I don't understand why I can't edit my .mp4 videos?

[JohnBarnshaw]

I take a number of short videos with my mobile phone and then down load them to my computer. When I click on 'properties' of the videos it tells me they are .mp4 files.

Currently I upload the videos to media convert.com and convert them to .wmv (I think).
Then I can split and join using the Windows Movie Maker that came with my computer.
This works well but is particuarily time consuming and also some loss of quality.

My questions. Is it possible to buy or download something that will cut and joint the .mp4s without conversion?

I have tried AimOne's MP4 cutter and joiner and it would't take my mp4s

Having gone around this site it seems mp4 is just a generic term for a lot of things.

I am not a complete technophobe but not far off.

Please, is it possible for me to edit my mp4s or do I have to keep converting?

Thank you

[redwudz]

First, drop one of them into MediaInfo and post the results. That should tell you the codec used. As you found, MP4 is a generic term. The codecs used is what the formats really are, video and audio.

Most highly compressed formats are a pain for editing, especially if you want it to be frame accurate. MP4 can have keyframes spaced 300 or so frames apart, and you can generally only cut on a keyframe if you want to avoid sync problems.

Try dropping one into Any VideoConverter and output as HuffyUV if you want frame accurate editing. The file will be large, so you need a lot of hard drive space. I use Virtual Dub (Mod) to edit then. After editing, you can convert to the final format. If you want DVD type files, frameserve the output to a MPEG encoder, then author that to DVD.

If you just want to do simple cuts on keyframes, VD is still one program to try. AVIDemux is another.

But without us knowing exactly the codec of the original file, not so easy to give suggestions. A MediaIndo screen shot would help.

And welcome to our forums.

[JohnBarnshaw]

Thank you redwudz for your reply and your welcome.

From your answer and from reading all the stuff on the site it appears there are many many different ways to go about this editing. I am not really upto speed enough to get my head around the full subject.

I record 'videos' on my mobile phone of my locality and other interesting things I see as I go about life in the UK. It is however just a hobby that I enjoy doing and is only really for my pleasure so great accuracy and quality is not requirment. I would just like to chop out odd bits of each video (usually the begining and end) and then to add a number of the videos together for ease of watching. I have looked at programmes like Vegas Video and Nero but they seem too 'professional' for my simple use.

Now before I can make any progress do I need to know what 'codecs' my mobile phone records with? For this I need to put one of the videos into mediainfo?
Sorry for being so technically slow but do I have to download mediaInfo onto my computer before I can use it?

[DB83]

mediainfo is a PC program (very small) and, yes, you must install it on your PC to be able to obtain the codec info of your mp4.

[JohnBarnshaw]

Thank you DB83

I decided to take the plunge and went to the mediainfo site but it got complicated again.

It is asking me to decide between a GLI, CLI or DLL version. Can anyone help me and tell me the difference between them? Apparently only the CLI version has an 'installer'. Do I need an installer?

It also comes with something called 'opencandy'. Can anyone tell me what this is?

Thank you

[johns0]

Click on the mediainfo link,then click on download(direct link).

[edDV]

... I would just like to chop out odd bits of each video (usually the begining and end) and then to add a number of the videos together for ease of watching...

This where 300 frame GOP video bites you. That means you can only key frame (I frame) cut on 10 second increments without risking sound going unsync to video. There is an editing cost to get MPeg4 compression. This is why most digital cameras sacrafice video and audio quaity to record every frame to MJPEG with 8bit PCM audio. MJPEG+PCM allows simple frame by frame editing.

[Jim44]

I decided to take the plunge and went to the mediainfo site but it got complicated again.

It is asking me to decide between a GLI, CLI or DLL version.

johns0's info is good, just grab the direct-link version, but I'll try to answer your questions:
GUI - Graphical User Interface version, the typical Windows-type program
CLI - Command Line Interface, for those that like to run programs from the command line (like DOS, back in the day)
DLL - Dynamic Link Library, the main guts of the program

Apparently only the CLI version has an 'installer'.

Actually, if you look, the GUI and DLL versions have a separate, no-installer, version. All 3 have installer version; click on the version number to get that.

Do I need an installer?

That tends to be the easiest way to install a program, although some programs don't need to be "installed", they can just be unzipped into a directory and run as-is.

It also comes with something called 'opencandy'. Can anyone tell me what this is?

I've never heard of it, click on the icon there and read about it. Looks like just another mechanism for programs to try to install other (usually unwanted) stuff, like toolbars, etc.

[JohnBarnshaw]

Big thanks to John0, edDV and Jim44 for more helpful answers.

I've got the info on my MP4's from mediainfo but it wasn't straight forward due to Vista's user accounts. Basically it loaded the program onto the administrator side that I never use, but I uploaded a short video and got the results. Because it was on the administrator side I was unable to post the info as it came so I have copied it word for word and post it below:-

Container and General Info
MPEG-4 (3GPP Media Release 5): 464 KiB, 19s 504ms
1 video stream: MPEG-4 visual
1 audio stream: AAC

First Video Stream
English, 129 kbps (193 kbps), 352*288 (1.222), at 9.169 fps, MPEG-4 Visual (simple@L1) (BVOP)
First Audio Stream
English, 64.0 kpbs, 11.025 KHz, 1 channel, AAC (version 4) (LC)

Is this any help at all? Any simple method of editing and joining? Especially if it is not too time consuming. I don't need professional quality as I am only doing it as a hobby.

Thanks.

[johns0]

Use avidemux as redwudz suggested,it will open your file.

[hydra3333]

VideoReDo is about to release (in a day or so they say) an all-in-one editor which also edits mp4 content frame-accurately. It's already one of the best frame accurate mpeg2 editors going around.