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What do you guys use for video encoding, editing, etc?

2K views 20 replies 8 participants last post by  microdmitry 
#1 ·
What do you guys use to make Youtube videos of your playing, etc...?

Anyway,s I ask because I just received my new Panasonic PV-GS320 camcorder. I shot some footage last night, and I've captured it onto my hard drive as a raw AVI file.

Now, I would like to be able to take this footage and do the following:

Add a title
Trim the length
Export as H.264 with AAC or MP3 audio

What tools do I need to do this? I've tried Avid Free DV, but all the audio codecs are either obscure or antiquated (no MP3 or AAC, etc). And of course, Windows Movie Maker will only let me output files as WMV or AVI. I'm running Windows XP.

Any help on my situation?

Thanks,
Wade
 
#7 ·
Yeah, Avid Free and Windows Movie Maker are inadequate. I use Pinnacle Studio 9 for PC or iMovie if I'm on a Mac.

Pinnacle Studio 9 is cheap and lets you easily edit bits you don't want, add a menu (for making DVDs) and convert your AVI (raw digital movie footage) to almost any output file...for emailing, web-streaming, you-tubing, dvd making etc etc....
 
#8 ·
Y'all should watch iMovie '08 video to even have a point of reference wrt what's "easy" these days: http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

And the main strength is not even ease of use. One other important aspect of it is it helps you make sense of your digital video by creating a library. Even if you capture your video to an external hard drive, you still have "scrollable" thumbnail previews to see what it was about, even when your drive is disconnected. So you can find your clips, and THEN connect the right hard drives and piece a movie together. Clips "come online" automatically as you connect the drives.

This feature is very important for HD video, because one tape takes up over 50GB, and you really don't want to store it locally. Seriously, this program has so many "how come no one thought of this before" moments, it's crazy.
 
#12 ·
But that's not a very valid point. The goal of buying a guitar is to play a guitar, but not everyone spends $1000+ on their first one. Some people, like myself, don't use a camcorder enough to justify spending $800+ on one either...

Plus, it's not as if I'm shooting a Hollywood blockbuster. The quality I'm getting on this Pansonic is suitable enough for me.
 
#17 ·
My consumer HD camera (Panasonic HDSD1, AVCHD codec) is awesome for what it is. My pro cameras get much better images, but for home videos it's awesome. I had the HV20 and it was great in good light, but low light it was full of grain and just sucked out loud. I like the hard drive option, cause I absolutely hate tape, but it's just a personal preference, and I have plenty of hard drive space so that isn't a worry.

Buying a Standard Def camera today is like buying a VCR. You will shoot your video and it will look VERY dated in 5 to 10 years. Might as well buy a 3.2 megapixel still camera while your at it :).

You will be sorry in 5 years when you look at video of your son or daughter and realize it's in crappy 480i or 480p. Save up some money and buy the HD cameras folks, you will thank yourself. My brother shot his first daughter being born in standard def 3 years ago, and it looks like crap on his 73 inch Mitsubishi 1080p set. I got him a high def camera before his second daughter was born and it looks a ton better.

Oh, and to answer the question about video encoding & editing, I use Final Cut Pro for editing and Compressor for encoding.
 
#18 ·
I like the hard drive option, cause I absolutely hate tape, but it's just a personal preference, and I have plenty of hard drive space so that isn't a worry.
AVCHD is a worse format from picture quality standpoint. I don't mind tape too much. I just download it all to the hard drive and archive the tape away in case the drive dies.

Additionally, last time I checked, hardly anything on the PC side could edit AVCHD.
 
#19 ·
But once again, if you're tight on money, and you need decent footage, what other option do you have besides waiting (which isn't feasible)? Check any camcorder enthusiast info sites/forums. For the $300 price point, regardless of HD/SD, the general consensus is that the PV-GS320 is the best option.

Plus, like I've said, the video I've shot looks fine. I think some people can get a little anal about this stuff, just like high end audiphiles do sometimes. Does HD look better? Sure. Is it worth it for MY purposes? No. I don't need that kind of quality for what I'm doing, at least not enough to shell out another $500+.

Anyways, this argument is silly, and it wasn't the intention of my thread to begin with.
 
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