mpeg, wmv, avi, hd, sp Alphabet soup?? HELP!!

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
ed4copies

ed4copies

Local Chapter Manager
Joined
Mar 25, 2005
Messages
24,635
Location
Racine, WI, USA.
A little knowledge is always dangerous. I have as little as possible in the field of "video production". So, I am asking you computer types to input, please.

My new vid camera (Sony HD) can record with "hd or sp" This is the first choice.

Then, it needs to download to my computer with its own program PMB. But that program seems very limited in editing, so I need to "manipulate" with that program to convert to WMV or Mpeg.

Then, I have been using Windows Movie Maker to edit, add voice over and complete the vid. Should I save it in WMV or Mpeg?

If the answer would require writing a book, please direct me to a site where the book is already written. But I would still like to know what YOU would do??

My purpose is to make both YouTube for short snippets and DVD's for sale on Exotics. (couple months)

Please input---you HAVE to be smarter than me on this one!!

THANKS!!!
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Ed, Shoot in HD for higher resolution. I would go with MPEG output from your editing software because MPEG (MPEG 4) is the preferred format for YouTube. DVDs are also in MPEG format(MPEG 2 is the same as VOB) You can upload HD videos to YouTube to give your viewers a choice between SD and HD if their computer supports HD. alex

http://www.youtube.com/t/yt_handbook_produce
 
Last edited:
Well on the first topic of SD vs HD that is really up to you. As you know HD will give you a much better picture and more detail for what you are recording. So if you want to show as much detail as possible pick hd. If you do pick hd you will have a much larger file size once you are done with recording, an hour long sd video is about 350 megabytes, an hour long HD video if it is in 1080p (true high def) will be about 1 gigabyte.

On the second part of the question about format, you should go ahead and pick mpeg, youtube prefers mpeg and if you do make dvd's they are formatted in mpeg also. DVD's are actually formatted in mpeg-2, so if you are intending on making dvd's you will most likely want to encode in mpeg-2.
 
Ed, my comments in red

ed4copies said:
A little knowledge is always dangerous. I have as little as possible in the field of "video production". So, I am asking you computer types to input, please.

My new vid camera (Sony HD) can record with "hd or sp" This is the first choice.

Given that you want to produce for both YouTube and for DVD output it would be best to record in hd. (I'm assuming this stands for High Definition and that sp stands for Slow or Extended Play). HD is way overkill for YouTube. It will use up a lot of space on your camera and computer drive. When the video is converted to be uploaded on YouTube much of this resolution will be lost, but you will need it to burn the movie onto a DVD that you can watch on the TV. You can always make a lower resolution file from a high resolution file but the opposite is not true. Your time and energy is being spent on capturing the raw footage so the higher resolution and quality you can capture it in the better. This goes for both photographs and video.

Then, it needs to download to my computer with its own program PMB. But that program seems very limited in editing, so I need to "manipulate" with that program to convert to WMV or Mpeg.

Then, I have been using Windows Movie Maker to edit, add voice over and complete the vid. Should I save it in WMV or Mpeg?

If you are looking at burning to DVD's then get a better editing program. Sony Vegas is a good choice for the money. You will find Windows Movie Maker is fine for YouTube videos but will limit you when you want to make DVD's

MPG is the standard for YouTube videos. I think that burning to DVD it will use a different format. I'm not sure on that as I have not done anything like that. Save your raw footage as a separate file in the format that it comes off the camera. Then you can make a movie, convert to mpg and upload to YouTube. Then you will still have access to your original footage so you can use it in a movie you make for DVD.

If the answer would require writing a book, please direct me to a site where the book is already written. But I would still like to know what YOU would do??

My purpose is to make both YouTube for short snippets and DVD's for sale on Exotics. (couple months)

Please input---you HAVE to be smarter than me on this one!!

THANKS!!!
Click to expand...
 
I just wanted to add something about resolution being lost on youtube videos. As of November 13th of this year, youtube is trying to make a transition to 1080p. They have implemented a new video player that will play 1080 p videos with no quality loss. True it might be overkill for youtube, but there should not be any quality loss with your video.
 
I too would recommend Sony Vegas. It will help get things done BETTER than window movie maker, both from workflow AND outputs.

There is many versions:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiohd/compare

I would recommend the platinum since it has both HD and DVD mastering.

The best price I find for it is $73 from buy.com right now.

I've been trying video stuff on my mac lately, but Vegas is the best for PC that I've come across.
 
Thanks!! Found a free download (limited time) of the Vegas Platinum, will let you know how "dummy-friendly" it is.

Over 100 megs, so it will be a while before I am "playing".
 
:good:preliminary play with the Free download---:good:

Took the camera "raw" video without converting!! Eliminates half an hour.

Has voice track and "sound effects" track. I can move the sound that is on the original tape to "sound effects" and start to record voice, then adjust volume on each separately!!!

Ok, I have to work (copier stuff) for a while today, so this must be postponed, but it SURE LOOKS promising!!

Thank you again!!
 
Video Editing

Ed,

The only thing I can add to all the above very good advice is that you'll find that video editing is one of the most processor intensive applications you can run on your computer, so get yourself the a computer with the fastest processor(s) you can afford, and stuff it with as much additional memory as it can hold.

Vegas Platinum is a good choice, and will import directly from your Sony, avoiding the using the Sony software.

I've used Vegas Platinum on all the video jobs I do for clients.

Ultimately, YouTube converts all video to Flash, irrespective of what you produce in. I work mostly in MPEG-4, which produces the least loss between my final product and what YouTube shows the public.

Regards,

t.
 
I figured I would jump in here and add a few ideas before you get too far involved in this. I have done quite a few movies for youtube myself and lots of movies for production at my job.

I would recommend using HD on all your recording and then edit your videos and back down the resolution for youtube. Keep the unedited for DVD production. The higher quality for youtube is really a waste. It will take longer for your to upload and take longer for people to download and stream. I would keep my stills on my website at a higher resolution and use the videos for other purposes...People will even lose resolution from their lackluster computer monitors. There is no sense in recording/publishing in a higher resolution than people can see on their monitors.

As for format. DVD's will take any format. Not all computer programs write all to a DVD. I have made DVD's with MPEG and WMV files together. Just a different program. I cant speak to which format is best for youtube. I use .mov which is quicktime. I find it looks nicer from my computer than the other files that I can produce from my mac. All the videos that I have on youtube are scaled back for easy transfer.

I really like my mac for video editing and production. The new versions of iMovie are jam packed with features. I also use final cut pro which is a professional editing program. It is amazing.

Hope that helps out,

Grub
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom