I am really, really at wit's end tonight as I've had another bout with my current video editing software. I want to explain some things here and see if anyone can help me or tell me of a good program to use for Windows because I've about had it. This is not the first time I've had some issues, but I put up what I could earlier and from what I read on my site the only real knock is the quality of video clips. I am trying to improve that.
Okay, first of all I don't have a fancy video camera. I shoot my video clips using my still camera, which is a Fuji FinePix S7000. The video clips are 640 x 480 in size and are saved in .AVI format. These raw clips can play on both my Windows machine and my Macintosh with no issues, but I want to add the site's logo and such onto them.
Now the video editing software I have on my old Macintosh is Final Cut Pro, which is no bargain bin software. I have countless means of exporting the file, but .WMV is ironically, not one of them. I can do .AVI, .MPG, .MP4 and DivX AVI among a few I'm not familiar with.
When I first put the video clips on the site they were in .MPG format, although NO MATTER what I do, the basic .MPG format will only export into 320 x 240 size. I put that up in the beginning, but it is way too small and the file sizes were large for being that small.
On my Windows machine I found a conversion program called Windows Media Encoder that will turn files into other files, such as .MPG into .WMV. Yes, that is quite a few steps to get a file to the .WMV format, but it is what people seem to prefer.
When I began doing the above I still could not figure out (and still can't) how to get a regular .MPG export to remain at the 640 x 480 size as the raw file. So what I did was stretch it back to that size on the PC conversion software, which of course, made the quality look not as good.
Well today I realized that my conversion program on the PC would take a .AVI file (the ones straight from the camera) and convert to .WMV. Again, however, I want to stamp the files with the site information and such and being just a conversion program, it doesn't do all that.
I then go to my Mac into Final Cut Pro and see that I can export the files at the full 640 x 480 size in .AVI format. Bingo! Now I'll just convert that into .WMV. Nope! The exported .AVI file from my Mac was so pixelated it was crap! But I also saw the DivX AVI option, so I tried that.
The video exported flawlessly and is at full size. So being an .AVI file like the one off the camera I am thinking my PC conversion software will also convert this to .WMV. Wrong! Aparently the DivX one wouldn't.
So I have this DivX AVI file here, looking like the product that comes right off the camera, all stamped up how I want it and I can't convert it. So now I have placed a "Download DivX" link on my video page in the members area, but I'm thinking people won't like using a special viewer or having to install stuff just to watch the video clips.
In the past I have run into issues with people not wanting to or not able to view Quicktime Movie Files (.MOV) and the MPEG-4 (.MP4) formats, so doing this scares me.
So I am asking all of you who might be more versed in this video software, what am I doing wrong, or what should I invest in? Are there any good (but affordable) video programs for the PC that you recommend? Or maybe there is someone who knows Final Cut Pro here and can tell me how to make the .MPG files export at the full size of 640 x 480. The size box always reads "Automatic" when exporting in MPEG-1 and is grayed out.
For anyone who is curious, here is the DivX AVI file that I put up this week, free to all of you. Please tell me if it is viewable to you. I could not view it in Windows Media Player, but I could in DivX Player.
P.S. After clicking on the link above, Quicktime tried to open it on my computer, but said it was missing a Codec. Well, I had just downloaded it and it still says the same thing. I fucking give up.
[ August 01, 2007, 12:15 AM: Message edited by: Patrick ]
Posted by bluetoelover (Member # 14736) on :
I am not gonna try and sit here and pretend to know what I am talking about but you say that you use DivX...I dont suppose you tried using the DivX converter by any chance??? I never did personally but hey its worth a shot.
Posted by bluetoelover (Member # 14736) on :
oh yes..I forgot..the vid DID play great using DivX. Thanks for the vid pat! Good luck!
Posted by Foot Soldier (Member # 16789) on :
If your videos come out of your camera as AVIs, then I would recommend that you use Virtualdub Mpeg2. It strictly works with AVIs and it can do everything that you are trying to do. It's better than most professional digital editing software out there and it's free. It's very easy to use and Ive been using it for two years at my clip store.
I think you can`t go wrong with DivX or Xvid...most people have it installed on their computer because 99% of the movies on p2p-networks are DivX compressed.
Foot Soldier is right...Virtual Dub is great and free. I kind of found it difficult to handle though, compared to Adobe Premiere, which is what I use. It basically lets you convert files into every format except Real Player (if I´m not mistaken). You can also export movies at any size you like, there is no limit.
On the other hand it`s probably easiest for you to just buy a new camcorder...some of them are really cheap and have amazing functions (I prefer Panasonic cameras). I am thinking that you original 640x480 Fuji file may already be compressed (even though it is an avi-file), so your video-editing software may not be able to work properly with it. Not sure but I have similar problems when importing avi-files from my other digi cam.
Cheers, -Hal-
Posted by Patrick (Member # 1169) on :
Foot Soldier,
I downloaded your link and am failing to see where I can convert AVI files to MPEG. Every save function coming up is making another AVI file. I'll have to look some more I guess.
Hal,
The AVI from my camera reads in everything just fine. My problem is getting it to WMV format because of wanting to stamp up the video clips. My video editing software will save as AVI, but it looks like ass. It will save as MPG, but it makes it small and I can't set it to stay 640x480 for whatever reason. And it saves as DivX AVI, but the Windows Media Converter won't read the file to change to WMV.
Patrick
Posted by roughsoleman (Member # 24234) on :
Patrick, I'm not an expert, but it appears that your installed DivX codec is version '5.2.1 Beta'.
I suggest that you update your DivX installation to a minimum of version 6.1.0 .
After installation recreate your AVI and try to view it using WMP.
Hope this helps.
-rsm
Posted by FootManPete (Member # 3260) on :
Patrick,
First off, the WMV format is a Windows format, which is why Final Cut won't export to it. You'll need to get a Windows video editor for it to work. Luckily anything on Windows can export to the WMV format.
Try Windows Movie Maker if you want something free and easy. If you want something more powerful, I suggest Sony Vegas. You can try out the demo -- it's nearly 100% functional for 30 days.
Windows Movie Maker This will ONLY export to WMV, but it accepts AVIs, sound and other simple things.
Sony Vegas Try the Vegas+DVD Production Suite demo - it has the most options.
Good luck!
[Post edited to correct a dyslexic looking typo. See any more? ]
[ August 02, 2007, 06:54 PM: Message edited by: FootManPete ]
Posted by Bondo (Member # 1403) on :
Like FootManPete, I was going to suggest the ever basic but very effective Windows Movie Maker. It's completely user friendly, and the end product is great too.
I have also used a program called VideoWave from a company called MGI. The program came with my JVC video camera. It was easy enough to figure out on my own very quickly, and again, the end product was great.
Good luck Patrick. Hit me up if you think I can help you at all.
Posted by Dave888 (Member # 13797) on :
says I need a new codec, but after I DL it it still wont play...Realplayer plays the clip with a choppy flashing green screen every second.
![[Laugh]](graemlins/laugh.gif)
]