Can anyone tell me what I need to make split screen videos?

[stringtheorist]

And you disagree based on what? Years of working in the video industry? The vast experience you have working on multi-camera shoots? The in-depth knowledge you have about how web cams are used in professional video production environments?


Actually it's pretty simple to sync up two separate recordings of the same event. It's also pretty simple to sync up video and audio of the same event that have been recorded onto separate devices.

When you come asking for help it's best not to start acting like a know-it-all dick to the people trying to help you.


Lethal

I apologise if I came off sounding rude but the other guy just didn't seem to be reading my posts at all, and since I already know there are programs available to allow you to manage two input sources simultaneously I felt this was the way it was done by the pros. I'll defer to AviationFan's obviously greater knowledge on the subject.

 

[stringtheorist]

Sorry, stringtheorist, but you are wrong. Multiple video streams get captured individually and synchronized either through timecode or visual reference (such as a slate). If you need cameras to be synch'ed such that the beginning of each frame is exactly the same, that is possible using a technology called "genlock".
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genlock
To my knowledge, that's more important for live broadcast than anything else, but I guess I can't rule out that for your side-by-side guitar video it may be helpful. At any rate, I doubt that with two iSights recorded into one Mac you'd be able to guarantee that type of hard beginning-of-frame synchronization. And if you want genlock-capable cameras, holy cow, you got to spend some serious money!

- Martin

Fair enough. Too bad I didn't get to try Capture Magic before the trial expired. I suppose I could just pay for it and give it a go. Or I could do what you're suggesting and record two takes of the piece and hope I can make the streams match up.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Genlock when shooting is really only needed when you are live mixing multiple cameras. For situations where you are recording for later editing you just need a way to sync the footage up (such as a camera flash, a hand clap, or timecode sync on more expensive cameras). I've worked on lots of multi-camera stuff (from weddings to reality TV shows) and it's all been shot, sync'd up perfectly using an audio/visual cue or TC, then edited. The audio might come from Camera A while the video of the person talking is from Camera B and the sync is perfect.


Lethal

 

[AviationFan]

For situations where you are recording for later editing you just need a way to sync the footage up (such as a camera flash, a hand clap, or timecode sync on more expensive cameras). I've worked on lots of multi-camera stuff (from weddings to reality TV shows) and it's all been shot, sync'd up perfectly using an audio/visual cue or TC, then edited.

I fully agree with you, Lethal - my own experience is just like what you described. What I was trying to say when I brought up genlock was that with a side-by-side view of two images, I am curious what the impact of the delta in frame start times is. Could be up to 1/60th of a second for NTSC. That doesn't sound like much, but still, if you see two images with some kind of motion side by side and they differ in time by 1/60th of a second, I just wonder if that could be noticable, especially for the kind of video that the OP is trying to do (where I assume viewers will study the motion in great detail).

- Martin