In the late 80's and early 90's, with a Hitachi VHS camera we made 20 family tapes. Now 18 years later, I’m asking myself, what is the best way to convert them to DVD and spruce up?

50 Fast Final Cut7 Express Techniques ($24.95) is published by Wiley Publishing and written by Tim Meehan. If I had read the preface before picking up this very good instructional book, I would have known what computer and hardware this software requires to run this program.

Apple recommends Mac OS X v 10.2 or later, Macintosh computer 300 MHz or faster, PowerPC G3 or G4 processor with-built in FireWire, a 500 MHz or faster single or 450MHz dual processor Power Mac G4 or PowerBook G4 is required for G4 real-time effects, a 667 MHz PowerBook G4 is required for mobile G4 real-time effects, QuickTime (included), 256MB of RAM (384MB recommended for G4 real-time effects), 40MB of available disk space required for installation.

For Windows users Tim says tough luck, but that does not necessary mean we should put this book of 316 pages back down.

When one reads Tim’s acknowledgments, you’ll enjoy his special way of thanking his staff and good friends for support, help and for them putting up with his excitement. If I hung around a flock of paragliders, I’d always be pretty excited. Can you picture, being stuck on a 450-foot ridge of kite eating trees? Getting out without breaking anything would be exciting. And now, I would not excuse your French. Sorry I’m deviating from his book.

For all beginners, please read the introduction. Tim discusses Digital Video techniques, things you should know before starting any project, and let’s you beware of some caveats. Also mentioned is that Final Cut7 Express can export to a variety of types of regular analog video (VHS), digital video (DV) or Quicktime media for the web.

For those who are familiar with using layers like in Corel PHOTO PAINT 11, Adobe Photoshop or Elements, Tim says we’ll be comfortable with those concepts in Final Cut7 Express. This book is laid out in 8 chapters:

1. Practical work flow techniques,
2. Basic enhancements and improvement techniques,
3. Time and speed effects,
4. Superimposition techniques,
5. Superimposition visual effects,
6. Advanced special effects,
7. More advanced special effects,
8. Advanced text and titling effects.

Then each chapter is further broken down into how to’s. Following the examples and shortcuts, Tim let’s the user gain confidence, while using the Final Cut7 Express program. Following his steps is not intimidating.

When using digital video programs, there are some new terms to get use to like encoding a tape, and scratch disks. Tim gives understandable explanations to your answers. For ease of location, he even puts important information in gray dialog boxes. He gives hints about how to adjust the handle length of your video and compares handle length to the margin space outside a graphics image. His detailed examples have easy to follow screen capture pictures.

Do you want to know which storage device is better when comparing Universal Serial Bus (USB), FireWire (IEEE), or SCSI? Or a standard rule of thumb about capture and storage? (Look on P13.) How do you organize your video clips? Tim mentions a system on how to store clips in a Bin for a faster way of finding them.

Also included with the 50 Fast Final Cut7 Express Techniques book is a CD. The CD includes this book in PDF format and all the videos he mentions in each chapter to practice on. And those videos are organized on the CD to match the chapters in the book. If you have a Windows program, like Tim says, “tough luck.” I tried to open or import the .mov files into two Windows programs. NeroVision express said unable to insert. VideoStudio 7 SE DVD said, unable to open the file.

For those looking to energize your old VHS videos after converting them to DVD or enhance new digital videos, the instructions in 50 Fast Final Cut7 Express Techniques deciphers the many useful tools and elaborates on the use of interesting special effects and many other techniques. From what I’ve read so far, in 50 Fast Final Cut7 Express Techniques, either the program Final Cut7 Express or Fast Final Cut7 are the ones to use to spruce up with many fancy effects. To convert from VHS to DVD, I’m still doing research. Since, I don’t own a MAC computer, I cannot really endorse this program. However, after reading this book, I have another favorable reason for getting a Macintosh computer. Stuck with Windows, looks like its time to see Apple (sorry Red). Then, I’ll have another great reason to continue reading OS X Tips & Tricks by Shane Hicks to find the best Free Mac software.