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MPEG -4 Movie Editor

FatherMerrin

FatherMerrin

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Hi.
I wouldn't normally post a thread on a subject like this as I can usually stumble across an answer here or on Google. But I'm definitely in uncharted territory here and would love for someone to point me in the right direction.

Basically I've got a load of MPEG -4 Movie footage and I want to make some short films out of them. Is there a decent program out there that can do this or is it better to convert the files? If conversion is needed, again, which is the best program to do it?

Thanks
 
MPEG4 can be a thousand different things. It's both the name of a category of video codecs and a container format, and it makes your question impossible to answer without the following info:

1) the video codec (x264/Xvid/Divx/Apple Prores/WMV etc)
2) the audio codec (ac3/aac/wav/mp3 etc)
3) the container format (avi/mkv/mp4/m4v etc)

Mediainfo (windows) or VideoSpec will tell you all of the above. Also, Avisynth with VirtualDub will convert anything better than pretty much anything else (but maybe you won't have to).
 
whatever the mpeg4 codec your video is actually in, most all editors have potential issues editing in this format, assuming the editor even lets you import it at all. You may be able to, but you do it at your own risk.
 
I downloaded that mediainfo program. Below is the screenshot of the info on the file.

setupt.jpg


I did try a few of my editing programs but the file wasn't recognized by any of them. The footage was also filmed on a HD Camcorder so I think that complicated things a little bit.
 
AVC has caused countless headaches for video amateurs the last few years. You could conceivably try a remux with ffmpeg. I do that with MTS files from my Panasonic camera. But if it's MP4 container already I doubt it woild help. Your best bet is probably Avisynth/VDub and convert to Lagarith.
 
Just follow some guide for ripping from blu-ray and editing. The processes will be the same.
 
theslime said:
AVC has caused countless headaches for video amateurs the last few years.
Click to expand...

I'm so glad you said that lol, as I was feeling a bit of a plonker for asking about this.

geminigod said:
Just follow some guide for ripping from blu-ray and editing. The processes will be the same.
Click to expand...

Cheers, will do :)
 
When tried to open the AVC file in VirtualDub it said it was a unsupported file type. Not sure if it's a codec issue as I can play the file on my VLC player.

I did looked around the forum and found this post which I think is the most suitable

http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?5096-Blu-ray-ripping-app

----

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50066217/B...nversion-Guide

Note: If the goal is to do an edit from a Blu-ray source (vs simply converting), I would not follow this guide exactly. Short of writing a lengthy guide myself here, my recommendation (assuming you are unfamiliar with avisynth) is that you use the file indexing tool in MeGui to index your demuxed bluray vid (it will probably use dgavcindex or dgindexNV). Save the avs script that it creates. Open that script with Virtual Dub. Save in virtual dub as a direct stream copy using Lagarith codec (also make sure "enable null frames" and "use multithreading" is checked.

I tried opening one of my files in MeGUI but I got a "Fatal Error" message so I'm not sure what else to try.
 
open the file in virtualdub with an avisynth directshow script. write the script in notepad, and save with .avs extension. open that file in virtualdub. the contents of the script will look something like this:


Code: 
DirectShowSource("C:\YourDirectory\YourVideo.mp4", fps=29.97)
 
theslime said:
^^This. Listen to Throw.
Click to expand...

Trust me I am lol

I would desperately like sort this without bothering people here, it's just that it's information overload on the web when it comes to stuff like this and I end up just not knowing where to begin.

OK. So here's what I've done so far.

I've entered in an amended version of the code Throw made

DirectShowSource("C:\Documents and Settings\John O'Shea\Desktop\0001SettingUp.mp4", fps=29.97)
ReduceBy4
Click to expand...

I don't know if that was wise or not, it's just when I saved the Script to AVI I ended up with a 10 second 900mb clip.

So what I've done now is gone to the Compression section in VirtualDub selected Lagarith and then saved the Script to AVI which gave me a 10 second 68mb clip.

I have no doubt that I'm missing something here, so if anyone wants to point out what that is I'm all ears.

Good news is, everything saved so far I've been able to import into Adobe Premiere so at least I know I'm heading in the right direction :)
 
sounds like you got it. I don't think you need the ReduceBy4 code, if you are setting the compression as lagarith in virtualdub (which you should do). So, only thing I would suggest is to remove that bit, and you should be gold :)

Have you included audio?
 
Sweet :-D

Yep, audio is included and seems to be OK. I'll check it out tomorrow properly when I start converting longer clips.

I'll see how I go with the ReduceBy4 code. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't bother with it but this is the first time I've delt with HD files are they're kinda big and I'm using Premiere Pro 1.5 on an old Windows XP computer and the files can stutter if they're too big.

I'll just use the ReduceBy code on the larger files and leave it out for the smaller ones. It's all trial and error I suppose.

But a big thank you for helping me out, I really do appreciate it :)
 
no problem.

My point about the ReduceBy4, is that it probably is completely useless. the lagarith codec sets the compression. The ReduceBy4 has nothing to do with it. If you wrote an entire avisynth script to encode the video (minus virtualdub) you might see a difference, if you used a different codec, but my guess is that all the ReduceBy4 addition is doing, is dropping the quality before you render as lagarith. You could confirm this suspicion by rendering a lagarith file from virtualdub using an AVS script with the ReduceBy4 line, and then one without. My guess is that the filesizes will be exactly the same. If that's the case, nix the ReduceBy4.
 
Just ran a quick test to satisfy our curiosity.

Without the Reduce code the AVC file comes to 233mb and with it at Reduce2 it comes to 66mb. From my point of view I just want to make a few short films to put on the net so it doesn't even have to be DVD quality. But most of these files are pretty short so I'll definitely take your advice and nix Reduce bit. Only if that files get unmanageably big will I resort to using it.
 
interesting. is it changing the dimensions of the film?
 
Yep,
The ReduceBy2 file is 640x360 and the No Reduce file is 1280x720.
 
aha! I knew there was a catch somewhere. Sorry, I didn't know exactly what the ReduceBy code was doing. At first I think it was a compression reduction, but after you said it changed the file size of the lagarith, I knew it had to be a dimension reduction. :) Thanks for clarifying.
 
No prob Throw. With all the help you've given me I'm glad I could give a little back :)
 
Technically I would call that a reduction in resolution or pixel number more so than dimension. I equate dimension more to aspect ratio, which has remained unchanged. :p
 
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