Create Online Videos: How to Record Your First Youtube Video With Free Software
Whether you are a blogger, an affiliate marketer, or run an online business, you can no longer ignore the importance of online videos. Thousands of videos are being uploaded to YouTube and other video-sharing websites daily. YouTube gets millions of hits daily and is the second most popular online search engine.
You can use videos to attract visitors to your blog, build traffic, and boost sales of your products and services. You can upload video descriptions and reviews of your products to stand out from your competition and increase your online sales. If you wish to develop a competitive edge, you have to learn to create your own videos.
Creating your own videos has now become very simple. You can create professional-looking videos even if you do not have any technical expertise or expensive equipment. The only hardware you require is your computer, a web camera and a microphone. You don’t need any expensive software either. You can record and edit your videos using Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with Windows XP and later versions. Movie Maker is so easy to use that someone with basic computer knowledge can quickly learn to use it to make their own videos.
If you are recording your first video, follow the 12 steps given below to record your first video.
1. Connect your web camera to the USB port of your computer, turn it on and ensure that it is working properly. (Make sure you install the web camera software first.)
2. Next, connect your microphone to another USB port of your computer.
3. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click on Windows Movie Maker to open it (Figure 1).
4. Click Capture from videodevice option, which will open the Video Capture Wizard. (“Capture from video device” means to record audio, video, or still images as digital data in a computer file.)
5. Select your web camera and microphone and select the Microphone option in the Audio Input Source box.
Next, adjust the volume of your microphone by moving the Input levelslider.
(If the sound of your video is not loud enough, you can raise the input level and if it is too loud, you can set it to a lower level.)
Finally, click on the Configure button, which will take you to the Configure Video Capture Device dialog box.
6. Click on the Video Settings button, which will display the Properties dialog box.
Change Output Size using the drop down menu to 640 x 480 (pixels).
Next, set Frame Rate to 30.00 (frames per second), which is the highest possible setting.
Click on Apply and OK, which will close the Properties dialog box.
Finally, click on Close, to close the Configure Video Capture Device dialog box and return to the Video Capture Wizard window.
7. Click on the Next button.
In this window, enter a file name and then choose a location for your video using the Browse button. (For example, you can enter Video1 as the file nameand save it to My Videos.)
Click on the Next button.
8. In this window, you can change the settings of your video, which will determine the quality and size of your video file.
Select Other Settings and in the drop-down menu, select Video for LAN (1.0 Mbps), which is preferable if you want to upload your video to YouTube.
Once you do this, the setting details of your video will be summarized as follows:
File type: Windows Media Video (WMV)
Bit rate: 1.0 Mbps
(A higher bit rate results in higher-quality video with smoother motion.
However, when the bit rate increases, so does the video file size.)
Display size: 640 x 480 pixels
(The first number indicates the width of the video and the second number the height.)
Frames per second: 30
(A higher number or frames per second makes the motion of objects or persons in your video appear smoother.)
Video file size: Each minute of video with this setting will consume 7 MB
(Estimated amount of disk space consumed by each minute of your video.)
9. Click on the Next button, which opens the Capture Video window, where you can start recording your video.
This window has Start Capture and Stop Capture buttons.
To the right of these buttons, there is a Preview monitor, where you can watch your video while you are recording it.
At the bottom of this window, there are three additional options.
a. Create clip when wizard finishes (select this option)
This option specifies whether the captured video is divided into clips when it is saved and imported into Windows Movie Maker. Creating clips separates captured video into manageable sizes. If you don’t select this option, the video appears as one large clip when you finish capturing.
b. Mute speakers (do not select this option)
This option specifies that you want to mute the speakers that are connected to the audio card on your computer.
c.Capture time limit (select this option and set a time limit)
If this box is selected, capturing stops automatically at the specified time limit. Time is displayed in the form of hours:minutes(h:mm). So, if you want to set a maximum time limit of five minutes, type 0:05 in the box.
10. Click on the Start Capture button.
This is when you actually start recording your first video.
After you finish, click on the Stop Capture button to stop the recording.
The Capture Video window gives details of the length of your video, the size of your video file and the estimated disk space available on your computer hard disk during the recording.
11. Finally, click the Finish button, which will take you to a new window.
12. Here, you will see your video file being imported into a collection area, where you can edit it later. Windows Movie Maker also saves your video file in the location that you specified earlier (Video1.wmv in My Videos).
Click this file and confirm that it is playing properly.
Congratulations, you have successfully recorded your first video! Don’t worry if it’s not prefect. You can record it again and again using the same procedure until you are satisfied. Alternatively, you can remove those mistakes later when you edit your video in Movie Maker. The more you practice, the easier it will become. Once you are satisfied with the quality of your video, you can upload it to YouTube and embed it in your blog or website, if you wish.
Additional notes:
If your computer has Windows Vista instead of Windows XP, you will find that the Capture from video device option is missing in the Windows Movie Maker program. Don’t worry, you can download a free software program called AMCap (amcap.en.softonic.com) and use it to record your video. Once you have recorded it, you can edit your video in Windows Movie Maker.
Another option to record your video is to use your web camera software.
A third option is to use Avidemux (avidemux.sourceforge.net), a free open-source program that works with Windows as well as on Linux and Macintosh computers.
Written by R. K. Shetty
I am a writer, editor and blogger.
