Digital video is also referred to as non-linear video or computerized video. Traditionally video was stored on tapes. It was a sequence of stills that when played looked like moving video. Digital video has many of the similarities in that it is still a sequence of stills. What's different is how it is stored, how it is played back, what can be done with it when you put it on a computer, and it's lack of quality loss no matter how many times you copy a digital video clip.

Popular digital video formats include .MPG and .AVI. When a video is transferred to a computer it is converted from analogue/composite video to digital video. It is then stored on the computer's hard disk or transferred to DVD, CD etc still in digital format i.e. in bits and bytes, in the form of millions of "dots and dashes" that an appropriate program can read and playback to you in the form of a recognisable video.

When on a computer you can perform a variety of tasks on digital video and audio, from cleaning up the hiss on the audio to brightening scenes, adding special effects, adding titles, cutting and pasting clips, removing the audio and replacing it with something else - like a music track, organising and manipulating raw footage into a pleasing smooth flowing "story" etc.

Common terms used in the Digital Video industry

AVI: Audio Video Interleave - AVI is originally a Microsoft developed technology. Is is a format that is typically has video playback speed of 12 -25 frames per second (FPS). Achieving fast FPS is dependent upon your video editing and video cards.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group. A committee that has defined its standard for digital video and audio compression. Playback is not as crisp as MPEG. JPG or JPEG is the extension name of still photographs/pictures on most websites.

MPEG: Motion Picture Experts Group. MPEG has evolved as the standard for compression and decompression of audio and video. Video playback is full-screen, at 30 FPS (television quality). MPEG video files vary in size depending on the resolution, quality, size and length of the video. A rough guide is about 10 MB per minute of video.

DV Tape: Digital Video Tape - This is a little cassette type tape used in most modern digital video camcorders. While it may be a tape please note the distinction that it does not store your video as old movie tapes do. Your entire video is stored in the form of 0s and 1s that's typical of how all computer data is stored.

DVD: Digital Versatile Disk . It looks like a CD and holds 4.7 gigabytes of information on one of its two sides, or enough for a 133-minute movie. With two layers on each of its two sides, it will hold up to 17 gigabytes of video, audio, or other information. 

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