Good windows video codecs?
by Mike Myers
on
May 13, 2008 at 1:23:40 pm
I have the infamous Everio HD-GZ7 camera which records as a .tod format. The format from what I have researched is a mpeg format with some bits on the end to avoid copyright infringment? I have to convert these so After Effects and Premiere can read them. I'm currently using Mpeg Streamline and a user guided me away from exporting to mpeg. What is the best way to export from mpeg streamline? Do I need to buy different software? My footage is 1920x1080. I've done the Quicktime animation and it left me with a 28gb file for a 30 minute sermon. Will I be able to fit that on a dvd when exporting from Premiere? Any guidance or link I can research will be much appreciated.
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Dave LaRonde on May 13, 2008 at 2:50:49 pm
[Mike Myers]"I've done the Quicktime animation and it left me with a 28gb file for a 30 minute sermon. Will I be able to fit that on a dvd when exporting from Premiere? Any guidance or link I can research will be much appreciated."
Don't sweat it. All standard-definition, authored DVDs -- the kind you play in consumer DVD players -- use 720x480 MPEG2 compression. You can easily fit 30 minutes of video onto a DVD.
Don't do the compression in AE -- render (not export, render from the Render Queue -- there's a difference) out another Animation-codec file. THEN use a separate compression application to do it. or let your DVD authoring software do it.
You'll have a very nice-looking DVD.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Mike Myers on May 13, 2008 at 3:54:04 pm
Ok. I just never used a 28gb file before. I have rendered (from the render queue) a 30second clip into both quicktime animation and jpeg and it plays smooth for like 7 seconds then it is choppy as can be. My original footage is 29.97fps and quitime wants to set it at 30. If I choose 29.97 from the drop-down menu it says to change FPS in another location. Is this small difference making my video choppy? The original (before AE) is smooth.
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Dave LaRonde on May 13, 2008 at 4:08:26 pm
Your AE comp's frame rate has to be 29.97. If it is, you're okay.
Did you animate this footage by scaling it, rotating it, making it a 3D layer, or changing its 2D vertical position? If it's interlaced footage, you'll have to both interpret the footage in the Interpret Footage Window, then render using the proper field order, done in the Render Settings. Otherwise, you'll have field order problems
So what's that field order? For video originated on NTSC DV or HDV, it's lower field first.
And here you thought this video stuff was going to be a cakewalk, huh?
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Mike Myers on May 13, 2008 at 4:17:50 pm
The only things I have done to the footage is keyed the background and have placed some HD footage bought from videocopolit. I changed the horizontal position of the person speaking as well. It is interlaced footage so I will do the interpret footage as you said. I knew this was not going to be a cakewalk. I've looked for some classes around town. I am willing to learn, just ignorant of where to start.
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Simon Bonner on May 13, 2008 at 4:16:51 pm
Do you mean choppy as in playback starts to stutter? This is probably because the file sizes are huge and your computer is having a hard time keeping up. The original will be smooth because it's mpeg, compressed and small. Once you burn the file to DVD it won't be a problem anymore. Assuming this is your problem...
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Mike Myers on May 13, 2008 at 4:19:40 pm
Yes it starts to stutter. The audio keeps going and the lips will stop and then jump to catch up. The only thing hardware wise that would be lacking in my pc is my HDD. I believe it still spins at 7200rpm though
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Dave LaRonde on May 13, 2008 at 4:32:54 pm
Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you that....
The Animation codec is what's called an intermediate codec -- it preserves the quality of video as it goes from application to application, and it has a VERY high bitrate. Usually it's too high for disk drives to keep up. It plays in fits and starts, which is precisely what you're seeing.
If you want to reassure yourself that everything's okay, just render out a compressed version that your computer can play back. AE's got loads of final-user codecs like Sorenson video, H.264, mp4, etc.
However, this is just for your eyes only. I wouldn't trust AE to do a bang-up job of compression, nor would I even think of taking such a file into another application for further work.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Mike Myers on May 13, 2008 at 4:48:44 pm
What I am trying to do for now is create and introduction and an exit scene that will be used for multiple sermons. I was just trying to use AE to render these clips and align them all with my footage in Premiere. I guess I will try other codecs you were talking about. But it has to be 1920x1080 to match my footage in Premiere, correct?
Re: Good windows video codecs? by Mike Myers on May 13, 2008 at 6:04:19 pm
I checked my field settings as you said and they were wrong. I put them to lower and it came out smooth. I found a guide from Adobe on how to find the field manually if I am unaware. Thanks for the tip.
