Need Video Editing/Compression help

[sleddriver]

I have an analog Sony Hi-8 video camera. I hooked it up to a Panasonic DVD recorder to backup the video and convert it to digital.

Then I loaded the finalized DVD into WXP to view the files. They're quite large, ~ 500MB. Lacking any video editing SW, I'm not sure what to use and what codec I should use to compress them.

Never worked with a video editor before. Any free ones you recommend?

 

[97prizm]

Video help is a cool site to visit. Devede, dvdstyler are both good free authoring programs. Pitivi I Think is offered for windows as I use it for Mint linux. It works wonderful. Roxio is a good investment, as I'm looking at purchasing it for linux now that it's offered. If you want to author your movies to DVD then Mpeg2 is the standard used by dvd players to read. Some blu-ray players will also read other formats. For instance panasonic reads AVCHD format. This requires a good computer with a high end processor, and plenty of ram but the upside is compressed video that looks good. Blu-ray is MP4 format reading the audio in AC3 which is Dolby 5.1 compatible.

 

[eljefino]

There's actually a linux distro called "AVLinux" that comes with a bunch of free tools and editors. I've had a heck of a time finding anything that works on windows. (Like KDEnlive on linux.) However, I did play with "Windows movie maker" of all things and it sounds like it'd be up your alley. You could run it live off DVD but it'd be painfully slow. It also can resize your windows partition and make its own.

Compressing is easy. "WinFF" is a GUI on top of "FFmpeg" and can do practically anything. H.264 is the standard for Apple stuff and youtube and packs a lot of data in a small package. Mpeg2 for DVDs.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Compressing is easy. "WinFF" is a GUI on top of "FFmpeg" and can do practically anything. H.264 is the standard for Apple stuff and youtube and packs a lot of data in a small package. Mpeg2 for DVDs.


WinFF is great, and I think they have a version for Windows. It has a bunch of presets to aid you in compression and output settings, so if you're looking to make a video into H.264 or DVD compatible, you can do so. It can also adjust aspect ratio for you.

Another option, at least in Linux, is the tovid suite of programs. For the everyday user, that won't accomplish anything above and beyond what WinFF will, but is accompanied by a much steeper learning curve, along with the necessity to compile from source if you want the latest packages. So, WinFF/FFmpeg is the way to go.

 

[itguy08]

What do you plan on doing with the video? Editing it into another movie or simply keeping it for later?

If you plan on editing it, your best bet would be to convert to the DV format (since its not HD). It will take up tons of space but it is the easiest and fastest way to edit.

If you plan on storing it for later, just keep the DVD and maybe make another copy of it.

As far as compression, H.264/MPEG4 is the ticket right now but be warned you can loose quality with the compression if you try to apply too much. Much like a JPEG on the photo side, compress too much and you will make a mess of the video.

As ar as software, I'm a Mac guy and use a program called Handbrake to convert video all around. I believe they also have a Windows version. It's simple to use and has presets for many different output targets (iPhone, PS3, DVD, etc.)

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Then I loaded the finalized DVD into WXP to view the files. They're quite large, ~ 500MB. Lacking any video editing SW, I'm not sure what to use and what codec I should use to compress them.


How and with what tools and methods you would want to compress your video depends entirely on why you're re-compressing it.

It's already been compressed onto the DVD; and those files (ie. the "VIDEO_TS" folder on the DVD) can be taken directly off of the DVD and played in most media players on a computer.

If you want to edit the video, you could probably use Windows' built-in video editor, whose name at present escapes me. It is perfectly capable of making cuts and other simple edits, then exporting the video in a variety of formats.

 

[sleddriver]

Quote:
What do you plan on doing with the video? Editing it into another movie or simply keeping it for later?


In this case, it's for a friend living in another city. I initially thought I would email the video file. However, it's way too large. She might want to include it in a compilation, so I don't want to 'ruin' it.

At this point, it is on a DVD now, in a digital format, and backed up on my HD so I can now experiment with a copy. I can always duplicate the disk and send her one via mail.

Thanks to all for the responses. I'll read up on your recommendations.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
In this case, it's for a friend living in another city. I initially thought I would email the video file. However, it's way too large. She might want to include it in a compilation, so I don't want to 'ruin' it.


If you have the bandwidth, why don't you just upload the whole shootin' match to Youtube? Although it's not simplest thing in the world to do, your friend could use either a Firefox or Chrome add-on that would allow her to download the full-resolution video from there.

There are also many file-sharing web sites out there, like rapidshare.com where you could upload the file and send her the link to it.

 

[eljefino]

Good work getting the stuff digitized off Hi-8. A DVD on 1 hour or even 2 hour mode is about as good as NTSC standard def video can get. Analog tape fades and more importantly the playback circuitry on analog VCRs actually drifts out of calibration as the capacitors age and dry out. DVD-Rs stay crisp. They do scratch and flake out, so "cloud storage" backups are a good move.

It depends on your content and how much junk you have VS useable clips how you want to edit. I wouldn't add unneccessary titles, dissolves, etc as they'll invariably look cheezy in ten years. I would keep track of who, what, and when though as time forgets that sort of thing.

 

[sleddriver]

Quote:
If you want to edit the video, you could probably use Windows' built-in video editor, whose name at present escapes me. It is perfectly capable of making cuts and other simple edits, then exporting the video in a variety of formats.

So far I've figured out that Win Movie Maker won't import the .VOB file format in the "Video_TS" folder on the DVD I made. So I'll have to convert it to a format that WMM accepts.

Any suggestions?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Are you just trying to resize it so that it's smaller? If so, you can try Handbrake. However, you will never be able to resize it so much that it can be attached to an email. The quality would be awful.

If you don't want to just mail her a DVD, then you can transfer files directly between two PCs by running an FTP server/client such as FileZilla. The transfer may take many hours, depending on the speed of both sender's and receiver's internet connections.

Or upload it to youtube, like the other poster mentioned. That's probably the easiest thing to do. I think you can mark the video as private/unlisted and then delete it after she pulls it on her end.

 

[sleddriver]

Read up on handbrake..don't think I have .NET framework installed which it requires. Noticed it requires a specific version (older) and the newer version is NOT backwards compatible.

Looking at some other programs as this is all new to me. Looks like I need to convert the .VOB files to DV AVI to avoid resolution loss. Then open in a video editor. I can then snip out the revelant section my friend is interested in and export in a compatible format and check the file size.

I've been interested in this quite awhile so it'll be a good learning experience. I found many 'free' programs listed but not knowing anything about them, ease of use, etc. which means flying IFR.

Starting with a few recommended programs really helps. Still looking through everyone's suggestions...

 

[eljefino]

You need the mpeg2 codec. It is not on Win XP by default. You get it by installing "powerDVD" or another program. In short if you can play the DVD and watch it it should work.

The .vob file(s) are .mpgs. Assuming F: is your DVD drive, open a CMD box and type

F:
CD VIDEO_TS
copy /b VTS_01_1.vob + VTS_01_2.vob + VTS_01_3.vob c:\output.mpg

Go on and on until you run out of VOBs; each will be 1 GB. If you have more than one program on the dvd it would be VTS_02_01.vob etc.

If your VOBs are less than 1 GB there will only be one, you can copy that and just rename the file extension and hope it likes that.

then open that output.mpg with windows movie maker.

If for any reason windows movie maker freaks out, use WinFF to convert the file to WMV high quality. You'll lose something on the re-compression, so save it as a last resort.

If this is too much, handbrake will automate ripping the DVD to a format Movie Maker likes.

 

[sleddriver]

Eljefino,
Thanks! I created output.mpg OK. 241 MB. Unfortunately, WMM 'freaked' attemptimg to open it. Read details on Winff. I'll come back to this later this evening when I have more time.

Completely missed the fact that .vob's are .mpgs! WMP does play the DVD I created fine, but it won't 'rip' it.

Look fwd to getting back to it later...

 

[bigmike]

I use freemake for most of my video converting and burning. It works for me for what I use it for.

http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/

 

[sleddriver]

Quote:
If this is too much, handbrake will automate ripping the DVD to a format Movie Maker likes.


I installed handbrake and .net client. Didn't realize I'd be limited to either mp4 or mkv? I was hoping it would also output DV AVI so I could edit.

It loaded the folder containing the files. I set a destination location. Set output to mp4, clicked on video preview, it couldn't find VLC? player. I did it again, checking the 'use sys. dflt plyr'.

Now I get a box with a red X "Unhandled exception has occured in your ap. If you click continue, the ap will ignore this and attempt to continue.

Exception of type: "HandBrakeAppServices.Exceptions.GeneralAppException was thrown."

Whatever that means...it's Tango Uniform. Not enough info to proceed.

Do those that rec'd HD use it on a Mac?

 

[sleddriver]

Update:
I used Winff. First asked it to convert to DV but WMM wouldn't accept it. So I converted it again to .AVI. This time WMM opened it, but did something really odd.

The first part of the video is one long block, no individual frames or groups of frames. Then towards the end, indiv. frames start showing up. I need the first part with no frame info, not the last part with frame info.

So I wonder if the time-code on the tape is off or there is a fault on the tape that caused this.

Is there a better file format I should be converting to than AVI?

 

[sleddriver]

Quote:
The .vob file(s) are .mpgs. Assuming F: is your DVD drive, open a CMD box and type

F:
CD VIDEO_TS
copy /b VTS_01_1.vob + VTS_01_2.vob + VTS_01_3.vob c:\output.mpg

Go on and on until you run out of VOBs; each will be 1 GB. If you have more than one program on the dvd it would be VTS_02_01.vob etc.

If your VOBs are less than 1 GB there will only be one, you can copy that and just rename the file extension and hope it likes that.

then open that output.mpg with windows movie maker.


Curious as to why this didn't work, I opened the 'output.mpg' file in WMP. The scroll bar at the botom zoomed all the way across, while the video itself lagged. Second, the video vibrated/shook sideways very rapidly when playing.

I went back and played the original VTS_01_1.vob file in WMP and the scroll bar acted normally, no video shaking, looked much better.

I'm guessing this is why WMM hung when trying to open the renamed .mpg file.

Frankly, I don't understand how the file was affected just by copying it and renaming it from a .vob to a .mpg. But then again, I'm just beginning to delve into this.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver

Frankly, I don't understand how the file was affected just by copying it and renaming it from a .vob to a .mpg. But then again, I'm just beginning to delve into this.

Windows can use different codecs to play video content depending on what the file extension is. It's possible you've got multiple codecs installed on your machine and one is associated with the .vob extension while another is associated with the .mpg extension, despite the fact that the underlying file content is basically the same.

 

[sleddriver]

Quote:
Windows can use different codecs to play video content depending on what the file extension is. It's possible you've got multiple codecs installed on your machine and one is associated with the .vob extension while another is associated with the .mpg extension, despite the fact that the underlying file content is basically the same.


So I may have a codec-conflict? And these are like codecs = video file types/containers? Is this similiar to QT vs WMP assigning themselves to control different file associations?

So I need to figure out what codecs I have, who wrote them and which ones are used for which.

If I remember correctly, years ago I wanted to play a DVD on this machine and it wouldn't work. Then I installed something (a codec) to get it to work.

So I need to find where codecs are stored in XP and make sure I only have one for each. Correct?

BTW, I used Winff to convert the original .bov file to .wmv, which gave me a choice of two pre-sets: (1) WMV for Web Use and (2) WMV2 generic. I chose the first. (I don't know the difference between the two).

WMM opened this file rather quickly, much faster than the .avi file. It also broke the section I'm interested in into 3 sections (clips?), which didn't happen with the .avi file.

It's too bad WMM won't open the DV file. I read that is one of the best to edit in.

Thanks for replying!