Video conversion software

[gsbaker]

Any recommendations for software that will convert one video format to another? We are talking about bidirectional between the half-dozen or so digital formats, e.g. *.AVI, *.MOV, *.MPEG, etc.

This seems to be falling through the cracks, so we thought we would toss it out. The Web guys wants one product, the art guys want another. Editing and compression tools would be necessary.

Search engines will provide a lot of products, but we were curious if anyone here could share a personal recommendation.

Thanks!

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Gregg Baker, P.E.
Isaac, LLC
http://www.isaacdirect.com

[Mike Guenther]

And while we're on this subject, what works well and is easy to use to convert Digital 8 video to CD-R? Or would that have to be DVD?
Thank you for your input,
Mike

[gsbaker]

Mike,

I think you are looking for VCD(?) or DVD. I believe those are the primary ways to put the video on a physical media. (This is not my area of expertise.) This software may come with a DVD burner.

Try Googling something like "video format conversion software."

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Gregg Baker, P.E.
Isaac, LLC
http://www.isaacdirect.com

[PRO7]

Gregg,
I use Sonic MyDVD for my race videos. I have used it to convert .mpeg to .avi format. All that was required was to do a "save as" to the .avi file type. Their website is www.sonic.com

Mike,
One product that I use that is pretty seamless is the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge to convert analog signals to digital so you can burn it to a vcd or dvd. It plugs in between your camera and pc and you should be able to use it with any editing software. I used to use it with my Sony 8mm video camera. It is pricey, about $250. Last month I bought a used JVC mini dv camera on Ebay for $115! Now I don't need to convert the signal! I still use the DV bridge to convert video tape to DVD for family movies and such.
Ed Reich

[This message has been edited by PRO7 (edited August 11, 2004).]

[Mike Guenther]

Gregg & ED,
thank you for the advice. I'll try it out on a great video I made of the rain race at Sebring on Sunday afternoon. I used a Sony with Digital 8 tape. I'll follow up when I get back from NYC in a couple of weeks.
Regards, Mike

[Eagle7]

Originally posted by Mike Guenther:
And while we're on this subject, what works well and is easy to use to convert Digital 8 video to CD-R? Or would that have to be DVD?

Does your Digital 8 video have a 1394 (Firewire) interface? Get a 1394 card to transfer the video to a PC. You'll likely get .avi files with a straight transfer. To go to DVD or VCD (lower quality and capacity), you need something that can compose movies. I use "NeroVision Express" and/or Pinnacle Systems "Studio". I get frustrated with both of them for various reasons.

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Marty Doane
ITS RX-7 #13
CenDiv WMR

[planet6racing]

I've heard plenty of good things about Adobe Premiere! (I believe that is it's name) software and have seen plenty of good video edited with it. However, since it is more toward the professional end, expect the cost to be higher and also a significant learning curve.

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Bill
Planet 6 Racing
bill (at) planet6racing (dot) com

[Greg Amy]

I use Pinnacle Studio as well and, like Marty, find it frustrating at times. However, of all the packages I've tried (which include freeware and shareware) it's the best overall package.

Plan on LOTS of RAM, a very good processor, and speedy hard drives (which really applies regardless of software.) The one thing I found that sped up the processing the most is a faster hard drive, then processor, then RAM.

As an aside, I chose to buy a set-top DVD recorder (Panasonic DMR-E80) to handle transferring my racing videos to DVD. I transfer the files to its hard drive using the analog inputs, edit it using its interface, then let it burn to DVD directly. If I need some videos edited (for uploading, for example) I'll transfer to my PC via 1394 and use Studio to edit and convert.

[tschwenke]

Adobe Premiere
TMPGEnc
DVDAuthor
Built in XP Movie Maker.

All depending on what you do, TMPGEnc is a must and DVDAuthor is my favorite one to build a DVD, simple and powerfull.

Premiere is nice if you want to do overlays/transistions/sound etc but is not necessary (you realize that when you see the cost)

I pretty much capture my in-car with XP (Firewire) and get my DV-AVI file. Take that and use TMPGEnc to get it to MPG DVD (or VCD or ....) then use DVD Author to put it on a DVD. I get about 5 races on DVD (@ 5mb/min which is great quality, 3 is still very good).

I also use DVD Author to put my TIVO files onto DVD, if you use Sonic or others it will try and re-encode the 480x480 into 720x480 and the files get HUGE. Instead of 12 scooby-do's per disk you get like 3. DVD Author doesn't care and neither do most DVD players. (Sonic came with my DVD writer, tried it two times, never used it again)

I am not a pro, just been playing with this since the first Digial cameras came out...

[tschwenke]

Oh, also here is a nice one. MOST of the newer DV cameras have a pass through so you can take analog inputs into the camera and pass it directly out your firewire connection to your PC.

This works really good on those videos you want to convert that have Macrovision. For some reason it doesn't pass thru. JVC and SONY for sure will do this.


Good site with lots of info: http://www.videohelp.com/

[gsbaker]

Well, it is now obvious to me that I don't know squat about this stuff. Thanks everyone for the help.

Two related questions:

1) Ignoring the issue of making a physical thing (DVD/VCD) and thinking just in terms of Web posting, what is the best approach/product for file size compression without suffering a large dropoff in quality? I know it's a tradeoff, but I'm interested in opinions and know that dial-up-vs-broadband is a big factor.

2) What video formats should we support for Web posting? We presently have *.AVI and *.MOV, but wish to expand that.

Thanks again.

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Gregg Baker, P.E.
Isaac, LLC
http://www.isaacdirect.com

[Jake]

I use Pinnicle Studio - it's the best blend of funcionality and ease of use. I have Premiere as well - but it is painful and tedious to use.

As for formats - everything on my site is in streaming windows media, compressed for broadband. It compresses well at a good quality - and anyone with windows won't need to download a thing.

www.racerjake.com

[Chris Sawatsky]

the easiest point and convert software I've used is Canopus Procoder. 3-4 clicks and you can be converting a full screen high quality video capture into a smaller web-quality clip

[Blix]

If you have access to a Mac, the hand's down best software out there for the price is Final Cut Pro. Also, quicktime pro (which is like 24.95) will allow you to change format.

If you MUST use a Windoze box, it comes down to how much you want to do with the program.

Premiere isn't that expensive and works really well. You will probably spend more on hardware to make any of these things work (TONS of RAM, good processor)

As far as compression goes, the hands down best compression for the Internet is Sorenson with Variable Bit Rate encoding. This is what the big studios use to compress thier movie trailers.

If you have other questions, feel free to email me. I used to do this for a living...and still do it for fun. I compressed the original trailer for The Matrix, and helped to do the first Star Wars trailer (I wanted to edit Jar Jar Binks out, but Lucas carries more weight than I do.)

It might be cheaper for you to pay someone to do this than to invest in the equipment and software to do this well...the continual cost of staying reasonably current is daunting if you don't have a good revenue stream.

Eric

blix at optonline.net

[gsbaker]

I just wanted to offer a belated word of thanks for all of the excellent advice you folks have provided. It is very much appreciated.

(Readers will notice that the previous post was dated 12 August. I intended to post this "thanks" on the 13th, but was interrupted by hurricane Charley. Broadband service was not up until yesterday.)

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Gregg Baker, P.E.
Isaac, LLC
http://www.isaacdirect.com