10 replies to this topic

[Tom Hampton]

So, I've got videos now. Which means that I have a need to edit this video. I've been doing numerous searches on the Web for simple video editing software. So far, there has been a relative dearth of information---I've only found a few pages with recommendations. I'm not opposed to purchasing something, but I am opposed to paying >$100, let alone $1000 for final cut, or premier, or other NLE monster app. I don't need or want to deal with the complexity that those apps provide.


Free is great, sub-$100 is okay. Windows XP required.

Oh yeah, its GoPro video so, mp4 format is required. Thus, Movie Maker is out; unless someone knows something I don't.

Recommendations?

[G-Man]

I have the same issue. IMO, a Windows XP machine can't handle the high-def video well and you may need a new machine. (I do.) The new Windows Movie Maker Live can handle mp4/mov files.
Some good discussion here:
http://mazdaracers.c...p?showtopic=893

[Cy Peake]

I use a GoPro HD too. I made this the other day using Sony Vegas Platinum 10. It's pretty easy to use, costs around $90 and there are lots of tutorials on youtube.

[Tom Hampton]

Nice vid! Love me some old-skool Judas Priest---perfect for fast drivin'! Did that guy end up hitting anything? I managed to save a tank slapper like that, yesterday.

I found a decent free editor, VideoPad. It works: allows selection of in/out segments from multiple videos, etc; transition effects, audio tracks, sub-titles, the usual. Seems to encode okay without loss in quality. The primary issue is that the encode seems to be single-core, software only (no HW/GPU acceleration). So, its dog-slow...took about 8 minutes to encode a 1 minute video. I have a core i7 running at 3.6GHz with 3GB of usable RAM (6GB total, but in XP you only get ~3 available). In task manager you can clearly see that it has maxed only 1 CPU at 100% while the other 7 are idling at 5%.

Sony Vegas will use all cores, and the GPU apparently. 245MB download....hmmm.

[dstevens]

Video (and audio to an extent) is resource intensive. Going to 64 bit and an app that is multi thread aware will help. What you are seeing is related to a)cost and B ) platform. Not to start a platform jihad but this is one area with MacOS really shines. That's why it's the choice of fat, crusty entertainment pros that pretend to be race car drivers on the weekends.

On the other side of my home partition I do have 64 bit Vista and we have 64 bit Win 7 on some apps at work that require that platform. And get as much ram as you can afford and as fast of a disk as you can. If I had to try to do that on Windows I'd get Adobe Premier Lite or whatever they call it these days, on second thought, the light weight Vegas package looks good, it's about a hun, buck up the ram and get Win 7.

[Tom Hampton]

Video (and audio to an extent) is resource intensive. Going to 64 bit and an app that is multi thread aware will help. What you are seeing is related to a)cost and B ) platform. Not to start a platform jihad but this is one area with MacOS really shines. That's why it's the choice of fat, crusty entertainment pros that pretend to be race car drivers on the weekends.

On the other side of my home partition I do have 64 bit Vista and we have 64 bit Win 7 on some apps at work that require that platform. And get as much ram as you can afford and as fast of a disk as you can. If I had to try to do that on Windows I'd get Adobe Premier Lite or whatever they call it these days, on second thought, the light weight Vegas package looks good, it's about a hun, buck up the ram and get Win 7.

Yeah, I spent a good portion of my career designing high-end intel and AMD platforms...from the days of the multi-processor pentium III's to the first multi-processor-multi-core CPUs. I was on the team that booted windows on a 4-way Opteron. It's less about the OS internals, and more about the relationship between the people who work with these platforms, and the people who develop them. MacOS was the platform of choice early on, so the market adopted the platform. The developers who target the market then must develop on it...etc....There is very little actual computing difference between the two platforms at this stage. But, the PC version of the marketplace is much less mature.


I've been playing with the trial version of Vegas (the $100 version). it DOES use GPU accel, and all 8 cores from my i7-940, ram doesn't seem to be a limiting factor as it is not using the full 2GB process space available under XP. Render rate from GoPro 720p@60fps to "Internet HD"@30fps is essentially 1:1, eg. 1 minute to render 1 minute of video....that's acceptable....

Now...to upgrade that video driver....

[dstevens]

Until recently the Win API for those sorts of apps didn't offer the flexibility and functionality needed for higher end audio and video. It wasn't really until Vista that they caught up. Avid Microsoft, Intel and Dell made a run at that end of the market about the time Apple released Final Cut and Logic to compete with Avid's editing bays and Pro Tools audio software. It didn't get very far except in the hobbyist/bedroom studio crowd though Nuendo on Windows has made significant inroads in video post and scoring.

You don't need to do too much to edit the GoPro vids. The new Movie Maker in Win 7 should be enough though something like Vegas is going to offer more in terms of flexibility and functionality. On my tour vids I'd do titles, wipes, dissolves, etc but on the track footage I hack off the pre grid and post grid and put it up. The last couple in fact I used MPEG Streamclip and didn't import into Final Cut at all.

[Cy Peake]

FYI: I've been using the Vegas rendering option that's 3MB/sec or the files are too big to upload to vimeo (500MB limit per week for me).

[Tom Hampton]

Yeah, mpeg streamclip was crashing for me, unless I turned off all acceleration. Probably a driver issue. I've updated since then, but haven't tried streamclip since.

Which option is that cy? I used the "Internet hd" option but, i don't recall seeing a bandwidth statement. Oh, wait you have version 10, right?

[Cy Peake]

The "render as" option is in the File menu. There's a pulldown to set the file type. I use .wma and then it allows you to choose the size of the render. I can't remember exactly the process since I don't use the program often, but it should be the same for v10 vs v11.

[Tom Hampton]

Hmmm... will have to see when I get back to computer. Traveling today.