I have two video problems that have been bugging me for quite a while: A) Is there a software package/program that will allow me to edit a video file (MPG, AVI) so the resulting video file is: 1. the same quality as the original 2. the same dimensions as the original 3. *proportionally* smaller file size (if cut) or larger (if frames added) I have only two video editors, Windows Movie Maker and Nero VIsion 3. No matter how I save or export an edited video, something is different - either it's vastly larger in file size or is vastly larger or smaller in dimension. In addition to either of those two anomalies, the edited movie is *always* of an inferior quality. B) I often download humorous or interesting video files that I email, with some comments, to a few friends. I occasioally get responses such as "Just got a bubbling sound and no picture", "Got an error that I needed something or other" (probably some codec). I realize that these folks are not providing well thought-out descriptions of what happened, but what I would like to know is: 1. what format is most readily readable by most PC configurations? 2. what software can best convert various formats to the format answered in question 1? Thanks EdP
Well for editing AVI files without Quality Loss you Can Use "Virtual-Dub" in "Direct stream Copy" mode but you have to make ALL Cuts on a KeyFrame or you will Loose Audio and Video sync but that is the Same with all Editors if you don"t want any Quality Loss and have the Whole File re-encoded..... For editing Mpeg Files without Quality Loss it is Best to use a Native Mpeg editor like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" which will allow you to do Frame accurate editing without quality Loss and the Rendering only take a Few Minutes as Opposed to hours with other Editors..... If you want to send attachments that will Play on Most all Windows Based Systems then Try the WMV Format as anyone with Media Player Installed should be able to Play this Format and the File Sizes can be Very small..... For Converting to this Format you can use a Freeware Program called the "Windows Media Encoder 9" which you can download at the Windows support web site or just do a Google Search..... Cheers
Minion ... Every tool you mentioned is new to me, which means I have some learning to do. Thanks for the quick and comprehensive reply. Now let's see how this all works out. EdP
Windows Media Encoder worked great. It converted an AVI file to a WMV file with the same dimensions, about a third the file size (!), although shifted a bit to the green. Great tool Thanks.