Video Production Question

[GenericBox]

So I am making/made a video for my grandad for his 70th birthday this saturday, and I have set the settings to widescreen.

But when I play it in Windows Media Player, it is square shaped size and the content looked horizontally squashed, like its squeezed widescreen into a normal square shaped video.

It's very frustrating because it took 5 hours to render. Yes, literally 5 hours. I started rendering at 6 tonight.

2nd. When I play it in Windows Media Player, the timeline stops at around 10 mins 30 seconds, but the video goes for about 30 minutes. The video doesn't end, but the timeline just stops at the end. Effectively meaning I can't navigate through the video after that 10 minutes or so that the timeline does cover. Anyone know why this is happening?

So:

1. Video is square sized but I want it widescreen, and the video looks "squeezed" horizontally to fit into that square size.

2. The timeline/timebar/you know what I mean, stops at 10:30ish, yet the video is 30 minutes long.


If anyone can help thatd be great. Thanks.

[KeithW]

Basically windows media player has not caught up with the software "flags" that cameras add into the video files. WMP does not recognise the videos as widescreen. I downloaded a program called SD Copy that takes the videos from an SD card (or files on your hard drive) to a PC and adds the correct flags for WMP. I have searched for a link but cannot find one for you.

Most video camers save their files as *.mod files. Once these files are on your pc you can rename them to *.mpg. SD Copy does this automatically (even if you have exported them to the PC already) and then makes them so that WMP plays them in widescreen.

I can email you a copy (it was originally Freeware) as it is only small. Send me a private message to my inbox and I'll email it to you. It is a great little program.

What video editing program are you using? You might have an issue if you are using Windows Movie Maker. My favourite is Adobe Premiere Elements 4. I just made a DVD for a friends 60th and added all sorts of great effects including rolling credits, flashy transitions and so on. This will export to true widescreen as well.

[GenericBox]

Hey thanks for your information.

I am using Adobe Premier CS3, and its a compilation of short videos of people saying happy birthday, a slide show of over 200 images, and music.

I guess I should of been more technical last post. The only reason I wanted it Widescreen was so that it played nicely on plasma TV's (It will be shown on one at the party). If this was not the right way to go then I'd be happy to know.

So, these are the settings I exported the project as, into a file called Main.avi ::

File Type: Microsoft AVI
Range: Entire Sequence
[x] Export Video
[x] Export Audio
[x] Add to Project when Finished
[ ] Beep when Finished

Compressor: Cinepak Codec by Radius
Color Depth: Millions of colors
Frame Size: 720h x 405v 16:9
Pixel Aspect Ratio Square Pixels (1.0)
Quality: 100%
Data Rate: [ ] Limit Data Rate to:
[x] Recompress: Maintain Data Rate

Bit Depth: [x] Use Project Setting
[ ] 8-bit
[ ] Maximum

Fields: Lower Field First
[ ] Deinterlace Video Footage
[x] Optimize Stills

[x] Keyframe Every (15) frames
[ ] Add Keyframes at Markers
[ ] Add Keyframes at Edits

Audio
Compressor: Microsoft ADPCM
Sample Rate: 22050 Hz
Sample Type: 16-bit
Channels: Stereo
Interleave: 1 Second




Phew... So thats the settings. Just a quick note. I made it last night using this settings and the ratio / size is perfect (how it will play on a television is unknown yet), but the colour is horrible! Its very blochy and it looks like its from a very low megapixel camera. That needs attention immediately now lol :S

Thanks again.

[GenericBox]

That flags issue, will that affect how it plays on a DVD player?

[KeithW]

Have you tried exporting the video to a normal DVD (mpeg II). I don't know too much about the technical codec settings but would be confident that if you are using Microsoft AVI then it won't be (I will stand corrected) an industry standard.

Try exporting to the DVD as suggested. What format is the actual raw video (off the camera) in?

There would also be a default setting in Adobe Premiere that could be PAL 4.3 etc that could effect the final outcome. If the project is set to put everything in 4.3 ratio to start with it could effect the export files and make it out of whack. Trt setting the project to PAL Widescreen (16.9) first, import your clips and then make a DVD. Do not use the export file option, use make a DVD option.

[davo]

Sorry I can't be of much help :( .. I do a lot of transcoding but on a linux platform :| think you can get the app on windows, mencoder ... but then again, your probably looking for an integrated GUI solution .. :eek:

you might want to check out http://handbrake.fr .. we recommend it on engagemedia.org, also http://www.virtualdub.org and http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net

[GenericBox]

Hey thanks for the tips. I couldn't find that damn Make Dvd button easily (well easy for me). But I think I found the right thing. It was under export > export to adobe media centre > DVD. So confusing. So I fiddled with that and clicked make. If you can't tell I'm on my iPhone at uni I just let it go. It takes 5 bloody hours. So hopefully by the time I get home it's done.

Sigh what a hassle. Why can't I just drag drop click done :( serves me right for trying to use software way beyond my ubderstanding :)

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

What are the specs though of the production machine? For video editing you would want LOADS of RAM, a finely tuned operating system (get rid of all the themes and gunk) and a HUGE hard drive.

Try using VLC Media Player see if there is still a problem - the latest version buffers the file before playing it too. If it is still there then there could be a problem with Windows Media Player. Which version of WMP are you using?

[KeithW]

Adobe Premiere Pro is a bit over the top for home use in my opinion. The cut down version Adobe Premiere Elements is mush easier to use with lots of help built in. A better program all round.

The time taken to render a video is dependant on a lot of factors including the original file format, if it a windows avi it could take ages because it has to compress everything from scratch. RAM, Disc space, disc fragmentation can all efect the time as well.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

RAM, Disc space, disc fragmentation can all efect the time as well.

Yep. One thing that is a big help even though I am not doing video editing: get 3 or 4 physical disks.

One small one to install your OS and application software on
One large one for the raw video awaiting processing and editing.
One large one for the output
Optionally one small one to store the page file (probably not a big deal with >4GB of RAM)

It will make it faster because then there is minimal latencies. The OS can read blocks from one disk as well as write them to the other disk at the same time. And the Windows NT disk scheduling algorithm seems particularly good at doing this.

That way it won't take as long to compress the video.