joining several video clips together as one file

[Fenshome]

Hi

I'm new to VideoStudio 2020 and I have several imported MXF files on timeline which have had to have sections cut-out to make a usable video. When I exported out it made several MPEG files instead of one large file. How do I join all together before exporting into on clip ?

Kim

[Davidk]

Hi Kim,
Basically, after editing and saving your work, you select Share mode (at the top of the screen). This is where you "render" (an interesting term but essentially it makes a single result from all the parts) the project. Share combines all the clips, text, music, etc into one result, and you can choose the form of the result on this share page. If you want the output as a computer file,
- select the top icon (looks like a computer display) in the tool bar. You can choose a format from the buttons displayed, OR if you want it in the same form as the input, just tick the box at the top that says "same as project settings". recommended for a beginner just getting the feel of the software.
- give the resulting file a name (list bar)
- specify the drive/folder where you want the file result to be stored (list bar)
- make sure you have enough storage space available on the chosen location for the result (roughly, add all the video clip sizes up and round up by about 10%), altho when there is a project about to be rendered the program will give you an estimate below the preview screen.
- press the start button.
There will be a progress bar displayed whilst the render is being performed. Time to render will depend on the format of the clips used, the number and size of those clips and the format of the result. FHD resolution clips take longer than DVD/mp2, and in turn 4k takes longer than FHD. Progress will look like it's paused at 99% for a while - which is when it's cleaning up the various workfiles it uses. there's a message box and chime announcing completion.

[Fenshome]

David

Many thanks. When I did the same last night it did do what was supposed to, but has now. Might have missed a step.

Many thanks again for your assistance.

[Fenshome]

David

I spoke too soon. It gets 24% the way through the process and stops, then terminates. I see the MP4 file generated and an a & v file, then disappears when it terminates.

OK I find that it's at the beginning of one of the MXF files where it stops all the others seem to be OK. Would it make sense to just cut a small section out. I really don't want to do this as it belongs to a very important speech section and can't afford loose.

How do I fault find a solution.

Kim

[canuck]

Your posts are confusing.
Where did those mxf files come from?
Exactly what is your process, step-by-step?
How did you create all those mpg files? Why are you talking about mp4 files?

[Ken Berry]

My suggestion would be to convert the problem MXF clip to something else e.g. AVI or MOV. My problem, though, is that I am not sure if the converter programs we normally recommend can deal with MXF which is at the professional end of the scale. But you could try the free Handbrake software...

[Fenshome]

Hi sorry for any confusion.

The MXF file come from a Canon camera. The camera produces many file up to 2MB. These files were then successfully loaded into VideoStudio 2020.

I then load them into the timeline where I cut out all the crap that was not needed, which made a file of 3.5GB.

I then shared as a MPEG exported format. During this rendering/export process the export always stopped at a certain point, even though you could watch the complete edit in the timeline.

Since the last post I experimented and ended up split the project into two around the area where it stopped and moved them into two sub-projects. I then shared/exported as MPEG files which then completed successfully. I then imported these two MPEG files into a new sub-project to rejoin them and then shared/exported them again and the complete project then completed the export as one file.

I don't know why the file would terminate originally, as the files would work originally in the timeline, but this solution of mine ended up working.

Do any of you have any ideas why I ran into this issue.

Kim

[Davidk]

The mxf format you outlined is the first time I have seen it in these forums. The MXF (material exchange format) filetype is a container ((used to cover a number of variants to the primary items; there are others, like mp4 - and not all variants of a container are supported by software vendors)) supposedly used for professional usage typically for sending advertisements to TV stations. See the wikipedia article here,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_Exchange_Format.
This wiki article also has a short list of format translation programs in it.

So, I theorise that the Canon camera you have is a professional model, altho you have not specified. It seems quite likely that as you are rendering to mpeg (essentially a DVD quality result) that you should review the camera settings and choose a recording format that's more relevant and less likely to cause an issue with any good home level editor like VS. A format like MP4, or AVCHD, is suggested; or even mpeg2 but that would be really dumbing down a capable camcorder.

[Fenshome]

David

Yep have read the Wiki stuff and was aware of the various issues. It was why I asked Corel support if it supported MXF format even thought they said they do in the literature, and all they said was yes. Great help

VideoStudio is the only one that I found that supports it, and it in general works very well. Just this minor issue.

You are right the Canon was a professional camera. A relative who works for the BBC did a recording of our very special ceremony at the Special Forces Arboretum for us while in England, and just gave us a USB with it all on it, plus the Canon editing software. It is an absolute nightmare to use, and I assume that the BBC use their own software to manipulate MXF files. I spent a lot of time looking for a usable video editing software and VideoStudio was the only one and is a breeze to use once you you get your head around all the functions. Have spent a lot of money on software up and till now.

All I can think of is that one of the files was not handles correctly on the export, but by splitting overcame the issue. I have a feeling that one file may not have completed correctly when moving onto the next MXF block on the camera - the stop/start info in each block.

Can recommend VideoStudio for MXF files at this stage.

Thanks for your help regardless.

[Fenshome]

PS just for information I used one of the MXF converts to convert to MPEG 4 format and found that the quality of the sound and video was sub-standard quality when imported into video editing software. That's why I went looking for better software.