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Fun with Video Editing

Stuart Ablett

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
Well, I've been having no success with editing my video from the recent turning symposium. It turns out, my HDD camera, on the "Normal" setting, not the "HQ" setting, makes HUGE files, and these files are just too big for my computers to handle, they just choke on the files, even the smallest of the files, maybe 20 minutes long, these are WAY too big.

So, now I'm trying to figure a way out to slice these things up so I can at least convert them into smaller slices and then reduce them in quality.

The format is working against me, it is some format that is "MOD" which can only be edited by the software that comes with the camera.

The Camera has some software on board that can edit the video, but I cannot figure it out. The camera is NOT to the best of my knowledge available outside of Japan, so finding a manual.

If anyone who knows of a program that can split up a MOD file into smaller bites, I'd appreciate it.

Cheers!
 
Thanks Glenn, I heard that you can just change the extension to .MPG, but then the audio and the video do not sync properly, at least in the few files I've tried.

The one video file is 4 Gb, so maybe you can see why my computes are choking on them :doh:

I know, I know, time to buy an Apple......... :rolleyes:
 
I hear ya...just did a family reunion slide show...pictures and music. Got to 4 Gig and it took 2 hours to render. Everyone tells me I need to go Apple for this stuff...but I just can't justify it.
 
Stuart Ablett said:
Thanks Glenn, I heard that you can just change the extension to .MPG, but then the audio and the video do not sync properly, at least in the few files I've tried.

The one video file is 4 Gb, so maybe you can see why my computes are choking on them :doh:

I know, I know, time to buy an Apple......... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Stuart,

The 52-minute dovetail Episode 3 was 13 GB before rendering. It took only 2-1/2 hours to render to MP-4 (Quicktime format).

I do this on a Dell M90 laptop (17-inch wide-format screen), 2 GHz, 2GB RAM, 70 GB internal drive, 500 GB external Firewire drive. The laptop was $1,800 from the Dell Outlet, which is a fraction of what they cost new. The External drive was extra, of course. This is my setup with the dual monitors, which the NVidia graphics card accommodates right out of the box - in this shot I am working on eCabinet Systems software, and also looking at the eCabs forum on the monitor on the left:

nVidiaDualFlatPanelsDisplays.jpg


So, although I would also like an Apple machine, the WinXP machines CAN do a terrific job! You just need a very high-end machine, which is comparable in price to the Apple machine that does video beautifully. PLUS I can still use the WinXP machine for the engineering stuff I still do on occasion.


.
 
Just to let you know an hour of video will eat up 13 G :eek::eek::eek:

A great program for editing is Adobe Premier elements. It has all the features you can think of and only costs $99. ( Actually most of the editing programs cost about $99 :D:D ) It can deal with many formats but don't know about yours but wouldn't be surprised.


P.S.

Wow in the time I wrote this the new post beat me. haa haa I do my editing on a Dell also but it is a desk top. If you want to do editing you really need a minimum of 2 G ram.
 
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Thanks guys

Seems a computer upgrade is needed, then.

The best machine I have is 1.6 GHz and 785,888 Kb of RAM (767.5 Mb?)

Maybe I'll see what 2 Gb of Ram would cost me :dunno:

Cheers!
 
Stu,

Old myths die hard. Here's the low down: apples aren't even apples anymore, and haven't been for a while. They're intel machines running Linux. This is what good marketing can do for you... you can actually get people to believe that the same thing is different... ;)

"The best machine I have is 1.6 GHz and 785,888 Kb of RAM"

Well, there's your problem. You want to play the HD game, you want two gig of ram. Probably double the processor speed. And a sweet video card.

If you want to see what a good wintel machine can do with video, try this:

http://opusprize.cua.edu

One of my guys knocked off the forum piece today. Had it up not long after the forum was over. The impressive editing is in the top, hi-rez, link...

Yeah, it's done on wintel. You think the big hollywood render farms are running mac stuff? Those guys run linux... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Bill Lantry said:
Stu,

Old myths die hard. Here's the low down: apples aren't even apples anymore, and haven't been for a while. They're intel machines running Linux. This is what good marketing can do for you... you can actually get people to believe that the same thing is different... ;)
Click to expand...

The current Macs have adapted the Intel CPUs and dropped the PowerPC chips. Apple uses hardware from various manufacturers, but makes the "Mac Computer" final product themselves. OS X, the operating system that makes a Mac...a Mac, is based on Unix.
 
Well, I lied, my other machine is a bit better, 1 GHz cpu and 1 GB of RAM, the video card is NOT top drawer, but is not "On Board" either, still the system chokes hard on this whole video editing thing.

I want an Apple, I see them doing this stuff "Out of the box" with ease, while the windows machines seem to have to be "High End" and "Loaded for Bear" to do as good a job...... :dunno:

I have 6 windows machines operating right now, sure, a couple of them are getting long in the tooth, but the better ones are a couple years old, and not base units when they came out. I see that couple year old Mac would not have the same problems.......no?

Cheers!
 
I may be wrong, but I'd suspect a couple-year-old Mac with a gig of RAM would choke about as bad as your Windows box does now. A Mac equipped to handle video like you're talking about is probably about on par price-wise with the higher-end Windows machine.

That said, even though I'm firmly entrenched with Windows stuff, I think the Mac would be a good fit for you now.
 
Stuart Ablett said:
...The format is working against me, it is some format that is "MOD" which can only be edited by the software that comes with the camera...
Click to expand...
Stuart,

I just realized I never addressed this question - sorry!

I believe ALL you have to do is change the file suffix to *.mpg, and then use ULead's VideoStudio program to manipulate the video files. I believe the latest version is 11; you can download a free trial version at http://www.ulead.com/vs/features.htm . Try this before you go out to buy a new computer.

Let us know how things turn out. Enjoy!


Edit to add:

Yep!!! This page shows it supports the MOD file format: http://www.ulead.com/vs/features_2.htm . The info is located about 80% down on the page.



.
 
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My "Main Man" Mac is a few years old... Dual 2Ghz G5 processors, 3Gb RAM, Dual serial ATA 160Gb hard drives, ATI Radeon 9600 Video card (should upgrade) 1680 x 1050 resolution, driving a 20" Apple Cinema display. I'm running OS X (10.5) Leopard and iLife '08. I haven't done a lot of video (yet), but this guy doesn't choke on much.....:thumb:






I paid $1,250 for it a couple years ago. :eek:

Nothing wrong with the old G5s, Stu.
 
Greg,

Sorry, didn't mean to press a button, I just get frustrated with the religious wars. I'm responsible for somewhere around 2,500 machines (triple that if you count all the student machines in the dorms). Things are hard enough already. This week I fielded a request from a philosophy professor, who said she absolutely needed a mac laptop because she was going to be doing graphics for her lectures on Aristotelean dynamics. When I got her into my office, I asked her what program she'd be running. The answer:

.

.

wait for it...

.


.

Sketchup! Yup, that's why she needed a 3K $ mac laptop. Had it all specced out and everything. I dug a little deeper, and realized she'd never even actually learned sketchup, and not only that, it won't even do what she needs. So I pointed her to a program called interactive physics, which will do everything she needs, runs on any platform, and costs less than $100. When she realized she didn't need, and wasn't going to get, her very fancy new status symbol, she expressed disappointment. What would she tell her teenager, who thought she was cool. I pointed out it would be a good lesson in Aristotle's concept of moderation.

You can see why I get frustrated... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Bill,

Sounds like a Nutty Professor pushed your button...:doh: rather than a Mac/PC argument...:rofl::rofl:

I've just had a better experience, gotten more done..business as well as personal...with Macs than with PCs. To each his own.... About the only thing that gets my dander up is when some jerk pops off with "there ain't no software for Macs....":eek: :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Oh, I do have a Sony Vaio running Vista..just to keep up...:thumb:

G
 
Al Navas said:
Stuart,

I just realized I never addressed this question - sorry!

I believe ALL you have to do is change the file suffix to *.mpg, and then use ULead's VideoStudio program to manipulate the video files. I believe the latest version is 11; you can download a free trial version at http://www.ulead.com/vs/features.htm . Try this before you go out to buy a new computer.

Let us know how things turn out. Enjoy!


Edit to add:

Yep!!! This page shows it supports the MOD file format: http://www.ulead.com/vs/features_2.htm . The info is located about 80% down on the page.



.
Click to expand...

But........... to use that new Video Studio 11, I have to have Win XP installed, I'm still stuck on Win 2K....... I know, I know....... :doh:
 
I did try Al, and no luck.

I have their ver 6 and I like it very much, but it just chokes on this stuff, too much for it.

I guess I'll have to ask Santa San for a new computer :D
 
Yep, I can, and they want fairly big money for it.

I'd rather save that money for an Apple, but I might have to break down and BUY XP, at least if I buy it second hand, I'm not sending money to Uncle Bill.......... :doh:
 
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