Can I use VS9 to edit Mpeg 4?

[LY]

I found that I couldn't open/ edit Mpeg 4 file by Video Studio 9. What should I do?

[Ken Berry]

VS9 does not support MPEG-4 by itself. You have to download an additional plug-in for it which is free for REGISTERED users of VS9. Go to http://www.ulead.com/events/vs9_hdv/runme.htm

[DVDDoug]

FYI - MPEGs are not meant to be edited. You can cut & splice them, but any "real" editing (transitions, filters, etc) require a decode /re-code cycle. Because it's "lossy" encoding, the re-coding will degrade the video quality.

I haven't used any MPEG-4s, but with MPEG-2s my transitions were very "blocky". (Sometimes this looks OK... like a cool special effect . )

Also, editing MPEG-2's with VS8 sometimes generated corrupted files, resulting in DVDs with A/V sync problems, and files that crashed DVD Workshop. (I haven't tried it with VS9.)

[jchunter]

Doug,
I capture and edit Mpeg all the time without visibly reducing resolution as shown on integrated resolution charts. My edited videos and do not show any loss of resolution when cutting, inserting transitions, successively re-rendering clips with and Save Trimmed video control etc. If you have had blockiness from these operations, something else is wrong, such as mismatched properties, corrupted video, etc.

John

[Ken Berry]

When I first read Doug's post (and similar ones like it in the past), I had intended just to bite my tongue and say nothing. But I can only agree with John. Like a lot of other people here, I have an ongoing project of capturing, editing etc my VHS collection of home movies to transfer them to DVD. I capture in DVD-compliant mpeg-2 (because I cannot capture to DV), do a fair amount of editing, add transitions, voice-over, add music, play with the original sound track etc, then render (without Smart Render, as I find it still problematic in VS9 as it certainly was in VS8). And I can't say I notice any particular degradation in quality (which is really only at best VHS quality). Certainly the edits are all effective and the transitions and all other edits work flawlessly. I recall John's detailed experiments with mpeg-2 last year, and while there might be small degrees of degradation with each render, in my case -- like John's -- it is in no way noticeable to the naked eye.

[davemac]

For months I struggled with capturing VHS movies until I did one tweak that sorted it all out. I;m in Australia under the PAL system, so it may not apply to all. I use VS8.

I make sure my project is set to upper field first when capturing TV or VHS. If I have a mixture of VHS/TV & DV from a digital camera I use the same settings. However, if I use DV only for the whole DVD, I use lower field first (& render in the same as project settings.

This was learned through trial & terror But my DVD's, I'm happy to say are flawless & at last I'm happy with what is being produced. VS8 is fantastic. The only thing I'd like it to be able to handle now is MOV MPEG 4 files from a Kodak still camera (It can record mov files). At this stage it seems that it uses different internal mechanisms to the latest MOV files.

Regards,
David