new software needed.

[infected_mushroom]

Hello all,

Some new software (or updated one) were launched over the past months.
I'm planning to invest a bit in new software but I would like some advice on which would be the best Editing software available for my needs.

my needs

• I need something to edit analog Hi8 video's (hours of movie) into a movie of about 1 H
• needs some effects, ability to import music (mp'3 and stuff)
• I need to export it to DVD (playable on standalone dvd)

what I have:

• An Ati All in wonder 9800 se with as capture device the built in ATI media center
• I also have the MAINCONCEPT MPEG encoder/capture
• I borowed Adobe Premiere PRO from a friend but with the captured MPG2 files it gave me nothing but trouble (out of sync, audio not playing, hanging) I used the ATI MMC to capture at that time.

So I'm looking for a new package that will work really well for my needs.
Note I do want to capture in MPG2 because capturing hours of tape in AVI would be impossible (=> HD space)


I would love some feedback, recommendations on what you are all using.


Thank you,

[teegee420]

You really should capture to avi for editing purposes but if you insist on mpeg-2, try MPEG Video Wizard. It might be what you're looking for.

[infected_mushroom]

I would love to capture to AVI
but I've got 8 hrs of Hi8 to capture !
That's a hugue amount of GB's !

I've tried it and I had files over the 60 GB's !

and mind you, I've got about 160 GB's of free space (and even more if I delete or back up some stuff)


Capturing in mpg, with ATi MMC allows me to capture all the tapes easily and have a lot of space left.

And only capturing what I need is not an option since I need to combine stuff from different tapes. That wouldn't be very productive.


I thought ulead mediastudio pro is fully MPG2 compatible...
(since Premiere Pro has difficulties with MPG2)


thanks for the suggestion though, I'll check it out and see what it can do.


Greets

[bugster]

I would love to capture to AVI
but I've got 8 hrs of Hi8 to capture !
That's a hugue amount of GB's !

I've tried it and I had files over the 60 GB's !


Greets

I agree that capturing to avi is the best way if you want to edit. If your attempts at avi capture resulted in such huge files, you should try a different codec for capture. At those sizes it looks like you may have been capturing to uncompressed avi. I would suggest investigating Huffyuv or mjpeg as capture codec options.

[lechtin]

If you are going to capture to MPEG2 and then edit (I mean really edit - you mentionned effects. Cutting commercials is not really editing and does pose as many problems), expect sync problems with any program. I heard there is a mpeg2 native editing plug-in now out for Premiere Pro, but I have not heard any comments yet on it.

Here's what I recommend. First I assume you have (or will have) a DVD writer since you want to export to DVD. Second, capture in MJPEG and set the compression to you favorite quality/size trade-off, or just use a lossless codec like Huffyuv. Edit each capture to only keep what you want and archive to DVD+-RW. Import back the desired sections to perform you final edit. With a lossless coded or a high enough quality setting on MJPEG, you will not lose too much detail in repeated edits.

FYI, in DV quality, 8 hours is 104GB, and you can get good quality captures from other codecs under that size. 160 GB should be good enough to do what you want (just do not use quality setting 20 for MJPEG, 19 is very good for a significant reduction in size). You really should not need all 8 hours on the drive at once.

BTW, I use Vegas Video and get excellent results. If you also get DVD Architect, you end up with the Mainconcept MPEG2 codec and Dolby Digital for your audio (but I still use DVD-Lab for authoring)

[infected_mushroom]

thanks for all the replies.


First of all by editing, I mean cutting pieces, joining pieces, adding music, adding some titles and some transition effects.

I'm not planning on using extremely complicated effects like with AE.

The thing is (and this can be seem on my old previous posts) I've tried the Huffyuv & MJPEG codec while capturing with ati MMC.

but importing that (still big file) into Premiere pro gave nothing then troubles:
I coudn't get the audio working. (I posted some posts back then here and on the adobe discussion forums as well... it seemed to be some kind of issue with premiere pro)
So far for the Premiere Pro experience. (I liked the options and what you could achieve with it) but It gave me all kind of annoying problems.


lechtin, capturing everything, selecting what I need, burning on dvd-r's is not an option. That way of working is too slow and would be to big of a hassle. (I need it done in short amounts of time...)

[infected_mushroom]

If you are going to capture to MPEG2 and then edit (I mean really edit - you mentionned effects. Cutting commercials is not really editing and does pose as many problems), expect sync problems with any program. I heard there is a mpeg2 native editing plug-in now out for Premiere Pro, but I have not heard any comments yet on it.

Wasn't Mainconcept supposed to do this ?

I quote from their website :

MainConcept MPEG Pro is a full-featured MPEG editing solution for Adobe Premiere Pro. Although Premiere Pro will import MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 material, it does not offer native MPEG editing or smart MPEG rendering. This means that MPEG data needs to be converted to another format (such as DV) for editing, and each frame must be re-rendered even if no changes have been made. And if your target format is MPEG, you'll need to convert your finished project back to MPEG.

The MainConcept MPEG Pro plug-in eliminates these limitations and turns MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 editing into a productive, high-quality workflow

I think I tried that and working with Premiere wasn't any fun anymore, It was so slow !

[kickbxn5]

Premiere Pro now has a plug-in that allows editing of MPEg 1 and 2. It's from Mainconcept.

[kickbxn5]

It works very well for me.

[infected_mushroom]

maybe I should try it again...





I ready loved premiere pro but because of it's buggy-slow reaction with mpg files, I gave up. (especially because even with my avi files, it gave me weird audio problems)


ooh and here's my very old post on huffyuv and premiere:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=693159&highlight=#693159


this is why I was hoping there's another really good piece of software out now that could really help me out.