Are all video format converters created equal?

[ahhaa]

Hi guys, a few related questions:

a. I've found some of my older Canon camera (ELPH 300) and Lumix FZ7 videos that are .mov files- say circa 2010.
While they played fine in the cameras, when transferred to a Windows 7 PC and played back by VLC, initially the image would show as negative B&W, or contour outlines- a hiccup that usually corrected itself in a couple seconds.

Now I'm setting up my win10 ASUS for video editing, and find that my Corel X9.5 suite doesn't accept .mov as input files.
So I started looking into format converters, which of course all claim to be the best.

Already on my W7 machine is VLC, which now apparently does conversion.
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-convert-a-mov-to-avi-with-vlc

There is also Media Converter & Muxer, a handy Firefox Add-on which does a number of very handy things by drag& drop.
http://firefox.add0n.com/media-converter.html?type=UI

There are any number of other converters, which can be installed or run from the cloud. One which caught my eye is WinX, which claims:
"This MOV to AVI converter freeware for Windows 10/8/7/XP not only provides you easy and fast MOV to AVI video converting speed, but also owns the ability of grabbing screenshots from original video files. You can save the grabbed pictures in PNG format. Besides, this free MOV converter enables you adjust video/audio parameters to full control the output video quality."
https://www.winxdvd.com/mov-to-avi/

So, obviously I'd rather have the best quality for archiving, rather than speed, but I don't get the finer points of many newer formats going forward- like .mkv, or multi-channel sound.
Just fyi, these are all 'legal' video with no ownership issues.

What format would you use setting up an archive?


b. I also have some very old video files that were captured from VHS by a circa 2004? program called AVID FREE, an abandoned trial version of the very pricey AVID suite. While the main videos exist as usable .avi files, AVID FREE created a bunch of OMFI editing backup files that I have no where else. Some it would be nice to have if I could just separate the video from the insertion information. Anybody work with OMFI before?

c. Of the VHS stuff that I finalized as .avi in AVID, it is 4:3 and it has the typical tearing appearance at the bottom (about 5% of image) and top (mebbe 2%).
The appearance would certainly not be hurt by a psuedo-letterboxing (which is why I was interested in the WinX), it is unclear to me it that would be best done (for image stability) as a step before editing, or as a mask placed during editing.

Any comments welcome- especially if you have any great ideas about doing what upconverters do for DVDs!

ps&fyi I got the Corel on disk for really cheap because I spent more than I'd budgeted on the ASUS... it has a number of nice features for the money.

[transporterfan]

When you convert you lose quality. Archive the original, save compressed (converted) video for friends or youtube.

[redwudz]

I use AVIDemux for my .MOV files, and it can convert to HuffUV for later editing.
I use the 64bit version, but with W7. I have W10 on my laptop, but I don't use it for video.

[SameSelf]

WinXDVD, oh man, that crapware reminds me of the early days of my video editing when I was struggling with codec support issues, and a google search would always point to some download that looked just like that. LOL. When it comes to transcoding, ffmpeg is the only friend you need. For those that hate CLIs, I guess there is always Handbrake.

When it comes to archiving, what is wrong with just archiving the original camera files? Those old P&S cameras usually recorded to h.264 in a MOV container which is already highly compressed. I am a little non-plussed over what you expect to gain from transcoding over just archiving them as is. If Corel can't read them, that sounds like a Corel h.264 support issue. I have never used Corel and never will. There are lots of cheap and even free NLEs that natively support h.264.

EDIT: Those P&S's often recorded 640x480p square pixel video, perfect for computers and modern TVs. Turning that into NTSC DVD is like pushing a round peg into a square hole. Maybe your problem is your trying to insert the video into an NTSC timeline which is 720x480i and non-square pixels, and that is why Corel is barfing? Both are 4:3 but slightly different in pixel size and interlaced vs progressive. Converting it to NTSC will take a little finesse.[/EDIT]

As for the old VHS tapes, are you sure that is tearing on the bottom and not just head switching noise (which is always present unless the player/capture card crops it)? When it comes to compromised tapes/captures, I simply crop any offending pixels on the borders and replace with black pixels to keep 720x480 AR. Generally for me it is anywhere from 8 to 14 pixels on every side. I never scale the cropped image to fill 720x480. I find that clean crisp borders on VHS content is far more aesthetically pleasing than trying to do anything fancy to the image. 4:3 has gone the way of the dodo, and the only way to make VHS content fill a modern TV is to seriously crop the height. No thanks. Pillarboxing it is for me, just trim those left, right, top and bottom edges as needed for a nice clean, crisp look. Nobody will even notice except the video nerds on this forum.

As for the OFMI files, those sound like indexing files that Avid builds, similar to what Premiere Pro builds. Google the Avid forums for how to delete them.

[ahhaa]

OK thanks guys! uhmm, I just looked at a different pdf from Corel, and it said .mov should be importable BUT Import is controlled under Capture; where I had just drag&dropped the AVI formatted stuff.

For anyone else that stumbles on this problem & post, here are the Corel supported formats:

Import formats
• Video: AVCHD, DV, HDV, AVI, MPEG-1/-2/-4, DVR-MS, DivX*,
SWF*, UIS, UISX, M2T, M2TS, TOD, MOD, M4V, WebM, 3GP,
WMV, Non-encrypted DVD titles, MOV, MKV, XAVC, MXF**, HEVC
• Audio: AC3, MP3, MPA, MOV, WAV, WMA, MP4, M4A, Aiff, AU,
CDA, AMR, AAC, OGG
• Image: BMP, CLP, CUR, EPS, FAX, FPX, GIF87a, IFF, IMG, JP2, JPC,
JPG, MAC, MPO, PCT, PIC, PNG, PSD, PXR, RAS, SCT, SHG, TGA,
TIF/TIFF, UFO, UFP, WMF, PSPImage, Camera RAW, 001, DCS, DCX,
ICO, MSP, PBM, PCX, PGM, PPM, SCI, WBM, WBMP
Export formats
• Video: AVCHD, DV, HDV, AVI, MPEG-1/-2/-4, UIS, UISX, M2T,
WebM, 3GP, HEVC, WMV, QuickTime*

[ahhaa]

Red, thanks for the tip on HuffYUV

Downloading it now, what diff does the 32 bit make in this context?

[redwudz]

Red, thanks for the tip on HuffYUV

Downloading it now, what diff does the 32 bit make in this context?

Probably none, but the 32bit version I tried seemed to struggle with the .MOV files from my HD video cameras and the 64bit worked perfectly.
May have been my problem or an issue with the version I tried.

[SameSelf]

well aint that strange. Corel says it supports AVCHD and MOV containers. What does controlled under capture mean? I guess not all NLEs are created equal. Do you have Quicktime installed on your system? It could be that Corel needs that to decode MOV.

Also, transcoding to lossless seems a little overkill and downright burdensome, no? I am sure those MOVs are 8-bit 4:2:0, so what is the point? I would try transcoding to DV-AVI which Corel should handle fine. If you are intent on a lossless transcode then I would recommend the more modern utvideo over huffyuv.

[Cornucopia]

Omfi is Avid's media file format (video-only, IIRC) that was the pre-cursor to their use of MXF. They are NOT merely indexing files.

Don't want to ever delete them until they've been converted to something workable with your current system. And very few 3rd party converters can convert from omfi, so you may still need a copy of MediaComposer/Express.

Scott

[ahhaa]

What does controlled under capture mean?

Well, Corel divides its workflow into three arenas; three alternating full 'desktops' of Capture, Edit, and Output. Each is reached by a primary Tab. It just didn't occur to me that after being able to drag & drop .AVI into the timelines in Edit, I'd have to go into the Capture screen and Import .MOV files.
The .MOV extension files don't show up on the available files list in Edit, which was my first time user noob mistake. It is logical in a way, but it also reflects the now decades old divides between the Apple/Wintel/Linux GUI practices.

[ahhaa]

Thanks Scott, you are right, especially as I no longer have any way of playing VHS!:]

[larioso]

Now I'm setting up my win10 ASUS for video editing, and find that my Corel X9.5 suite doesn't accept .mov as input files.
So I started looking into format converters, which of course all claim to be the best.

I tested Videostudio 9.5 just two weeks ago - and it just said that I need to have Apple Quicktime installed to use it, dropping a file on timeline.
But that was MOV with H264 encoded inside from my cameras.

Adobe Premiere Elements 15, Nero Video 2017 and PowerDirector 15 handle those files just fine, as long as codec itself is not quicktime inside a MOV container.

Otherwise there is a disclaimer kind of from april 2016, about working on a solution to remove dependence on that.

To convert formats, I've use AnyVideoConverter Free version a lot, but maybe not with the most critical aspects of conversions at first criteria.
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

[ahhaa]

Tack så mycket, larioso; & välkommen till de vanliga misstänkta !:]

Just curious, but are you finding any one of those suites suiting you best?
I just got an LG 360CAM, so I'm interested in weird things like where do you put your titles in a VR photosphere.
I settled on the Corel for 3 reasons: multicamera lock, 2K/4K capable, and multichannel sound; well, it was halfprice, too.

Again- tak tak!

[larioso]

Tack så mycket, larioso; & välkommen till de vanliga misstänkta !:]

Just curious, but are you finding any one of those suites suiting you best?
I just got an LG 360CAM, so I'm interested in weird things like where do you put your titles in a VR photosphere.
I settled on the Corel for 3 reasons: multicamera lock, 2K/4K capable, and multichannel sound; well, it was halfprice, too.

Again- tak tak!

Tack själv(all the same).

PowerDirector has grown to be overall favourite, and in your case might be worth a look since it has 360 editing.
Haven't looked into details about titles you mention though.
It's been all stable the month I have used it and manual is pretty good, so download pdf and have a look or just get trial.
Prices are silly low now - top version Ultimate €56 incl. VAT for us in europe - it's learning money.

https://www.cyberlink.com/

[layka2]

Some guys here say that when you convert files, you lose the quality, but I will disagree here. Some (paid) programs even let you make the initial quality better. Besides, much depends on the device you use to watching the converted video.

[Cornucopia]

False!