Adult video captured in HD mpeg2, edited then rendered to wmv.

[sinnistar]

Forgive me if I get the terminology wrong. I'm not much on terminology especially when everyone uses their own terms.
I'm not quite a beginner due to I've been producing my own adult video and making my living selling it from the Internet for the past 4 years. I do it all myself but have used a simple process of using pinnacle studio to capture and edit then using encoder 9 to render to wmv. But now I'm shooting with sony fx7 hd which records mpeg 2 on to a mini tape. Previously I used a canon gl1 which was SD and recorded in avi which was easier to deal with! I have the new studio 12 which edits HD but I'm having problems due to it being mpeg2. In the past I used 1000 kbs. vbr 720x480 and deinterlaced for the best quality at the smallest file size. Using the two programs worked well but now I can not use encoder 9 because it will not render mpeg2 to wmv and if I create an avi file from the original mpeg2 the results are pretty bad! I can do the entire process using pinnacle studio 12 but studio uses a one pass rendering which gives inferior results. I like using pinnacle to edit since it's quick and easy but I need something else to render to wmv and yes I must use wmv due to my drm protection I use on all my video.
Any suggestions on a program that does a great job on rendering mpeg2 files to wmv? Creating an mpeg2 file from studio 12 creates a good outcome I assume because it's the same, or similar to the original file that the sony fx7 uses. It's like taking an avi file and creating another avi file then rendering to wmv, which is what I always did before. So I'm thinking to go from mpeg2 to mpeg2 then render to wmv. Of course a program that does it all in one step would save time. However, I find that the higher priced programs are not user friendly!
Any sugestions are welcome and I thank you in advance! I've looked, briefly, at Premeire and Sony vegas but not sure how they do with mpeg2 and how well they render to wmv?? Any good suggestions will get a free pass to my website!

[Nelson37]

I would use VirtualDubMod to edit and render to a Huffy or Lagarith (Lossless compression) AVI file, these are both free codecs. You could also De-Interlace at this step. From here, you could then use your previous Pinnacle process to render, Windows Movie Maker, or other.

The key here is to eliminate the MPG decompression from Pinnacle, giving it a plain, edited, pre-processed AVI will take a bit of time, and some disk space, but should reduce the encoding time.

Also, if you haven't tried Vdub, it is one of the very best progs available.

There are other options, advise if you have any issues.

[45tripp]

that's a godawfully clattered post btw.

doesn't pinnacle have a vbr quality mode for wmv?
that would be the easiest solution.

failing that, as you'd guessed, go to an intermediate avi file.
go lossless.

for switching NLE,
Vegas is fine enough.
and provides the additional solution of frameserving
http://www.debugmode.com/frameserver/


tripp

[Midzuki]

I would use the cheapo/complicated method:

MPEG-2 ===> Avisynth ===> WMNicEnc ===> WMV (VC-1 video + WM audio)

[Milardo]

You can try these freeware programs.

Winff

http://www.winff.org/

MediaCoder

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

[poisondeathray]

The best quality/filesize in your case (limited to wmv family) will be some variation of WVC1 (i.e. VC-1) as Midzuki suggested. If you have been using the old standard WMV3, I suggest you do some tests to see for yourself.

Personally I would save as uncompressed .avi (or lossless like lagarith or huffyuv), edit in vdub (as Nelson37 suggsted), then create a simple 1 line avisynth script to feed into WMNicEnc (or wmvmuxer as an alternative) - this is all free

If you want to do frame accurate HD MPEG-2 editing, VideoRedo can handle that and doesn't re-encode (no loss in quality). Then you can create a simple 1 line .avs script for the edited .MPG output to feed into WMNicEnc. Unfortunately VideoRedo is $50

But I don't know how the DRM part fits in

[sinnistar]

I take it back! I'm a complete newbie! Although I make my living producing video and editing it then selling from the web, I've always used simple programs and know nothing of scripts, framesets, vci, etc. etc.. What I need is a program that takes a dummy like me and allows me to produce a good product. Does anyone have advice on what program to use? Pinnacle studio 12 is pretty good, and certainly easy, but the final product is lacking given they don't allow me to two pass encode or deinterlace. The DRM comes after the final product is delivered and has nothing to do with this. I mentioned it because I must produce a wmv file to be used with my drm.

[Soopafresh]

Vegas will do it all for you, and accepts M2T input natively. Download the eval. There will be a slight learning curve, but you won't have to go through a convoluted procedure to deinterlace, edit, export, etc like you'd have to do in Pinnacle.

[John]

Wouldnt we really need to see the video to give the best advice

[rijir2001]

Wouldnt we really need to see the video to give the best advice

Yes screencaps please!!

:wink:

[SLK001]

Wouldnt we really need to see the video to give the best advice

Yes screencaps please!!

Naw, I think we really need links to full length examples (minus the DRM, of course)!

[Nelson37]

Download latest VirtualDub. Install. Download latest Huffy. Install. Including time spent finding these in the tools section, and the download, you got maybe 5 minutes wrapped up in this.

If you edit video for a living, it will take less than that amount of time to figure out Vdub, and I should get free vids for life just for this portion of the advice. Absolutely the best AVI cutter, viewer, etc that there is. An indespensable tool. Get it, try it, you will use it. Set the compression to Huffy, try various de-interlacers, choose based on observed results in REAL-TIME.

Having a "plain" AVI as output will simplify further steps, speed them up, increase quality, and eliminate compatibility problems. Encoders no longer have to de-compress, or process at all. Net speed gain.

WMV encoding I just don't do, so I have no real advice in that area.

[sinnistar]

For those of legal age, there are plenty of free samples on one of my sites www.sinnistar.com. But be warned! It's very hardcore! There are many different samples of different quality. some are 320x240 but some are 720X480 which will be a good example of the files in the members area.
I'll check out vegas (do you mean vegas pro or is vegas studio ultimate good enough?) and I'll check out vdub. The one I go with will recieve a free pass to my site.

[festmaster]

For those of legal age, there are plenty of free samples on one of my sites www.sinnistar.com. But be warned! It's very hardcore!

Yikes! That is definitely adult, and strictly speaking, against the forum rules to post the link. You might want to edit your post before the mods slap your hand.

[epicam]

try using TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress, it accepts the raw mpeg2 file from your camcorder and will encode directly to Windows Media, and it has a built in de-interlace filter.