Editing xvid

HI,
I am editing video shot with a camera that compresses the files using xvid.
When I try to edit the files they are quite jerky (except for the bits that have been automatically rendered.) To get around this I have converted the files to AVI or mpg and this works fine but of course this is some loss of quality
I have the project setting to import from a Hard Drive Camera.
I know there are a few things I could do to alleviate this problem-use a converter of some kind or chop all the excess bits out of the video before I start to edit but generally the only time I watch the whole video (it is off a helmet camera) is when I edit it.
I want to retain the best quality output and watch it as I edit it. Is there anyway I can import to the timeline and edit/watch the video without it being jerky or should I just import it and let the project render and then do what ever I want to do....or convert the files using AP or some other application-and retain the quality
cheers

When I first looked into DigitalMedia Converter, there was a trial. It was only limited by time, IIRC. I used it on about 3 different formats, and was so pleased, that I bought two copies of the program, one for the workstation and one for the laptop.
There is a new version available now, and I have my upgrade promo code, but have to admit that I have not purchased the upgrade yet. Maybe I'll get busy and do that today!
One of the biggest "features" of DMC is that it does NOT ship with, nor install any CODEC's of its own. This means two things: the user will need to locate and install any necessary CODEC's, that are not already installed, and that it will NOT overwrite, corrupt or otherwise smurf any existing CODEC's. When it comes to CODEC's, I am a really big fan of installing ONLY the ones needed, when needed, and also going to the source for those CODEC's, even if I have to pay for them. I'd always rather have the source CODEC's for $, than free ones, that are hacked, or reverse-engineered. Some will go for free all of the time, and many love to collect all sorts of CODEC's, just in case. I just want the best, and only when needed. [Climbing off my soapbox]
Good luck, and I hope that it works as well for you, as it does for me.
As a side note: I often use CyberLink's PowerDirector, or Magix Movie Edit Pro, to ingest footage with odd CODEC's. They both do a better job of this, than either my PrE, or PrPro. Now, I do almost no real editing in these (find them rather clunky and crash-prone), and will always quickly Export to DV-AVI Type II files for the real editing. For me, they are just more "tools" in my "toolbox." To date, there have been very few files that I could not get to work, using either DMC, PowerDirector or MMEP. Oh, I also use QuickTime Pro for .MOV, or MP4 conversion too. Just more tools!
I've yet to find any one NLE that can do it all natively. I use the programs that work the best for me, and just prepare my footage to DV-AVI Type II w/ 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV Audio, prior to Import. I do the same for any MP3 Audio - it goes to 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV before Import. I guess that I have a boring workflow, but it always works perfectly, so I should not complain.
Good luck,
Hunt

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  • This is a test of the Edit button

    I am using Harm's original guide posts to see what's happening with the edit button
    How do you set up your editing machine in terms of disks for maximum performance and reliability? (SSD's are left out here.)
    This is a question that often arises and all too often one sees that initial settings are really suboptimal. These rules are intended to help you decide how to setup your disks to get the best response times. Of course the only disks in an editing machine must be 7200 RPM types or faster. No GREEN disks at all.
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    Rule 2: Avoid using USB drives, since they are the slowest on the market. Do not be tricked by the alleged bandwidth of USB 2.0 advertisements, because is just is not true and remember that the alleged bandwidth is shared by all USB devices, so if you have a USB mouse, keyboard, printer, card reader or whatever, they all share the bandwidth. Stick to SCSI or SATA disks or e-SATA. If needed, you can use Firewire-800 or even Firewire-400 disks, but they are really more suited for backups than for editing.
    Rule 3: Use at least 3 different physical disks on an editing machine, one for OS/programs, one for media and one for pagefile/scratch/renders. Even on a notebook with one internal drive it is easy to accomplish this by using a dual e-SATA to Express card connector. That gives you an additional two e-SATA connections for external disks.
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    Rule 5: Turn off index search and compression. Both will cause severe performance hits if you leave them on.
    Rule 6: If the fill rate on any of your SATA disks goes over 60-70% it is time to get a larger or an additional disk.
    Rule 7: Perform regular defrags on all of your disks. For instance, you can schedule this daily during your lunch break.
    Rule 8: Keep your disks cool by using adequate airflow by means of additional fans if needed. You can use SMART to monitor disk temperatures, which should be under 35 degrees C at all times and normally hover around 20-24 C, at least in a properly cooled system.
    Rule 9: If people want raid, the cheapest way is to use the on-board IHCR or Marvell chip, but it places a relatively high burden on the CPU. The best way is a hardware controller card, preferably based on the IOP348 chip. Areca ARC and ADAPTEC come to mind. 3Ware uses it's own chipset and though not bad, they are not in the same league as the other two. Promise and the like in the budget range are no good and a complete waste of money. Expect to spend around $ 800 plus for a good controller with 12 connectors internally and 4 e-SATA connectors. Important to consider in a purchasing decision is whether the on-board cache memory can be expanded from the regular 256/512 MB to 2 or even 4 GB. Be aware that 2 GB cache can be relatively cheap, but the 4 GB version extremely costly ($ 30 versus $ 300). For safety reasons it is advisable to include a battery backup module (BBM).
    Rule 10: If you can easily replace the data in case of disk failure (like rendered files), go ahead and use raid0, but if you want any protection against data loss, use raid 3/5/6/10/30/50. For further protection you can use hot spares, diminishing downtime and performance degradation.
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    Hope this helps to answer some basic questions. If not, let me know. Further enhancements and suggestions are welcome
    ==============================================================================
    For AMD setups, disregard the mentions of sockets and the like but the general recommendations still hold.
    When you need a new PC for editing purposes, you basically have three choices:
    1. Buy an off the shelf system from companies like HP or Dell.
    2. Buy a custom built PC from a specialist company, like http://www.guygraphics.com/
    3. Build it yourself.
    Solution 1 can offer good prices if you stick to their standard configurations and it is easy. But remember that these companies make their profit not on the base system, but on all the options they offer. If you follow their recommendations and upgrade memory, hard disks, or choose a better video card or a faster processor, they steal you blind.
    I have nothing against HP or Dell, I have bought systems from them, but usually that was because of a great offer with all the features I needed at the time and applied to notebooks, desktops and servers.
    Solution 2 is usually costly, but you get what you pay for. You get the expertise of the seller/builder in selecting the right components, he builds it, installs the software and tests it before delivery. The downside is that often these specialists have their own favorite hardware, like Matrox or Canopus and try to get that into the deal, which increases the price.
    Solution 3 is usually the most cost effective and the most flexible, but the largest drawback is that you need to choose all the right components, to be aware of potential incompatibilities and build it yourself. Many see that as a major stumbling block, but really it is not difficult. Another drawback is support. You have to do it yourself.
    The first steps to take are twofold:
    1. What material do you want to edit and how do you want to deliver the results?
    To put it bluntly, if you want to edit material, recorded with a mobile phone, a digital still camera, recorded off the internet from YouTube or similar, recorded from TV, grabbed from the screen, encoded with any unsuitable codec like DivX, XVid, or the like, or ripped from DVD, and that is your major purpose, no need to read this further, just use a consumer application like Windows Movie Maker or Magix for your editing.
    This guide is for people who use a VIDEO camera and want to edit that.
    So for people with video cameras, what is the main format you use? DV, HDV, DVCPROHD, AVCHD, XDCAMHD, other?
    Do you deliver for the web, on BR or DVD or all of those?
    2. What is your budget?
    Once you have answered these two basic questions for yourself can you start the selection process.
    It will require you to read quite a lot about PC's. Good general sources of information are:
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    2. For AVCHD: i7 with HT or dual Xeon's 55xx
    3. For other HD formats: Core 2 Quad
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    To help you narrow down your choices, it is worthwhile to have a look at these charts:
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    I see you are losing interest, this is getting way too complicated. Well, I'm sorry but if you want to make an informed decision on what your next system should be, you need to understand these basics or buy a Dell or HP or even Alienware (a Dell subsidiary). And I continue to bore you with these technicalities in order to help you make a good purchasing decision.
    When selecting a mobo for the CPU you have selected, read tests on TomsHardware or AnandTech to help you find the good performers that have the right set of features for your job. Good brands are ASUS, Abit, Gigabyte and MSI for single socket use, for dual socket the best one to check out is SuperMicro or possibly Tyan.
    Pay attention to the features a board offers, like dual NIC's (network interface controller), dual firewire, number of SATA ports, chipset used for the SATA controller, IHCR and/or Marvell raid capability, on board sound, etcetera. Pay special attention to the board layout, where the PCI-e slots are located in relation to PCI slots. I have once built a machine where I knew I had to use a PCI firewire board and due to the location of the PCI-e slot and the size of the video card (dual slot size) the PCI slot was no longer accessible. It caused me quite some headaches to find a PCI-x firewire replacement board, because I had forgotten to have a close look at the mobo layout. Just a warning, so you don't fall into the same trap I did.
    Ok, we have now decided on the CPU and the mobo. Let's have a look at memory.
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    Memory is offered with various ratings. Often in marketing jargon these are dubbed as PC3-8500 or PC3-10600 or PC3-12800 up to 16000. This is all hype. The price tag increases significantly with higher numbers but the performance gain is negligent, in the order of 1 or 2 %. Your best bet is to get memory that is suitable for the FSB speed you have. If you have a FSB of 1333, use memory for 1333 FSB (10600), if you have a FSB of 1066, get 1066 capable memory (8500), it is a complete waste of money to get 1600 capable memory if your FSB does not support it. What is important however is to get the best timings you can find.
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    If you make sure that you have at least 512 MB on a decent modern video card, you will be hard pressed to see significant differences in performance. ATI Radeon 4xxx and nVidia GT 2xx series are all well up to the task for editing. If you use GPU intensive plug-ins like Colorista or Magic Bullet you may be wise to choose for the more powerful versions of these cards, since these plug-ins are very demanding when rendering.
    These video cards get very hot in practice and especially under load. If your case is very full or you have another card in the next PCI-e slot, reducing airflow to the video card, you may consider exchanging the stock cooler on the video card by a special cooler like the Accelero Twin Turbo from Arctic Cooling to keep temperatures in hand.
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    Now, we're finally getting somewhere. Only cooling is left, then all the hardware components have been chosen.
    CPU cooling: Again check sites like AnandTech. They regularly perform extensive tests on CPU coolers. Be aware that test results differ widely from site to site, but some of the names to consider are Noctua, Scythe and Thermaltake. It is best to choose a vertical heatsink cooler with 'push-pull' configuration, meaning one fan in front to push the cooling air in to the heatsink and the other fan at the rear to pull out the air. That generally delivers the best cooling performance. These things can be quite heavy so they are not suggested for LAN parties. Install it and leave your PC where it is, otherwise the weight may damage your mobo. When installing the heatsink be very sparing in applying cooling paste (Arctic silver is a good
    suggestion).
    If you have followed my advise in getting a big tower you have room for additional fans in the case. There may not always be holes to attach screws for mounting, but what also works quite effectively is using heavy duty double sided tape to attach fans to a side, on the PSU (if it is mounted at the bottom of the case). Scythe has some very good fans that give a large airflow at reasonable RPM's and low sound levels.
    Once you have built your system you need to decide what OS to use. 32 or 64 bit? The point seems moot now. 64 bit Vista is your best option currently. No driver problems anymore, somewhat decent stability and the use of all your installed memory. Windows 7 is only a RC currently, so I would not advise that on a production machine, but on another machine I would definitely try it. It is as stable as Vista is now, but drivers are still somewhat lacking. XP is out, despite the best stability on a clean and mean system, due to the 32 bit nature.
    After installing the OS, first check your device manager. Make sure that all your devices are working and there are no warnings. Then update Windows, drivers and other system utilities. Then check your hardware, using CPU-Z and HWMonitor, check the cooling and voltages. Your disks should be below 35 C at all times. Then tune your Bios. Once you have completed these steps, proceed with installing your software. Start with essential system tools like Process Explorer, Beyond Compare, etc. and then continue with tuning Windows, removing sh*t you never use on an editing machine, like MSN or Games, setting unneeded services to manual, disabling Windows Defender and installing Symantec Endpoint protection if you have it, and only then start installing CS4 and related programs.
    When all is well, you may consider to start overclocking. TomsHardware and AnandTech have published several articles on how to do that. If you do it right you will not lose stability and may get significant performance gains. It does require more attention to the temperatures in your case.
    When I recently built a new system, my first PassMark (a common benchmark testing program) score was around 3600. After finetuning the system, optimizing Windows and overclocking, I got a PassMark score of 4733.8, which even after a month is still number two in the worldwide ranking.
    For my system specs, look below, maybe you can derive some ideas from it for your next configuration:
    http://www.millcon.nl/Harm/PCResults.jpg
    I hope this has been informative and that you can profit from my remarks.
    I'm sorry this was so long and taxed your patience to the extreme.
    Further suggestions and enhancements are welcome.
    ================================================================================
    Yes, I'm going to tax your patience again. This is a guide to setup Vista 64 for NLE work, well it actually applies to any kind of work, but NLE machines may profit more than an Office/MSN machine. One caveat: What I suggest here is a lean and mean machine that is mainly dedicated to NLE work.
    First: It is always best to start with a clean install and a complete reformat of the disk. That will ensure that your registry is clean and leaves no leftovers from a previous install. Do not partition the drive, format the whole disk as one.
    After installation has completed, first select Control Panel and Personalize. Select Change Desktop icons and ensure that at least Computer is selected. You can choose other icons as well if you want to. I have all 5 selected.
    Next check Device Manager (right click This Computer, select Properties and then Device Manager) that you have no problems with drivers for any of your hardware. If there are any yellow exclamation symbols, solve these issues first by having Vista search for drivers and if it comes back with the message that no drivers could be found, get the latest 64 bit driver from the internet for this device.
    Once Device Manager has no more problems, go to Windows update and install all critical updates. Nothing more at this moment. After installation and rebooting, again check Device Manager for problems. There should be none. Otherwise get on the internet again and reinstall the latest Vista 64 drivers. Next right chick This Computer and select Manage and go to Event Viewer. Open the Windows Logs and click on System. Scroll through the events and check out any errors or warnings you see. Search the Microsoft Technet for solutions. This is the link to the very informative Technet site to help you solve any issues you may have: Microsoft Technet
    Next go to Control Panel, select Programs and Features and select turn Windows features on or off. You may not need anymore than these Windows Features and possibly less, for instance if you don't use a network printer. Also this may be a good moment to turn off User Account Control via Control Panel/Security Settings.
    Next go to Vista Services and use the instructions and the table shown to modify the services, so only those are started that are needed in your situation. Anything not needed will only increase boot time and will consume resources, placing a higher overhead on the system than needed.
    After rebooting, update all your drivers if you have not already done so. For instance, if you have an ATI card, download the latest drivers, but remember you can do without the Catalyst Control Center. Their drivers are typically denoted by y.m (year, month) so currently the latest is version 9.5
    Now go to Control Panel, System and select Advanced system settings, select Visual Effects and select Adjust for best performance, apply and then select the Advanced tab, click on Performance settings, select the Advanced tab, Select Adjust for best performance of programs and then change the Virtual memory. Setup your pagefile with a custom size with equal numbers for Initial and Maximum size on another drive than your C disk and set the C drive to No paging file. If you have read my Storage rules for an editing rig guide, you know you need a fixed size of around 1 to 1.5 times installed memory, unless you have lots of RAM, then you can easily go lower.
    Reboot and right click on This Computer, select Manage and select Disk Management. Select drive C, right click Properties and make sure that Index this drive for faster searching and Compress this drive to save disk space are both turned off. Click Disk Cleanup and clean what can be deleted. Repeat these steps for all of your drives. Next go to the Tools tab and select Defragment Now and defrag all drives. While you are at the Disk Defragment window, setup a daily defragging schedule, for instance during your lunch break. That will keep your disks optimized.
    This will make sure that the space previously occupied by the pagefile on the C drive is reclaimed and that the new pagefile on another drive is not fragmented and at the very beginning of the drive in the fastest location (at least if the disk was newly formatted and not used).
    If you haven't done so yet, completely turn off the Sidebar and do not have it autostart.
    No application has been installed yet, so it is time to start with some essential utilities.
    The first thing I do is turning off Windows Defender and install Symantec Endpoint Protection.
    Next I install Ccleaner. A very handy freeware tool to keep your system and the registry clean and to remove or disable registry based auto startup programs.
    The next one to install is the Sysinternals Suite and most notably Process Explorer, Process Monitor and Autoruns. Depending on your use, other utilities in the Suite may be nice to install as well. Installation is done by extracting the relevant files to the C:\Windows directory. Run Process Explorer once and in the Options menu select Replace Task Manager.
    Other utilities I install (but of course you may have different favorites) are Beyond Compare, HWMonitor, SpeedFan, SnagIt and 1ClickPCFix
    You are now ready to install your regular software. After installation, registration and activation of all your software use Ccleaner, Tools to check for unnecessary Startup entries in the registry. Disable or remove them. Next check your registry by scanning for issues and fix selected issues. Defragment all your disks again and make a restore point.
    If you want to get rid of the ridiculously large shortcut arrow at this moment, go to this site: Remove Shortcut Arrow and follow Method 1.
    Reboot and you are ready to go with a hopefully much faster and efficient Vista machine.
    If you encounter difficulties and have problems that want to ask about on the forum, be prepared to include a screenshot from Process Explorer and either HWMonitor or Speedfan and a link to DXDIAG.txt
    Thanks for your patience and I hope you have found some tips and tricks to improve performance.

    In general theory, one now has the Edit button for their posts, until someone/anyone Replies to it. I've had Edit available for weeks, as opposed to the old forum's ~ 30 mins.
    That, however, is in theory. I've posted, and immediately seen something that needed editing, only to find NO Replies, yet the Edit button is no longer available, only seconds later. Still, in that same thread, I'd have the Edit button from older posts, to which there had also been no Replies even after several days/weeks. Found one that had to be over a month old, and Edit was still there.
    Do not know the why/how of this behavior. At first, I thought that maybe there WAS a Reply, that "ate" my Edit button, but had not Refreshed on my screen. Refresh still showed no Replies, just no Edit either. In those cases, I just Reply and mention the [Edit].
    Also, it seems that the buttons get very scrambled at times, and Refresh does not always clear that up. I end up clicking where I "think" the right button should be and hope for the best. Seems that when the buttons do bunch up they can appear at random around the page, often three atop one another, and maybe one way the heck out in left-field.
    While I'm on a role, it would be nice to be able to switch between Flattened and Threaded Views on the fly. Each has a use, and having to go to Options and then come back down to the thread is a very slow process. Jive is probably incapable of this, but I can dream.
    Hunt

  • How to edit a multiple audio video clip on Premiere

    Hello everybody
    Maybe this is a dumb question, I'm sorry if I'm asking what is obvious for you, but I swear I tried to find on the web and on this forum, but I couldn't find anything.
    Well, I made a video using a screen capture software called Dxtory, that provides me the ability to record my PC screen, with multiple audio tracks.
    Ok, now I have a 15gb avi file. When I open this file in the Media Player Classic, I can play one or both channels. The first channel is the original audio captured from my PC. Every audio generated by my PC is in this track. The second track is my voice, with my commentaries. I have all of this in one single file. They are not splited. It's just one file.
    Then when I import into Premiere, the software just recognize the video track and the first audio track. I can't find the second, with my voice.
    I know I can split the clip into 3 files (1 video and 2 audios) but it would take longer. I just want to drop the file on Premiere and edit the audio volumes quickly, because when I talk I would like to low the volume of the PC audio.
    Now, the question: Is there a way to Premiere recognize both tracks in this single file? How?
    Thanks in advance for any help.

    I'm actually surprised that Pr can import this at all--the video is Xvid. Maybe it's some variant that Pr's importers can handle, as Jeff suggested. I dunno--it doesn't play well for me, regardless, and I'm not going to install the Dxtory codec to find out.
    Anyway, to the matter at hand: while AVIs can, apparently, contain multiple audio tracks, Pr's importers are limited to a single track. However, Pr has other importers than can handle multiple audio tracks. QuickTime--which is a wholly different process--supports multiple audio tracks, as does MXF (some flavors). However, Xvid in QuickTime (which is feasible) won't import in Pr (at least on a PC), and Xvid won't go into an MXF file at all; that means you'd have to transcode. Personally, this would be my choice--but I found that the original clip played back pretty terribly, so that would be why I'd go that route.
    Additionally, you could extract the second audio track to a separate WAV file, import both the AVI and WAV, and then use the Merge Clips feature to marry them together as one pseudo-clip. Not perfect, but it would work. The benefit is that you don't re-encode anything.
    So, I've got solutions for both the re-encode/MXF option (my preference) and the AVI/WAV option. Here's proof of the MXF (transcoded video to XDCAMHD422 50Mbps) with four audio channels (stereo must be split to dual mono):
    At the end of the day, these (or a variation of them) are your only options. Pr simply won't import multiple audio tracks (even dual mono) in an AVI container. Let me know if you're interested in either of the solutions.

  • Off the top of anyone's head, is H.264/MPEG-4 AVC safe for editing?

    Hi. My Samsung MX20 camcorder outputs as MP4, and I tried converting it to AVI because I thought that there would be more trimming tools for AVI. I tried probably 3 or more MP4 to AVI converters, and all AVI ouputs never played properly in Elements. I had the following 2 problems happen to me that have been addressed already in the forums:
    Premier Elemenets 7 playing clip too fast, audio normal...
    http://forums.adobe.com/message/2613385
    .AVI video not importing correctly. Imports as audio only.
    http://forums.adobe.com/message/2712057
    In addition to these 2 things, I got random stuttering with other AVI files.
    I couldn't figure out how to trim and export with VirtualDub without blowing up the size, so I gave up on that. I recently found good MP4 cutting software, such as Yamb, so I thought I was good. But after testing it out, the sync was off. I tried other splitting software, but there were problems also with the MP4 that was output.
    I’ve decided to not convert, split, or touch the original MP4s.
    Here’s my Gspot:
    http://i.imgur.com/TdaGn.png
    I downloaded the K-lite codec pack and ffdshow, but my windows media player doesn’t play the camcorder files, which I don’t’ mind, because VLC and Quicktime do. The camcorder files play in Elements 7, but I think there’s some choppiness that is due to my slow computer.
    I was just wondering if H.264/MPEG-4 AVC is a red flag in the same way that Divx and Xvid are.
    I saw a description of a Sanyo Xacti VPC-E camcorder that outputs as AVC/H.264 also, and that product comes bundled with Elements 4. 7 should be compatible right?
    Thanks.
    I probably shouldn’t post since the original MP4s play, but I’m just wondering if this type (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) may be problematic later on.

    I can't find any evidence in the specs for this camcorder that is shoots in AVCHD video.
    From the specs it appears that the camcorder shoots standard-def video. Beyond that, the specs are pretty vague, so I have to take your word for it that it saves video as MP4s.
    Unfortunately, if it is not saving to the AVCHD standard, the video is not likely to be compatible with Premiere Elements and you will not be able to edit it without converting it to a more standard format, like DV-AVI. This could well explain why you are experiencing the other challenges you describe.
    The FAQs to the right of our forum describe how to convert to DV-AVIs. Super, which is free, may work -- but Quicktime Pro, which costs $29 from Apple.com, definitely will.
    http://forums.adobe.com/thread/415317?tstart=0
    Also, which project preset did you choose when  you opened your Premiere Elements project? That too could be relevant.

  • What is the best format & settings to edit video in FCP?

    My organization uses a HD Panasonic Camera to record video, which is recorded in .MTS. Our editing software (FCP 7) is installed on a Mac and I am unable to view or edit the original video until I convert it into a different format using iSkysoft iMedia Converter. Recently I have been converting it into what I think is similar settings to the original file (.MOV, Xvid, 1280x720, 30 fps, 1200 kbps). Are these settings appropriate for editing video? If not, could you please offer advice as to what settings I should convert the video into.
    Thank you for your help.
    (This post is relative to a similar question I asked earlier today, but this post is for future reference so I start projects on the right foot).

    WHich Panasonic HD camera. MTS means that it is an AVCHD camera. And no, you can't edit those directly, but FCP has an import tool for tapeless media called LOG AND TRANSFER (in the FILE menu). You use that to import the footage from that camera. It will convert the footage to ProRes or Apple INtermediate codec. THOSE are the formats you need to convert to. What is found in the EASY SETUP list. Not just any QT will work...not every QT format is editable.
    What you need to do is backup the entire SD card to a drive, or import from the SD card. But the full card structure needs to be present in order for FCP to do this.
    If Log and Transfer doesn't work, then you use CLIPWRAP to convert to ProRes.
    Shane

  • Where do I get the XviD codec for quicktime?

    I tried googling but no dice. Quicktime seven sometimes tries to get the Codec when some Xvid movies are played but it comes back with a message of unavailable. I can play Xvid on my computer but not with quicktime.

    You were very helpful, I found out after visiting the link you kindly posted that the current codec does NOT work with quicktime 7. That answers all the related issues I have had and why I could play Xvid before (I had a older version of quicktime 6.x). Now I have to choose whether I want H264 viewing abilities with 7 or XviD with a version less than seven. For now I will watch with other players. One thing I like about quicktime pro is the basic movie editing feature. One can cut out a piece with general accuracy and same the result as a self contained file without having to encode again, that saves a lot of time when I have some commercials to cut out of a tv episode before viewing the show.

  • Add/edit audio, can i avoid to recode/render the video?

    Hi
    i run premiere cc under w8.1 pro 64bit
    i would like to know can i avoid to recode/render my video if i edit/add audio  ?
    in case i can do ,is video codec dependent ?
    for example i load a video avi Codec: MPEG-4 Video (XVID)  i had to edit the audio , and i want to save , is there a way to avoid another render/recode ?
    thanks

    The nice fellow over at this site created an audio only cross dissolve in Motion and inlcuded the files and instructions for getting it into FCP X.
    http://alex4d.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/fcpx-transition-sound-only/
    Hope it helps you like it has helped me.

  • Editing in time line alters video output quality.

    This is weird. If I import a basic AVI (raw 1280x768 ) in to a project with the same settings and drop that into the time line, then just export (no editing) some frames or whole sequence (to any file type/codec at the same size and settings) the resulting file is clear as a bell, looks great. But, if I do ~any~ cutting at all the resulting file looks like crap (again with the same export settings as before). I also noticed that in the program window the same thing happens, if the file hasnt been chopped up the view is crystal clear, along with any renders, as soon as I cut it (lets say I remove the first 5 seconds of the clip in the timeline with the "cut" tool) the Program window gets messed up (image gets blurry) and all the resulting renders are also poor. What Am I doing wrong???? Please help.

    Yes, Xvid and DivX, are both very heavily compressed CODEC's, and are most often seen in the AVI wrapper.
    With either, conversion is the best route, if you have to edit the "delivery-only" material. Please note: file conversion will not regain all the data, lost in compression - only get the file into an editable form.
    Good luck,
    Hunt

  • Converting xvid avi files for premiere pro 5.5 properly?

    I am using Premiere Pro 5.5 for the first time.  I have footage from an older Flip camera with the following specs that I need to convert.  I have MPEG Streamclip to convert the files.
    What format should I convert them to?  What settings in streamclip should I use?  Should I keep them as AVI files or convert to mp4 or mpeg or something else?  I don't have the fastest computer setup or a ton of storage space to work with, but would like to have the right format for my imports so that I don't have problems editing.  Thanks for the help. 
    Source footage:
    File type: .avi
    Format: XVid (Perian), 640x480, Millions Microsoft ADPCM, Mono, 44.100 KHz
    FPS: 30
    Data Rate: 7,760.50 KBit/S
    Size: 640x480 pixels (actual)
    Working with:
    -Premiere Pro CS5.5
    -MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 duo, 4GB ram, OSX 10.6.8
    -1 TB external hard drive to store footage and projects

    premiere should be able to use the installed xvid codec software to read the files. some xvid files will report they are mp4 files, so sometimes it possible to play them back using quicktime or another mp4 video player without xvid installed at all. if they playback choppy in premiere and export improperly, then you may want to try uninstalling the xvid and see if they behave any better. can also see if installing an older or new version of xvid works any better.  i use a windows computer, so while it should work the same, i dont know for certain...
    xvid and mp4 are heavily compressed, which means it takes more computing power to play them back and edit. prores will make larger files, that aren't so compressed, therefore will be easier on a computer to read and edit with.

  • Good site for Video Editing tools (open source)

    I'm a recent convert to Mac, and I'm having a hard time finding comparable tools to what is available via open source on the Windows side. Specifially in the H.264 arena. There are a multitude of open source encoding tools for Windows. I'm sure there have to be some for Mac. Are there any good sites that list these? I'm tried versiontracker and The Mac Orchard, but I'm hoping for something more specific like VideoHelp.com
    Any suggestions? I'm looking for encoding software that can do inverse telecine, import DivX/Xvid/DV, Trim video (to remove letterboxing), and encode to H.264.
    Thanks!

    Can't help with the video stuff, but since you're a newcomer to the Mac, see these:
    Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
    Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
    MacFixIt Tutorials,
    MacTips, and
    Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition.
    And a link to open source software: http://sourceforge.net/ Search for *multimedia for Mac*.
    Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:
    Quick Assist.
    Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides, and
    A guide for switching to a Mac.

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