Help Request (WMV Editing).

[seymoria]

Hi all.

Could you please suggest some good commercial video editors for editing WMV files?

I am using MPEG2VCR and MPEG Video Wizard for editing mpeg files in a very excellant manner. But they dont do WMV.
I also have Video Redo and also TMPGenc but they also dont edit WMV.

I have installed AsfBin alongwith its GUI 'Cut Assistant'. I have also installed Movica. But both are not very useful and have many inherent handicaps and glitches, being freeware, which makes WMV files editing quite troublesome.

Thanks for your advice.

Regards.
Amer




(p.s. For detail on the problems I faced with Movica and AsfBin, please read further as below :

In MPEG2VCR, and also MPEG Video Wizard, the Mark-In, Mark-Out and Cut functions are handled by keyboard keys.

However, in Cut Assistant (GUI of AsfBin), it looks like you have to keep moving the cursor to the 'Set Current' (From and To) buttons on the software screen to Mark In and Mark Out. Without keyboard shortcuts, this looks simply impossible.

Secondly, in MPEG2VCR and MPEG Video Wizard, I can manually playback a file in both directions, forward or backward, frame by frame, by keeping pressed respective keys (and in 3 different speeds, changed by single keystrokes) to land me at the exact frames I want for for cutting out. Thus, I can stop and cut out anything, anywhere, as small as I want, and as many times as I want, very accurately and very, very quickly; almost a breeze.

But Cut Assistant is very problematic, and although forward playback is possible, it halts or gets stuck on reverse playback. Also, playback speed adjustment is problematic and not keystroke controlled. Its simply impossible to frame accurately cut a large file. The detailed help is in German only.

Movica looks better. But it has some installation problem. Upon opening, it prompts that 'it has made an attempt to load ffddshow and that ffddshow is not listed in the blacklist or whitelist'. Cant understand what that means. And although Mark in and Mark out for video cutting are keyboard controlled, but I cant find appropriate keys to playback (forward and backwards) as well as change play speed through keyboard keys as this is required to land at exact frames for cutting.

Thanks for reading).

[pepegot1]

Convert wmv to mpg and away you go!

[lowellriggsiam]

A good commercial editor would be Sony Movie Studio.

[poisondeathray]

The only reliable one that doesn't re-encode (that I've seen) is asfbin or programs that are based on it

If you're going to re-encode, you can use basically anything. avisynth, premiere, vegas, any editor, etc...

[JohnnyMalaria]

Windows Movie Maker (seriously) - I use it quite a lot at work where our PCs are locked down and you can't install anything else. It handles WMV files effortlessly.

[DarrellS]

For editing WMV, I use Virtualdub to open the file and see where I need to make my cuts. I then open the file in Windows Media File editor and enter the time that was listed in Virtuald and hit seek to get to the frame. After setting in and out points I save the file without recoding. To join the files together, I use ASFJoin which uses ASFbin which joins the files without recoding. You won't get any transitions with this method but you don't have to recode the files.

If you want a program that will edit WMV while recoding the files, there are plenty of programs on the market that will do the job. As JohnnyMalaria mentioned, Windows Movie Maker works fine and is free.

[seymoria]

Hi all.
Thank you for your very informative replies.

1) I can convert my WMVs to Mpegs with a nice little freeware (called Video Encoder) and then I can edit them in my favorite MPEG2VCR software. However, the big issue is that it increases the file size 'SIX TIMES' which is unacceptably large, so I have discarded the idea.

2) Asfbin is one software that everyone quotes. I have never used command line software and dont know how easy it is to use them. But as I already mentioned, I am using Asfbin through a GUI, called Cut Assistant, which is completely useless. Do you know of a better GUI for Asfbin?

3) What is the harm in re-encoding, if there is no increase in filesize and no loss in resolution? I could use avisynth, premiere or vegas. And maybe Sony Movie Studio.

4) It looks like my best bet is Windows Movie Maker which I have downloaded and installed now. I will let you know if there is any problem in its usage.

5) And DarrelS, I would not be able to use your method with virtualdub because i require too much editing too frequently in the file. But Windows Movie Maker looks fine.

Regards.
Amer

[guns1inger]

Most codecs get their compression by removing data from the video. This is called lossy compression. At low levels of compression you get larger files, and the data loss may be visually undetectable. The higher the compression, the smaller the file, and the greater the likelihood of visual artefacts. Even if you encode with same bitrate and get the same file size, you will suffer some loss.

WMV is a lossy format. Like all mpeg-4 based codecs, it suffers from repeated encoding and quickly shows artefacts and damage. It id not designed to be used for capture and editing. It is designed to encode to once - at the end of the process.

[DarrellS]

If using Virtualdub with Windows media File Editor is too much of a hassle then you could just use Virtualdub by itself. You'll need the WMV input plugin and ffdshow with WMV 7,8 and 9 set to WMV9 and VC-1 set to Libavcodec. You'll need WMV9VCM to smart render the files. You'll also need the DivX audio codec (or the DivX 3.11 codec) to decompress some windows audio.

The finished file will be in an AVI container, not an ASF/WMV container so you'll have to treat them as AVI to join and not ASF/WMV.

Using Virtualdub, you can add transitions using the fill filter in blend mode with the curve editor and smart render.

Like guns1inger stated, WMV is a very lossy file type and re-encoding them turns a bad video into a terrible video. That is why I use the method that I use so that I don't have to re-encode. IMO, re-encoding or converting a WMV is a waste of time.

I would just use Virtualdub (and I did for a while until I found asfjoin and windows media file editor) but I like to keep WMV in it's own container.

[seymoria]

Hi.

Thank you for the valuable advice regarding avoiding re-encoding of the edited WMV files. I am now therefore seeking to install an appropriate software through which I would be able to edit a WMV file in its native format.

I have located, downloaded and installed two such software, namely, Cut Assistant and Movica (which use AsfBin as the engine). I am keeping Windows Movie Maker as the 3rd option.

I am counting on Movica as Cut Assistant is very non-userfriendly. However, I am facing problem in Movia. I will be posting this as a new post to get more specific replies.

Best Regards.
Amer

[DarrellS]

Man, Movica is a piece of crap software. I can't get it to do anything without freezing up. No way to move the position slider where you want it. At least Windows Movie File Editor lets you type in the frames where you want to make your cuts.

It took me a while but I finally found a combination that will work. I made my edits in Virtualdub and smart rendered to an AVI container. I then used SolveigNM ASF Multiplexer to mux the wmv.avi into a WMV container. I had tried WMVMuxer but got a catastrophic failure error every time I clicked the mux button.

[seymoria]

Hi.

Thanks for your help and advice on my problem.

You are right; Movica does look like crap, although I am still looking for a better alternative.

I have now downloaded both Virtualdub and SolveigNM muxer. I assume that Virtualdub will help me edit my WMV file and then I will have to import it into the muxer. But will it save it as WMV? I dont want asf format.

Windows Movie Maker was very disappointing. It imported the file after about 20 minutes and broke it into scores of little clips. Then for each clip, it only allowed me to trim off the start or the end of a clip. I couldn't do editing in between.

I also used a friend's Ulead Movie Studio which is an expensive commercial softeware. But it also did not let me edit in between a clip. Only allowed me to trim off beginning or ending portions.

I will use the software you recommended and let you know my success rate.

Best Regards and thanks again.
Amer

[DarrellS]

I have now downloaded both Virtualdub and SolveigNM muxer. I assume that Virtualdub will help me edit my WMV file and then I will have to import it into the muxer. But will it save it as WMV? I dont want asf format.

Yes. You'll need the WMV9VCM to smart render your edited file. This will allow you to make your cuts wherever you want. If you type the wmv extension after the file name before you save with asfmuxer then it will save as wmv, if not the it will save as asf. ASF and WMV are the same thing though so all you have to do is change the extension from asf ot wmv.

Windows Movie Maker was very disappointing. It imported the file after about 20 minutes and broke it into scores of little clips. Then for each clip, it only allowed me to trim off the start or the end of a clip. I couldn't do editing in between.

That's why I use Virtualdub to find the in and out points when I use Windows Media File Editor, if I don't then it will not cut where I want.

I will use the software you recommended and let you know my success rate.

Good luck.

[seymoria]

Hi.

Strangely, when I try to open WMV in Virtualdub, it says 'ASF files are not supported'. Tried this with various files. Also changed file extensions to asf. Also installed WMV9VCM.

Please advise.
Regards.

[DarrellS]

What version are you using? You need to be using a newer version https://www.videohelp.com/download/VirtualDub-1.9.8.zip and you need to put the WMV plugin in the Virtualdub plugins folder.

Here is a list of all the plugins you need for Virtualdub...

Virtualdub Input Plugins

AC3 (by fcchandler) http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/Plugins/AC3/AC3.zip

DirectShow (by phaeron) http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/DShowInputDriver-0.5.zip

Flash Video (by Moitah) http://www.moitah.net/

MPEG2 (by fcchandler) http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/~...EG2/index.html

QuickTime (by tateu) http://www.tateu.net/software/

WMV (by fcchandler) http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/~...WMV/index.html

You also need to install ffdshow and under VFW configuration, set WMV1,WMV2 and WMV3 to WMV9 and set VC-1 to libavcodec. Also, install either the DivX audio codec or the DivX 3.11 codec to handle the audio which Virtualdub reports as DivX audio.

[seymoria]

Hi.
I did as you have advised. The only thing I couldnt do was that in the VFW config, I could not find where to change settings to WMV9 and libavcodec.

Now, the file is opening but on playback, there is a message that audio decompressor not found, although i installed the DivX 3.11 codec. It looks like the WMV plugin is OK but there is a problem with the audio plugin.

Finally, (and extremely important for me) as has happenned in all software I used to-date for WMV editing incuding VirtualDub now, the forward frame advance is smooth but the backward frame advance is extremely slow and intermittent / choppy. This is a big problem, as during editing when stopping at a point one often has to adjust to exact frame using backward frame advance. It takes ages rewind even to for few seconds to reach the exact frame to start cutting. Maybe you could have a clue to this problem.

Also I understand that WMV9VCM is used to edit and save to asf format (which is same as WMV). Then, do we also need SolveiNM which saves an avi to wmv format?

Thanks again for your great help.
Regards.

[DarrellS]

You can either get to the VFW Config tool by Start > Programs > ffdshow > VFW Configuration or from Virtualdub under Video > Full Processing Mode > Compression > ffdshow video codec > Configuration > Decoder > Codecs.

The problem is the 5.1 WMA. You'll need to downconvert to stereo with an audio converter and import that into Virtualdub.

Windows media files have a big problem with seeking. You may be able to fix the problem with ASFTools. WMV was meant to be a supercompressed final format, not an intermediate editing format. It can be a big pain trying to work with and just one reason why most people don't bother with WMV.

WMV9VCM allows you to save ASF/WMV in an AVI container. You'll need SolveigNM ASF Multiplexer to mux the wmv.avi into a WMV container.

[El Heggunte]

When you open that WMV file in VirtualDub,
and click the "File" menu, and select "File Information",
what does VirtualDub say ??? FWIW "DivX Audio" is the same as
WMA 7 or 8, and will be of no use if the ASF file contains WMA 9 or WMA Pro.

The reports by MediaInfo or Gspot could be even more helpful.

[wentwog]

You'll need WMV9VCM to smart render the files.

Thank you very much for that info! Long I was looking for such a codec.

[duhmez]

I have same issue with audio. FIle information says acm tag Missing codec 0x0161
which in gspot says is windows media audio 9.2 and also says it is (WMA v2)

will the divx 3.11 codec handle this wma v2? It is the last thing I have not installed from this recommendation. I don't want to install the 311 video codec, is there a 311 audio only codec installer around?

[El Heggunte]

...
is there a 311 audio only codec installer around?

But of course:

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/DivX-WMA-Audio

[duhmez]

Thanks mate!

...
is there a 311 audio only codec installer around?

But of course:

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/DivX-WMA-Audio