No matter how many new transitions, DVD menu templates, Video tracks or other items are supplied, one of the biggest tests and of considerable concern to forum members is how good or bad VideoStudio 11+ will be when it comes to editing MPEG2 files.
I begin writing this test making no assumptions and before I have tried editing any MPEG2 files with the software. I am going to record my actions in as much detail as I can and use a source file - which again I shall document in as much detail as possible, which I consider will be worthy of conducting this test.
The source file I am going to use was recorded using WinTV2000 - the native software for my Hauppauge PVR 350 PCI TV card. I have used this method of recording my TV programs for a few years now and so know that it produces a good quality MPEG2 file. We now need to remove the adverts and also the padding that I apply to the start and end of the broadcast to ensure that I don't miss the start or end of the program due to the broadcast being slightly time shifted to that advertised in the TV listings.
I am also going to produce 2 versions of my edited program to give VideoStudio a sporting chance.
The first video will only contain straight cuts.
The second video will include cross fade transitions.
Hopefully both videos will remain in synch at the end of the project.
The source material is going to be one long video file containing 3 x 1 hour TV episodes. I am going to extract the last episode - so we will be starting 2 hours into the recording. the episodes all contain adverts of approx 5 minutes duration every 10 minutes - i.e. the episode will contain 3 advert breaks. (approx 10-5-10-5-10-5-10 = 55 minutes plus a bit at the start and end)
The settings used with winTV2000 to record this one long video are as follows:
These are the factory default settings for "DVD long Play" for WinTV2000 and which I have used extensively in the past.
The size of my recorded video file is shown in Windows Explorer as 7,587,708 KB
I Have then opened VideoStudio 11+ in 4.3 mode (as that is the ratio of my recording)
I have then created a separate library in the library manager and imported that video file. Here is the Video Property Sheet.
When I drag my imported video down onto the timeline I am going to accept the offer to Change my project settings to match the video's properties so that VideoStudio can perform Smart Render.
Now I am going to use multi trim to extract that 3rd episode minus the adverts.
I will now save my project so that I can now produce the first video file without transitions and then use this same project to produce a second video file with transitions.
As I am working with PAL video and wish to create a video file that I can later turn into a DVD Video I am going to select the option same as project settings (the settings I have are DVD compliant)
My AMD Athlon 2400 XP+ computer with 1GB RAM and Windows XP Pro SP2 took just under 5 minutes to render the new video file.
Next I inserted 1 second cross fade transitions between the clips.
and rendered another video file using the same settings as previously.
This render took slightly over 6 minutes.
Now I opened the first video file using PowerDVD and checked the start and end of the video. The sound was in perfect synchronisation.
Video 1 = PASS
Now I opened the second video file (with the transitions) with PowerDVD and again played the start and end of the video
The sound was in perfect synchronisation.
Video 2 = PASS
The quality of the Video itself was also superb in both of the rendered video files.