Supplementary question - conversion of avi to mpeg

[Housepiglet]

Hi peeps,

I'm still trying to find a solution to my "slow with avi" problem. I've just converted an avi to mpeg and, lo and behold, it runs much more quickly.

Can anyone please recommend a good avi to mpeg converter programme, and/or offer me any other tips? There was a noticeable drop in quality with the conversion, and it's probably the case that some programmes do it better than others.

As always, advice gratefully accepted

[skier-hughes]

Canopus procoder 3
Sorenson squeeze

You don't say what sort of avi you started with, how long it was and what settings you chose for the mpeg, all of these will make a difference.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Housepiglet

Just a few thoughts

Video Studio¡¦s project playback is poor to say the least, although most of us find it acceptable.
When you playback the project---VS has to combine all the timelines into one, effects/filters/titles/audio are displayed in real time on the screen.
The playback can be a little jerky and sometimes freeze.

Video Studio is basically a video editor used to create a DVD.
It likes working with DV-Avi and standard Mpeg 2 files compatible for creating DVD¡¦s.
Even so adding video filters, transitions etc may slow the playback process, Some effects more so than others.

When we start using highly compressed video such as xvid, Video Studio may struggle.
Once we use effects and transitions we greatly exaggerate the problem. Quote (All is fine until I add the colour correction.)

And that¡¦s how see it.

Ok

You are thinking of converting your xvid files to another format prior to editing, this may be the way forward.

Which format to use?

Knowing what your final product is going to be will help in deciding what to use.
Knowing the properties of the source material the Xvid properties would be very useful.
But remember you cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear, as the saying goes.

So what are you trying to make, a DVD to play on the TV?
A video file to display on the internet?
What are the properties of the Xvid files?

As I said just a few thoughts.

[Housepiglet]

Hi Trevor,

That was an incredibly helpful post! Thank you so much for taking the time to help and explain

All I'm doing is making fanvids out of episodes of a television programme, set to a piece of music. I upload them to YouTube so that other addicts can enjoy them. I like to keep a better quality copy on my own PC so that I can watch it there afterwards.

I've bought the first 3 series of the TV proggy on DVD, but the 4th series isn't yet out and therefore all I currently have available are d/loaded AVIs. As you'll have gathered, I'm not terribly knowledgeable about this stuff, but I think they've been recorded with XviD. They're all about 350MB in size.

Using some of the sample clips that came with v.11.5 Plus I found that I can add overlays and transitions and effects and stuff and it all runs quickly and cleanly. That, plus info I've been given here in the past about how difficult it is for VS to work with highly compressed AVIs, is what's making me wonder whether it's worth converting them to another format. I suggested MPEG simply because that seems to be the 'other' choice offered in the Project Preferences dialogue box. I actually tried converting one earlier today with a rather rough and ready converter (as far as I can tell) and when I imported it into VS it was possible for VS to work with the converted file much more easily than it had been able to work with the AVI.

I'm not making anything that's more than a bit of fun for me and for my fellow addicts, but they are a bit of a labour of love and therefore I'd like them to be fairly decent quality, insofar as that's possible. It would also be great not to have to wait ages for VS to do anything with the files I'm using.

Incidentally, the problems don't occur only when I'm playing back and/or adding effects, transitions, colour (aagh!) etc. Even trying to set the parameters with the little slidey things takes ages--I pull them and it can take 10 seconds or sometimes more for VS to respond. When I click on the time thing to try to advance by seconds, or increments of a second, it can take ages to respond to that too.

I realise this isn't a reflection on VS. I know it's happening because of the files I'm trying to use, but I don't have anything else and so I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do to speed things up.

Here's one I made a while ago, just to give you an idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTqSxztqrJw

Many thanks again for your thoughtful response. It was much appreciated

[Housepiglet]

Thanks for those suggestions, Skier. Sorry not to have replied sooner. I didn't see your reply when I replied to Trevor.