What editing software can I use to edit MPEG and AVI files I've downloaded from my DV camcorder? I tried using Power Producer 2.0Gold but it produced only .ppp files which the program refuses to combine to allow me to burn onto a disc. I don't do this very often so I really would like freeware or trial versions that I use this one time. Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this question but I can't find a better one.
The .ppp is a project file which tells the program how to assemble your clips and stuff for rendering. Most of video editing programs create several folders for different purposes, so you need to check the program and find out where it put the folders. I've used Power Director Express to edit MPEG2 files and it will capture DV and analog as AVI. After editing, PDE passes off the project to Power Producer which makes menus and burns the DVD. Pinnacle Studio 9 plus captures DV and analog to AVI and also captures them as MPEG2 and it will burn to DVD.
All video editing programs work with projects. Once you have finished all your work, ther should be an export option where you can export the timeline to a new movie file. The project file itself is not a video file...
After editing all my digital videos and making a saving many ppp files, how can I combine them to make one ppp file so I can burn it onto one disc?
You cannot... This is not the way to do it. You are supposed to import all the videos you want to combine into ONE project, edit it, and then export it to a new AVI. Since you apparently made a wrong start, this is what you can do now: 1. Open on oe the projects and export the edited movie to a new AVI. 2. Do this for each project that you have. 3. Import each opf the new AVI's in a new project and paste them together. 4. RTFM... (no offense ;-) )
Thanks for your advice but I'm mystified about this step: 1. Open one of the projects and export the edited movie to a new AVI. How can I export a edited movie file to AVI using Power Producer 2.0Gold? I can only see a way to SAVE or SAVE AS.
I now see that you are talking about Power Producer (not Power Director)... Producer is not a video editing program but a DVD authoring program, so probably it is not able to do a lot of editing (it at all), just put your movies on a DVD. To understand the differences bewteen the various programs: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/basics/tapetodvd.php
Power Producer Gold does have some nice editing features but it seems the mind-set of the developers was "make a slide show or make a disk" because I can't see any way to export an AVI file--sorry. You can, however, import AVI files from other programs. I advise just playing with Power Producer awhile. Capture a lot of footage, but edit the footage on the cam so you bring in only the stuff that is useful--that can save lots of HD space. Trim the clips and stuff and assemble them. Then go straight into the menu making stage and make some cool menus, you'll be pleased. Then burn to DVD or CD R/W. Go through this process about three times and you'll feel pretty confident of yourself.
AVS Video Tools 5.5 is terrible. If it was good, I would have bought it. When downloading it, it kept sticking and wouldn't download. When trying to install it, it kept sticking and took quite a few computer shut-downs to get it installed. Thirdly, some components would launch at times and not launch at other times. When trying to launch VideoCaptureWizard, it froze and all other programs I tried to launch froze also (Explorer, Word, etc.) Has anyone had any success with this program? Or was this only suggested by VIM who appears to be suspended indefinitely?
I'm using Sonic to download my video to my hard drive. It's being saved as a "movie clip" 2 questions . . . 1. what is a "movie clip" What format is this? 2. Can I use this file to create a Home DVD later on? I want to make sure I get my video saved before I earase my old tapes. Thanks.
"Movie Clip" can be anything. Best is to look at the extension. If you don't see the extension, do the follwing in your explorer window: Extra->Folder Options->tab "view". Turn of "Hide extensions for known file types". Without knowing what type of camcorder you have and what connection you used to transfer your video, it is difficult to give you further advice.
I just purchased this Roxio Suite for video editing. Workin real good so far! I'm in the process of saving all my video to my hard drive. However, the files are sooo large. Like 2gb for 10 mins! Is there a better way to store them on my computer before I get around to making DVD's? I'd like to keep a video archive on a hard drive. I wouldn't want to loose any quality though.
2GB for 10 minutes sonds good. It means that you are getting the movie in at full quality DV-AVI. Edit in this format and at the end of the process convert to MPEG-2 for DVD. You will losse some qulity during the last step, but you can limit that by using the best encoder with high quality settings. Archiving in DV-AVI on a HD is not a real good option. Your tapes should be your archive and it is also a good idea to record your edited work back to tape for archiving purposes.
hey thanks for the advice. I would like to archive all my dvd files on a DVD, I can't stand these tapes and some of my camcorder's buttons are not working very well, time to get a new toy. Just short 5 or 10 minute movies that I can later pull from the archived DVD to make a home movie. Not sure how many hours/minutes that I can fit onto a DVD. But if I could take all the data from my tape and place it on a DVD for to edit/menus/slideshow etc later that would be perfect. That's my next project.
I assume you mean DV files, not DVD files. Big difference. Well, I can tell you that you woud not be the first to loose data, because the DVD has gone bad. Take my word: tape is a much more reliable back up medium. The best back-up startegi is as follows: 1 Keep your original master tapes and store them on a dry ad cool place. 2. Put you edited movie on DVD and make at least one extra copy 3. Record your edited movies bak to tape as archive.
I ment DV files. I was going to save them as mpeg2. Perhaps get an external hd to save the files and back them up on DVD's, but the files will be so large that I think saving them DVD's would be too much effort. DVD's going bad??? Well, that just sucks.
I hope you realize that DV is not MPEG and that MPEG is lower quality than your original DV, plus if you wnat editing later on, you´ll find out that it is difficult. Onfortunatately, this is still a quite common problem. DVD recordables are still not as reliable ar CD R.
