Looking For Video Software
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A while back I posted about video cameras for my company to buy. We settled on the Canon Vixia HF20, and it's an excellent unit - perfect for our needs. One problem though; the Pixela software that ships with it is useless. It does a nice job of editing and assembling clips, and will burn a DVD or BlueRay disk, but that's all it does. There is no way to create a file in some format that is universally readable, like WMP or AVI. We did manage (one of our employees, but not me) figure out a way to save a MPG file, but we haven't found anything that can view it except on a machine with the Pixela software installed. Even the latest download of Windows Media Player is unable to recognize and play the MPG file. Is there a good, preferably free program that can convert the native Canon files to other formats that can be emailed, posted on the web, etc? The files saved in the library by the existing software have the extension .MTS if that's a help. Thanks! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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A while back I posted about video cameras for my company to buy. We settled on the Canon Vixia HF20, and it's an excellent unit - perfect for our needs. One problem though; the Pixela software that ships with it is useless. It does a nice job of editing and assembling clips, and will burn a DVD or BlueRay disk, but that's all it does. There is no way to create a file in some format that is universally readable, like WMP or AVI. We did manage (one of our employees, but not me) figure out a way to save a MPG file, but we haven't found anything that can view it except on a machine with the Pixela software installed. Even the latest download of Windows Media Player is unable to recognize and play the MPG file. Is there a good, preferably free program that can convert the native Canon files to other formats that can be emailed, posted on the web, etc? The files saved in the library by the existing software have the extension .MTS if that's a help. Thanks! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Try MediaCoder. Or once again VirtualDub :)
xacc.ide
IronScheme - 1.0 RC 1 - out now!
((λ (x) `(,x ',x)) '(λ (x) `(,x ',x))) The Scheme Programming Language – Fourth Edition -
A while back I posted about video cameras for my company to buy. We settled on the Canon Vixia HF20, and it's an excellent unit - perfect for our needs. One problem though; the Pixela software that ships with it is useless. It does a nice job of editing and assembling clips, and will burn a DVD or BlueRay disk, but that's all it does. There is no way to create a file in some format that is universally readable, like WMP or AVI. We did manage (one of our employees, but not me) figure out a way to save a MPG file, but we haven't found anything that can view it except on a machine with the Pixela software installed. Even the latest download of Windows Media Player is unable to recognize and play the MPG file. Is there a good, preferably free program that can convert the native Canon files to other formats that can be emailed, posted on the web, etc? The files saved in the library by the existing software have the extension .MTS if that's a help. Thanks! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
The compressed formats used for cameras "newer" than miniDV cameras (i.e. most solid-state recording media) are not designed for editing unless they're professional cameras that can be staggeringly expensive (a 16Gb Panasonic P2 card is $900 list - and holds 64 minutes at its lowest quality!). Higher-end Canon camcorders that are used by indie moviemakers, for example, mostly use miniDV for recording as it IS intended to be easily edited. When I was deciding on a camera to use for recording concerts at my wife's coffee shop I settled on a miniDV canon since it works easily with almost all common video software (I used Premier CS3). You may not have many options for file conversions; I vaguely recall that there may be patent issues involved as well. Wish I had better news.
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A while back I posted about video cameras for my company to buy. We settled on the Canon Vixia HF20, and it's an excellent unit - perfect for our needs. One problem though; the Pixela software that ships with it is useless. It does a nice job of editing and assembling clips, and will burn a DVD or BlueRay disk, but that's all it does. There is no way to create a file in some format that is universally readable, like WMP or AVI. We did manage (one of our employees, but not me) figure out a way to save a MPG file, but we haven't found anything that can view it except on a machine with the Pixela software installed. Even the latest download of Windows Media Player is unable to recognize and play the MPG file. Is there a good, preferably free program that can convert the native Canon files to other formats that can be emailed, posted on the web, etc? The files saved in the library by the existing software have the extension .MTS if that's a help. Thanks! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
universally readable, like WMP or AVI
Good luck with that. AVI is a wrapper around video and audio streams that are encoded using any particular codec you choose. It's the codec that makes it "universally" readable or not. If you stick to WMV you'll have good luck on Windows machines. If you stick to an MPEG-1 encoder you'll have luck on most machines but the quality vs. size won't be very good. If you want good looking video then look for an H.264 encoder. Your end users may have to download a codec to view your video, however. Quicktime Pro does a good job of taking AVI files and H.264 encoding them. Yes, Quicktime Player sucks, but the encoder version works fine. Alternatively you can use free front ends for FFMPEG like Riva or SUPER to convert between a lot of formats. VirtualDub is great for adding filters, re-encoding, changing frame rates etc. I use it all the time. Cheers, Drew.
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Try MediaCoder. Or once again VirtualDub :)
xacc.ide
IronScheme - 1.0 RC 1 - out now!
((λ (x) `(,x ',x)) '(λ (x) `(,x ',x))) The Scheme Programming Language – Fourth EditionMediaCoder looked good, but it doesn't work yet. It could be my lack of experience with video, so I'll play with it some more. All I get is a message that the audio and video could not be merged, but the info display correctly identified the encoding as H.264 - a good start! Thanks! :-D BTW - That site is one I've seen before. The link to actually get to the download is tiny; everything else on the page redirects to another site that offers a free download which I've already tried. It is, indeed a free download, but it does nothing but stare at you until you click the link to pay for it. A shabby lie, but what the heck, I fell for it. It got me to download, though because of the method used I will delete it.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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A while back I posted about video cameras for my company to buy. We settled on the Canon Vixia HF20, and it's an excellent unit - perfect for our needs. One problem though; the Pixela software that ships with it is useless. It does a nice job of editing and assembling clips, and will burn a DVD or BlueRay disk, but that's all it does. There is no way to create a file in some format that is universally readable, like WMP or AVI. We did manage (one of our employees, but not me) figure out a way to save a MPG file, but we haven't found anything that can view it except on a machine with the Pixela software installed. Even the latest download of Windows Media Player is unable to recognize and play the MPG file. Is there a good, preferably free program that can convert the native Canon files to other formats that can be emailed, posted on the web, etc? The files saved in the library by the existing software have the extension .MTS if that's a help. Thanks! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I recently purchased CyberLink's Power Director 8[^]. There are two versions (we opted for the HD software). It does a great job of converting to several formats, including better iPod and PSP converters than the freebies I've used. Flynn
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Roger Wright wrote:
universally readable, like WMP or AVI
Good luck with that. AVI is a wrapper around video and audio streams that are encoded using any particular codec you choose. It's the codec that makes it "universally" readable or not. If you stick to WMV you'll have good luck on Windows machines. If you stick to an MPEG-1 encoder you'll have luck on most machines but the quality vs. size won't be very good. If you want good looking video then look for an H.264 encoder. Your end users may have to download a codec to view your video, however. Quicktime Pro does a good job of taking AVI files and H.264 encoding them. Yes, Quicktime Player sucks, but the encoder version works fine. Alternatively you can use free front ends for FFMPEG like Riva or SUPER to convert between a lot of formats. VirtualDub is great for adding filters, re-encoding, changing frame rates etc. I use it all the time. Cheers, Drew.
According to the information I can get from the file analyzers I played with, it's already H.264 video with Dolby stereo audio (no codec info given). WMP 11 is clueless, and no other viewer I've found seems to recognize the format. It's got to be something simple I'm missing... but I just buy the hardware. I don't get to use it or read the manual, but I do get to be the one who has to figure out what to do when it doesn't work. :sigh:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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According to the information I can get from the file analyzers I played with, it's already H.264 video with Dolby stereo audio (no codec info given). WMP 11 is clueless, and no other viewer I've found seems to recognize the format. It's got to be something simple I'm missing... but I just buy the hardware. I don't get to use it or read the manual, but I do get to be the one who has to figure out what to do when it doesn't work. :sigh:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
-
A while back I posted about video cameras for my company to buy. We settled on the Canon Vixia HF20, and it's an excellent unit - perfect for our needs. One problem though; the Pixela software that ships with it is useless. It does a nice job of editing and assembling clips, and will burn a DVD or BlueRay disk, but that's all it does. There is no way to create a file in some format that is universally readable, like WMP or AVI. We did manage (one of our employees, but not me) figure out a way to save a MPG file, but we haven't found anything that can view it except on a machine with the Pixela software installed. Even the latest download of Windows Media Player is unable to recognize and play the MPG file. Is there a good, preferably free program that can convert the native Canon files to other formats that can be emailed, posted on the web, etc? The files saved in the library by the existing software have the extension .MTS if that's a help. Thanks! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I'll add another vote to Cyberlink Power Director. It's the best of the cheap products I've used, and I've used just about all of them. (I have editing video professionally and would buy Premiere if I had a project that justified it, but I don't. Sony Vegas is in second place--it's very capable, but i just prefer the way Premier works [and this is from a rather devoted hater of all things Adobe; it's my one point of shame].)
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According to the information I can get from the file analyzers I played with, it's already H.264 video with Dolby stereo audio (no codec info given). WMP 11 is clueless, and no other viewer I've found seems to recognize the format. It's got to be something simple I'm missing... but I just buy the hardware. I don't get to use it or read the manual, but I do get to be the one who has to figure out what to do when it doesn't work. :sigh:
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Try VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/[^]). Sucky interface, but it plays everything I've thrown at it.
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A while back I posted about video cameras for my company to buy. We settled on the Canon Vixia HF20, and it's an excellent unit - perfect for our needs. One problem though; the Pixela software that ships with it is useless. It does a nice job of editing and assembling clips, and will burn a DVD or BlueRay disk, but that's all it does. There is no way to create a file in some format that is universally readable, like WMP or AVI. We did manage (one of our employees, but not me) figure out a way to save a MPG file, but we haven't found anything that can view it except on a machine with the Pixela software installed. Even the latest download of Windows Media Player is unable to recognize and play the MPG file. Is there a good, preferably free program that can convert the native Canon files to other formats that can be emailed, posted on the web, etc? The files saved in the library by the existing software have the extension .MTS if that's a help. Thanks! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I've worked with a similar Camcorder (Vixia HF10). The format it records in is called AVCHD you'll want to make sure the software supports that. Adobe CS4 does but you'll need a fairly well specced pc to edit the footage unless you convert it to something else. For editing Windows Live Movie Maker claims to support AVCHD and is free, I didn't have the pixela software installed and ran into problems but you can convert the original clips using Avidemux to something else then edit using movie maker. Xvid Video, MP3 Audio in an Avi is a fairly common combination you might want use.
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MediaCoder looked good, but it doesn't work yet. It could be my lack of experience with video, so I'll play with it some more. All I get is a message that the audio and video could not be merged, but the info display correctly identified the encoding as H.264 - a good start! Thanks! :-D BTW - That site is one I've seen before. The link to actually get to the download is tiny; everything else on the page redirects to another site that offers a free download which I've already tried. It is, indeed a free download, but it does nothing but stare at you until you click the link to pay for it. A shabby lie, but what the heck, I fell for it. It got me to download, though because of the method used I will delete it.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
BTW - That site is one I've seen before. The link to actually get to the download is tiny; everything else on the page redirects to another site that offers a free download which I've already tried. It is, indeed a free download, but it does nothing but stare at you until you click the link to pay for it. A shabby lie, but what the heck, I fell for it. It got me to download, though because of the method used I will delete it.
Both the apps are hosted on SourceForge, you probably got to some ad sites by stupid domain parkers.
xacc.ide
IronScheme - 1.0 RC 1 - out now!
((λ (x) `(,x ',x)) '(λ (x) `(,x ',x))) The Scheme Programming Language – Fourth Edition