Digital Camera Media Studio 1.0 - Manual

 

 

This software allows you to put home movies, DVDs, downloaded content and TV

on your Sony Cybershot® or Casio Exilim® digital camera in two clicks.

What you need is:

- PC with Windows XP. For DVD support you'll also need a built-in DVD-player.

- 5 Gigabyte of free space on a harddisk (for a 100 minute movie) to store temporary files

- For short videos you need at least 64 Mb and for DVDs a 512 Mb card is required. If you have a smaller memorycard , you won't be able to fit a full DVD on it.

- One of the following 120 digital camera models from Sony or Casio are supported:

SONY CYBERSHOT F505, F505v, F55v, F707, F717, F77, F828, F88, FX77, H1, H2, H5, L1, N1, P1, P10, P100, P12, P120, P150, P2,
P20, P200, P30, P31, P32, P41, P43, P5, P50, P51, P52, P7, P71, P72, P73, P8, P9, P92, P93, R1, S30, S40, S50, S60,
S600, S70, S75, S80, S85, S90, T1, T11, T3, T30, T33, T5, T7, T9, U10, U20, U30, U40, U50, U60, V1, V3, W1, W100,
W12, W17, W30, W40, W5, W50, W7, W70

CASIO EXILIM M1, M2, M20, S1, S100, S2, S20, S3, Z10, Z110, Z120
Z3, Z30, Z4, Z40, Z50, Z500, Z55, Z57, Z60, Z600, P505, P600, P700
QV-2100, QV-2300UX, QV-2400UX, QV-2800UX, QV-2900UX, QV-3000EX, QV-3500EX, QV-3EX
QV-4000, QV-5700, QV-7000, QV-R3, QV-R4, QV-R40, QV-R41, QV-R51, QV-R52, QV-R61, QV-R62

Installation

- Make sure you have Windows Media Player 9 or 10 installed on your system, you need it for the preview.

- Make sure your system has a software DVD player (such as PowerDVD or WinDVD), if you want to convert DVD content.

- Make sure you have a harddisk with at least 4 Gigabytes of free space, if you want to convert DVD content. By default the software will look for the C:\ drive as the temporary drive. You can change this in DVD Settings Menu \ Temp Drive.

- Install the PC software by launching the red installer, it will auto-install the software and place shortcuts on the desktop and Windows Start Menu.

Instruction Guide (version 2.0 -digital camera Edition)

[1] Source Drive - Selecting the source video

Click the drive where the content is stored. This can be a hard disk, CD-Rom, DVD-R(w), DVD-Video, removable drive, flash drive or anything else. Press Open to start. Choose DVD for any content that comes from a normal, factory produced DVD disc. Choose Harddisk if the content is a video file stored on the hard drive. Choose Other if your content is a Video-CD, S-VCD or DVD recordable/rewritable that can not be converted as a regular DVD. The content you picked will start playing in the Preview Window. You can right-click in the window for more preview options. Such as a fullscreen preview.

DVD's can contain multiple titles, such as (home) movies, trailers, etc. By default, the software will pick the largest title. Usually this is the main movie. You can change this in Advanced options.

[2] Action / Advanced - Quick start or Advanced options

You can start immediately by pressing the Action button. The file or dvd conversion will begin right away. If you need control over the picture quality, language settings etcetera, you click the Advanced button.

Click on Action and the PC will start converting. The preview video will stop playing to save processor cycles . Conversion takes one step with content coming from harddisk or CD. But coming from DVD, it takes two steps. DVD's are now captured using Cyberspeed technology. During Step1, the video and audio from the DVD will be saved to a temporary file, this may take between 10 minutes and 1 hour, depending on the speed of your PC and the speed of your DVD drive. If you have a relatively fast PC and DVD drive, you may see speeds of up to fifteen times realtime. In that case a 90 minute DVD will be captured in 6 minutes. After Step 1, Step 2 will start automatically. This step compresses the file further to the final digital camera movie file. This will take approximately 2 times realtime on a 2Ghz PC. So 45 minutes for a 90 minute movie. On average, you may expect to transfer a DVD to your digital camera in less then an hour.

[3] Source Size - Choosing the source video size

 

You need to tell the software what size the source content is, so that it can calculate the optimal playback size on your digital camera.

Most DVD's have a 16:9 aspect ratio (widescreen) and most TV shows have a 4:3 dimension. For feature films shot in Academy Standard 16:9, the widescreen-setting is automatically chosen. In case your DVD was shot in Cinemascope , you need to pick the Cinemascope (2.35:1 aspect ratio) setting. This will correct the 'egghead' effect that you may see. When finished press Next.

 

 

 

[5] Zoom Level - Choosing the zoom level

If you prefer to see the whole movie in widescreen, choose 'Show All'. This will give you the whole picture, but it will show black bars on the digital camera. The reason is that film sizes (so called aspect ratio's) and the size of your digital camera screen are different. You will notice that the shots are missing abit from the left and right side. If you choose 'Zoom In', the software will chop the black bars off and blow-up the picture.

 

[6] Encoding Quality. Choosing video quality and filesize

In the next screen you see a quality slider and filesize textbox. If you prefer a better video quality, and you have plenty room to spare on your memorycard, choose 'High'. This will give improved video quality, but you will need lots of space on your memorycard. An average 25 minute TV-series needs 125 Mb free space. For a full length feature film, would need approximately 500 Mb free space. You may lower the video quality and fit more content on your card. The textbox below the slider predicts the final filesize with a 90% accuracy.

 

[7] Episodes, Language and Subtitles - Choosing special options

Next, you will see the episodes and language settings, the Episode , Audio Dub and Subtitle options appear.

A) Episode Menu. If your source material is a DVD, you have the option to select an alternative title from the disc. For example a 'behind the scenes'-documentary, or another episode from a DVD containing several tv-shows. The longest video on the disc will be shown by default, usually that's the main movie.

B) Audio Dub Menu. This allows you to set a foreign audiotrack. For example if you want to watch a movie in Spanish, you would pick that language and override the default English setting.

C) Subtitles Menu. If you choose subtitles, you will see a droplist of possible languages on the disc. Important: subtitles need to be rendered in the videofile, this will slow down conversion. Generally, choosing subtitles will mean the DVD conversion will be 3 times slower then normal.

[8] Action - The conversion process

You press Action and the PC will start converting. The preview video will stop playing to save processor cycles . Conversion takes two steps with content coming from harddisk or CD. But coming from DVD, it takes three steps. DVD's are first captured using Cyberspeed technology.

1) During Step1, the video and audio from the DVD will be saved to a temporary file, this may take between 10 minutes and 1 hour, depending on the speed of your PC and the speed of your DVD drive. If you have a relatively fast PC and DVD drive, you may see speeds of up to fifteen times realtime. In that case a 90 minute DVD will be captured in 6 minutes. If you use sub-standard DVDs -such as many home-burned DVD r(w)s- you may see a slow down of Step1. Cyberspeed will then be forced to switched off and change to a slower capture mode.

2) After Step 1, Step 2 will start automatically. This step compresses the file further. This will take approximately 3 times realtime on a 3Ghz PC. So 30 minutes for a 90 minute movie.

3) Finally Step3 will start. The video file will be processed again, to optimize for your Sony or Casio digital camera. This is the fastest step.

On average, you may expect to transfer a DVD to your digital camera in less then an hour, or even faster..

[9] Transfer - Moving the video to your camera

When conversion is finished, a transfer window will appear. You have three options:

1) You may transfer the file to the desktop and copy it manually to the camera. Make sure you copy it to the right directory of the memorycard. For Sony camera's, that should be X:\DCIM\101MSDCF\ (where X:\ can be any drive letter that corresponds to your card/camera drive letter in My Computer). For CASIO the directory should be X:\DCIM\100CASIO\

2) You may also copy the file directly to your camera from within the software (make sure you have enough storage space on the memorycard). You need to put the camera in its cradle and connect that via USB to your PC. The camera will be mounted as an external drive in My Computer and will be shown with it's own drive letter. You need to set this letter in the software. In the Settings Menu, you see the option Memorycard or Camera is Drive, you need to set that to the same letter as your camera in My Computer. Then press the Camera button. If there's not enough space on the memorycard, you will be prompted to delete some files. Be carefull not to delete your personal videos ! If you're not sure, copy the converted movie to the desktop first, for later transfer.

The Refresh button allows you to see the actual filesize of the video you would like to copy, the total space on the memorycard and the free space.

3) If you have a memorycard-reader built-in your PC, or attached to it, you may choose to copy the converted video directly to the memorycard. There's no need then to connect the camera via USB first. The video will be transferred to the correct directory on the card.

 

 

 

 


[10] Insert the memorycard in the camera and swith the power on

On SONY models:

1) Switch to Video

2) Press the Play Button (A)

3) Hide the display overlay information

You can fast forward by pressing button 2B

You may set the volume louder by pressing button 2C

 

 

 

On CASIO models:

1) Switch to Video

2) Press the Play Button

3) Hide the display overlay information

You can fast forward by pressing the ring right-next to button 2

You may set the volume louder by pressing the same ring upwards

 

 

You may also connect the camera to a TV to watch your content. Place the camera in it's cradle, or connect the adapter (like the one shown in the picture). Plug the mini-jack in the adapter/cradle and and connect the other end of the cable to your tv-set. The yellow plug goes into the composite video-in of your tv-set. the other plug goes in the audio-in connector of the tv. The LCD display and speaker of the camera will be switched off automatically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Menu Options

[1] DVD Settings \Temp Drive You set the disk drive that you would like to store temporary files on. Choose the biggest available harddrive that you have. Temporary files may take up to 4 Gigabytes space that need to be stored on this drive. They will be cleaned up after conversion.

[2] DVD Settings\Fit-to-Card Set it to the size of your Memorycard. It is used to calculate the video- and audiobitrate so that the video will fit on your Memorycard.

[3] Camera Settings \Camera or Memorycard is drive You need to put the camera in its cradle, or put the memorycard in the card-reader and connect that via USB to your PC. The camera/card will be mounted as an external drive in My Computer and will be shown with it's own drive letter. You need to set this letter in the software. In the Settings Menu, you see the option Memorycard or Camera is Drive, you need to set that to the same letter as your camera in My Computer.

If you encounter problems with the software, please consult the Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.makayama.com/camera100engfaq.html for common issues and solutions.

updated: 26-april-2006