Movie Maker XP

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hi all,

I'm currently trying to edit together my summer holiday in this program.

It's a mammoth task - 5 1 hour DV Tapes!

I've got the first tape on to the PC at full quality (want to write it back to the tape afterwards), and I've been editing away.

Although my machine is not lightning fast (1 GHz Athlon) it's fairly well endowed with disk / memory (250GB / .75GB respectively) so I thought it would be up to the task.

However, I have been having some problems. There's a few bits where I've been using "double speed" video effect, but it doesn't seem to work properly, and all the clips afterwards in sequence also seem to run at double speed.

In addition, there are some pretty annoying omissions, for example you can't alter the soundtrack volume apart from an overall value.

Can anybody help me with :

1) the double speed issue
2) recommending a good bit of video editing software for under 50 ukp (not Pinnacle as that seems to be worse!)
3) recommend a good compromise video quality

Cheers.

[ErnestM]

1. Don't know - never run into that unless you dropped the effect on subsequent clips by accident
2. You get what you pay for regarding video software.
3. IIRC if you plan on writing this back to tape from MM, you need to finalize your video as DV-AVI.

- also -

I hope your drive is formatted NTFS, because if it is FAT32, you will run up against the 4gb file size limitation with that amount of editing.

ErnestM

[NiceCupOfTea]

ErnestM said:

1. Don't know - never run into that unless you dropped the effect on subsequent clips by accident 2. You get what you pay for regarding video software. 3. IIRC if you plan on writing this back to tape from MM, you need to finalize your video as DV-AVI. - also - I hope your drive is formatted NTFS, because if it is FAT32, you will run up against the 4gb file size limitation with that amount of editing. ErnestM

Yes, I'm running NTFS

I appreciate what you're saying about VFM with the software, but frankly Movie Maker is 90% there and is free so I figure something for 50 quid should fit the bill

I'm processing the video as DV-AVI, I think that's causing some of the problems with the huge filesizes!

[ErnestM]

Well,

For about 50UK, you can probably get Adobe Premier Elements. Think of it as a "cut down" version of Premier. They even have a demo on the web site:

www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/main.html

Sony also have a cut down version of their software called Vegas Movie Studio for about the same price:
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/ShowProduct.asp?PID=932

Either one of these would probably fit the bill. Nothing wrong with MM. It is absolutely the BEST software for learning the basics of digital movie creation. When you are ready to go beyond the basics, however, it's time to switch software.

For instance, here is the new title clip for my Esprit Movies this year (world premier, here):

www.espritv8.com/images/temp/v82005me.wmv

(you may have to save as...)

This was done almost completely with tools that ship with Premier Pro (including the chromakey effect and lightning). The larger AVI file includes a true 5.1 surround track (and you should hear the thunderclap through the woofer )

Enjoy


ErnestM

[viper_larry]

1) I've used this feature and not had a problem with subsequent clips

2)I still use Movie Maker 2 as it does everything I need... for now!

3) DV-AVI for recording back to tape, other depends on use? For web/email you need one of the broadband options.

As for sound, you absolutely can alter the volume of each individual clip. Just right click the sound track in Time Line view and select Volume.

Edit: Make sure you have MM v2 free download from MS site - maybe this is why you have a lack of features/problems?

HTH

>> Edited by viper_larry on Wednesday 30th March 08:19

[GetCarter]

Martin

YHM

[zumbruk]

The advice I've seen about "double speed" video is "Don't".

You might try asking these questions on;

microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker

There are a couple of guys there who seem to know what they're on about. (And a zillion morons...)

[roop]

I've done a lot of work in MM. Install XP SP2 and that gets you MM 2.1 which irons out some of the bugs. What it's doesn't iron out though is that fact that if you go to slomo at any point in a movie and then subsequently back to normal speed the backing music skips when you write it out to DV-AVI. Any of the WMV formats and it's fine. It's a real pisser if you want to output a quality master for recompression to MPEG2 for DVD or something.

It also 'ghosts' something rotten when outputting files recorded from my camera (Panasonic NV-EX1 via 1394). It's bloody awful. I think it's something to do with some early Panasonics having an inverted field order and MM assumes it's standard and cocks up. Looks bloody awful on high speed stuff as you always have a 'ghost' of the last frame.

I bought the full Adobe Premiere. It's very good but bloody complex. I can't work 15% of it yet and I must have had it 6 months...! Premiere solves the ghosting by capturing properly. No issues there.

[ErnestM]

Roop...

IIRC, if you convert your audio to MP3 instead of WMA and then export to DV-AVI, that solves the music skip problem...


ErnestM

[roop]

Thanks for the tip Ernest. I am sure I have used both MP3 and WMA and still have the problem - you have got me thinking though - perhaps I should use a straight PCM wave...?

I'll have another go and definitely use an MP3 and see what happens to be definitely sure.

ErnestM said:

Roop... IIRC, if you convert your audio to MP3 instead of WMA and then export to DV-AVI, that solves the music skip problem... ErnestM