mpg to DV-AVI converters

[nuttyDeedee]

Recently I bought a camcorder which produces SD videos witm .mpg extension. I want to edit them using Premiere Pro 1.5. When I import mpg files, however, they look really weird. I then found out that Premiere does not really like mpeg and that it best deals with videos in DV-AVI format.

I used AVS Video Converter to convert them to dv-avi. So far, so good. My original files are 704x480 and the AVS converter let's me choose only 720x480 output. Therefore, I get extra black space on the left and right of the output video. The converter has the option to choose the width and height of the frame or to choose original size, but when I do that it crashes.

So, does anyone know another video converter that may do the job? Or any editting software other than Premiere which is as powerful as Premiere but allows importing and editing .mpg files?

[Safesurfer]

I wouldn't convert to AVI, I would try frameserving. See the guide at https://forum.videohelp.com/topic261416.html , except rather tan use vfapi I would run the Avisynth script through MakeAVIs (included with ffdshow) to create a dummy AVI that Premiere can read. Or use Wax to read in the Avisynth script and frameserve to premiere with the Debugmode frameserver.

[KBeee]

To keep quality, don't convert at all. Look in the TOOLS section of this site to see what mpeg editors are available.

[JimmyS]

I concur with KBeee, your quality will suffer with each successive transcode. MPEG Video Wizard DVD from Womble is a teriffic MPEG editor. Good array of filters, transitions and other features etc. It's only $49 as well. Download the trial and check it out.
If you must go back to DV-AVI, VirtualDub with the MPEG loader or VirtualDub-MPEG2 work well. You will also need a vfw DV codec (the free Panasoniic DV codec is OK).
Also I have Adobe Premiere Elements3 on my machine. It loaded a DVD quality MPEG2 clip without any issues and worked with it and converted it to DV-AVI effortlessly. You can get PE7 at Amazon for about $55 after a $20 rebate.

[nuttyDeedee]

Thank you all for the fast replies

I downloaded the trial version of MPEG Video Converter from Womble and it works great, but it seems really simple. For example I tried to add more audio and video channels to the timeline and I cannot find a way to do it. Is this possible at all? Do you know of a more professional software which allows MPEG editing (even if paid)? I am interested as a whole why is it that camcorders record in MPEG and it is so hard to get a good software to edit them?

Safesurfer, thanks for the idea to use frameserving - I will definately try that! Why do you recommend not using vfapi? I have ffdshow as part of the K-Lite Codec packet, but could not find the MakeAVIs. Can I download it separately?

[edDV]

Thank you all for the fast replies

I downloaded the trial version of MPEG Video Converter from Womble and it works great, but it seems really simple. For example I tried to add more audio and video channels to the timeline and I cannot find a way to do it. Is this possible at all? Do you know of a more professional software which allows MPEG editing (even if paid)? I am interested as a whole why is it that camcorders record in MPEG and it is so hard to get a good software to edit them?

SD Mpg2 camcorders were intended for consumers that didn't set priority on complex editing. MiniDV was the alternative which is used by consumers and broadcast pros alike.

Even so, you should be able to import SD MPeg2 into Premiere Pro and use all the features. Import will be lossy as Premiere internally converts to RGB. For a MPeg2 project set project to uncompressed 720x576 top field first. Alternative is a digital intermediate format like Cineform.

There is a plug-in for Premiere Pro for native MPeg editing from Mainconcept but it is probably out of your price range.
http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosumer-products-4/mpeg-pro-hd-7850/information-7862.html


PS: Best solution? Sell that camcorder and get a MiniDV or HDV model instead.

[Safesurfer]

Thank you all for the fast replies

Safesurfer, thanks for the idea to use frameserving - I will definately try that! Why do you recommend not using vfapi? I have ffdshow as part of the K-Lite Codec packet, but could not find the MakeAVIs. Can I download it separately?

vfapi is obsolete and doesn't give the best results. As far as I know, you can't get MakeAVIs separately, but I don't use codec packs (shudder), I downloaded ffdshow from the main site.

[poisondeathray]

You could also use the Premiere AVS import plugin to frameserve (it works for PP2, CS2, CS3, CS4, not sure about 1.5), instead of vfapi, etc..

or use a lossless intermediate e.g. lagarith, huffyuv, ut etc...