MP4 Editing

[ChrisX]

Hi and thanks in advance,
Having some problems with editing MPEG-4 file 30Fps on VS10+ taken from a Sanyo HD1A, when I play the clips individually as MP4 I have no problems however when I playback the project its very glitchy, the project properties are:

NTSC non-drop frame (30 fps)
Microsoft AVI files
24 bits, 320 x 240, 30 fps
Lower Field First
Uncompressed

I'm quite new to all this but I am pretty sure that the NTSC should be PAL? (Scotland) also when checking project options the TV standard is - NTSC non drop frame 30fps, I am bit lost on that one.

Should I also be converting the MP4 footage before editing and burning to disk?
My goal is to take some footage, edit, and burn to disk, sounds so easy!
Cheers
Chris

[Ken Veal]

Hi
Look at
http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=27 the recommended proceedures, you should be PAL 720x576,25 frames per sec and capture
to AVI DV I and edit that.
Regards Ken

[Ken Berry]

The problem is, Ken, that the OP's camera is a model which actually films using mpeg-4 as its native format! Rather difficulty to capture that as DV!

That being said, there was a thread here just last week, I think, on the same problem with a similar Sanyo camera. Unfortunately, I don't have time to do it myself, but do a search for using Sanyo as the key word, and look at recent postings that come up.

[ChrisX]

Thanks for the quick reply,
I have managed to burn to disk 2 projects, one with .avi (converted by AVS4YOU.com) and one using the unchanged .MP4 from the camera.

My question is this, which one should I be using? the full program to convert from MP4 to AVI before editing costs 29$ from AVS4YOU would this be worth the buy?

last question, promise

[jchunter]

Well, I think you can convert Mpeg4 to just about anything, using Video Studio. While I have not been able to do much editing with Mpeg4, I have been able to insert an mpeg4 clip into the timeline and, without editing, go directly to SHARE/Create Video File, where I was able to transcode it to DVD-compliant mpeg2. This can then be burned on a DVD, with menus, etc. Mpeg2 can also be edited easily with Video Studio. Try this first.

BTW, if you think you burned Mpeg4 (unchanged) on a DVD, it would not be playable in a standard DVD player. It would have been transcoded to Mpeg2 in the BURN module (not the recommended way to do it...).

[Ken Berry]

Just a slight gloss on what John just said. It *would* be playable as mpeg-4 IF the flavour of mpeg-4 in this case was DivX AND you have a DVD player rated to play DivX movies.

As John also noted, for a standard DVD, you would need to convert to DVD-compliant mpeg-2. Converting first to an AVI (if it is not a DivX or XVid flavour of .avi) is a rather pointless step, which only adds one more processing step and consequent quality loss to your work flow.

And if AVIS4YOU in fact converts your mpeg-4 to a DivX or XVid .avi, you will still have an unnecessary step since it will still have to be converted to mpeg-2 before burning it to disc.