Desktop Video

The term desktop video (DTV) refers to any pre-recorded or real-time video that is capable of being played or edited on a desktop computer. Examples of playable desktop DTVs can range from converted video camera footage to computer video conferencing.

Before DTVs could be introduced to the public, hardware capable of handling both the editing and playback of DTVs needed to be designed. In the mid-1980s, Amiga introduced the Amiga 1000, which was capable of handling the necessary graphic and sound requirements for DTV. In 1990, a company named NewTek, credited as the first makers of a DTV system, introduced the first desktop video-editing device for the Amiga, called the Video Toaster. Unfortunately, NewTek's hardware and software were still too expensive for the average computer user.

During this time, Apple Computer's “Project Warhol” had begun creating a more affordable DTV system. In 1991, Apple introduced QuickTime 1.0, which was capable of showing a short movie in a postage stamp–sized window and allowing users to engage in basic video editing. Soon thereafter, Apple introduced QuickTime for Windows, thus making QuickTime movies multi-platformed. Microsoft quickly introduced its own movie player called Video for Windows, but was unable to produce a desktop movie of equal quality.

In October 1993, Apple expanded the computer's DTV capabilities to the playing of real-time television broadcasts. Macintosh TV (MacTV) outfitted computers with a specialized video card capable of linking to cable television outputs. While this proved that real-time television could be shown using a computer, they discontinued it six months after its introduction, only to reintroduce it a few years later. MacTV and TV video cards for IBM clones, while currently available, are still not very popular.

Most current versions of DTV player programs (e.g., RealVideo, QuickTime) show videos on a 640x480 pixel screen, and can stream more frames per second than pervious versions, allowing the picture's movement to appear smoother.

Initially, computer users could play only DVD movies, because a digital encryption disabled the copying of movies to the hard drive. By 2000, the code used to encrypt DVDs was broken by a program called DeCSS, which allows for DVD movies to be copied, and therefore pirated. DivX;-), a new compression format and software for DVDs, is able to save movies as smaller files than MPEG-4 compressions, which then can speedily be sent over the Internet.

DTV also comprises real-time motion videos, such as video conferencing and video chatting via the Internet. Using “Eyeball” cameras in conjunction with conferencing software, users can chat with one another over a network in real time. These videos need high amounts of memory and streaming in order to work, and their quality of movement is mostly jumpy.

DTV users can also create, manipulate, and publish movies by using hardware and software programs to add special effects, graphics, and sound overlays. In order to begin desktop-video publishing, several different hardware and software components [Page 131]are needed, in addition to a minimum of a Pentium I 100 MHz chip, 64 MB of RAM, a 32-bit sound card, and a 4-gigabyte hard drive. Any video footage to be manipulated on the computer must first be captured using either an analog or digital camcorder. If an analog camcorder is used, the video will need to be digitized through a video capture card, which converts the analog signal to a digital signal, thereby making it playable on the computer. Once the video is converted, a number of software packages (e.g., Premiere) can be used to edit them. These programs vary in difficulty level as well as capabilities.

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