Video Editing Discussion

[DavidTO]

You can discuss all aspects of editing here. Software. Hardware. Aesthetics. Whatever.

:thumb

[ChrisJ]

DVdate (http://paul.glagla.free.fr/dvdate_en.htm) [paul.glagla.free.fr]

This program does other stuff, but what I use it for is to quickly get the date recorded for an AVI file.

Just drag an AVI file to the program and it gives you all kinds of useful info including the Datecode.

The version I'm using is 5.3.6 En. So I haven't tried his latest...

Note: This is a Windows program.

[Vixx]

You can discuss all aspects of editing here. Software. Hardware. Aesthetics. Whatever.

:thumb

Hey guys, new to Smugmug (came from Phanfare, the 2.0 release pretty much killed it for me). Just bought a new Canon HG10 (price is too good and can't stand tape or memory sticks).

What software are you guys using and having a good time with for video compilation (scene transistions, effects, audio tracks, etc)? I cna't stand the windows version, but it works. We'll see how it handles HD...

Thanks!

[ChrisJ]

The only software I found bearable on the PC is Sony Vegas (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/product.asp?pid=447). I have the DVD/Platinum (something like that) edition, not the Pro version.

Multiple audio tracks, nice transistions, and it incorporates still images well.

I think my version is two points behind the current, and still perfectly usable. It requires .net Framework.

Oh, and welcome to Dgrin! :wave

[DI-Joe]

I use Premiere CS3 and I absolutely love it. I do all my audio work in Steinberg Nuendo 3, and Soundbooth.

But then again, like photoshop, i've been using premiere for ages and I just am not feeling the other options. I don't use it necessarily becuase it's any better than the others, it's just what works for me.

[darkdragon]

I use only Mac & Final Cut Studio now.

Before i switched to Mac I used Adobe Production Studio on the PC. It is a great setup, but Premeire is still a bit unstable (could only handle clips up to 6 minutes long, longer then that for one clip would crash the app).

I have tried Sony Vegas but can't stand it.

The key thing to do is download trials for everything and see what YOU like working with. Everyone works differenetly, that's why there are so many apps out there.

[DI-Joe]

...(could only handle clips up to 6 minutes long, longer then that for one clip would crash the app)....

That sounds like an isolated issue, I regularly deal with clips longer than that from CGI renders. I'd conjure it's a source or hardware/software fluke.

[darkdragon]

That sounds like an isolated issue, I regularly deal with clips longer than that from CGI renders. I'd conjure it's a source or hardware/software fluke.

I hope so! Can only give my experiance with it though, for what it's worth. Currently editing some stuff for someone else on his machine with Premiere Express (i think thats what its called) and so far no problem with longer clips, i think 15 min is the longest so far. :thumb

[ian408]

So I've been looking at edit packages. On the PC, I'm used to Premier. I don't
care for it (and it's a pretty old version) so I thought I'd look at FCP. I guess
you can only buy this in bundled form now?

[DavidTO]

So I've been looking at edit packages. On the PC, I'm used to Premier. I don't
care for it (and it's a pretty old version) so I thought I'd look at FCP. I guess
you can only buy this in bundled form now?


Final Cut Express (http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/)

[ian408]

Final Cut Express (http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/)
I thought about that. But I want some of the features of FCP.

Whoops. Forgot to cut more. I'd hoped there was a source for it still.

[DavidTO]

I thought about that. But I want some of the features of FCP.

Whoops. Forgot to cut more. I'd hoped there was a source for it still.


What features?

It's been years, maybe 3 or more, since you could buy FCP as a standalone product.

[TylerW]

That sounds like an isolated issue, I regularly deal with clips longer than that from CGI renders. I'd conjure it's a source or hardware/software fluke.

yup. I almost daily abuse Premiere pro into handling footage segments 40-60 mins in length. Handles it just fine.

What version are you using?

[darkdragon]

yup. I almost daily abuse Premiere pro into handling footage segments 40-60 mins in length. Handles it just fine.

What version are you using?


I was using Premiere pro 2 on my PC. On an edit I just finished for a client, his machine has Premiere Elements, but I don't recall the version. That one crashed 3 times on me, but I already CTRL+S after everything I do - so I never lost any work.

No idea why I have bad luck with Premiere, oh well.

[TerryLP]

I used to have a number of crashes with Premiere Pro 2 also. Then I upgraded the amount of memory that I have and that solved my problem.

[TriggerHappy]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble uploading videos to my smugmug site from my mac, and am wondering what works well for other people? What software are people using to capture video and edit and upload to smugmug?

I'm using iMovie HD to capture from my Sony HDV camera. I edit in full HD res and then export to quicktime, web size. Quicktime movie plays fine on my mac, but after uploading using the latest MacDaddy uploader, the audio is garbled for the first 2 seconds, and then silence.

Is anyone successfully using iMovie HD? Is anyone using Quicktime Pro? I see people are using Premier and Final Cut Pro, both a bit out of my amateur, just messing around with basic editing, price range.

Cheers,
Sheila
:D

[nmh]

Quicktime movie plays fine on my mac, but after uploading using the latest MacDaddy uploader, the audio is garbled for the first 2 seconds, and then silence.
Have you checked on what codecs you are using vs. what is recommended?

[Rando]

I use iMovie '08

I share clips to the media browser and use the mac uploader to send to smugmug.

[jayegirl]

I use Pinnacle. I am told others are better but I am used to using Pinnacle. I also have Sony Vegas Platinum and have slowing been working on figuring it out more. My husband has been slowly transferring our old VHS home movies to DVD. The Sony application imports those video files where the Pinnacle will not. My husbands copies are just for archiving and I import the video with the hopes of someday making a movie for the grandparents of the highlights from years past. For now, between those two programs, I get by.

[vaio2006]

Avid Media Composer:
http://www.avid.com/products/media-composer/mcSavings.asp

Its the best! and pricy....

[vaio2006]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble uploading videos to my smugmug site from my mac, and am wondering what works well for other people? What software are people using to capture video and edit and upload to smugmug?

I'm using iMovie HD to capture from my Sony HDV camera. I edit in full HD res and then export to quicktime, web size. Quicktime movie plays fine on my mac, but after uploading using the latest MacDaddy uploader, the audio is garbled for the first 2 seconds, and then silence.

Is anyone successfully using iMovie HD? Is anyone using Quicktime Pro? I see people are using Premier and Final Cut Pro, both a bit out of my amateur, just messing around with basic editing, price range.

Cheers,
Sheila
:D
iMovie HD works fine for all basic projects. There nothing wrong with it.
Obviously, I can't use it for my projects or my professors will kill me, but if you're just cutting and using simple transitions, its great and simple software to use.
Its kinda ironic, because one of my professors at Emerson was like... "I use iMovie to edit my home videos all th time"

[DavidTO]

Avid Media Composer:
http://www.avid.com/products/media-composer/mcSavings.asp

Its the best! and pricy....


If you're on a PC, yes, but if you're on a Mac, Final Cut Pro kicks butt. :deal

[vaio2006]

If you're on a PC, yes, but if you're on a Mac, Final Cut Pro kicks butt. :deal
I have both Final Cut and Media Composer... but still love using Media Composer, Adobe AE + ProTools!
I dont know, theres something about Final Cut that just doesn't seem "quite there"

[jfriend]

I just bought a Sony HDR-SR12 HD camera which produces .m2ts files in AVCHD format. I'm looking for something that can natively edit those files (on Windows Vista) and can produce a good HD format that Smugmug can read (Smugmug won't take the .m2ts files out of the camera both because it doesn't handle the codec used in the Sony AVCHD and because it doesn't handle the 5.1 sound).

I'm looking for basic video editing and format conversion. I'm hoping to spend no more than $150, but would spend more if I had to to get something good. I don't expect I need really advanced features, but I would like to do basic scene editing, chopping, combining, be able to save the resulting video to lots of formats (for Smugmug, you tube, DVD, blue-ray disk, a format that Flash can play, etc...). Since all my video is intially in AVCHD, I'm hoping for something that doesn't have to do a length conversion on the video (with the resulting time delay and disk space consumption) before starting to edit it.

I had read the Pinnacle was one of the first to support native AVCHD editing so I check out their offerings. From the comments I've read, it looks like their software is horribly unstable and they've had a reputation for that in prior versions. Of course, I have no way of knowing if those issues would happen to me, but it doesn't look good in reading about it.

So, then I looked at ULEAD and I read about serious performance problems when working on AVCHD video.

Several of the previous threads had pointed me to Sony Vegas Platinum and I figured that at least I could be confident that it would read Sony AVCHD video. So far, it looks like my best choice.

I have a very old version of Premiere Elements that I once tried to use for constructing DVD slideshows and I was not impressed with that product back then so I'm not included to look at the current versions.

Any other thoughts out there? Is Sony Vegas Platinum a good choice?

[ziggy53]

I just bought a Sony HDR-SR12 HD camera which produces .m2ts files in AVCHD format. I'm looking for something that can natively edit those files (on Windows Vista) and can produce a good HD format that Smugmug can read ...

Several of the previous threads had pointed me to Sony Vegas Platinum and I figured that at least I could be confident that it would read Sony AVCHD video. So far, it looks like my best choice.

...

Any other thoughts out there? Is Sony Vegas Platinum a good choice?

That's what I have read also. I don't have anything in AVCHD yet so I haven't tried it. I do have an older version of Vegas Video that I have used for DV SD. The Vegas user interface is, well, unique and takes a while to become familiar with it. Stability and speed are nice.

I think you can get a demo/trial version of the current software so I think that might make a good test for you.

The features list looks appropriate but you just never know until you (or somebody) try a project.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope/features

Basic training videos might give you some more hints to suitability:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/trainingvids.asp?prod=moviestudio

[jfriend]

That's what I have read also. I don't have anything in AVCHD yet so I haven't tried it. I do have an older version of Vegas Video that I have used for DV SD. The Vegas user interface is, well, unique and takes a while to become familiar with it. Stability and speed are nice.

I think you can get a demo/trial version of the current software so I think that might make a good test for you.

The features list looks appropriate but you just never know until you (or somebody) try a project.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope/features

Basic training videos might give you some more hints to suitability:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/trainingvids.asp?prod=moviestudio

Thanks ziggy. I think you're right that the trial version is a good way to go since it's impossible to tell how good something is from the spec sheets. It's good to know that performance and stability are good because those were the major dings with the other players.

[I Simonius]

MOD: oops I think i have posted in the wrong place again - sorry!

I have borrowed a camcorder to video an event next week but cannot get iMovie HD to recognise it - help!

I have to edit the video. otherwise it wouldn't be a problem as my friends PC will burn it OK onto a dVD and that plays ok on my mac, but neither of us can edit it:dunno

As I understand it I need to have a firewire-in cable but the camcorder has s-video out ( so the shop I asked told me) and there are no s-video to firewire adapters that I can find:scratch

I have asked shops and as many people that I can , including daughter's fiancees, friends with PCs and/or camcorders and the local MacUsersGroup, but no answers so far:cry

any thoughts anyone?

I have a dual 2.3 ppc mac with 10.4.11

thanks

[jfriend]

I have borrowed a camcorder to video an event next week but cannot get iMovie HD to recognise it - help!

I have to edit the video. otherwise it wouldn't be a problem as my friends PC will burn it OK onto a dVD and that plays ok on my mac, but neither of us can edit it:dunno

As I understand it I need to have a firewire-in cable but the camcorder has s-video out ( so the shop I asked told me) and there are no s-video to firewire adapters that I can find:scratch

I have asked shops and as many people that I can , including daughter's fiancees, friends with PCs and/or camcorders and the local MacUsersGroup, but no answers so far:cry

any thoughts anyone?

I have a dual 2.3 ppc mac with 10.4.11

thanks

What exact model video camera is it?

[darkdragon]

I have borrowed a camcorder to video an event next week but cannot get iMovie HD to recognise it - help!

I have to edit the video. otherwise it wouldn't be a problem as my friends PC will burn it OK onto a dVD and that plays ok on my mac, but neither of us can edit it:dunno

As I understand it I need to have a firewire-in cable but the camcorder has s-video out ( so the shop I asked told me) and there are no s-video to firewire adapters that I can find:scratch

I have asked shops and as many people that I can , including daughter's fiancees, friends with PCs and/or camcorders and the local MacUsersGroup, but no answers so far:cry

any thoughts anyone?

I have a dual 2.3 ppc mac with 10.4.11

thanks

I think you will need a converter box similar to something like this:
http://www.synthetic-ap.com/tips/firewireconverters.html

If anyone can get the raw footage off the cam and burn to DVD then I think you could just load the DVD footage (if it is files like MPEG not video_ts/dvd conversion) into iMovie that way. :dunno

[I Simonius]

What exact model video camera is it?

I don't have it here at the moment but it says sony Hi8 on the side `i remeber- any use?

[I Simonius]

I think you will need a converter box similar to something like this:
http://www.synthetic-ap.com/tips/firewireconverters.html

If anyone can get the raw footage off the cam and burn to DVD then I think you could just load the DVD footage (if it is files like MPEG not video_ts/dvd conversion) into iMovie that way. :dunno

well i tried that and I was able to copy the DVD onto my mac but iMovieHD doesn't want to play with it :cry

looking at the video formats on SM help I see it is thios one that comes off the DVD and that it's not supported:cry [vob MPEG2 PS format (VOB) No}

[darkdragon]

well i tried that and I was able to copy the DVD onto my mac but iMovieHD doesn't want to play with it :cry

looking at the video formats on SM help I see it is thios one that comes off the DVD and that it's not supported:cry [vob MPEG2 PS format (VOB) No}


You could try downloading a trial version of Adobe Premiere and see if that will recognize it.

[ziggy53]

I don't have it here at the moment but it says sony Hi8 on the side `i remeber- any use?

Hi8 is an older analog format and, yes, it will only have S-Video and Composite video output, as well as analog audio. It predates the digital video formats.

If you want to edit the video on the computer it will have to be digitized. I believe the best format for that is either direct into the computer using an A/D card or using a DV camcorder as a converter and transfer device. At any rate you want a video format on the computer that has discreet frames, not a DVD format. DVD format is a dialect of MPEG 2 and does not use discreet frames. It is a delivery and presentation format.

Discreet video formats might include AVI and MOV and DV. While DV is both a wrapper and a codec definition, AVI and MOV are simply wrappers and would also require a video codec. I suggest staying with DV.

If you can borrow a DV camcorder that has video inputs, that's probably the best method. It will have an IEEE-488 connection (firewire) and either allow conversion from the analog source on-the-fly or you might have to record the source video onto DV cassettes first, which might not be a bad idea.

It's also a good idea to first noise filter the analog video because DV has a fixed data rate and if you don't filter the noise, much of what you record will be noise. I suggest a high-end VCR that has video DNR or Faroudja video noise reduction to do the filtering.

Once you get the DV files on the computer it should be easy to find a suitable video editor, but it may not already be on your machine.

Likewise there are many DVD burner software available that can handle DV video as the source.

Next time, just use a DV camcorder and save yourself a lot of trouble when you want to edit on the computer.

[I Simonius]

Hi8 is an older analog format and, yes, it will only have S-Video and Composite video output, as well as analog audio. It predates the digital video formats.

If you want to edit the video on the computer it will have to be digitized. I believe the best format for that is either direct into the computer using an A/D card or using a DV camcorder as a converter and transfer device. At any rate you want a video format on the computer that has discreet frames, not a DVD format. DVD format is a dialect of MPEG 2 and does not use discreet frames. It is a delivery and presentation format.

Discreet video formats might include AVI and MOV and DV. While DV is both a wrapper and a codec definition, AVI and MOV are simply wrappers and would also require a video codec. I suggest staying with DV.

If you can borrow a DV camcorder that has video inputs, that's probably the best method. It will have an IEEE-488 connection (firewire) and either allow conversion from the analog source on-the-fly or you might have to record the source video onto DV cassettes first, which might not be a bad idea.

It's also a good idea to first noise filter the analog video because DV has a fixed data rate and if you don't filter the noise, much of what you record will be noise. I suggest a high-end VCR that has video DNR or Faroudja video noise reduction to do the filtering.

Once you get the DV files on the computer it should be easy to find a suitable video editor, but it may not already be on your machine.

Likewise there are many DVD burner software available that can handle DV video as the source.

Next time, just use a DV camcorder and save yourself a lot of trouble when you want to edit on the computer.

so much information:huh *whimper* - but thanks...just get a DV camcorder.. wish it were as easy as that.. I have had three offered but none are DV, at least I don't think they are .. how can you tell?

None have firewire that much I do know:wink

[videospot]

I just bought a Sony HDR-SR12 HD camera which produces .m2ts files in AVCHD format. I'm looking for something that can natively edit those files (on Windows Vista) and can produce a good HD format that Smugmug can read (Smugmug won't take the .m2ts files out of the camera both because it doesn't handle the codec used in the Sony AVCHD and because it doesn't handle the 5.1 sound).

I'm looking for basic video editing and format conversion. I'm hoping to spend no more than $150, but would spend more if I had to to get something good. I don't expect I need really advanced features, but I would like to do basic scene editing, chopping, combining, be able to save the resulting video to lots of formats (for Smugmug, you tube, DVD, blue-ray disk, a format that Flash can play, etc...). Since all my video is intially in AVCHD, I'm hoping for something that doesn't have to do a length conversion on the video (with the resulting time delay and disk space consumption) before starting to edit it.

I had read the Pinnacle was one of the first to support native AVCHD editing so I check out their offerings. From the comments I've read, it looks like their software is horribly unstable and they've had a reputation for that in prior versions. Of course, I have no way of knowing if those issues would happen to me, but it doesn't look good in reading about it.

So, then I looked at ULEAD and I read about serious performance problems when working on AVCHD video.

Several of the previous threads had pointed me to Sony Vegas Platinum and I figured that at least I could be confident that it would read Sony AVCHD video. So far, it looks like my best choice.

I have a very old version of Premiere Elements that I once tried to use for constructing DVD slideshows and I was not impressed with that product back then so I'm not included to look at the current versions.

Any other thoughts out there? Is Sony Vegas Platinum a good choice?

I know total video converter (http://www.effectmatrix.com/total-video-converter) can convert m2ts file to any formats file you need.
And maybe you can also try this tool total video2dvd ( http://www.effectmatrix.com/total_video_to_DVD_Author/index.htm)

[jfriend]

I know total video converter (http://www.effectmatrix.com/total-video-converter) can convert m2ts file to any formats file you need.
And maybe you can also try this tool total video2dvd ( http://www.effectmatrix.com/total_video_to_DVD_Author/index.htm)

When I look at Total Video Converter web site, it doesn't list m2ts as a supported format. And, I know that many things that say they support m2ts can't handle the Sony variant that my camera produces. Do you have other information or experience that this actually does work with m2ts or with my Sony camera specifically? I'd love to find something that works.