In a land of the blind the one-eyed man is king

[garjobo]

Nutshell

I had VS X9 - didn't use much - tried burning bluray - messing me about!

2 years later

I decided ( today! ) to upgrade to VS 2018 - discounted offer. I did get 'confused' by the NTSC or PAL ( living here in Trump-free UK ) but plumbed for NTSC...i hope i dont regret that.


SO - i now plan to videoedit again.

Have i done the right thing? Is Videostudio 18 better than VS 10?? - I intend to re-read manuals etc..but the whole mpeg 2 or mpeg 4 or burn or render ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS confused me. I burnt to dvd - loading saved project in timeline and rendered each time...slow..but seemed to work. Carry on like that? better ways?


I want to burn to bluray, i have my bluray player installed...i will give it a test run - any obstacles?


Finally, one real question i always had. When i take a clip...I right-click and 'multi-trim ' it. Cutting the parts i want, auto placed in timeline - bobs your uncle. MY QUESTION IS - on occassion - as i edit my projects i may go back into a clip and decide to length it either end. Works fine. But i always wondered....does that mean in my timeline i actually have the ENTIRE DURATION of the clip - because it allows me to length either end of it....despite having 'clipped it' in 'multi-trim'. Reason I query is because, although i burn fine etc...surely on the timeline it has tons of footage in theory sitting there...only showing the clipped part i wanted...but always wondered....is that the right way of doing it? that Im not REALLY CUTTING OUT A CLIP at all? Just wondered...doesnt effect anything - but perhaps a better way - less strain on the pc?

[Ken Berry]

I did get 'confused' by the NTSC or PAL ( living here in Trump-free UK ) but plumbed for NTSC...i hope i dont regret that.

Why did you plump for NTSC? You are living in the UK which is of course PAL. Depending on your camcorder settings, this could indeed cause problems. Why? If your camera and the video it takes are set for PAL, then with the defaults in VS 2018 set for NTSC, there could be problems with the differences between PAL and NTSC frame rates. PAL has 25 frames per second, and NTSC 30 fps (really 29.97 fps). So VS set to produce an NTSC video from PAL footage will have to invent 5 frames for every second of video, and to do so it repeats existing frames. This can produce blip effects in your final footage.

But VS 2018 allows you to change easily between PAL and NTSC: go to Settings > Preferences, and at the bottom of the General tab you will see where you select your TV system.

the whole mpeg 2 or mpeg 4 or burn or render ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS confused me. I burnt to dvd - loading saved project in timeline and rendered each time...slow..but seemed to work. Carry on like that? better ways?

Moving into the field of Blu-Ray, is a bit more complicated than DVDs. The international DVD standard requires only one format: DVD-compliant mpeg-2. The international Blu-Ray standard, however, allows 3 formats to be burnt to disc, though only two need concern you. These are high definition mpeg-2 and AVCHD mpeg-4 produced with the H.264 codec.

And yes, you can still use the same work flow you've been using to produce DVDs i.e. editing in the Edit module, then going straight to Share > Blu-Ray. Your project file will appear in the burning timeline and will be converted to BD-compliant video as part of the burning process. However, if anything goes wrong with this workflow, just remember that you can always, in the Edit module, finish editing then go to Share and choose either mpeg-2 or AVC/H.264 as your output format. For BD compliant video, choose one of the presets which has a frame size higher than standard def 720 x 576/480. The AVC/H.264 tab gives you more options, including 4K video. Then whichever you produce, when you go to Share > Blu-Ray and the Burn module opens, if there is anything in its timeline, delete it and navigate ("Add Media" at the top left of the burning screen) to where your new video clip is located and add that instead.

Reason I query is because, although i burn fine etc...surely on the timeline it has tons of footage in theory sitting there...only showing the clipped part i wanted...but always wondered....is that the right way of doing it? that Im not REALLY CUTTING OUT A CLIP at all?

The basic answer to this is that in Non-Linear Editing (NLE) programs like VS, all editing is virtual. You can cut out bits, move bits around, do all sorts of things to them but the original video in the project is still sitting where you stored it on your computer before even opening VS. So you can always go back to it and start over if something terrible happens during your editing. That's the beauty of NLEs.

But another beauty of them is that the NLE itself only believes what the project file (*.VSP) is telling it. So if the project file is telling the NLE that Clip A has had a bit cut from the start, a lot from the the middle, and a few frames from the end, the NLE will only see the final video after these cuts have been made (virtually). It calculates the size of the resulting video and ignores how big the original video was because for the NLE, the original video has been cut and edited.

Clear as mud!!

[garjobo]

You worried me at the start re PAL etc..whew then! easy to alter. thanks.

And thanks for the advise regarding bluray, Im sure to revisit that post when I come to edit/burn.

Thanks also for the answering the question that always wondered about re timeline - good to know - thought perhaps better alternative which less strain on VS or PC.

Thanks Ken. Will now stop asking questions and enjoy this new improved -bugfree! ( hummm ) version of VS.

[asik1]

.... Will now stop asking questions and enjoy this new improved -bugfree! ( hummm ) version of VS.

Oh..don't be so decisive we know you'll be back sooner than you think.