[AVCHD] Cropping picture?

[yetanotherlogin]

Hello

This is a newbie question.

I taped a conference with a Sony camcorder that saves video as AVCHD. After a couple of hours, Windows Movie Maker finally read the whole file on my Windows7 laptop.

Since the video was shot a bit wide, I'd like to crop the picture to get rid of the excess space around the speaker.

Although I've already done this with AviDemux, it seems like Movie Maker doesn't provide this.

What would you recommend I do? Convert AVCHD to AVI and perform this in AviDemux? Download the trial version of Sony Vegas Movie Studio, provided it can read AVCHD? Other?

Thank you.

[Baldrick]

Try vegas movie studio.

[yetanotherlogin]

Ok, thanks.

BTW, is there something better than Sony's Quick Start Manual that I should read to learn how to perform basic tasks?

I'm stuck at removing a segment: Neither Edit > Cut nor Edit > Delete actually remove the segment. It just leaves a black, silent segment.

Thank you.

[budwzr]

Vegas doesn't use that type of terminology, i.e. "segment, cut, edit".

You can crop in the "Crop Dialog Box".

You can resize in the "Track Motion Dialog Box".

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks for the tip. Even after Googling and reading Vegas Movie Studio Quick Start Manual, I'm still stuck

I attached a screenshot where I 1) selected a time frame, and 2) hit Cut > Delete.

How can I get rid of the now-empty time frame so that the video isn't just dark for ten's of seconds?

[budwzr]

Slide the remaining event left, to zero.

OR

Use the selection tool to render what you want.

Also, you can use the up-down arrow keys to zoom the timeline.

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks but still no go.

I couldn't find how to slide to zero (tried both the flashing grey icon "||" or the yellow arrow above it). Zooming with the up/down arrows, selecting the Selection Edit Tool, and selecting the part I want to remove still leaves the empty section instead of removing it from the video altogether instead of leaving just blank video.

I expected this to be as straightforward as editing sound in Audacity, but it seems more involved. Maybe I'll find a video on the Net that shows how to do this.

Thank you.

[yetanotherlogin]

Found it: To tell Vegas to move the remaining video to the left, we must enable "Auto-ripple".

Thanks all.

[budwzr]

"Auto Ripple" may or may not be desirable sometimes. You can also use the left mouse button.

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks. I didn't understand how to use the mouse to remove the now-empty section.

[budwzr]

When you mention "AVCHD" specifically, you're referring to a Sony/Panasonic proprietary codec.

Since Panasonic doesn't make an NLE, Vegas is the best choice for you. Although it is supported in other NLE's too, I'm sure its not supported in WMM.

[yetanotherlogin]

Thank you.

Next, I wanted to export the 40mn, 2.5GB AVC (1440x1080x12, 25fps, PAL) file into something smaller to upload to YouTube, and tried the following two through Project > Render:
- HDV 720-25p: At 25%, the file was already 1.5GB, so cancelled
- Program Stream PAL: Went out for a movie, came back: The output is 2GB.

Is there a way to cut down on the file? A 1h30 movie is around 700MB, so I'm surprised the video I took is so much bigger, although AVC is supposed to already be compressed.

[budwzr]

720p25 10Mbps

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks. That option doesn't seem listed in Vegas Movie Studio HD 11.0, so I'll try "Windows Media Video > 5 Mbps HD 720-25p", and see how it goes.

-----
Edit : At 6%, the file is already 97MB long, ie. it should be about 1.6GB once it's done. A 40mn long movie off the Net is about 310MB (90mn, 700MB). I would have expected the WMV file to be on par with that.

[poisondeathray]

Is there a way to cut down on the file? A 1h30 movie is around 700MB, so I'm surprised the video I took is so much bigger, although AVC is supposed to already be compressed.

filesize = bitrate x running time

Use a bitrate calculator for audio & video if you need a given filesize

The numbers you are referring to are for low quality SD, not HD

Resize to SD and use a lower bitrate

[yetanotherlogin]

Thanks for the link. The final WMV file is 1GB and WMV seems not to support fastforward/rewind, which makes two reasons to look for something else.

I'll read up on how to convert an AVCHD file to something lighter for use on the web.