Be Excellent To Each Other

I've recently bought a new camcorder (Do people still say that?) and I'm looking to edit the videos that I'm recording. Nothing fancy, I just want to tidy them up and put scenes together.

Unfortunately, Windows Movie Maker doesn't seem to like MP4's.

Does anyone know of an editing program that will do this for me? I've tried a number of different programs to try and convert the MP4's to AVI's but they either break the sound or break the video.

Any ideas?

*EDIT* Also, the videos seem to struggle to play in Windows Media Player. They stutter all over the shop. Apart from downloading VLC, does anyone know of a good codec pack? I thought WMP did it automatically but apparently not.

As far as video editors go, Cyberlink Powerdirector is certainly one of the friendlier ones. Easy to pick up in about five minutes, and supports practically every video format (including MP4) out of the box. It's no match for pro-level editors, but then it's not meant to be and would take care of your problem just fine. Zippy enough to work on anything from a netbook up, too. Certainly an excellent WMM replacement. It's easily found ("elsewhere"-ed) too.

As for codec packs, CCCP is popular and covers most every codec you'll ever need.

Funny you should recommend Power director as it came with my PC. I've tried putting the MP4s in there but it only recognises the video with no sound.

Annoying! Could that have something to do with codecs I wonder?

Presumably it's AVCHD? If so its a bitch to edit as the compression levels are so high it takes real CPU grunt to decode it. I have a little Canon HFS11 which shoots AVCHD and Final Cut just transcodes it to Prores (a frame based codec) to get around this.

For masochists who use PC's for their video editing, I believe the latest version of Adobe Premiere can handle AVCHD and therefore presumably the cut down Premiere elements will.

Final Cut Express is actually the answer to your problems but its Mac only.

And just to warn people, codec packs may sound like a good idea most of them end up bloating out your system with a load of shit you don't need. In short they are a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Far better to install what you need when you need it on an individual basis than spaff a load of crap all over your system.

How do I tell if it is?

The camcorder will usually pronounce on the unit or in the manual. Or just to a web search to see if it is.

Most new cameras are unless you've bought something cheap from a no name Korean firm.

Ahhh... It says MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 on it.

Is that the same?

May well be. Might be they just haven't bought the licence to use the correct logo.

It's not a problem, you just need to make sure you have the right software and enough grunt. I'm sitting here layering 4 layers of video with 2 sets of captions and a background on a Macbook Pro. I doubt you'll be doing anything like that.

I probably won't... but it's finding the right software that is my problem. AVS Video Editor 4 seems *OK* but I've got to pay for it... Well, I haven't GOT to but you get the idea.

Decent video software costs money. I don't regret for a second having a fully paid up and legit copy of Final Cut Studio 2 sitting on my shelf. Well other than the sheer size of the box it comes in.



[nb that's not mine]

I've found a program that'll convert my files which will make them work in PowerDirector! Awesome... the only problem is, it looks like this!

Ugly as hell, but it does what I want.... No doubt it's transferring virus after virus to my hard drive but.. you can't win them all!

The only time I ever needed to convert video, I used windows media encoder.

Obviously, I have no idea whether it'll help you.

Without knowing what the input video spec is, I can't really give advice. Is it full 1920x1080 or 1440x1080? What's the audio sample rate? Is it a UK model set to 25fps? Interlaced or non interlaced? The list goes on.

If you know what you are putting into it, you can then set the adjustments and the outputs accordingly.

Oh sorry, I didn't post that picture for advice. I just posted it to show how ugly the software is.

I've tried converting a couple of videos from the camera and the settings it's detected seem to keep everything in the right ratio and all the sound is in sync so I'm not going to mess with it.

Thanks for your help though Chinny!