VideoEditing

[MatthewSCL]

Anyone has any ideas on Video Editing?

I had tried once but the quality is very bad....
Steps:
1) Download from Viewcam as Mpeg1.
Cannot do AVI cos files are very HUGE!
2) Edit and save back as Mpeg1 then write to VCD via Nero
Burning Software.

The final VCD playback was super lousy with very mosaic effect. Worst then those pirated VCDs in the market.

Question:

a) What are the recommended PC system to be used?
b) Is there any gadget to make Video transfer to PC faster?
c) Whats the use of giving users the IEEE card and software if the final output is so lousy?:angry:
d) How to get the optimium results when play back on VCD player?
e) What actually did those guys in Sim Lim SQ used to transfer DV to VCD Format?

Thank you for your kind assistance.

Best Regards
Matthew

 

[Zoomer]

www.vcdhelper.com

I'd stay away from nero's mpeg1 encoding. Sucks!
Capturing to mpg isn't advisable if you are going to be editing it again. I normally capture to avi (either huffyuv or mjpeg depending on quality requirement). I use TMPEG for encoding and VCDEasy to actually create the ISO.

Note huffyuv is but a (roughly) 1:2 compression. It'd be about 228MB/s with audio (uncompressed PCM, 44100, 16, stereo). But its lossless though. If you have limited disk space and don't really want the highest possible quality, capturing to MJPEG (using picvideo mjpeg) at quality setting 17-19 would give a better compression ratio at expense of quality.

For audio compression, go with mp3. Search the web for radium mp3 codec and use the 128kbps or perhaps even 192kbps (depending on quality required, again).

The good thing about firewire is that if you comp is fast enough, it can capture faster thatn the length of the video. Eg. if your video is 10 mins long, it may be able to capture in like 6-7 mins. If your computer is slow, then at least you won't get dropped frames. :bsmilie:

 

[Bluestrike]

And the ans...

a) Best if you can use a dual processor setup. If not, try a P4 with RD ram. Mac are reknown for stuff like that so.... Storage is a must to have. At least 40GB of free space! RAID if possible!?

b) Transfering via Firewire is by far, the easiest way and cheapest. Well at least I don't know of any other way.

c) Save it as *.AVI in its raw form!Then try to do it again... Your eyes will see the diff!

d) If done as above, it shld not be a pro!

e) :dunno:

 

[tweakmax]

Originally posted by MatthewSCL
Anyone has any ideas on Video Editing?

I had tried once but the quality is very bad....
Steps:
1) Download from Viewcam as Mpeg1.
Cannot do AVI cos files are very HUGE!
2) Edit and save back as Mpeg1 then write to VCD via Nero
Burning Software.

The final VCD playback was super lousy with very mosaic effect. Worst then those pirated VCDs in the market.

Question:

a) What are the recommended PC system to be used?
b) Is there any gadget to make Video transfer to PC faster?
c) Whats the use of giving users the IEEE card and software if the final output is so lousy?:angry:
d) How to get the optimium results when play back on VCD player?
e) What actually did those guys in Sim Lim SQ used to transfer DV to VCD Format?

Thank you for your kind assistance.

Best Regards
Matthew

For best quality, there is no short-cut. U should capture to AVI then convert to MPEG. If you capture direct to MPEG the quality will be very lousy like what u have said.

a) Video takes up a lot of time / resources. So use the fastest CPU you can buy. 512Mb RAM would be good for a start. You need a large harddisk too coz video takes up GIGS of space.

b) A firewire (IEE1394) connection suffice.

c) The IEE1394 card and software is for you to download the video into your PC. The final output is lousy coz u capture direct to MPEG.

d) As I have said earlier, use your software (i.e. ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO) to capture to AVI, convert to MPEG then burn to VCD. The result will be very good.

e) Same like us lor. Or if they want to edit in REAL-TIME they probably use dedicated video capture boards from Matrox or Pinaccle.

You can learn more abt VCD conversion from here:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/

Good Luck!

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by Bluestrike
And the ans...

a) Best if you can use a dual processor setup. If not, try a P4 with RD ram. Mac are reknown for stuff like that so.... Storage is a must to have. At least 40GB of free space! RAID if possible!?

b) Transfering via Firewire is by far, the easiest way and cheapest. Well at least I don't know of any other way.

c) Save it as *.AVI in its raw form!Then try to do it again... Your eyes will see the diff!

d) If done as above, it shld not be a pro!

e) :dunno:

No need raid and please don't use P4 with rdram unless price is not a concern.

A p4 2gig + 256meg pc1066 rdram can get me at least a athlon 2400+ and maybe 512 or even 768 of nice pc2700 ddr ram. Now, I'd really want the extra ram over the higher latency but higher bandwidth rdram. Disk swapping totally blows the performance, remember?

(c) No need raw uncompressed. Lossless compression algos will do the trick.

For making VCD, no need to be so leh chey. A average system can do it liao.

 

[Bluestrike]

Originally posted by Zoomer


No need raid and please don't use P4 with rdram unless price is not a concern.

A p4 2gig + 256meg pc1066 rdram can get me at least a athlon 2400+ and maybe 512 or even 768 of nice pc2700 ddr ram. Now, I'd really want the extra ram over the higher latency but higher bandwidth rdram. Disk swapping totally blows the performance, remember?

(c) No need raw uncompressed. Lossless compression algos will do the trick.

For making VCD, no need to be so leh chey. A average system can do it liao.

Yeah agreed with you on a ave system will do. Just that how much time you want to spend that all.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by Bluestrike


Yeah agreed with you on a ave system will do. Just that how much time you want to spend that all.

I dunno, but editing and other stuff is rather fast.

Encoding a 1h 45min clip takes about that amount of time? Dunno, I let it batch run while I go do something else. Same for capturing.

 

[Bluestrike]

Originally posted by Zoomer


I dunno, but editing and other stuff is rather fast.

Encoding a 1h 45min clip takes about that amount of time? Dunno, I let it batch run while I go do something else. Same for capturing.

Yeah Editing is fast!

but not when you do encoding. take abt 2hr or more depend on your CPU usage at that time of editing to encode from avi to mpg, using TMPGnec. Well not sure abt what your batch run is, but usually, I edit the video using Ulead Studio then save as DVD quality and then convert to VCD format. Take a hell lots of time tho but the quality that come out sure is better tho.

 

[MatthewSCL]

Originally posted by Zoomer
www.vcdhelper.com

I'd stay away from nero's mpeg1 encoding. Sucks!
Capturing to mpg isn't advisable if you are going to be editing it again. I normally capture to avi (either huffyuv or mjpeg depending on quality requirement). I use TMPEG for encoding and VCDEasy to actually create the ISO.

Note huffyuv is but a (roughly) 1:2 compression. It'd be about 228MB/s with audio (uncompressed PCM, 44100, 16, stereo). But its lossless though. If you have limited disk space and don't really want the highest possible quality, capturing to MJPEG (using picvideo mjpeg) at quality setting 17-19 would give a better compression ratio at expense of quality.

For audio compression, go with mp3. Search the web for radium mp3 codec and use the 128kbps or perhaps even 192kbps (depending on quality required, again).

The good thing about firewire is that if you comp is fast enough, it can capture faster thatn the length of the video. Eg. if your video is 10 mins long, it may be able to capture in like 6-7 mins. If your computer is slow, then at least you won't get dropped frames. :bsmilie:

Thanks for all the help guys....but hmmm...cos I am kind of new to this, I am not very sure of some of the terms...
like "Huffyuv"?
Then what is ISO?
Anyway, i tot VCDEasy is not free rite? You bought it?
And also what software you use to write these files to VCD?

Thanks man....really find it very useful..will study more from the website...thanks guys..Ü

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by MatthewSCL


Thanks for all the help guys....but hmmm...cos I am kind of new to this, I am not very sure of some of the terms...
like "Huffyuv"?
Then what is ISO?
Anyway, i tot VCDEasy is not free rite? You bought it?
And also what software you use to write these files to VCD?

Thanks man....really find it very useful..will study more from the website...thanks guys..Ü

VCDEasy is free! GNU GPLed!

http://www.vcdeasy.org/

A huge number of persons seem to have paid DVD ripping commercial packages on the Internet, from 15$ to 45$, which in fact includes only poor guides (this is "officially" what you pay in fact) and a few freeware (like SmartRipper, DVDx, VCDEasy...) freely available on the web... I currently know 6 packages like that. They are only earning a lot of money mainly out of other guys' work.

About VCDEasy in these packages, they never contacted me, I never gave them an agreement, I receive NO MONEY from them (even if most of them forward directly to me their end user support requests...). As far as I know, it is the same situation for the other freeware authors...
Remember, VCDEasy is free... You do not have to pay to have it!

Huffyuv is a lossless compression format, developed by some guy at berkeley.

http://math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html

The open source movement is strong, and produces some very high quality stuff.

You might also want to take a look at virtualdub. (Yes its free, GPLed too)
http://www.virtualdub.org/

Basic dubbing (as the name suggests), cutting, and touch up operations can be quickly and easily done.

 

[kristian]

When you capture footage from your DV camera to your computer via the firewire port, you are essentially transferring only data as the DV camera already encodes the stuff you shoot in DV codec to tape. That is the advanage of capturing via firewire. Direct data transfer, therefore no loss of quality.

You don't need a fast RAID for DV because your DV stream only requires about 3.8 Mb/sec of throughput, which most IDE drives can sustain.

Whether it's AVI or Qucktime .MOV when you capture doesn't matter, cos it's just the file format, the compression codec used will still be DV. And that is the codec you should be working in and only down convert it to MPEG1 or whatever other format you want at the end of the project.

You don't need a fancy card to EDIT in real time, because if the video editing software supports DV natively, straight cuts do not need to be rendered. However, if you do a lot of transitional or key effects and don't want to render those transitions, then a real time card is essential. Though these cards are pricey and not really pratical for the casual hobbists.