What's up peeps, just trying to figure out whats a good deal for my buck. Not looking to create music videos or feature length films etc. Just home videos in HD quality. Been using movie maker on my pc, but the files are very huge (not able to email) so I've been forced to convert using this online site from wvm.--->mov. This shrinks the file well, but It really kills my quality. Vid looks very choppy.

I'm thinking if I just created the video file AS an mov. it would look a lot better. Unfortunately I can't do that with windows movie maker. Any suggestions? Thank you

12/1/2010 4:51:18 PM

Have you tried Live Essentials 2011? Or are you using the stock movie maker?

Premiere Elements is not bad, and only like $45.

Not a whole lot on the free/nonpro front that I'm aware of. Unless you're really technical and want to buck up to some of the opensource editors.

As for file size, you'll want to encode to Xvid, DIVX, or (best) h.264. 1/2 the file size of MPEG2 with almost identical quality. Myriad of tools to make that happen. Try Sourceforge.

12/1/2010 5:13:40 PM

its the Stock movie maker. Where can I get this premiere element from? I went to comp usa earlier and the average price of these products were like 120$

I just need something simple. I import the mts files from my HD camcorder to my pc. Then from there to Movie Maker. The videos are AWESOME hd quality (I don't use the software that comes with the camcorder bc it robs the quality as well). But the files are just to big to email (thats the whole purpose for them).

**If I had a better software, I could just import the files and create them as mov. files and that would do the trick I think.

[Edited on December 1, 2010 at 5:29 PM. Reason : /]

12/1/2010 5:27:51 PM

Make sure your computer is up to the task. I am switching from standard definition to high defnition editing, and finding that you better have some top-of-the line specs, or use the right codec.

http:///message_topic.aspx?topic=605432

We have discussed it briefly here
Adobe Premiere Elements comes with some camcorders. Check the software that came with yours.



[Edited on December 1, 2010 at 5:40 PM. Reason : .]

12/1/2010 5:38:29 PM

You're not going to be able to email HD video unless it's only a few seconds of footage. Encode with H.264, upload to youtube, share link to video with friends and family.

12/1/2010 6:15:40 PM

^ Going to have to respectfully disagree with you here. I've seen them done. One in particular was only 5.76MB quick time movie format 55 seconds in length, and "nearly" crystal clear. I say nearly because you sacrifice some quality when you compress them to that size.

I created one in MM and it was a wmv file 30.9MB. Then I converted it to a quick time 3.7MB. Mov files are naturally smaller than other files, so it automatically made it this size. Its clear, just not the look that would suffice for me. Just trying to figure out a way to make it better here. But I really appreciate the input you guys!! thanks

12/1/2010 6:27:54 PM

No they aren't. The reason the WMV file is larger is because its either a higher resolution or a higher bitrate.

WMV and MOV are wrappers, not formats. Use WMV9 at the same settings as your quicktime movie and it will be the same size or smaller.

12/1/2010 7:19:55 PM

free stuffs
AviDemux: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
VirtualDub: http://www.virtualdub.org/
Avisynth: http://avisynth.org

and a package that compiles those last two together, along with some other stuff...Anri-chan: http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/Anri-chan

12/1/2010 7:24:25 PM

as much as I love virtualdub, its a pretty shitty program without modern wrapper support (only really supports avi).

Try out Windows Live Essentials 2011, the movie maker is pretty damn good.

Or get the Expression Encoder 4 (FREE): download link

It'll get your movie maker video down to a small size without destroying the image. I finally gave up on VirtualDub for Expression Encoder

12/1/2010 7:28:51 PM

^ ummm They are file name extensions for multi-media file formats. Not trying to be cute towards you.

have you used this before?

[Edited on December 1, 2010 at 7:33 PM. Reason : /]

12/1/2010 7:31:55 PM

vDub is indeed limited

but have you tried AviDemux?

12/1/2010 7:34:57 PM

Live essentials 2011 is free; go try it and report back.

(This part may sound like a douche, but I'm not seeing it.)
A 55 second 5.5MB file translates into 100KB/sec or 0.75 Mbit/sec. If this was HD they got the best compression ever seen by mankind and they will soon be extremely rich selling this to content distribution networks worldwide.

For a reference point HD pulls in to town at around 55Mbit/sec, and you camera is probably dumping half that to get down to 24Mbit/sec for AVCHD. What you're saying is that his compression is 6x better than the purpose built hardware in your camera.

12/1/2010 7:56:51 PM

ok, downloaded the Expression Encoder (which is awesome btw) but its very technical and I'll have to figure out how to use it. Right now I am totally lost, as to how to actually shrink the file size. All I know how to do is crop the video right now.

Catching hell downloading WLE 2011 for some reason. Ive updated everything on my pc except for the platform that it requires (keep getting unable to install prompt). Going to try again later.

**finally got. Giving it a test now.

[Edited on December 2, 2010 at 11:59 AM. Reason : /]

12/2/2010 11:39:21 AM

Get Sony Vegas Studio, its under 100$ with very advanced features.

I run Vegas Pro, and there seem to be very few differences in the two, except for the price tag...

12/2/2010 12:59:26 PM

final verdict: WLE. Thank you so much guys!!

12/2/2010 2:10:51 PM