5 min. QT MOV -> MPG takes 2 hrs+. Normal??

[westbroek]

I have a Pentax Optio camera which can shoot digital video and stores it on the memory card. It shoots MPEG4 and delivers .MOV QuickTime files.

I use Ulead VideoStudio to edit these files. Well, edit... I've gone from making a cute little home video with titles to just doing a straight conversion. Reason: it takes a huge amount of time for small bits of video to convert.

The videos are shot at 640x480. Even if I use a custom profile which doesn't need to resize the video, conversion ot MPEG1 or MPEG2 can take more than 2 hours per 5 minutes of video.

That seems unusually long to me. Converting a full feature movie to RV9 (great) or to WMV10 can take that long. But a few minutes of video to MPEG1?!?!

Using QT Alternative (for the directshow filter) I've also converted to DivX, outside of Ulead, which goes very fast. Generally 1.5 x the length of the video.

Questions then are:

• length of time: normal? odd?
• if you suspect Ulead to be the problem, which editing tool would you recommend for QT?
• OT: any standalone players out there which will play a .MOV?

Thank you for your time and attention!

[guns1inger]

Seems excessive, although even if it's not resizing, it probably has to create a pile of missing frames. Do you get 23.976 or only 15 fps from the camera ? I would still think 15 minutes should be more than enough on your machine. The problem is probably with the way Ulead handles mpeg4 in the .mov wrapper.

What happens if you convert to Divx at a high quality, then load this into Ulead to convert to mpeg-2 ?

[Gurm]

Depends on the program and how the MOV was constructed, but yes I've seen MOV files take FOR-FRIGGIN-EVER to convert. I tried to convert a 45-minute MOV to SVCD-compliant MPG2, and it took TEN HOURS.

[Soopafresh]

Depending on resolution and quality, and the speed of your PC, yes.

[celtic_druid]

Assuming that the audio is aac if you remux to mp4 then it should play on any Nero Digital certified device. May even work as is as most software mp4 splitters work for .mov to.

[westbroek]

Do you get 23.976 or only 15 fps from the camera

29.97 and 30 as reported playback. Sound is PCM (!) 7Khz, 16 bits, mono.

What happens if you convert to Divx at a high quality, then load this into Ulead to convert to mpeg-2 ?

It goes super-fast. About 1-2 minute for every minute.

Depending on resolution and quality, and the speed of your PC

Ulead doesn't have too much control. Last try was MPEG-2, quality 70, 640x480, CBR 6000.

PC is AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2 Ghz), 512 MB RAM.

Set like that after 2 hour my 5 minute video still wasn't done.... That would mean somewhere around 24 hours encoding time for a 60 min. video....

If these quicktime MOV files are reported as MPEG4, then it is just QT's own MPEG4 codec, right? I love the quality (cheap cam, cheap SD card) but would like to be able to convert at will without spending a lifetime.

In the end simply using QuickTime Pro to cut & combine is the easiest way to get a consistent MOV at least. Is there a way to have the export function use MPEG2? And export to MPEG-4 .. that would be the same movie but outside the MOV container?

...wish this thing shot in AVI