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Basic video editing questions


UstadKhanAli

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I'm having some Super 8 and Hi-8 stuff that I shot a few years ago transferred to MPEG-4 on DVD.

 

I was kinda interested in editing some of these and then burning them to DVD. I don't want to do anything fancy, I just want to chop some stuff out, maybe add some audio (narration or music - doesn't have to sync up with the video perfectly), that kind of thing. Really basic stuff. I've just never done it before.

 

- Is iMovie a good application for the above? I can get it with iLife for about $50 (and I have an Apple gift card for $50).

 

- Does iMovie easily import MPEG-4 and burn to DVD easily so I can view it on a DVD player later on?

 

Suggestions and comments are greatly appreciated!

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I dunno, but while you've got a thread going about this... I'm trying to do the reverse kinda: rip some live video from a DVD and make it into a format suitable for YouTube (they prefer MP4), and be able to chop it up into individual songs.

 

Any software that will do this and not cost an arm and a leg?

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I'm an iLife version behind so I can't answer Ken's question. This may also involve QuickTime Pro for the H.264

 

 

QuickTime 7 Pro for Mac OS X


Easily create movies for iPod or your mobile phone, capture movies in a single click, save movies from the web, share movies via email or .Mac, create stunning H.264 video, play movies in full screen, and much more.

 

 

re: Lee's question

I have used the freeware DVD decrypter to extract video from DVD. This is no longer posted. You may find it in the wild.

 

Currently I would recommend the full version of NERO 7. There are some substantial rebate programs for the retail package. It does a graceful job on MPEG-2 editing and MPEG-4 encoding. It will waste very little of your time.

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I bought a 300GB drive just to handle all the AES videos I did for the site. And I STILL had to blow away the uncompressed AVI rendered files after I converted them to M4V/MP4, or 300GB wouldn't have been nearly enough. Then again, I think the total AES footage is close to three hours, so it's a lot o' stuff.

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Originally posted by John Sayers

You might want to look at Ulead Video 10 - for $99 you can edit it to frame accuracy, add audio, draw audio volume curve etc and export to all formats including wmv, DVD, Mpeg, mp4 etc.


cheers

john

 

 

John,

 

I use Ulead PhotoImpact 10 for all of my photo editing and it's been a really great program for my needs. I've never researched the Video 10 product; does it allow multiple music formats for importing the music tracks as well as the video formats? Also, do you know the maximum bit rate that is allowed for music applications; some programs are very limited.

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Originally posted by John Sayers

You might want to look at Ulead Video 10 - for $99 you can edit it to frame accuracy, add audio, draw audio volume curve etc and export to all formats including wmv, DVD, Mpeg, mp4 etc.


cheers

john

 

Thanks, I'll check into this. So is iMovie not something I should check into then? I really don't need anything fancy, just something that does what I mentioned in the first post. Thank you for all the answers.

 

And yes, I know I'd likely get better results on an iMovie forum, but I figured that since we were all warm and fuzzy here, I'd check here first!! :D

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Originally posted by Ani



John,


I use Ulead PhotoImpact 10 for all of my photo editing and it's been a really great program for my needs. I've never researched the Video 10 product; does it allow multiple music formats for importing the music tracks as well as the video formats? Also, do you know the maximum bit rate that is allowed for music applications; some programs are very limited.

 

 

Ani - it allows you to import audio files and lay them on the music track, as opposed to the dialogue track. It allows all the known audio formats as far as I can see including wave through to mp4.

 

I also forgot to mention the ability to add titles in any font and size plus you can resize the picture and add dissolves/cross fades between edits etc. There is a selection of various transitions etc.

 

The video I posted of recently of Oasis Studio HERE was created using the program. I added the voice over later and the music you hear is from the original video track but turned down using a standard draw volume option.

 

It's no Avid but for $99.........

 

cheers

john

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Here is something that is supposed to convert mpeg-4 easily so you can use it in iMovie, in case anyone looks this up later. Someone on the iMovie/Apple Forums site mentioned: "or connect Your Camera to a DVD-player and copy to tape or import through if Your Camera handles that...

 

iMovie is a video edit app meant to work with firewire connected miniDV camcorders"

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Is ULead Video 10 good for things like slow dissolves and that kind of thing? Would you say it's quite easy to use? As I mentioned, I really don't need anything fancy. I just want to easily edit my stuff and then spit it back out to DVD for viewing. Thanks!

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Yes Ken - I found it easy to use. Took a day or so to figure it out.

 

Yes you can import your video files, in all different formats and mix and match and join them together into one video - you can then export that new video in all kinds of formats right through to DVD authorising.

 

BTW - I've just realised my version is Ulead Video Studio PLUS!

still only $99 though.

 

cheers

john

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i-movie works great... especially for simple editing and voice over type stuff. The UI is intuitive and the integration with i-dvd (which also works great and is included in i-life) sets you up fine for burning your project to a menu driven dvd. As mentioned above, you can really blow through a bunch of hard disk space editing movies but if you got the space these aps work great. Good luck.

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Hey Ken,

 

Wow I'm kinda doing the same thing.

 

My mom just got back from a big European vacation and sent me all of her pictures. I'm in the process of PhotoShoping the pic's while she's picking out what order she wants them to appear in.

 

I bought Sony-Vegas and am going to make a slide show set to music with her naration. It's going to be a lot of work, but something she'll treasure forever.

 

Vegas came with Sony DVD Architect and has a boat load of features to make a really profesional looking DVD.

 

We might have to compair a few notes.

 

Good luck,

Russ

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Absolutely, Russ. I've seen advertisements for Sony Vegas and it looks great.

 

For right now, I'm gonna assume that iMovie (largely because it seems easy to use and is free since I have an Apple gift certificate) is the way to go, coupled with StreamClip, something that converts MPEG-4 to something iMovie can read.

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Originally posted by Lee Flier

I dunno, but while you've got a thread going about this... I'm trying to do the reverse kinda: rip some live video from a DVD and make it into a format suitable for YouTube (they prefer MP4), and be able to chop it up into individual songs.


Any software that will do this and not cost an arm and a leg?

 

 

There is a nice, fully working package, all for free, called:

 

RipIt4Me

 

http://www.ripit4me.org/

 

It is basically a "one click" solution. You can down shrink a dual layer DVD to a 4.7 GB media without visible loss...

 

.

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