Trimming a video

[wolfworx9]

I am currently using Ulead VideoStudio 7 to edit my captured videos and have not been able to get the "trim" function to work to my satisfaction.

Here is a very simple example:

One of my captured mpeg videos is 55 minutes long. The last five minutes in this video is junk, so I would like to remove it and have a new video of the first 50 minutes, trimming off the last five.

I move the video to the story board and set the "Trim Bar" for the selection I want to retain. Duration now reads 50 minutes. This is just what I want to save to a new file. OK, but here is where the problem begins.

If I select "Save trimmed video" The software immediatelly begins to start the save process (it does not ask me for a saved name and folder). after about four minutes the operation is complete and a new file is saved: many folder levels down in "Documents and Settings" folder, but the saved file is IDENTICAL to the original 55 minute file! --that's pretty useless.

So I tried another method. From "Share" I selected "Create Video File", "Same as project settings". This gave me a dialog box to ask for a name and folder to save the resulting file. So far so good. I saved the video. After a real-time rendering a file was produce about an hour later. groan! What was even worse than the render time, the resulting file was 200 MB larger than the original -- although it was 50 minutes in duration and the unwanted last five minutes were gone.

This is not very satisfactory, so I ask:

What I doing something wrong?

[Ken Berry]

In your first process with the trim bar, when you placed the right hand trim bar at the 50 minute point, did you first click on the scissors icon below the trim bar to actually cut the video, and then 'save trimmed video'? As you have found, though, the video on the timeline remains the same, and the original video is also kept in the library. But the new file is also inserted at the end of the relevant library pane for that project, and usually with a dash and a version number after the original file's name to distinguish it.

As naming a new file, sorry, but that is one quirk with all versions of Video Studio that I still mentally scream about -- the program never asks for a name but always assigns its own alpha-numerical (and to me nonsensical) one -- though others on this Board will tell you it is constructed of dates and versions and does in fact make some sense... But why not good old 'Holiday 001', 'Holiday 002' etc as many other editing programs do?

[kebrinton]

Hi wolfworx9 --

Going back to your final comments-- "200MB larger" -- "that's not very satisfactory":

You did end up with the new 50-minute video. So isn't that what you were hoping for? What's a lousy 200MB when we casually delete 13GB download files at the end of a project?

As I read through your (interesting) post, I wondered if you'd end up using the "Share" method. "Share" is really the equivalent of the word-processor "Save" function: It creates a new file. "Save" with UVS only tells your little project file that you wish to incorporate the most recent changes in the video you eventually will create with "Share." "Save" doesn't do a dang thing with the video file itself. And "Share" doesn't change the original video file, but puts yet another enormous file on our harddrives.

Keith

[wolfworx9]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Keith,

it was not the 200MB difference, but the irony of the thing.

I reduced the length of a video and produced a larger file than the original!

Then there was the time involved. If it takes me almost an hour to remove five minuted, I'd spend days to do more complicated cutting. At that rate, I would consider going back to cutting and splicing 8mm film!

[wolfworx9]

Ken,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I placed the right hand trim bar at the 50 minute point and first click on the scissors icon below the trim bar to actually cut the video, and then did a 'save trimmed video'?

Same result created file is identical to the original. I've spent far too much time trying to get this product to work properly. Perhaps an upgrade to version 9 might solve the problem, but I'm not optomistic. I guess I'll just have to check out other video editing software.

[TubaDad]

Wolfworx9,

One thing that stood out in your message was the file size getting larger and the amount of time that it took to process the clip. Have you checked the specs on the the two clips? It sounds like you had a clip at a lower bit rate and then created your new shorter clip in a higher bit rate. Even though it may be a variable bit rate, I have seen size creep just like you described when I was not careful to watch my bit rate. I capture everything in 6000VBR, just because I know most of my DVDs are going to be between 60-90 minutes. When I trim clips, I make sure it is using the same template I used to create it, becasue it will size creep and take longer to re-render with a different bit rate. I hope that was the issue and solves the mystery, and let's you know you are not the only one that has been caught by that one.

You would think that a clip at 6000 would just re-render at 6000 when using a VBR higher than that, but that is not the way it works.

Did you have to bring up splicing 8mm, now I am starting to feel old again.

[wolfworx9]

Thanks, Bruce, for the information. But I found a solution with another piece of software. It solved the problem.

I just downloaded a free trial of "VideoReDo Plus". It clips off the unwanted end of the video in four minutes and lets me rename and place the resulting file in a folder of my choice. The file size (1,591MB) is less than the original (1,770MB). Very easy to use, no fuss.

[TubaDad]

Wolfworx, that looks like a very interesting product. Thanks.