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  1. Member
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    Hello,

    I recorded a conference with my Sony camcorder that saves files as MPEG2.

    Since I only had a single camera and the speaker didn't provide the PowerPoint slides afterwards, every time a slide was shown through the projector, I had to move the camera from the speaker to the slides and back a few times during the talk.

    So now I need to edit the file to get rid of those movements, and display the shots of the slides long enough each time so the video is steady; I don't know how it's called ("video overlay"?).

    Is there a newbie-friendly, free NLE that can do this, such as VirtualDub or AviDemux, or do I have to buy a commercial solution such as Sony Vegas Studio?

    Thank you.
    Last edited by yetanotherlogin; 17th Mar 2014 at 17:26. Reason: Title was misleading
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  2. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Honestly, for true prosumer insert editing (which is what it sounds like you will need to do), I would consider Sony Vegas Studio to be MORE newbie-friendly than Vdub or AVIDemux. You really want an NLE that supports stills (as freeze-framed video, or in sequence as video) and has multiple video tracks to facilitate easy synching and overlay, graphically, drag-n-drop & on the fly. How you overlay will depend on your tastes: PIP, SplitScreen - w/ or w/o wipes, cutaway insert- w/ or w/o dissolves, etc)

    <edit>BTW, I've done TONS of these kinds of conversions and have posted a number of times here about best practices for converting PPT to video. Please refer to those if you need help, and ask back if you have further questions.</edit>

    Scott
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  3. A free NLE that could do this would be aviutl... but it's not entirely newb friendly , but you can get the hang of it pretty quickly

    It's unfortunate that the slides aren't available
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  4. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    Unless that projector was an IMAX, you're rowing a boat upstream in strong headwind. (With holes in the paddles)
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  5. Scott, he didn't use PPT files. He videoed the slides while they were shown on a screen. He pointed his camera to the screen. Looks like he will have a fun time editing out those movements from speaker to the screen. I second using a friendly NLE like Vegas Movie studio but it will take time to do it correctly.
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  6. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Oops, missed the part about not getting the slides...

    Freezeframe on the few good moments where you ARE centered on the slides. That's about as good as you can do.

    Or re-create the slides yourself (from looking at the video reference) and export those. Been there, done that.

    Scott
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    Thanks for the infos.

    I installed Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10, but have been struggling for an hour simply to trim the beginning and the end of a video.
    1. At this point, I selected a segment of the video track using the "yellow triangles" (for lack of a better word) above the timeline, but can't find how to tell Vegas to delete this selection from the video. I assumed it'd work like editing audio in Audacity, but it doesn't.
    2. Next, I'll have to extract the parts where I shot the slides on the screen into an external file, then insert this external file onto the original file so that viewers don't have to see the sections where I move from the speaker to the slides and back.

    Since I'm probably not the first newbie to need this, is there a good tutorial that shows how to perform those basic tasks?

    Thank you.
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  8. The basic tutorials are included in the help section of Vegas. In 11 it's called "Show me how." -- But why start with such an old version?
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  9. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    To delete a selection, press delete.

    Use "Screenshot" to get a PNG of the projection. Take the PNG into a graphics program, crop it, and optimize it.
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  10. There are hundreds of beginner tutorials for sony vegas on youtube as well

    From your description, you probably don't need to delete those sections in the video - just "cover" them up with your screenshot(s) placed on a track above . Tracks on top "cover up" tracks below
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    Thanks for the infos.

    At this point, using SHIFT+right arrow to define a loop region, I selected the part of the video track that I wish to cover up with a freezed frame of the PowerPoint slide shown during the conference.

    In the Preview part, I stopped the video, and took a snapshot using the "Copy Snapshot to Clipboard" icon.

    Now, I'd like to paste this snapshot into the loop region so that it'll cover up the video track, but Edit > Paste is greyed out, and right-clicking on the Loop Region icon (section between two yellow triangles) doesn't offer some Paste or Insert option either.

    Is it really required to save a video snapshot into a JPG file, import the file into the project, and then insert it in the Loop Region, or is there a better way?

    The "Show Me How" help files doesn't seem to contain a section to achieve this.

    Thank you.

    ---
    Edit: The video shown in the Preview part is 160x120 while the video is 720x576, so the snapshot doesn't match the size. How can I copy a snapshot in 720x576 so it fits the video track?
    Last edited by yetanotherlogin; 17th Mar 2014 at 16:50.
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  12. When you take a snapshot it immediately appears in your source window. Just drag it down to the next highest video track and extend the ends to fit your marked region. (Marking the region isn't strictly necessary -- but go ahead and use it as a guide if it helps.)
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    Thanks. I googled for "sony vegas source window", but didn't find where it is. I attached a screenshot of what I have.
    Image Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version

Name:	vegas.whole.window.png
Views:	646
Size:	135.3 KB
ID:	24158  

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  14. All those thumbnails up on the left. They're in your source window. It's more sensible to use save snapshot to file instead of copy snapshot to clipboard. Notice how a new one appears whenever you make a snapshot. Drag it to your timeline (in your case to the video 3 track) and extend the ends until they match your loop region.
    Last edited by smrpix; 17th Mar 2014 at 17:46.
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    Nothing happens in the Source window when I click on the "Copy Snapshot to Clipboard"
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  16. Just modified my post, use save snapshot to file instead, much easier.
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    That's what I did previously, but for some reason, the JPG file is 160x120 while the video is 720x576.

    Besides, JPG is lossy, so it won't look very good after pasting over the video track.

    Is this the only way to take a snapshot of the video track and paste it to cover several seconds in the track?
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    I'll install the trialware version of Movie Studio 13 and see how it's done there.
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  19. Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin View Post
    That's what I did previously, but for some reason, the JPG file is 160x120 while the video is 720x576.
    You need to set your preview monitor to best resolution/full resolution (720x576) And be sure your project matches your footage in the first place.

    Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin View Post
    Besides, JPG is lossy, so it won't look very good after pasting over the video track.
    Save it as png if you prefer. In either case it won't look any worse than what's already there.

    Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin View Post
    Is this the only way to take a snapshot of the video track and paste it to cover several seconds in the track?
    No, you can export to any number of other programs to manipulate the image -- photoshop, After Effects, Irfanview, etc, etc, and reimport it, --but this is the most direct.
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  20. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    You're not going to find a specific "How-To" for something like that.

    I can see from that screenshot that the video is very poor quality, and the PowerPoint slide will never become legible.

    Maybe that doesn't matter though, so the idea is:

    A) Take a snap to your desktop.
    B) Minimize Vegas, then open the snap with a graphics software.
    C) Do your resize, de-skew, sharpen, contrast, whatever.
    D) Go back to Vegas and drag it to the timeline.

    Tip! Set the project to 2K, and select "Best/Full" before taking the snap.

    Actually you can do all the graphics manipulations right in Vegas. Skew is part of "Deform".
    Last edited by budwzr; 17th Mar 2014 at 18:08.
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  21. Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin View Post
    I'll install the trialware version of Movie Studio 13 and see how it's done there.
    It's exactly the same process, just some of the buttons may be in different places.

    None of this is really very complicated, but your questions imply you haven't really taken the time to go through the program's basic settings or functions.
    Last edited by smrpix; 17th Mar 2014 at 18:06.
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  22. Member budwzr's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin View Post
    That's what I did previously, but for some reason, the JPG file is 160x120 while the video is 720x576.
    That's because you're not in "Full/Best" mode in the preview window.

    "Good, Preview, and Draft" are all lower resolution snaps.
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  23. Member
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    Thanks, that was it.

    Rendering into an MP4 file should take about an hour

    The video quality was good enough for what I needed to do. It was the first time I zoomed in onto the screen to catch the PowerPoint slides, but it turns out it wasn't a good idea since the embedded microphone picks out the noise made while playing with the zoom button. Next time, if I can't get the slides from the speaker, I won't move the camcorder and simply take pictures with my picture camera instead.

    Thanks a bunch.
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    The rendering is done now, and the inserts work fine.

    However, I noticed that about 25mn in the video (total time: 1hr45mn), audio starts being slightly out of sync. FWIW, the first still picture insert occurs around 5mn and the next one around 40mn, and I watched the MP4 movie with the latest release of VLC.

    Did I choose some wrong settings in Vegas?

    Code:
    c:\>ffmpeg.exe -i MyProject.SonyAVC.mp4
    ffmpeg version N-58043-g0062869 Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the FFmpeg developers
      built on Nov 12 2013 18:01:41 with gcc 4.8.2 (GCC)
      configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-av
    isynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enab
    le-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetyp
    e --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --ena
    ble-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-l
    ibopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libsp
    eex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-aa
    cenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavp
    ack --enable-libx264 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib
      libavutil      52. 52.100 / 52. 52.100
      libavcodec     55. 41.100 / 55. 41.100
      libavformat    55. 21.100 / 55. 21.100
      libavdevice    55.  5.100 / 55.  5.100
      libavfilter     3. 90.102 /  3. 90.102
      libswscale      2.  5.101 /  2.  5.101
      libswresample   0. 17.104 /  0. 17.104
      libpostproc    52.  3.100 / 52.  3.100
    Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'MyProject.SonyAVC.mp4':
      Metadata:
        major_brand     : mp42
        minor_version   : 19529810
        compatible_brands: mp42isom
        creation_time   : 2014-03-18 10:28:44
      Duration: 01:41:41.60, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2130 kb/s
        Stream #0:0(eng): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 12
    8 kb/s (default)
        Metadata:
          creation_time   : 2014-03-18 10:28:44
          handler_name    : Sound Media Handler
        Stream #0:1(eng): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x480 [
    SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 1999 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 50 tbc (default)
        Metadata:
          creation_time   : 2014-03-18 10:28:44
          handler_name    : Video Media Handler
    Thank you.

    ---
    Edit: The keywords I was looking for were "audio drift". FWIW, my camcorder uses FAT32 so the original video was actually four 2GB files that I imported into Vegas and appended to build the final 1h41 file.

    Could it be that simply copying the four files isn't enough, and Vegas requires some kind of reformating when adding multiple files even when they were shot by the same camcorder?
    Last edited by yetanotherlogin; 18th Mar 2014 at 06:04.
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  25. Assuming your timeline is still in sync (by default the clips turn pink if you throw them off) it's most likely a playback issue.

    Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin View Post
    Could it be that simply copying the four files isn't enough, and Vegas requires some kind of reformating when adding multiple files even when they were shot by the same camcorder?
    Very unlikely, what are your computer specs?
    Last edited by smrpix; 18th Mar 2014 at 07:34.
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  26. Member
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    Thanks. What do you mean with "the clips turn pink if you throw them off"?

    Audio drift also occurs when the file is played with VLC on a different computer.

    So it looks like an encoding issue in Vegas.
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  27. Here is an example of in-sync and out of sync clips.

    Click image for larger version

Name:	Untitled-1.png
Views:	208
Size:	48.9 KB
ID:	24173


    Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin View Post
    So it looks like an encoding issue in Vegas.
    Given your demonstrated expertise, I would not yet exclude user error as a possibility.
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  28. Member
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    I have none, never pretended I had any. I'm just Joe Average wishing to combine a few MPEG videos into a single file, without having to spend weeks learning to do this if it can be avoided.

    It just happens that there doesn't seem to be anything between Windows Movie Maker and sophisticated apps like Vegas or Premiere.
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  29. Originally Posted by yetanotherlogin View Post
    there doesn't seem to be anything between Windows Movie Maker and sophisticated apps like Vegas or Premiere.
    Yes, Vegas Movie Studio pretty much IS the intermediate step between WMM and Vegas Pro or Premiere Pro. And yes, there is a learning curve, but think about what you're doing -- you're extracting stills from a video, relaying the stills to cover camera moves, timing them out and keeping the soundtrack rolling. That's pretty sophisticated stuff.

    Typing seems pretty easy too, but I bet you didn't get as quick as you are overnight.

    You're doing great.
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