen and start recording. You can choose your cursor from many available, choose to highlight it (recommended), change the size of the highlighted area and also choose the shape to use. When you are finished just save your work and play back your video to see the results. It sounds easy and is easy but the more you do it then the better you will become.

Bear in mind that the video will be compressed, and this is pretty much the norm, down to 640 x 480 size for use by your viewers. It will not be viewed at the size of your screen when you are making the video so small details may not be so obvious in the playing. If you are capturing your whole screen as opposed to a section of it, some detail will be lost in the playback of the finished video.

Promoting your own products, or affiliate products, by demonstrating how they work and how to get a result by using them. This should be in addition to what the developer demonstrates. Prospects will be so enthused that all you need to do is to show them how to get the product by clicking on the link. You can show the video on your own site, on YouTube or other video syndication sites or even through eBay once it has been converted to the correct format for distribution over the internet. We will discuss this in a later article.

Screen capture video programs are not intended for re-recording of other video clips from the screen such as those played in Real Player, QuickTime or Media Player but rather for creating regular software presentations, tutorial, demos etc. This can be done to a reasonable standard by tweaking the video players but is outside the scope of this article.

There are various screen capture video software products on the market from $9 to over $300. Whilst the more expensive might have more functions the cheaper programs are perfectly adequate to produce good quality videos for your web site.

Normally when you buy a hidden camera there is a small board camera is built into an everyday item like a Air Freshener or CO2 Detector, Alarm Clock.

The spy camera can be wired which means it is connected to the DVR or VCR using a cable. The camera can also be wireless, in this case the camera transmits a signal to a receiver that is connected to the DVR or VCR. There are many hidden cameras that come in all kinds of devices.

But many people want to use their PC to view or record hidden camera video surveillance from their hidden cameras. There are two devices that you can use to view and record all hidden surveillance viewed by your spy camera. This article will describe these two devices.

1) The USB Video Adapter for PC also known as the DVD-Maker, allows you to watch and record live video and audio from any of your hidden surveillance spy cameras on your computer. In addition to this you can grab images plus have video conferencing capabilities all from the comfort of your favorite PC without having to even opening your PC!

DVD-Maker is an external device which connects your VCR, camcorder or video camera to your PC or Laptop. Plug the DVD-Maker into the USB port and you are ready to watch hidden camera video surveillance in a resizable window, right on your PC screen!

DVD-Maker digitizes video using high quality 4:2:2 video sampling. And you can work on applications while simultaneously watching video in a resizable window.

Watch, capture or record live video from your VCR, camcorder or video camera! DVD-Maker connects to any S-Video or composite video source and plugs into your PC or laptop USB port. DVD-Maker video digitizer turns your analog video into digital video, and then sends 30 digital images per second over the USB (1.1 or 2.0) bus.

Spice up your multimedia presentations! Create digital movies in the Microsoft AVI file format with the included video Capture application. The included software allows you to edit and author DVDs, VideoCDs and S-VCDs.

Add video clips to your Web Page: Creative Webmasters can incorporate still frame video highlights or motion video clips on their web sites!

Videoconference* over the Internet: DVD-Maker is a video digitizer and can be used with Internet videoconferencing applications such as Microsofts NetMeeting, CU-SeeMe and more! Videoconference* with your friends an family around the world right from your desktop!

Desktop Publishing: With our exclusive WinTV SnapShot application, you can quickly save video images! Capture 24-bit still video still images in TIFF, JPEG, BMP in color or black/white. Also great for web design.

With the Win USB Video Adapter Installation is a snap! The easiest way to get TV into your PC or laptop! WinTV-USB is an external device with a 125 channel cable-ready TV tuner.

2) Install the WinTV-USB in your PC or laptops USB port and you are ready to watch TV of hidden camera surveillance video in a resizable window, right on your PC screen!

WinTV-USB offers features usually only seen on high-end television sets, like previewing 16 channels at once. And it goes further! Record your TV shows to your PC or laptops disk using MPEG encoding with our SoftPVR. Record video movies from your camcorder or off the air. And with WinTV-SnapShot, snap and print video images from whatever you are watching in high resolution up to 1600 times 1200 pixels!

Make MPEG digital hidden camera surveillance video recordings with our new SoftPVR. SoftPVR uses your PCs processor to digitally record videos to disk, from live TV or from an external video source. Schedule your TV recordings with WinTV Scheduler. Then use your PCs CD burner to create VideoCDs, with up to one hour of video.

Bring live hidden camera surveillance video into your PC or laptop from camcorder, VCR or video camera. With Hauppauges WinTV-Capture, you can record video movies in Microsofts AVI file format for use in web pages or to create your own high-impact multimedia presentations.

Videoconference* over the Internet: Your WinTV-USB is a high performance video digitizer, and can be used with Internet videoconferencing applications like Microsofts NetMeeting, Windows Messenger, CU-SeeMe and more! Videoconference with your friends and family right on your PC!

Spice up your multimedia presentations! With SoftPVR or our WinTV-Capture application, create digital movies in the Microsoft AVI file format or as MPEG movies.

Snap video still pictures: with Hauppauges SnapShot feature, you can capture still hidden camera surveillance video images in adjustable high resolution modes. WinTV-USB digitizes video using high quality 4:2:2 video sampling. And you can work on applications while simultaneously watching TV in a resizable window.

Now you know 2 of the best well known methods and devices to take advantage of recording spy videos on your PC. In a future article I will describe in detail a service that is easy to hook up for a low cost that will allow you to use any of your spy hidden cameras to watch covert surveillance video remotely, anywhere you have an Internet connection.