Editing Problems

[oxford]

I am a newbie. I recently purchased a sony cam and am simply taking video of the kids to send to grandma. I tried using Microsoft Video Editor but was blown away at how poor the quality of the video was. However it was really easy to make transitions and menus. So I have been seeking out some programs to improve quality with the same easy editing features. I am running out of luck. I followed some quides and captured the video with WinDV and encoded with TMPGenc encoder to Mpeg. I am now looking for a program that will allow me to edit. I want to be able to cut footage and join with nice transitions etc. I would also like to be able to change contrast and lighten some of the darker video. And finally set it up so I can burn to DVD. A lot of these forums are way over my head.

So...
1st - am I doing this all in the correct order??? remember I am a newbie
2nd - I am trying to figure out the order of this entire process.
3rd - Am I correct from my research that there deosn't seem to be 1 program that does all of this very well. It seems as though everyone uses multiple programs.
4th - Am I even on the right track?
5th - Can someone suggest some editing programs that are user friendly.

Thanks so much!

[midnightsun]

Hi!
I'm not an editing software expert, but one thing I can tell you: if (as I seem to gather from your post) your material is DV, then you first edit (cut, join, add transitions and whatnot) and as your final step, convert to mpeg-2 for dvd burning. Editing mpeg-2 can (=will) be a bitch and lead to quite a considerable quality drop.

Mpeg-2 is mainly to be used as an "end product" compression, it's not really suited for editing (even cutting mpeg-2 is not a carefree thing to do).

[BJ_M]

moving this to editing ....


look at maybe Sony Screenblast or one of the other programs in the $100 range listed on the left ..

[tmh]

well, not an expert, but I've been doing quite a bit of experimenting with "basic" parts of the process. Here's my summary of the little I know.

1. Understand the steps whether you use an "all-in-one" or all seperate apps. Capture (with DV this is really a direct transfer) to a .AVI file with any capture that gives you 100 accurate transfer (I use WinDV or Ulead or WMM2 and they all seem to do fine)
Edit the AVI file (cut out parts, add various clips together, transitions, etc. (Many here dislike it, but I use WMM2 often for simple edits - THEN SAVE AS A DV AVI FILE) Don't let WMM2 do the encoding step and save it in it's format.
Encode - TMPGenc is a high quality one. I also am trying D.I.K.O., WinAVI, and DVDSanta as "all-in-one" encoder/author/burn for simple projects.
Author
Burn

You may also find that a start-finish product like ULead, Pinnacle, Sony, etc. can do the whole thing with quality sufficient for your needs (all depends on what is "sufficient" for you). I am just starting to compare some DVDs done this way with a step-by-step approach. I'm fairly sure that for the higher quality stuff I'll find the step-by-step approach superior quality-wise. I guess you never know 'till you try!

[BJ_M]

actually quality wise - it is the opposite, the SONY, ULead and Pinnacle are better than the products you listed ..

in both editing and somewhat in encoding .. though tmpgenc is quite good at the lower end of the scale

[tmh]

BJ, that doesn't seem to be what my interpretation of what most folks here say. If those apps in the $100 range do soup-to-nuts fairly easily AND give as high quality encode as TMPGenc, then why in the world would anyone screw around with all the seperate apps to get a lower quality DVD? I know there is more flexability, but if you are trying to cut/edit DV AVI then burn a DVD with good quality then you're saying the packaged video edit products work BETTER?

I don't want to confuse the so-called "all-in-one" converters like DVDSanta with the Complete process products like Pinnacle 9 . Typically when folks here refer to all-in-one products they are discussing the encoders and NOT the "Capture/edit/encode/author/burn" products like Pinnacle.

Again - Pinnacle, Ulead and Sony's $100 product do a BETTER encode than PMPGenc? Even if equal that changes my thoughts on which process ist for my purposes. Thanks for your input.

[BJ_M]

ulead and sony use the main concept encoder, which is pretty good .. but i said anyway the EDITING is better on those products ... if you have good source footage the encoder itself becomes less a factor ..

[tmh]

Thanks for the clarification on that, BJ.

So, back to the original questions...... what I would do (and WILL do) is to test the finished DVD quality using a soup to nuts program like Sony Screenblast compared to the step-by-step method. If you want simplicity, I guess the $100 type programs MIGHT do just what you need. Maybe finding a trial version would help evaluate them.

Does anyone know what encoder Pinnacle 9 uses? Is it any good at DV (from camcorder) to DVD compatable? Thx.

[edDV]

I am a newbie. I recently purchased a sony cam and am simply taking video of the kids to send to grandma. I tried using Microsoft Video Editor but was blown away at how poor the quality of the video was. However it was really easy to make transitions and menus. So I have been seeking out some programs to improve quality with the same easy editing features. I am running out of luck. I followed some quides and captured the video with WinDV and encoded with TMPGenc encoder to Mpeg. I am now looking for a program that will allow me to edit. I want to be able to cut footage and join with nice transitions etc. I would also like to be able to change contrast and lighten some of the darker video. And finally set it up so I can burn to DVD. A lot of these forums are way over my head.

So...
1st - am I doing this all in the correct order??? remember I am a newbie
2nd - I am trying to figure out the order of this entire process.
3rd - Am I correct from my research that there deosn't seem to be 1 program that does all of this very well. It seems as though everyone uses multiple programs.
4th - Am I even on the right track?
5th - Can someone suggest some editing programs that are user friendly.

Thanks so much!

MS Movie maker can capture DV as well as anything, make sure
1. you upgrade to WMM v2.x (v2.1 comes with XP SP2)
2. capture to DV-AVI not wmv if you want DV quality.

WMM is ok for simple editing, the resulting DV-AVI will need to be authored separately to make a DVD.

"3rd - Am I correct from my research that there deosn't seem to be 1 program that does all of this very well. It seems as though everyone uses multiple programs. "

Good all in one solutions ($60-99)

Sony Vegas Movie Studio
Adobe Premiere Elements
ULead Video Studio 8
Nero 6 Ultra

[BJ_M]

Thanks for the clarification on that, BJ.

So, back to the original questions...... what I would do (and WILL do) is to test the finished DVD quality using a soup to nuts program like Sony Screenblast compared to the step-by-step method. If you want simplicity, I guess the $100 type programs MIGHT do just what you need. Maybe finding a trial version would help evaluate them.

Does anyone know what encoder Pinnacle 9 uses? Is it any good at DV (from camcorder) to DVD compatable? Thx.

IMO - i would stay away from Pinnacle 9, though some people like it ..

[daamon]

Hi oxford,

For free / cheap editing, this post might be of interest...

[edDV]

Thanks for the clarification on that, BJ.

So, back to the original questions...... what I would do (and WILL do) is to test the finished DVD quality using a soup to nuts program like Sony Screenblast compared to the step-by-step method. If you want simplicity, I guess the $100 type programs MIGHT do just what you need. Maybe finding a trial version would help evaluate them.

Does anyone know what encoder Pinnacle 9 uses? Is it any good at DV (from camcorder) to DVD compatable? Thx.

IMO - i would stay away from Pinnacle 9, though some people like it ..

I lost it with Pinnacle Studio 8, so many bugs until 8.12. Even then I never found a real use for it. Ulead Video Studio 8 was so much better for general editing although it had its own bugs to work around. I've been watching the Pinnacle Studio 9 boards and the bug swarm seems to have returned.

I have the pro level Premiere and Vegas but those are project oriented and not fast for general TV tasks. I'd like to try the conumer versions and see if they are faster than ULead for TV capture editing and burning.