The affordable price of digital video camcorders and the ever increasing power of the home PC have made high quality digital video editing a mass consumer market. Indeed, The last few years have seen an explosion in the field of digital video. However, unlike many hobbies, the world of digital video can at best be confusing and technically complex.

There's a wealth of information available on the internet, and these very pages offer constantly updated reviews and guides. But for the complete novice, a gentle introduction in a neat, user friendly package would be a god send. A beginner's guide to digital video by Peter Wells attempts to provide the complete novice with a gentle and comprehensive introduction to the world of digital video and the associated jargon. More importantly, it may just save you making a very expensive mistake (or two)

The perfect snapshot of an industry in a state of change was provided by the first day of Video Forum 2005. With High Definition (HD) predictably the buzz word at this year's expo, Sony's flagship HD "pro" cam (the HVR-Z1E) and realtime HD editing solutions from Matrox pulled the crowds. HDV has arrived and is here to stay. But delve deeper into the show and it becomes evident that Standard Definition (SD) is still a major player.

After the initial repulsion of re-installing Media Player on my box, I'm actually quite impressed with the all new, all singing, LEGAL Napster. The user interface is exactly how you'd expect it to be (and inkeeping with the colourful rounded frontends now synomonous with Windows XP applications).

You've just finished filming and editing your video only to find that someone doesn't want their face shown to the whole world. Or perhaps that practical joke that seemed hilarious to your and your friends is just slightly too "adult" in its present form. What you need is a way to censor a part of the video. So let's get started on pixelating that offending piece of video!

A friend of mine insisted it would be "cool" to have Dallas style opening credits for my most recent video. It sounded a lot easier than I first thought... But after playing around and it proved to be one of the simplest effects to achieve. You can also use a similar technique to achieve the funky editing seen in another US drama series, "24".