Quote: I am new to video editing and want to know if it is possible to download a film from a camcorder, cut it up into scenes and then effectively "tag" or "Index" who is in each scene - so that you can later select the scenes basic on selecting one of the people tagged ?

Thanks

Yes, Power Director will allow you to add the captured video and then to detect scenes. You can change the alias to the name you want to use.

The issue is that there has to be a significant amount of change to detect the change but not so much to give you a scene every second or so. You will have to determine it it will work for you.

Add the video to PowerDirector and hold your cursor over the video. You will see two small options under it. The first one is scene detection. After the scenes are detected, you will see each scene with a number dewsignation. Rightr click on it and change the alias to the name you want to use.

If you want me to post a couple of attachments, I will but it is pretty simple. .
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Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Ok, what I have is the classic video of our kids early years - lots of birth parties and gathering - we are still in contact with lots of the people and what I want to be able to do is break the tapes up into scenes and in each scene list who is in it , so I end up with a list of scenes and who is appearing in each one - so that I can easily select and compile films based on selecting just the scenes relevant to one person to give to friends

Will your suggestion work in that scenario

Thanks

yes, but that may be the hard way of doing it. Consider what I said above and then create a project with person 1 save that as a project. Repeat the above and do the same for person 2, repeat as necessary. That way you don't have to keep repeating the scenes and writing them down.

Do a little blue sky thinking about what you really want to do and how to do it easier.

I'm not sure what your scenario added to what you asked above and what I replied to. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Quote: I am new to video editing and want to know if it is possible to download a film from a camcorder, cut it up into scenes and then effectively "tag" or "Index" who is in each scene - so that you can later select the scenes basic on selecting one of the people tagged ?

Thanks

I have been thinking about an answer to this question. I thought I would share with you what I do and see if you might be able to apply it to your situation.

I use Cyberlink's Media Show 6 to tag all of my pictures and video clips. Media Show will automatically tag your photos using face recognition, but does require you to verify each face that it detects from a list of names the you create to be 100% accurate. Once you have your list of names started, the confirmation screen goes along pretty quickly.

For Video clips I also use Media Show 6, but the difference is that you have to manually "tag" each video clip with names. Once I associate the name or names of (people, pets, places, events) that are in each clip, it is then very easy to select the "Name" from the tag list, and ALL the videos and pictures with this tag are opened and are now "grouped" together. Then you can select "all" or specific video clips and images and "drag" them from Media Show right into the Media Library of Power Director for editing. Very easy!

Media Show 6 will also display ALL your video and pictures in a Calender format(see attachment). I find this VERY useful when searching for media related to a specific date i.e. Birthdate, Christmas, etc. And you can also create a simple movie and make a DVD or video file within Media Show. I prefer to use PowerDirector for more variety and control during the editing process.

The potential problem I see for you is that you are importing one long video clip from your camcorder with many different people so it would be cumbersome with only one captured video scene. But....maybe....you could capture the video and manually create the individual scenes yourself by stopping and starting the capturing process. Then you end up with multiple scenes that "will make sense to you". Power Director can take your one long captured video and "detect scenes" but you may or may not like the results and you can't "tag" any names associated to them for future use in other projects.

Just a thought. Tagging sure can be helpful when searching through thousands of pictures and video clips and Cyberlinks Media Show 6 has worked very well for me. It takes time to get the tagging done, but you benefit when you are trying to create something with just a particular person or event date. It makes finding the media much less daunting a task.

Kevin
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One other thing regarding Automatic Face Tagging for Video clips:

If you own a Sony Video Camera, that's one that I use, they have included software that automatically analyzes your video clips to detect faces within the video clips as well as Still Pictures. It called PMB and it also works pretty well. But you can only use it with a connected Sony product. It isn't available as an application that can be used with other manufacturers.

Kevin
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Kevin, Thank you. Certain sounds link I will be able to do what I want - the only problem I have now is that I downloaded the trial version of PD 11 and for some reason it can't see my Sony DC TCR-TVR 110E camcorder - currently trying to find the correct drivers for it , running windows 7.

Quote: Kevin, Thank you. Certain sounds link I will be able to do what I want - the only problem I have now is that I downloaded the trial version of PD 11 and for some reason it can't see my Sony DC TCR-TVR 110E camcorder - currently trying to find the correct drivers for it , running windows 7.

Hi Howard,

I am not sure if there are any trial limitations with capturing video with Power Director 11 trial. I haven't "Captured" video from tape using PowerDirector 11 so I am not the best person to help you. Others here in the forum capture from Hi-8 Cameras and can offer you some advice. I know this camera has a fire wire connection. Are you using this type of cable when attempting to capture with PD11? But if you have a video capture "device" either internal on your PC or connected, say, with a USB connection you can usually use software that comes with the device to get the video clips onto your PC. The video clips are imported to a folder of your selection.

THEN....

Once the video clips are on your PC, you simply "import" them into PowerDirector 11 for editing using the import media files or folders in the Editing area of PowerDirector. There is then no need to "Capture"....just import from where they are on your PC.

Kevin
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Thanks, I think the problem may be Windows 7 rather than PD , so am searching the net for a solution - I may well be talking to Sony tomorrow

Hi Howard,

I replied to your other topic. If you don't find a solution with capturing from your camera with PowerDirector, you might consider using Windows Movie Maker. It is free and can be downloaded at this link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/essentials-home

As far as I know it can capture video from a camera. Then you only need to import the video clips from your PC into PowerDirector.

I currently don't have Windows Movie Maker on my PC, so I couldn't verify the capture facility. But I have used it before with my old Sony Hi-8 camcorder using an internal capture card and connecting with a S-video and audio cables. Wow.....video cameras sure have changed!

Best of Luck!

Kevin
Check out PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials and more! Over 5,000 Subscribers.

For certain file types, you can create tags in Windows Explorer that will be searchable. Certain file types, such as MOV, and MP4 allow for indexing your own information. You can right-click on a file in an Explorer folder and select Properties and then select the Details tab to view all the information about a file. There's an editable box for title, subtitle, rating, tags, and comments. If these fields aren't editible, then that file type isn't supported. Each file can have multiple tags, where you can put the names of people and places in that clip. When you have your Explorer folder in details view, you can expose these columns by right-clicking in a column heading and then selecting the columns you are interested in displaying. The Tag column in Windows Explorer lets you select mulitple tags (there's a dropdown box on the Tag column header), and when you are done selecting, only the files with those tags are displayed.

I'm in Windows 8 right now, and never had Windows 7, so I don't know if this feature is the same in that operating system.

I've tagged four files now, and that's all I know about it so far.

Gateway DX4380, AMD A8-5500 Quad Core 3.2GHz with ATI Radeon HD 7560D; 16GB RAM; 1 TB SATA 7200 RPM; Windows 8 Pro 64-bit; PDR11, PDVD12.