On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 8:53 PM, Rupert <rup...@twittervlog.tv> wrote: > Amused as I am by you telling David H that he's off the mark, just as > he sounds like he's about to blow... (wait - 3, 2, 1, I think I can > hear him popping like Krakatoa from 7000 miles away) > > He's actually right. MP4 - particularly H264 MP4 - are notoriously > bad to edit with. They *look* editable, but they grind and crunch and > take forever to render and slip out of sync and won't be trimmed and > cause your software to crash. Getting a faster processor won't help > you. Even people with blazing fast Macs and Final Cut Pro can't cut > H264. > > So you *do* have to transcode them first. It will speed *everything* > else up. It's one of the reasons I edit all my clips from little > cameras & phones in iMovie or Vegas. iMovie converts to DV codec as > it imports - and in my opinion the absolute best thing about Vegas is > that it doesn't do any conversion - you put the clips in the timeline > and cut. Which is why I recommended it to you. Although there's > still a chance that it would have trouble editing big H264 MP4 files > because H264 is a bugger to edit. > Weirdly I had a conversation a bit like this - but the other way round > - with David H on Twitter about 2 years ago when I complained about > not being able to edit my point & shoot and phone MP4s in Final Cut > Pro. Lots of other people were complaining about it - but David's FCP > was editing his MP4s fine at that point. I think that was before he > got his Xacti - and Xacti files for some reason seem to cause more of > a problem than most. In fact, I just remembered, one time I did have > trouble editing Xacti files on Vegas. > > Unless you want to try Vegas, you're going to have to transcode the > clips. It's like taking things off tape - but you don't have to watch > & log while you do it - you can batch convert a bunch of clips while > you sleep or do something else. > > Honestly, Google it online - in almost every type of editing, there's > some kind of preparation of clips. It seems like an insane waste of > time, I know - why can't the editing companies adapt their software so > we don't have to do this whole extra step, when it seems so close? > But at the moment, it's necessary. > > If your editing software won't output a good enough video file, that's > another truly unnecessary extra step - and one that's costing you an > extra level of compression. Vegas (or Premiere) would be able to > export a good quality MP4 direct from your timeline. Just download > the trial of Vegas and try it. It's great.
I already said I *have* tried Vegas (Platinum) as recommended, and for the life of me I cannot find a way to output MP4 in 1280x720. If it's there then please point me to where... I've hardly used it, but I go to the obvious Make Movie output screen and it only gives me 1440x1080 or higher for Sony AVC which seems like the only MP4 option. Perhaps I'm missing the obvious? If I have to convert first and editing 1280x720 H.264 direct is an absolute waste of time, then so be it. But really, with Video Studio I feel so close, I can't help pushing until I get it. Sorry if I seem overly stubborn, but also please remember that everyone has different requirements. What might be not usable/not possible for your needs might be perfectly adequate for my needs. In fact VS has moments when it lets me trim and preview without any major problems, but this seems fairly random. So perhaps going from 2G to 3G RAM will the trick for me. I also have not optimised my machine for performance. If it can work *sometimes* then why not all the time on a good/optimised machine/software? Some people have mentioned you have to get a more "editable friendly" MP4 codec, so that gives me further hope that's it's actually possible. I can't believe there is no one out there successfully editing 1280x720 MP4 directly, anyone? I'm tackling this problem in two separate areas: 1) Basic editing of 1280x720 MP4 video 2) Direct outputting of 1280x720 MP4 video Ideally I want a program that lets me do both with minimal work. Thanks. Dave.
