I have a few car videos I want to edit, but Moviemaker is really annoying for reducing quality when it renders. What are your recommended alternatives? TIA
Is moviemaker the windows freebie one? Tried installing other video codecs for it to use? I downloaded and installed Lightworks for a work project a little while back - it's pretty serious looking stuff - if you want grown up video editing features and workflow, I'd start there.
Regardless of which editing system you use, it may be better to first transcode all your vids to MPEG-I (mpeg2 fullframe codec) first. u can rescale, letterbox and pillar them. Once you're conformed all your vids, then a single format will make life easier in the timeline. If you need more info, just ask. PS: I used to use ULead video editor that came free with DVD drives etc. Wasnt too bad, adobe Premiere is better.
FYIs New homemovie editors may find these useful: KLite Codec pack Includes "mediainfo" which is the most used utility for extracting meta info on video and audio clips. Lets you know the frame rates, resolution, aspect, field orders. Includes DirectShow splitters and various Codecs FFmpeg A versatile compiled transcoder with a plethora of switches and paramters that can solve almost any format issues. It's command based so takes so time reading up. Note: If you can get TMPEG Encoder, it's the best windows based encoder. ImgBurn Burns DVD images directly to DVDs IFOEdit Can tweak DVD video image parameters prior to burn Quicktime Yes, Unfortunately it's a pre-requisite for any video editing workstation. NVidia Driver Updates To keep your Video Card Happy. (If applicable)
Indeed, it's the free one. What difference would codecs make? I see them as 'drivers' with another name, facilitators which allow a program to work properly :-s Great - do you have any links, or is this not on free download?
Thanks blis. For transcoding, I have used Prism Video Converter, but it watermarks videos now. Are there any recommendations you have? Normally I find myself converting my camera's .MOV files to AVI or MPEG at the outset, to get Moviemaker to accept them. I could really do with a program that just accepts .MOV files, allows them to be dropped in a timeline etc, to make for far quicker editing The Codec pack info you've added looks handy, though I've only ever found Codecs just a pain to try to understand. What's the subtle point you've made about Quicktime?
Chris, your talents by default surpass Movie Maker, the .MOV is a container, within it is the encoded vision and audio. Inside the .MOV the media can be encoded with x264, ProRes, Motion JPG and more, install latest Quicktime, regardless! The KLite CODEC pack will install various CODECS and Directshow splitters to enable you playback in Windows Media PLayer. That's also going to install MEDIAINFO and it's your best friend. We've written our own interfaces for FFMPEG encoder, if you'd like I can make a copy of it. It will transcode various formats. Ultimately, the best solution is use a Mac. On the PC you need at least Ulead, preferably Adobe Premiere. A lot of the workflow would be removed by using a good Video Editing system as they come with their own codecs and import/export formats and setting. You'll also be a better for it once you know the formats and frame rates you've shot at. 23.97,24,25,29.97, NTSC/PAL, all these factors can screw up. Eg.. Using 24fps vision in a 25fps timeline will duplicate frames making your edit jump every second by one frame! All said and done, I've used Ulead and it worked well (back then) It seems the cheapest option and with FREEBIE editions with DVD burners etc, it's all I can recommend in the affordable budget range. Premiere, Avid, to pay for these means you really are making $$ from your vision. If you are into technical parameters and switches in DOS CMD, the grab FFmpeg now and get used t it http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4900075 post editBecause we are inquisitive on ClubGTI) Windows DirectShow (once directX) and Filters: Directshow is Windows system of Splitting the VIDEO and AUDIO using FILTERS then routing the VIDEO stream through codecs and then to GFX card and AUDIO to Soundcard in the same manner. Yes it's weird terminology! CODECS: They're realtime compressors/decompressors (think winzip) for media. If you calculate the number of pixels in HD, there are over 2 million pixels per frame. For each pixel we need 3 bytes to store RED/GREEN/BLUE, hence it's taking 6MB per frame, hence 6x25 frames per second and we are RAW 150MB/s. Now that's too heavy a stream for input/output across networks, drives etc. So if each frame were compressed like we would a text file, the difference is there's LOSS to media where there's NO LOSS in winzip and text. The loss of detail occurs by reducing bitrate which is a measure of how heavily it is compressed, like we see in JPG quality. While the example of RGB is what I used, in truth film and TV evolved with a backward compatible format for B/W TV. YUV, at the camera it's sampled as differently and 4:4:4 is all data raw, 4:2:2 is Broadcast quality and your handycam uses 4:2:0 sampling which is the poorest quality. n:n:n represents a matrix of sampling, the contrast/luminance Y is the B/W picture and then the colour sampled separately and lesser quality. Something about our eye measuring quality of contrast before colours. Anyway, it's a convoluted world with backward compatible issues, CODEC licencing, and other dramas to overcome such as NTSC/PAL, interlaced vision etc. CODEC licencing, at the moment, the h264/x264 MPEG4 codec is free to use public, it's the most popular and can also be called AVC (Advanced Video Codec), the thing to note is that it's a playback codec. It uses LONG GOP (group of pictures) with interpolation between frames. Not every frame is complete, merely the changes within the 30 frames. This value can be adjusted during transcoding, I think the skipping frames on youtube has to do with GOP length, just a hunch. For editing, AVC-I or MPEG-I, "I" referring to the FULL FRAME has high bitrates, it's heavy on I/O but produces best results when editing. Most good ediiting system will transcode to a full frame CODEC made of all "I" frames. For Broadcast TV the CODEC comes with a camera and there's native CODEC used by you editing system, the Workflow is governed by Camera codecs and Edit Codecs, all cut to a common format DIGITAL TAPE at some point. Things are changing too, we're writing more to MEM Cards etc.
