My video files are too large!

[rkstudio]

Hello,

I recently downloaded the trial version of VSP X5. And now, I have a new 12 MP camera as opposed to the 5 MP I had before. Anyway this new camera shoots in video mode at 1920, 1280 and 640. When I use 1920 or 1280 (HD), the file size of the videos are huge, so when I import them to VSP, they take a very long time to import. Is this normal when you want high res videos or is there something I can do to cut down on the file size. To test it out, I shot 20 second videos at all three resolutions. In 1920, the file size was almost a whole gig at only 20 seconds. WOW! It would be much larger than that for lets say a 20 minute movie. I'm guessing that would take all day to import.
I guess what I'm asking is.....is there anything I can do to get around this or do I have to live with waiting a long time to import a video?

Correction: Actually, It's taking long to "Create a Video File", not to import the video. Anyway, is it normal for the program to take so long to create a file? if it's a 15 or 20 minute video, it will probaly take at least a couple of hours to create at that resolution.


Thanks,

Bob

[RobertOZ]

Watch the video to learn how to increase rendering and performance in X5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tSj_9nU ... 6&index=17

What format does your camera record in, I use a Sanyo HD1010 MPEG-4 h264 with a recording setting of 1280 x720 (HD) @ 60 fps, a 5 min 12 sec video is 452MB and a 1min 30sec is 160MB.

Robert

[BrianCee]

you haven't told us what camera you have - but most HD cameras these days record on an SD card - if that is the case for you then you simply drag and drop from your camera to your HD drive - so that what is in your camera is on your hard drive.

your mention of 'importing' and big file sizes makes me wonder if you are using some other process which converts your video to uncompressed AVI - which will produce very large files.

[rkstudio]

Hi again,
I have been looking for the last couple of hours for the information your requesting and there is nowhere in the instruction manual or the PDF manual that says anything about FPS. But it does say that it records in 1920, 1280 and 640. The camera model is Canon Powershot sx50 hs. It records onto an SD card.
The process I'm using is I'm importing the videos from the camera to the computer (if it will actually import), I'm having trouble with that too. I'm starting to thing that I should be using the capture tab in VSP and importing directly that way.
Too bad there's not some kind of instructions on how to use the camera and VSP altogether instead of trying to figure out two confusing things separately. My brain is hurting right now.

[rkstudio]

Also,

I hope you forgive me for my lack of tech knowledge as far as drag and drop the files directly to my hard drive...I don't know how to do that.

Also, I'm regretting buying this camera mostly because of the severe lack of information in the PDF and the book that came with it. The info in both of them is ambiguous and very confusing. In one part, it has you trying to push 3 different buttons at once to get into the playback mode. You have to be a finger contortionist to do that. Anyway I did that the best I could and it didn't work anyway.

It's a very bad camera but I've had it for about 2 months now and it's probably too late to return it.

Here if a screen capture of the 3 fingered manuver needed to reduce the file size of a video.

[BrianCee]

Ok if your camera records onto an SD card there are two ways of getting the videos onto your hard drive - neither of them involve using VideoStudio - you do not need to.

Method 1 - - Do not open VideoStudio - plug your camera into your computer using a USB cable and switch the camera on - after a few seconds your computer may put up the standard "What do you want to do" window - tell it to open the folder to view the files. It depends on the settings on your computer what exactly happens when you plug something in - sometimes 'my computer' opens.

Either way you need 'my computer' (or windows explorer) open so that you can see all the files on your computer. under the main heading of 'computer' you should now see a new drive which is the name of your camera - open that and you will see all the files on your camera. Now "drag and drop" the files from there to a suitable folder somewhere on your hard drive.

'Drag and drop' is a standard windows procedure for moving files around - basically in 'my computer' you left click on a file and while holding down the left key you drag (slide) the file to a new folder - then release the mouse key.

Method 2 is almost exactly the same - but instead of plugging the camera in you take the SD card out of the camera and if you have card reader slots on your PC (or use a card reader) put the card in there - again the card will appear in 'my computer' and you can drag and drop them onto your hard drive again.

The videos will now be on your computer exactly as they were on your camera and you can now open VideoStudio and use the 'Add media' function to put your videos in the timeline for editing.

[Ken Berry]

Two comments: or rather a query and a comment. First, the comment. If you are dealing with high definition video and using the Toshiba laptop listed in your profile, I would have to say it is severely underpowered to handle most high def video -- apart perhaps for HDV format, though I am 100% sure your camera doesn't use that format (as HDV is recorded to tape).

Second -- the query... You don't tell us the exact format of the video, and the SD quality you cite (640) suggests that it might not be using a codec with strict DVD-compatible properties. So could you please right click both a 1920 and 640 file, either in the VS timeline or library window, and copy all the Properties here (or post a screen grab of the Properties boxes). That way we will have a clearer idea of exactly what we are dealing with -- though I suspect it could be either Quicktime .mov or even mjpeg/photo jpeg format...

[rkstudio]

I'm attaching the properties for all three levels of each below. Ken, can you please tell me why my computer is severely underpowered for working with high def? Maybe there's something I can do to improve it. Sorry about the lack of information. I can see that the camera is saving in .mov format.

[Ken Berry]

Thanks for that info -- but it would have been better if you had did as I asked and did the screen grabs of the Properties boxes within VS. They give more actual information about the codecs used, whereas the program you used did not. So really, apart from now confirming that they are .mov files, we still don't know the codecs used e.g. h.264 for the 1920 and 1280 ones or even the mjpeg one???

As for computer power needed for HD, if your video is in fact using the h.264 codec, then that is currently just about the most demanding consumer-level codec there is on the market. It requires a decent core 2 duo CPU not only to edit, but even to play the HD smoothly, and even with a core 2 duo, editing and conversion will be slow. It's even pretty demanding with an i5 or i7 CPU. But that's another reason for wanting to know the exact nature of the codecs your camera uses. That way we might be able to provide a more accurate or sensible reply.

[rkstudio]

Hello Ken,

I hope now, I'm providing the correct info. Here are 3 screen grabs of all three. They are in fact h.264. Is there any way I can change it to something else or am I stuck with using that codec?
Also, I guess you already know this but the original file format was .mov. In order to get the properties for the proper info, I had to create a video file for them.

[RobertOZ]

You hard drive is only 320GB, how much free space do you have? for HD editing you need at least 60GB of free space, preferably 100GB, as Ken has stated, HD video editing is very demanding and your computer is underpowered for such a task, although you should be able to complete SD video editing successfully. You only have 4GB of ram, again, for HD editing 6-8 Gb as a minimum, is recommended.

Robert

[rkstudio]

Hello Robert,

I have about 280GB or hard drive space left. I'm trying to make drawing demo videos to upload to Youtube and I just want the clearest videos I can get. I suppose I can probably get away with using the 640 resolution. I'll have to try it when I get home. I did import a video yesterday that was 1920 and imported it to VS and worked with it but when I played it, it was really choppy. But when I uploaded it to youtube, it was as smooth as can be. However, that doesn't help as far as the editing process goes.
Anyway I guess the only thing I can do to improve my computer for these purposes is to increase the ram.

[Ken Berry]

OK -- thanks, and yes, that confirms your camera uses the demanding h.264, although that is then wrapped in the .mov extension. I have a GoPro Hero 3 which uses the same codecs both for video and audio, though it uses the mp4 extension. But they are otherwise identical. And yep, those files sizes are quite consistent with what I get with my Hero -- in fact if anything, your files are just a little smaller than mine. For instance, with your 1920 x 1080 files, I notice your 20 second clip takes up "only" 34 MB, whereas mine -- with identical properties (apart from mine being PAL at 25 full frames a second) -- uses 32 MB for a 12 second clip! As I said, it's a demanding format, not only in terms of complexity, but also size. That being said, there are other HD formats -- including HDV which I mentioned above -- which produce (much) larger files. HDV, for instance, is high def mpeg-2 which is less compressed -- and thus larger -- than your mov files or my mp4 files.

Incidentally, I notice your images 1 and 3 above are identical -- rather than 3 being of a 640 clip's Properties. But never mind -- we now know what we are dealing with.

Regarding your very latest post (replying to RobertOz), the choppiness you see is absolutely normal for an underpowered computer trying to even play h.264 video. Even with my "old" Quad 6600, a certain amount of choppiness was evident during editing playback (though not in the final product played either on the computer or elsewhere). I had a similar experience to yours with a Pentium IV 3.0 Ghz with hyperthreading which was at the very bottom end of what could even edit h.264 high def video. It played back very choppily on that computer, so I thought the whole project was a failure. But when I played the finished product back on a Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz machine, it played absolutely smoothly. That just illustrates a point I made earlier that h.264 high def video is not only demanding while editing, but even just playing it!

And sadly, I am not sure that adding extra RAM to your current machine is going to improve things much if at all... What you will really need is a much more powerful CPU and probably also GPU.