newbie question on saving avi's

pete_h wrote on 5/5/2003, 5:38 PM
Here I go....

I am importing video in about 10 min sections, editing them and saving them to separte DV-avi files.

I've now got about 7 smaller "edited" DV-avi files that I want to combine into one larger project. When I save these as one "larger" DV-avi file and print to tape, am I going to loose quality?

Or would I have been better off just importing the whole file, then edit, and then print to tape?

Pete

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 5/5/2003, 5:49 PM
If your final step is merely placing all the smaller files on the timeline and rendering ... no effects, fades, titles, or any other changes at all, then VideoFactory will simply make a bit-for-bit copy of the smaller files into the larger file. There will be no quality loss at all. Therefore, it will be best to make sure you've done all your editing when rendering the smaller files.

If you do make any additional edits then VideoFactory 2.0c is smart enough to render only the changed sections. Older versions will render entire sections if there's any change at all in that section no matter how short the change is. However, you can still get around this easily enough by placing Splits just before and just after the changed sections.

As far as whether this is better or editing the whole thing in one piece, that's up to what's more comfortable for you. Editing the whole project together has the advantage that you can see the entire project develop all together. Editing it in smaller pieces is more manageable and avoids having a mistake accidentally ruin the editing work you've done in other sections. Either way has advantages and disadvantages. Take your pick. :)
pete_h wrote on 5/5/2003, 7:43 PM
Ok, so in addition to cutting out the garbage footage, I should have done the titles, and other effects, before I saved the small DV-avi files.... Oh well....

Does this mean that when I combine the smaller files and then do titles, ect. that the resulting file will be degraded? I've got 2.0c ... will only the footage where the "effects" are applied to be re-rendered (??? lower quality ???)

I haven't gotten to far on this 1'st project, and if I have to I will start over if I'm not going about this right.

I like the idea of working with smaller pieces from the manageablity point and the fact that my hard drive is small by todays standards (13gig, 7gig available... I know I should buy a bigger one....)

I did notice that when I loaded one of those small "rendered" avi's back into VF, and previewed it, it seemed as if the playback in the preview window did not look as good as when I was working with the original "uncut AVI" that I captured from the Camera onto the computer ??? ( I'm not sure because like a dummy, I deleted the original capture after I cut out the garbage and saved the new smaller DV-avi, to regain hard drive space!)

Thanks for the input !!!!
Chienworks wrote on 5/5/2003, 8:47 PM
Doing the titles and such on the first pass would have been a good thing, but you're not really stuck. DV is a pretty robust format and even the parts that get re-rendered won't degrade that much. You can probably go several generations before you notice any real loss. And yes, 2.0c will only re-render what is changed, it won't re-render parts that are just straight cuts.

For that matter, any of your smaller pieces that were just straight cuts haven't been rendered yet; they've only been copied from the original capture. So, loading these clips in and adding titles/etc. will still result in only one render.

And yes, you do need more hard drive space! ;) I've got 160GB and it's not enough!
pete_h wrote on 5/6/2003, 5:35 PM
Maybe I'm loosing you here... when you say that my "smaller pieces that were just straight cuts haven't been rendered yet; they've only been copied...." why did it take an 20 minutes to produce the smaller piece (1 minute of "cut footage") ???

To be specific, I imported about 7 minutes of footage from Thanksgiving 1989 that I took.... "cut" all the garbage out, resulting in about 1 minute of good stuff.
Then I clicked MAKE MOVIE and choosed DV-avi. About 20 minutes later it was done.

After using media player to review the new smaller file that I had just made, I thought it looked ok, concidering the quality of the original... so I deleted the original 7 minute piece to make room for the next project.

So, did it render the smaller file or not?

Chienworks, thank you for helping me out with these newbie questions,.... :)

Pete
Chienworks wrote on 5/6/2003, 10:12 PM
Ahhhh, the lightbulb flickers a bit in my head now. This old footage was probably something like VHS right? In any case, it probably wasn't DV originals. VideoFactory can only do the nifty bit-for-bit copying when both the source and the output are DV, or when both the source and the output are uncompressed AVI. Your captures from the analog originals probably weren't DV files were they? If not, then VideoFactory did have to do a rendering step when you saved the first DV generation of the clips.
pete_h wrote on 5/7/2003, 8:32 PM
Actually they were from 8mm (I guess a form of VHS)

What I did was I played them back thru my new sony 8mm DV camera and captured them thru the IEEE 1394 interface connected to my computer.

It was my understanding that when playing these old 8mm tapes thru this camera using the 1394 interface, that analog was sent thru as coverted DV..??? What do you think?

Pete


frustrated wrote on 5/10/2003, 11:20 AM
I can't take a saved project and convert to MPEG 1 suing any conversion program so I can put small video clips onto a CD. NO Program is reading the file. I like the video factory interface but tech support sucks and I am stuck with a huge file I can't do anything with except watch it on my computer. The 2.0a was supposed to have MPEG 1 and it doesn't. When I select MPEG 1 as my movie format it kicks me into a buy screen which doesn't work. Then I downloaded 2.0c and it won't accept my old serial # and tech support doesn't email me the new one I am supposed to get. Can anyone out there help? I have to get my video clips onto a cd for my masters project. I am running Windows xp with lots of memory. You can email me at celias@cysd.k12.pa.us or crelias@earthlink.net