Video Software & File Formats

In this class we will be mainly using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

At home, you can download and install a FREE 30-day trial version of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 at

What is Adobe Premiere? PremierePremiere is a powerful video editor.

FREE Adobe Premiere Tutorials Check out and Adobe TVwww.lynda.comAdobe TV site for excellent Adobe Premiere tutorials

“Audacity” – Free Sound Editor This is an open source sound editor. It’s very easy to use. Download it at: Free tutorials for Audacity Free tutorials for Audacity (Go to the Audio and Video section on the left hand side)

“HandBrake” – Free Video Transcoder “HandBrake” - Free Video Transcoder for MAC and PC HandBrake is a GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder. HandBrake is not a ripper. It converts video, it does not rip it byte by byte. It does not crack the latest DVD copy protection schemes hatched by the studios. It converts video from nearly any format to a handful of modern ones—that’s it. If the link below does not work, just do a Google search for “HandBrake”. Download it at:

“AVS” – Free Video & Audio Converters Also try: This site offers good video and audio converters These products are also FREE! Ex: You might want to use this to convert an MOV file into an MP4 file, etc. This site offers lots of AVS tutorials:

How to download Youtube videos 1. Go to and find the video you want to download. 2. Copy the URL 3. Go to and paste the URL into the empty area at the top that says “Enter URL”. Click on the “Want to Download” button to start the download process. 4. Download all videos in MP4 format only. Other formats won’t work in Premiere. Always try to download at the highest resolution possible. Ex: HD (High Definition format). Please note, not all videos will be available in HD format. All sounds should be downloaded as MP3 files.

Video File Compression Formats MPEG-4: Is most commonly used to store digital video & sound, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images. The only official filename extension for MPEG-4 files is.mp4 MP4, being an international standard, has more support than MOV, etc. Videos downloaded as.mp4 files will be easy to import and edit in Adobe Premiere!!!

Video File Compression Formats MOV: Is a common multimedia format often used for saving movies and other video files. Was developed by Apple Computer, compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Videos downloaded as.MOV files will be easy to import and edit in Adobe Premiere!!!

Audio File Compression Formats WAV: WAV is short for “waveform” and is the standard Windows audio format. Was introduced in 1991 by Microsoft and IBM for use on the Microsoft Windows 3.1 OS. It’s a lossless format, i.e. does not compromise audio quality even when it holds compressed data. It’s very easy to edit and manipulate with software such as Audacity and/ or Premiere.

Audio File Compression Formats AIFF: This audio file format is also lossless. It’s very similar to the WAV file format and is used on the Mac OS.

Audio File Compression Formats MP3: MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a digital audio encoding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. Is mostly used for digital music and on the Internet. A compression standard for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players (iPod). Is designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent the audio recording.

Video Systems: NTSC vs PAL

NTSC System Is named for the National Television System Committee is the analog television system used in most of North America, most of South America and countries in Asia such as Japan, etc. The first NTSC standard was developed in 1941 and had no provision for color television. In 1953 a second modified version was adopted, which allowed color TV broadcasting. A lot of countries are now switching to digital ATSC broadcasting.

PAL System PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television color encoding system. It is used in broadcast television systems in many countries: