Can VideoStudio edit surveillance video from Axis cameras?

[shall]

I am looking for software to edit surveillance camera video footage. I did some research and it looked like VideoStudio X8 may be a good fit, so I downloaded the trial version. I took a short video clip and tried to crop it, but I could not drop the cropping icon to the timeline, I'm guessing because I am in a trial version. So, I tried to simply save the video as in AVI format. The video saved, but the saved video is nothing but a black screen. Also, in VideoStudio, after I click on any effects, I also get a black screen when I try to play the video. I can play the video in VideoStudio immediately after I drop it on the timeline, but not after I click around a bit. I know that Windows Media Player is unable to play clips from our surveillance system because it does not handle the pixels (2592 X 1944). I use VLC player instead of Windows Media Player. Can anyone help? I'm wondering if VideoStudio X8 can handle video clips at 2592 X 1944 pixels in Window Media Video format.

The original video is in .asf format and the Properties for the clip I am working with are:
File format: Windows Media Video
File size: 36,216 KB (35.3 MB)
Duration: 67.149 seconds
Data rate: 1005119 kbps
Video: Windows Media Video
24 bits, 2592X1944, 12.00 frames/sec
Audio:
Aspect Ratio: 1:33 : 1.00
Is editable: Yes

[asik1]

shall, upload for us a short clip for test on nontrial X8. You know that cropping like zooming is degrading, video will not look sharp.

[shall]

This clip I was using is attached. We would not be cropping videos much, if at all. We are looking for software that can blur out faces.

[shall]

The file was too large to upload, so here is a link to the file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6wqet ... sp=sharing

[asik1]

It was a windy day out there.
This clip is strange. it uses asf wrapper but H264 codec and not WMV3/VC1 as expected.
Here my X8 don't know how to handle it. it do not report an error but do not decode the video.
Maybe I need to tweak it under the hood, but let other try it first on their systems.

** other editor I have handle it like melted butter

-- Have you tried movie maker? I don't have here the recent one so I can't try.

*** I don't know your needs but many format converters have some FX capabilities so it could be the answer

[shall]

Thanks for your help! It was a very windy day. Can you tell me what other editor you use? I just tried converting the video using Movie Maker, and it looks like VideoStudio will work with the mp4 file that Movie Maker saved. That said, it would be nice to skip that step. I'll now try to blur faces.

[Ken Berry]

I see what asik means about VS not knowing how to handle it. The video clip inserts OK into the X8 (and X7) timeline, and plays perfectly (it was indeed a windy day there!) But although it played, on the timeline no images were visible as all the frames were white. Moreover, I could not apply any of the filters, including Cropping, to it. Or rather I could drag a filter onto the clip, but the Options tab remained greyed out, meaning I could not Customise the filter. I should also have mentioned that though I have "Show message when inserting first video clip into timeline" ticked, I did not get a message when I inserted the clip.

I then went to Share to see if producing a new clip from it might change things. I selected "Same As First Video Clip" and the Properties shown matched those of the clip -- though it was showing in the Profile (again as asik suggested) as mpeg-4 AVCHD but specifying Windows Media as the format and using the extension .wmv instead of .asf... Moreover, the new clip was totally black. I then tried converting it to mpeg-4 but again the result was black.

Cyberlink Power Director 13 did not seem to share these problems. The frames showed properly in the timeline. I also rendered the clip to .wmv format, and it rendered in real time i.e. the 1 minute 7 second clip took 1 minute 7 seconds to render. Moreover, the new clip played perfectly well and appeared to be of a quality similar to the original. Mind you, I could not find a filter equivalent to the VS Cropping filter. There is a New Blue "Crop Border" filter (similar to one which VS also has) but it seems to do as its name suggests and only crops borders, rather than allowing you to focus in on one part of the image and have that fill the screen. But I never crop my videos so have to confess I have no real idea if I was using this filter correctly.

[shall]

I was just cropping to see if VideoStudio would handle the video. The only thing I need in video editing software is motion tracking with facial blurring. I tried this with a different clip that I converted with Movie Maker first, but the motion tracking was slow - that is, the tracker did not keep up with the person walking in the video. The person was not walking fast, either. I don't know if this is due to the video format or whether tracking is just like that.

BTW, I tried using the same clips in Adobe Premier Pro CC 2014. Premier would not handle the original video either. Premier would also not handle the mp4 video after I converted the clip with Movie Maker. So, VideoStudio is ahead of Premier in my book in that regard.

[asik1]

Shall, can the system give you other formats than asf? look at the recorder settings.
- Strange Ken got white frames... here they were black.
- I used Aimersoft Video Editor, but it can't track.

[shall]

No, the system does not allow you to choose the export format. I am using Axis Camera Station with Axis cameras. I think converting the video with Movie Maker and then using VideoStudio is probably the answer. I think the tracking issue I had was due to low contrast between the motion and the background. I suspect I would have the same issue with any video editor. Thanks for your help and suggestions!