Step 1. When you connect the Flip to your computer for the first time, it will automatically install the FlipShare software.

Step 2. Use FlipShare to copy the source video files to your computer.

Step 3. If the Flip tries to charge itself while also copying a big file, especially in hot weather, it may complain of overheating and shut down. If this happens, disconnect the camera, remove the battery, and try again.

II. Merging Multiple Camera Files into One

Step 1. If you try to merge the source files with FlipShare, it will insist on adding a dissolve between each one. So instead, download a program called MPEG Streamclip.

Step 2. In MPEG Streamclip, choose File / Open Files and select all the source files you want to merge.

Step 3. Choose File / Save As, and MPEG Streamclip will merge the source files into one clip.

Step 4. If you intend to copy the file back to the camera, make sure the merged clip’s running time is under half an hour. The Flip camera may refuse to play a longer file. If your video is too long, consider dividing it into parts.

III. Editing in Final Cut

Step 1. Import your footage files into Final Cut.

Step 2. Create a new sequence: 1280 x 720, 30fps, 44KHz audio, using the ProRes codec.

Step 3. Export your final master using the ProRes codec. It will be pretty big—estimate at least 1GB per minute, and probably more. That’s OK; just make sure you have enough space.

Step 4. If you intend to copy the file back to the camera, make sure your final master’s running time is under half an hour. When exporting from Final Cut, the file size (GB) is not important. Only the running time matters. The Flip camera may refuse to play a longer file. If your video is too long, consider dividing it into parts.

IV. Copying Computer Files to the Camera

Step 1. Make sure your file is 1280 x 720, 30fps, 44KHz audio. If you are using clips straight from the camera or merged in MPEG StreamClip, there will be little chance of this being changed. If you’re not getting the correct results out of Final Cut, double-check your sequence settings.

Step 2. In FlipShare, choose File / Import to copy your computer files into FlipShare’s media folder on your hard drive. This is an annoying, but necessary step–just copying them to the camera directly won’t work. On the bright side, FlipShare will automatically take care of any format conversion that needs to be done. Be prepared; it takes a long time.

Step 3. FlipShare’s Import command will convert your files into 1280 x 720, 30fps, 44KHz MP4s. At this point all files must be under 2GB—that’s half an hour of running time in this video format—or the Flip will not be able to play them reliably. (The Flip is supposed to be able to handle files up to 4GB, or one hour, but I found those would occasionally freeze or otherwise misbehave. In fact, I would aim for no more than 1.8GB to be absolutely safe.) Once again, if your files are over the limit, consider dividing them into parts.

Step 4. The imported files should now be visible in FlipShare’s media browser. Sometimes they arrive named “Untitled,” unfortunately. If this happens, right-click on the thumbnail and choose Rename to give the file a useful name again.

Step 5. Make sure you have enough free space on the camera; you can use FlipShare to move more camera files to your computer and delete them from the camera if necessary. When you’re ready, select your files and choose File / Save to Camcorder to copy them back.

Step 6. If the Flip tries to charge itself while also copying a big file, especially in hot weather, it may complain of overheating and shut down. If this happens, disconnect the camera, remove the battery, and try again.

V. Finishing Up

Step 1. Eject the Flip, replace the battery if necessary, and play any files you copied to it to test that they work.

Step 2. Burn a DVD or make some other reliable backup of the original source files before deleting them from your hard drive.

1. Scale your footage to fit a 540 x 405 composition at 15 frames per second. (This is exactly 75% of a full 720 x 540 NTSC frame.)

2. Reduce the saturation to 0.

3. Apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 1.5 pixels.

4. Sharpen the image 30%.

5. Clamp the black point to about 5% and the white point to about 95%.

6. Compress the dynamic range of the entire image by about 1.2 to 1.

7. Posterize to 90 steps.

8. Add a lag effect; this should add a small proportion of the three previous frames to each frame, giving slight trails and motion artifacting.

9. If desired, add a scanline or “TV” effect.

10. Clamp the white and black points again.

11. Apply a second 1.5-pixel Gaussian blur.

12. Expand your composition to 720 x 540, leaving a large black border around the frame.

13. If necessary, scale your finished composition to meet your output requirements (720 x 480 for an NTSC DVD, for example).

I’m using After Effects, but many similar programs should work equally well. Here’s an After Effects 6.5 project file.

For reference, here are some genuine PXL-2000 examples:

If it’s worth it to you to continue working in the Canopus codec–in my opinion, its superior quality still holds up–their Procoder software (US$500) includes an un-crippled version. For the rest of us, fortunately, Canopus was a good corporate citizen; they released several free tools to help out their former customers. Here are your options:

1. Canopus DV Playback codec (Windows only).
Install this and you can read Canopus AVIs. This is the most hassle-free solution if you run Windows and just want to import the files into another program. However, you’d need to convert them to another format to carry them over to a non-Windows OS, with accompanying generation loss. And even on Windows, Canopus files still can’t be played directly over Firewire out to tape without Canopus hardware.

2. Canopus DV Converter app (Windows only):
This is a step up; it reads a Canopus AVI and writes a Microsoft DV AVI, which you can play and record to tape on both Mac and Windows. This is probably the simplest archival solution. However, it has an annoying limitation–it can’t convert video files with no audio track. In the settings, set the target format to Microsoft DV (AVI 2).

For converting any Canopus file, including those without an audio track, there’s:

3. AVI FourCC Changer (Win) or AVI FourCC Changer X (PPC Mac).
It’s not as user-friendly as the Canopus converter, but it’s my preferred choice. It looks a bit like the old ResEdit file tweaker for Macs. You’ll see two text fields with the letters CDVC (sometimes one will be full of garbage characters). Change both of these to DVSD. Then save. (Be careful; unlike the Canopus converter, this overwrites your original file.)

4. AVI2CDVC (Windows only).
A command-line version that does the same thing, only you can batch-process a folder. Once again, remember that you’re overwriting originals.

And finally, if you just need to watch a Canopus file on any system, there’s:

5. VLC Player (Windows, Mac, and Linux)
Confirming once again that VLC Player plays everything, it’ll read a Canopus AVI just fine.

If your project file was made in Windows Premiere Pro 1.0 or later, there’s a relatively painless solution. Open the file in a text editor and change the tag that reads Project Version="15"…

…to Project Version="19".

You should now be able to open it in Mac Premiere Pro CS3.

If your project file was made in Windows Premiere 6.5 or earlier, unfortunately, you have two less attractive options. In order of preference:

Option 1. If you have a copy of Windows Premiere Pro 1.0 or later, use that to open and save the project. Then perform the text edit trick described above. This method should work for all affected project files.

Option 2. If you have a corresponding Mac Premiere version 6.5 or earlier, you can try using that to open and save the project. Then open it in Mac Premiere Pro CS3 directly. This method is less reliable, but is worth a try if you have an appropriate version handy.

Update: VisualHub is now free, but won’t be supported past OS X Snow Leopard.

I prefer it even over fancier alternatives like Apple’s Compressor, not because of any special capabilities, but because of its clean interface and the straightforward way it presents your compression options. It’s especially useful it you’d like to fit your movie within a given file size–this is a common task, but too many programs require you to get there by trial and error.

(If anyone can recommend a good Windows program with the same ease-of-use factor, please do, and I’ll add a tutorial for it.)

Step 1. Drag your movie into the VisualHub window:

Step 2. Choose the MP4 tab and check H264 Encoding and Hint for Streaming. For very small file sizes, check 320 Pixels Wide too:

(The H.264 codec gives great results at tiny file sizes. It’s not meant for use in video production, though, so always keep your master copies in DV or another high-quality format.)

Step 3. If you’d like to specify a target file size, click on Advanced:

Step 4. Check Fit each video in… and type in a number:

Step 5. Click Start to begin encoding:

A Quicktime clip is the best way to take your iMovie work into another program for further editing. And, burned to a data disc, it can be your most easily-accessible backup. (Most beginning users don’t have have a DV camera or deck hooked up full-time to their computer, but everyone has a DVD or CD drive ready to go.)

Step 1. Choose Share from the File menu. (Apple probably chose the term “Share” because it sounds less technical than “Export.” Interestingly, newer versions of iMovie have both a Share and an Export menu option. Both do the same thing.)

Step 2. Choose Full Quality DV from the Quicktime panel, and save your file.

Step 3. The resulting file’s name will end in .dv. You can go ahead and change this to the standard .mov, if you prefer.