I'm supposed to edit footage taken at a conference but I'm really lost. The person who shot the footage didn't convert it to the MP? format that's needed to edit it and I don't know how to convert it etc - need help finding free programs for conversion and editing.
Support rabble | Advertise with us | Contact our staff | About rabble | Log-in or Register for a new account | Corrections | Privacy policy | Newsfeeds | Mailing lists
rabble: Features | Columnists | In Cahoots | Blogs | Books | Photos | What's Up | Polls
babble: Forum Topics | Active Topics
The rpn: Become a Podcaster | Find a Show
rabbleTV: Program Guide | Features | Indie Inside | Best of the net
Copyright © 2001-2012 the authors
What format was it shot on? What program are you using for the edit?
Hi akaMycroft.
My partner has suggested you go to 2-pop, a site with an online discussion forum for digital filmmakers. Someone there may be able to help you. Beware, it's very technical and they are serious on there. My partner's in the media field, and he also told me that he knows of no free software for converting files.
Good luck!
What format is the video in? Without knowing, I'd suggest you use iMovie09 on the Mac side (free). Or, Movie Maker on the PC side (also free). But, knowing the format will be helpful as some formats are tricky and need special treatment (AVCHD and MOD for example)
Hi akaMycroft.
My partner has suggested you go to 2-pop, a site with an online discussion forum for digital filmmakers. Someone there may be able to help you. Beware, it's very technical and they are serious on there. My partner's in the media field, and he also told me that he knows of no free software for converting files.
Oy vey, too technical. Anyway, there's lots of free software (example converting .mov to .avi). Gotta wait for aka M to tell us what format it's in though.
And one of my favourite sites for audio-video guides (conversion etc.) plus discussion forums is Afterdawn.
Yes, let's find out what Mycroft has first. Also, you get talking with the techies, sometimes it's hard to figure out what they're saying and they get very bound up in stuff that's irrelevent to a simple edit.
I got sony vegas software for my birthday a few years ago and it is pretty good. I would not advise you to make a dvd because the dvd format is open to interpitation. Aparently the dvd standard is a giant book and it gets "interpeted" by different software and dvd players. the sony stuff for making dvds is called dvd architect. It plays great on some players and some will not read the menu properly. Even with vcd's this happens. There is also dvd options that come with your computers. From experience I would say "stay away from them". They convert in one direction too and nothing else can read their files properly.
The free stuff that comes on the computer is good to a point. But the problem is that it will only convert to certain formats. WMV and avi for windows. It is just a funnel to bring everyone to a windows world and key functions are missing. Wmv only started to work on my linux computes last year. I used the mpg1 format for youtube and it is pretty good to convert minidv tape to mpg1 too. Mpg 1 is vcd quality. Plenty good for a home movie.
The sony vegas one will read and write to so many formats and gives more compression options too.
Vegas will also import mini dvd's and read them from canon camcorders and others. Not much else will read them. (Which is crap). A guy gave me his old mini dvd camcorder for that reason. His fancy new computer could not read or edit the disks!
Vegas gives you about 5 tracks for mixing sound and video and the option to cut and paste and split without affecting the stuff you are working on.
You can slow down and speed up video too. Help is built in. But you need someone who has used the software in the first few days to bring you up to speed. So thats my advice, spend a few dollars and get something that is not crippled. Do not even bother to learn the "free" stuff that comes with a windows computer. And just make computer playable video. DVD is too hit and miss. I can send computer video home to my brother on a dvd with named folders with 3 or 4 times as much video as a dvd would contain. And I know it can play. If I send a dvd propper, it may not play in anything, except perhaps a computer.
Windows movie maker and the others just do not have all the options that you need so why learn a crippled program?
It will just hold you back.
What format was it shot on? What program are you using for the edit?
Sorry, I made the mistake of putting this on the back burner which has ended up in my getting somewhat burnt:)
Most of the files on the disks are in .VOB format. I believe I have to get these translated to MP4s or something like that in order to edit (eventually they are to go up on YouTube so is MP4 the format I should aim for or is there a better one?). Any suggestions for how I can get these files converted? Is there a free program on the web that will do this? If not is there an inexpensive one I can purchase?
I don't have an editing program - I was hoping to find something free on the web. Any suggestions?
There are many free programs which will do the trick. VOB is just the standard format for DVD files. I strongly suggest you convert them to AVI files with DIVX compression. Then you can upload to YouTube or Vimeo or whatever, and you can also burn them to DVD and play them back on any DVD player that has the term "DIVX" somewhere on the package (many do, just look for it). If you just google "convert .vob to .avi", you will have an embarras de richesse to choose from. Let me know if that doesn't help, and I'll find you something specific.
Hi Mycroft,
Here's my advice for what it's worth......
If you are using a standard video editing suite (most of them) I STRONGLY suggest you DO NOT USE DIVX compression to transfer it to an .AVI for editing. I recommend that you use dv (digital video) compression if you must- none would be even better - but most systems can't handle fully uncompressed footage. Simply put, you want to edit in the least compressed Video quality possible, because the quality will suffer the more times it is compressed. .VOB files are indeed DVD standard, however the DVD compression method used is Mpeg2. If you have editing software that can edit MPG2 files directly, then the best idea would be to use one of the many free/shareware VOB to MPEG2 converters (make sure if possible that when it "rips" that it doesn't re compress the file. I.E MPEG (.VOB) files can be compressed at various rates on a dvd, you want the actual Mpeg files at whatever compression they are already at. From there, if you can edit the MPEG2 files directly then do it, if not go with "DV" .AVI compression as mentioned above.
If you have any questions feel free to send me a message. (I am a video editor among other things)
Hope that helps!
I have done some screencast video to explain art of illusion software for solar reflector design. but I use linux and the video comes out in ogg video format. Fine but I cannot convert it to anything else. Vegas does not recognise it so it cannot edit it. is there something that can covert ogg video to mpg? And please not the command line stuff.
Now that's a new one for me Brian... Are you looking for a linux program or a windows one? LMK I Will do a little research and get back to you.....
How about this?