CGTalk - Editing ~40min video (problems)

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dbates

04-10-2006, 02:13 PM

Hello,

I've got a few questions about editing large video files. I work with a local church that wants to record their services and put them on their website, so we are renting a Canon XL-1 with a decent tripod. We are recording straight to DVD with this device: http://www.sonyburners.com/dvdirect/product.php?ID=1 We record only the message, so each video file is about 40 minutes long.

I tried using After Effects to edit the movie file, but it is extremely slow. Each frame takes about thirty seconds to preview, using "quarter" resolution. Rendering is even slower, of course. . . And every time I try to add sound, AE gives me that -2166 "sound component" error which I am led to believe is related to QT7. I uninstalled QT7 and rebooted, but the sound error persists.

Also, when I'm trying to render the whole file out to MPEG, AE renders ~12000 frames and then just freezes. I tried rendering to a .jpeg sequence next--when it quit at frame 12444, I went back and set the composition to start rendering at 12444. When I looked at the old #12444 and the new #12444, they looked nothing alike. (In the first one, the pastor is looking out at the congregation and his hands are up, making a point; in the second, he's looking down at his notes and his hands are clasped together.) They're the same frame! :argh:

Just to add insult to injury, the 12444 frames in the first jpeg seqence played at twice normal speed, and the video jumped around. The first few minutes of the DVD, however, played at normal speed and did not jump. Arggh.

Any ideas? Should I use a different software package (like Premiere, or Avid Express)?

--dbates

dprgb

04-10-2006, 03:25 PM

Is the DVD burner recording it as an AVI file with DV compression, or a DVD video file with MPEG2 compression that will play on any DVD player?

If it's burning an AVI file, are you copying the file to the hard drive before editing?

If it's burning a disc that will play on any DVD player, you're not going to be able to use this workflow. The best idea would be to record to tape, then capture the tape onto a computer. If it's recording an MPEG2 stream, you'll actually get better quality if you record to the DV tape. Also, DVD MPEG2 streams are not meant for video editing without transcoding to something that's individual-frame based compression.

Also, you should be using something like Premiere, Sony Vegas, Avid Xpress DV, etc to do the video editing - AE is designed as an effects package, they primarily deal with adding effects to short clips and not long ones. I recommend Vegas - it's very powerful, inexpensive, you can get it with a DVD authoring program, and it's easy to learn.

dbates

04-11-2006, 12:06 AM

Yeah, it's burning an MPEG-2 stream. We actually were recording DV tapes, but the DVD looked like a neat way of getting the video on the computer. . . oh well.

I'll look into Vegas, though I'm more used to the Adobe workspace. Does Premiere Elements have DVD authoring? It's not a vital issue, but if we decide to burn DVDs sometime down the line. . .

Thanks for responding!

--dbates

dprgb

04-12-2006, 04:45 PM

I don't know if Premiere Elements has DVD authoring or not... actually, looks like it does:

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/overview.html#kmhead3

Here's Sony's low-cost solution:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/Products/ShowProduct.asp?PID=977

dbates

04-14-2006, 02:12 AM

Thanks dapeter, I'll look more into those two packages.

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