Video software

Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor for
someone who is a newbie at both video editing and computers/Windows 10?

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch of
videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it in his
DVD player.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Ken Springer wrote:
Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor for
someone who is a newbie at both video editing and computers/Windows 10?

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch of
videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it in his
DVD player.

There are several possible steps in the process.

1) Video editor for splicing together scenes,
doing fade-in or fade-out. This is "editing the
content so it makes sense, and tells a story".

2) Audio editor, if you miked a scene and recorded
more channels than you can put in the finished product.
This item is generally "optional" for most home
users, as "nobody really cares about audio" :-)
If you're doing a wedding, you want to crank the level
on the bride and groom mikes, when they say "I do". And
the audio editor might help you with the mixing.

3) DVD Authoring. You want to put a menu on the DVD beginning,
to select chapters. The chapters have to meet certain
size constraints (official DVDs probably don't use
chapters bigger than 1GB or so). To make dual layer DVDs,
the authoring tool is supposed to know about the layer
split, and not put a chapter on top of the split.

This thread touches on a few topics of interest to a
new camera owner. First of all, the camera records in
way too high a resolution for DVD. It might record in
AVCHD. Bandwidth wise (50Mbit/sec tops) that might
be a better fit for BluRay than for a DVD.

https://www.videomaker.com/community...-dvd-architect

This isn't really a problem. During render from (1),
the tools should be able to output using any desired
CODEC, especially if the tool flow knows the operator
"wants to make single layer DVDs for home consumption"
and all the details are handled for them.

Not every "cheesy" one-step DVD maker program, can
read AVCHD. This has improved over the years. However,
some cameras shoot in a "proprietary" format, such
that at least the manufacturer converter is needed
before you can do anything with the content.

Your job, as the "consultant" trying to help someone
else with this, is there can be quality differences
between the cheesy "just drop your files in here and
I will make your DVD" program, and a proper editor.
The output of the cheesy program doesn't always look
good, because some profile setting might have been
slightly off during the render. And a skilled operator
could change a preference in a real editor, and make
a much better looking product.

The raw content coming off the camera is going to
look beautiful, because it'll be shot with a 12 megapixel
sensor at 7MB/sec recording rate. Then you're going to
squash down both the resolution and the coding rate, to
make a fuzzy DVD. The person doing this work, isn't going
to be all that impressed with the result (i.e. they
saw a beautiful preview on the computer screen, then
the picture on the TV doesn't look nearly as good).

There's a difference between making "bog standard" DVDs,
where you adhere to every detail of the DVD standard.
People do this, if giving a copy of a DVD to Aunt Matilda
that has a DVD settop player manufactured in 1953,
and she expects to see your wedding on her tube
TV set. You make standard DVDs for Matilda, so you
won't be getting phone calls later. It's actually
pretty hard, at the best of times, to make home DVDs
that play for Matilda. Even if you test on your DVD player,
it won't play on hers, and you'll get an hour long phone call.

More modern players don't need all the chapter stuff,
and you can probably cut some corners on format or CODEC
and still "play" them. This would be for situations like
"the DVD only has to play in *my* livingroom". You have
more latitude there to experiment. Some people here
might use DivX for example, and cut their single layer
DVDs using something like that, knowing their $50 Chinese
player happens to have the CODEC for that.

The only reason I'm using Corel in this example, is they
bought a couple other video companies and that's where the
products came from. They were able to assemble a product line,
just by mixing and matching skills from the companies they bought.
Using the main menu here, you can see some of their products.

http://www.corel.com/en/

This one is "mainly" Authoring. While it does have basic
"bodge a few scenes onto a DVD" capability, it's not really
a full editor.

https://www.videostudiopro.com/en/pr...iefactory/pro/

This one is a video editor (you can tell that, when it doesn't
do authoring :-) )

https://www.videostudiopro.com/en/pr...deostudio/pro/

Frequently the programs come with trial versions, so you can
try them out for yourself (for 15 to 30 days, with watermarks
on the output so you can't do "real work" with them).

All you need, to help this individual, is sample .mts the
individual might want to use on a DVD. Then you can grab
a trial and see for yourself.

Sony has Vegas as its editor product, and I think it used
to use DVD Architect for authoring, which might have been
included.

I also trialed a Canadian product for making DVDs, which
makes them for "pressing quality". It makes masters you
can send to a pressing plant. Every time you try to edit
or change something, a dialog box pops up and says "no,
you can't do that because it violates rule 39 of the DVD
spec" and it interferes with everything you do. Still,
to its credit, the DVD it made, looked better than the
one I got with a cheesy product :-) The main purpose
of tools like that one, are to educate people about
proper ways to make (commercially viable) DVDs. So the
pressing plant operator doesn't have to send your file
back for "fixes".

There are a hell of a lot of products for you to evaluate,
and everyone will have their own favorites. Because my
library only has three titles in it, it's not like I
have a lot of practical experience. I mainly played with
the stuff, to develop a picture of parts of the process.

It was especially funny, when the Authoring tool made
a dual-layer DVD, and *Imgburn* told me what it had
done was wrong. The guy who writes Imgburn saved
me from wasting one of my precious dual-layer write
once DVDs :-) So even if you have an authoring tool, it's
still possible for a later step in the process, to "complain"
about what was done.

As an experienced computer person, I think you already
know that anything involving video is not "easy".
You can have ugly results, that took no effort on your
part (see... Youtube). Or, you can spend hours and face
a vertical learning curve, to get something better.

If you shot a video of a wedding, you can take your
video tape and your multi-track audio captures to a
professional video editor, that person will gag at
the quality of the starting materials, and they can
work miracles making something that looks good. But
only if you shot enough video so they can throw away
half the footage. If you shoot with say, three teenagers
with camcorders, you might still get a DVD from it
that way.

Paul

In article ,
says...

Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor for
someone who is a newbie at both video editing and computers/Windows 10?

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch of
videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it in his
DVD player.

All I can comment on is what I do with downloaded content of varying
length but usually full bown movies.

Regardless of original format I convert it to 720x480 resolution at
30Fps with Xvid video format and mp3 at 192kps for audio so it's
basically same as standard old school dvd. I'm almost 70 and that's
fine by me. I upscale less and downscale greater res's.

For 95% of the conversions to that format I use Any Video Converter
which once specified remembers your specific settings and it becomes a
one touch solution. Occssonally it balks on some file (usually mkv) and
I have to first use some other program to convert it to something AVC
will accept. I find the guality loss negligable doing that.

Incidently I also keep a copy of the original converted avi file as a
backup on a data dvd.

Omce converted I almost exclusivly use Nero Vision to create the dvd. It
allows rudamentary menu ability but that's all I require so ... I
think in terms of 3Hrs for 4.5 Gb disk so I kinda stack movies so any
two that add up under that limit get burned together on one disk. Only
time menu us required.

I've done same with number of utube music videos and have number of
disks with 20 or so shorter videos on them. Nero Vision has some pretty
neat built-in animated 3d menus as one of it's choices when using so
many videos.

Ken Springer wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor
for someone who is a newbie at both video editing and
computers/Windows 10?

VSDC Free Video Editor.

Not necessarily easy, but might be easier than most.

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch
of videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it
in his DVD player.

Do not know about that. The only thing I use it for so far is
cutting out sections of the video.

Ken Springer wrote:
Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor for
someone who is a newbie at both video editing and computers/Windows 10?

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch of
videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it in his
DVD player.

You can find "summary review" articles like this.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3223...-software.html

The .mts will be converted to .vob (MPEG2).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOB

*******

I found the remnants of the "pressing plant" program trial
that I played with here.

The DVDLAB Pro I trialed, used video.m2v 3.3GB and
video.mp2 (an mpa audio file), to create a 3.55GB single
layer DVD. During authoring, the monolithic .m2v
was chopped into chapters of a gigabyte each, the
limit of the format (for commercial DVDs). The
DVD ends up with four chapters. The CSS a commercial
title uses, would probably be applied at the pressing
plant.

When a DVD doesn't have the artifacts of being a commercial
(protected by CSS) item, Windows may choose to treat your
media as a "data DVD". I think when I tried a test on
Windows 10, using my home-made DVD, the OS didn't react at all.

My $50 standalone player, loads up the chapter page when
you insert one of my home-made DVDs. And the copy of WinDVD player
(included in some motherboard box for free), I think
it does the right thing when the media is inserted too.

I think in theory, the Win10 digital entitlement I
generated on this machine (authorized by Win8.1 Pro
with Media Center), that copy should be able to
receive a Microsoft player with MPEG2 codec pair
for free, for playing movies directly. So that is a
potential way to get a result when inserting a
home-made DVD.

Even though, of course, every machine here has a
copy of VLC, and those VOBS play, no sweat at all.
It's when you want full automation on media insertion,
the "price" goes up.

Paul

"Ken Springer" wrote

| Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor for
| someone who is a newbie at both video editing and computers/Windows 10?
|
A recommendation with caveats:

Some time ago I spent a couple of days searching
for video software. I found lots of things that didn't
work in one way or another.
I had a giant iPhone video of birds. I think it was
135 MB. My ladyfriend wanted to send an email
version to friends. I needed to resize and crop the
frames, rotate it, and I think I had to convert to mp4.
I finally found Avidemux. It's very easy to use. A lot
like a graphic editor for movies. I just decided the
edits and it carried them all out at once. I ended up
with a 4.5 MB video.

The caveat is that I don't do very much with video,
so I don't know how Avidemux compares with tools
that pros might use. If someone wants to do something
like film editing -- snipping 20 seconds here or 1
minute there -- I don't know how Avidemux handles
that.

http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

On 3/12/18 3:17 AM, John Doe wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor
for someone who is a newbie at both video editing and
computers/Windows 10?

VSDC Free Video Editor.

Not necessarily easy, but might be easier than most.

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch
of videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it
in his DVD player.

Do not know about that. The only thing I use it for so far is
cutting out sections of the video.

Thanks, John.

I'm going to check with the user today, and hopefully get with him and
learn more about what he wants to do. As is always the problems with
new users, they know so little, they don't know how to ask for what they
want to do.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 3/12/18 7:46 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"Ken Springer" wrote

| Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor for
| someone who is a newbie at both video editing and computers/Windows 10?
|
A recommendation with caveats:

Some time ago I spent a couple of days searching
for video software. I found lots of things that didn't
work in one way or another.
I had a giant iPhone video of birds. I think it was
135 MB. My ladyfriend wanted to send an email
version to friends. I needed to resize and crop the
frames, rotate it, and I think I had to convert to mp4.
I finally found Avidemux. It's very easy to use. A lot
like a graphic editor for movies. I just decided the
edits and it carried them all out at once. I ended up
with a 4.5 MB video.

The caveat is that I don't do very much with video,
so I don't know how Avidemux compares with tools
that pros might use. If someone wants to do something
like film editing -- snipping 20 seconds here or 1
minute there -- I don't know how Avidemux handles
that.

http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

I do absolutely nothing with videos. I made one in 2008 of my trip on
the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge, using MovieMaker and XP. And
that's been it.

I'll talk to the user, see if I can learn more about what he wants to
do, but probably doesn't know how to ask.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 3/12/18 12:09 PM, Good Guy wrote:
On 12/03/2018 02:59, Ken Springer wrote:
Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor for
someone who is a newbie at both video editing and computers/Windows 10?

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch of
videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it in his
DVD player.




As always, I have a recommendation for someone who is a newbie but the
requirement is that the user must have some intelligence to use modern
applications.Â* These days people need certifications in using
applications;Â* Microsoft has various levels of certifications and Adobe
has many levels of certifications.Â* The product I would recommend is this:

Premiere Elements 2018
https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/premiere-elements.html?promoid=FD1KZPGY&mv=other

It is available as a trialÂ* version so that the user can use it for 30
days before buying a permanent License for it.Â* It can be bought with
Photoshop Elements or simply on its own.Â* Buying it a s family (i.e
Photoshop elements and Premiere Elements)Â* from Amazon works out
cheaper.Â* Please note that this is a permanent/perpetual License.Â* Buy
once and use it until you die or until you feel like buying a new
version.Â* The product comes out every September so there is always
something new in the product.

However, as mentioned, you need to have some intelligence so if you are
challenged (I think you are considering your advanced age) then forget
it.Â* Shut your machine and go for a walk!!.

Hi, Good Guy, long time...

There's a lot of intelligent older folk and stupid ass young folk. Get
used to it! G

There's a difference between intelligence and knowledge. Intelligence
this user has, it's the knowledge of computers that's missing. And,
he's realized that if he's going to do this kind of stuff, he needs to
get the knowledge.

But, it's just like school, you have to start at the beginning, I.E.
Kindergarten. So, I'll be doing that now as time goes along, teaching
him the basics of computers and Windows 10.

The same applies to software. Elements is a good program, but way above
his knowledge level. It would be like trying to teach someone algebra,
when they haven't learned to add and subtract.

You also have to be aware there are users that, once they've learned the
addition and subtraction, in their lives they have no need nor desire
for algebra. It's only us computer nuts, people who use computers for a
livelihood, and such that are always wanting to be able to do more. I
have to admit, I have a hard time stopping myself from pushing these
users too far and burning them out/turning them off.

It's much better to let them evolve on their own. In this example,
that's exactly what's going on. When I first met this gentleman, it was
because his wife was having computer issues, and he didn't want to know
anything about computers. Now, he wants to do this simple video. As I
was talking to him about the videos, I mentioned that I was developing a
basics class of my own (the ones I've seen don't always fit real life of
a true new user), and he said if I needed a guinea pig for the class, he
was available. So I'm going to "genetically modify" him into a guinea
pig! LOL


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 3/12/18 12:48 PM, Wolf K wrote:
On 2018-03-12 13:45, Ken Springer wrote:
On 3/12/18 3:17 AM, John Doe wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor
for someone who is a newbie at both video editing and
computers/Windows 10?

VSDC Free Video Editor.

Not necessarily easy, but might be easier than most.

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch
of videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it
in his DVD player.
AFAIK, that will require conversion. It looks like the files have to be
converted to play on the computer, there are free utilities for that,
see these links:

http://www.pavtube.com/guide/convert...s-and-mac.html

http://download.cnet.com/Free-MTS-Co...-75735048.html

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/play-...ile-54444.html

So once the files are playable on the computer, burning them to DVD
should be a doddle. Unless he has an ancient DVD player that won't play
MP4, in which case he'll have to convert from MP4.

I know of a video editor that recognizes .mts files natively, and was
able to make a quick down and dirty DVD. After talking to the user
today, I don't think any conversion will be necessary to reach his goals.

And using the same editor, I was also able to create a single .mp4 file
of the videos, too.

I'm going to see if the editor will let me combine both video and jpg
files. It's a cheapie with few features, and if that works, it might do
everything he's currently interested in.

What he's interested in is having video 1 play, followed by autoplay of
stills that come after video 1, but before video 2. Then video 2 plays,
followed by more stills.

--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Ken Springer wrote in news86eb1$3un$2
@news.albasani.net:

On 3/12/18 3:17 AM, John Doe wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor
for someone who is a newbie at both video editing and
computers/Windows 10?

VSDC Free Video Editor.

Not necessarily easy, but might be easier than most.

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch
of videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it
in his DVD player.

Do not know about that. The only thing I use it for so far is
cutting out sections of the video.

Thanks, John.

I'm going to check with the user today, and hopefully get with him and
learn more about what he wants to do. As is always the problems with
new users, they know so little, they don't know how to ask for what
they
want to do.


Find out what formats his camera is capable of creating, and how they can
be gotten from the camera to a PC.

I have been using Avidemux software to edit my video files. It works with
all the basic video formats, and is relatively easy to work with. I
mainly us it to edit headers and trailers from my files, and once in a
while I will want to preserve an off-the-air program (sssh - don't tell
anyone) but take out any pledge breaks, etc. I haven't done any merging
of two or more viles, I use WinX HD Video Coverter Deluxe for that. Every
so often they offer a free non-upgradeable version via How to Geek. I
found it so useful I actually took advantage of one of their sales and
bought a regular license. Most of the time I trascode the files down from
1020p to 720p to save space. Either program can do that, but WinX is
easier to do it with.

On 3/12/18 10:09 PM, Tim wrote:
Ken Springer wrote in news86eb1$3un$2
@news.albasani.net:

On 3/12/18 3:17 AM, John Doe wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:

Does anyone have a recommendation for an easy to use video editor
for someone who is a newbie at both video editing and
computers/Windows 10?

VSDC Free Video Editor.

Not necessarily easy, but might be easier than most.

He's got a Sony video camera, I don't know what model, and a bunch
of videos (.mts files) he wants to burn to a DVD so he can play it
in his DVD player.

Do not know about that. The only thing I use it for so far is
cutting out sections of the video.

Thanks, John.

I'm going to check with the user today, and hopefully get with him and
learn more about what he wants to do. As is always the problems with
new users, they know so little, they don't know how to ask for what
they
want to do.


Find out what formats his camera is capable of creating, and how they can
be gotten from the camera to a PC.

You know that point where your brain can't handle any more input on a
subject, and you just sort of zone out? I think I've about reached that
point, until the current new information "settles in".

The camera uses an SD card, and the computer has a card reader, so
getting the date is easy.

I have been using Avidemux software to edit my video files. It works with
all the basic video formats, and is relatively easy to work with. I
mainly us it to edit headers and trailers from my files, and once in a
while I will want to preserve an off-the-air program (sssh - don't tell
anyone) but take out any pledge breaks, etc. I haven't done any merging
of two or more viles, I use WinX HD Video Coverter Deluxe for that. Every
so often they offer a free non-upgradeable version via How to Geek. I
found it so useful I actually took advantage of one of their sales and
bought a regular license. Most of the time I trascode the files down from
1020p to 720p to save space. Either program can do that, but WinX is
easier to do it with.



--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

VLC is free and can convert video file formats .
The latest "improved" version is flaky on my Win 7 pro desktop so maybe
the previous version is best.

VLC can also edit by snipping pieces out of a large file.
See on-line tutorials.

I purchased Nero and that has all the bells and whistles for working
with video. Does Blue-Ray and 4K. Take a look. it might be worth the price.
They put it on sale once in a while.

On 3/13/18 1:54 PM, FreeMan wrote:
VLC is free and can convert video file formats .
The latest "improved" version is flaky on my Win 7 pro desktop so maybe
the previous version is best.

I have 2.2.6 on most of my computers. Just discovered in the last week
or so, it can't play a commercial movie I purchased. It mixes up the
video and audio tracks. Plays with everything else.

I put 3.0 on something, but haven't tried it yet, obviously, since I
don't remember which computer. LOL

VLC can also edit by snipping pieces out of a large file.
See on-line tutorials.

I purchased Nero and that has all the bells and whistles for working
with video. Does Blue-Ray and 4K. Take a look. it might be worth the price.
They put it on sale once in a while.

I used Nero years ago on an XP system. I'm sure it will be way over the
head of the user I'm working with. But thanks for the suggestion.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 53.0.2 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Ken Springer wrote:
On 3/13/18 1:54 PM, FreeMan wrote:
VLC is free and can convert video file formats .
The latest "improved" version is flaky on my Win 7 pro desktop so maybe
the previous version is best.

I have 2.2.6 on most of my computers. Just discovered in the last week
or so, it can't play a commercial movie I purchased. It mixes up the
video and audio tracks. Plays with everything else.

VLC has a track selector. I can see the menu items in
both 2.2.4 and 3.0.0.

https://s13.postimg.org/ljlphvhc7/VLC_track.gif

When you want to "vet" content, there is the older GSpot
program, but there is also the ffprobe program from the
FFMPEG package. For the above content presenting three
audio streams, I get this info.

ffprobe "F:\RecordedTV\NationalNews.wtv"

Duration: 00:29:57.11, start: 1.369156, bitrate: 18045 kb/s
Stream #0:0[0x2a](eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream #0:1[0x2b](enm): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s (visual impaired)
Stream #0:2[0x2c](eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s
Stream #0:3[0x2d]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p(tv), 704x480, 16999 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 10000k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Stream #0:4[0x2e]: Subtitle: eia_608
Stream #0:5[0xffffffff]: Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 200x113 [SAR 96:96 DAR 200:113], 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
Metadata:
title : TV Thumbnail
Unsupported codec with id 1664495672 for input stream 4

FFMPEG is saying it doesn't know what to do with the Subtitle.
Stream 5 might be a "thumbnail" for PIP or something.

In any case, the "mpeg2video" suggests the content in this case
is play-able. VLC uses stuff like AVCodec or FFMPEG-type code
so should have similar capabilities to FFMPEG.

ffmpeg.exe, ffplay.exe, ffprobe.exe are the three programs
included in the FFMPEG package.

https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

Click 3.4.2
Click windows 32-bit (for widest compatibility in the computer room maybe)
Click Static (all DLLs are inside the EXE, making the EXE "portable" when copied)
Click Download Build

That will give you some more tools to play with.

You can get GSpot here. It's 11 years old. V2.70a.
Drag and drop a VOB onto it. It's probably better to
copy the VOB onto the hard drive (as GSpot sometimes
does frame cadence testing for some formats and there
could be some grinding of an optical drive).

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/v26x/index.htm

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/v26x/GSpot270a.zip

Paul