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VasFlag for United States of America

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Please recommend easy to use Video editing program

Hi

I want to take some video from my camcorder files and be able to just pull up the 30 seconds - 2 minutes section that I want, and save it in a format I can put up on YouTube.

I only need basic functionality (being able to pull up different pieces of the video and piece them together), and a way to have text display at the bottom of the video while it's playing (with my web site address) and then at the end maybe a frame with just text.

I am looking for something that is easy to learn and easy to use.  


Please recommend some programs I can look into.


I'm on WindowsXP


Thanks
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lherrou
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Hi nathaliev,
Q1)
 pull up different pieces of the video and piece them together and a way
 to have text display at the bottom of the video while it's playing <<
you can also use Nero Vision to do all of this... add text /end credits.Delete bits etc.
But I would have to walk you thru that,
Do you have Nero Express as your burner software.
I need to know what format this camera records in.
.MOV
.MOD
Mini DV
DVD
High Definition Video
Cause then you may need to convert then to mpeg first set the video scales so you are ready for the main work.
Nero Vision uses a video line as well so when you add your mpeg/s onto it you simple add in the text and end credits then export as mpeg all joined.
Nero supports the .mov etc but not HD.
Windows movie maker also does not support some of those formats either
I convert my JVC, .MOD/.mov  to mpeg1
 320 x240 video scale  using Super Video converter makes it simple to work with in Nero and WMM2
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/supervc.html
A basic guide to video conversion using SUPER (pdf)
------------------------
Be able to just pull up the 30 seconds - 2 minutes section that I want, << you could capture them then add them in Nero Vision for the texts etc.
http://www.swftools.com/tools-details.php?tool=8162413051
(2)
and save it in a format I can put up on YouTube.<< doesnt really matter as youtube will convert them to flash, mpeg is a good format to work with.
 You just need to keep the video scale small that's where Super comes in handy.
Youtube also has full guides
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/
how to
Making Videos
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?topic=10521

If you could let us know what your video format is from the camera...
and do you have Nero Express 6..
We can continue from there
Merete
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ASKER

Thanks for the quick replies.

I do have Nero (Nero 7 Ultra) and it has Nero Vision 4

Regarding video formats.  I have some videos on VHS tapes that I'll need to capture into the PC. I have an old Pinnacle PC-TV Deluxe unit that I can hook up a VCR to.

Can Nero then pick up the stream playing from the VCR or would I need the funky Pinnacle software? (which I have to look for, hopefully they still have this download on their web site)



I also have a Panasonic PV-GS19 MiniDV Camcorder which I haven't used much. I'll need to get a firewire cable for it i think so I can hook it up to the PC.  It records to a miniDV tape so I don't know how that all works... would I need to stream it to the PC in that case?

Again is that something Nero can do or do I first need an intermediate program that can take the stream from the VCR or camcorder and save it to MPEG format?



Thanks


Hi nathaliev,
just one thought occured tome to ask you, these VCR are they in long play?
Panasonic PV-GS19 MiniDV Camcorder <<  it is USB2 comaptible so you could buy a  USB2 cable maybe.
That will  not disturb the quality but makes it a treat to upload the videos then you can use Nero to remaster them into great stuff. But we can talk on that later..

Here's the cable you need
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F3N401-06-ICE-4-Pin-6-Pin-FireWire/dp/B00005NIMR/ref=pd_sim_p_title_3

I had to look at my Nero 7 Ultra to see what it's capable of, I do remember seeing the setting in there for TV capture.
Ah yes but you still need the video capture  card and Nero Media Home will use that..
Open your Nero Smart start then look in the guides below for
in Nero Home.
I just use my Video capture PVR.
I captured all my vcr to WMV 320 x240  as it's very small good quality 2 hours of captures produced only around 300 megs and then convert them to mpeg1 later
using Super video converter
mpeg can be very big in size so you need a big hard drive that is thoroughly defragged.

Pinnacle PC-TV Deluxe  sounds the solution for you to capture them first.
Please make sure you have the best cables the gold plated for best quality
and up to date..
Most of the stuff you need is here manuals drivers etc
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/support/products/info/default.asp?ProductID=458

I would use that instead of Nero to capture, Nero does tend to monitor what you record. I find it a bit invasive on my personal rights of what I capture :)
reading up on this Pinnacle sounds like it will do the job.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1554160,00.asp

Just for your own info and some more ideas
 I bought a Winfast capture ( internal)  from Leadtec a few years back now still works perfectly
 and they are really cheap but you would have to get someone to install it and ensure you have good  ram and big enough power supply unit.

Are you in Australia too?
http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/tv_tuner/overview.asp?lineid=6&pronameid=91
Price range: $33.02 to $163.50 at 22 stores
http://www.shopbot.com.au/p-32405.html

cheers
Avatar of Vas

ASKER

Thanks, looks like I'll need a new video capture device  :(

I dug up the Pinnacle PCTV box and plugged it in and no lights come on, so I'll have to buy something.

I'll check into the links above thanks, and once I have a capture card or device I'll come back to this thread to see about capturing the video.


Nathalie
Try to keep it simple. The first thing you need is a firewire card in your PC -- very cheap and still way, way ahead of USB2 --  because the DV output on your panasonic is 4 pin firewire (IEEE 1394).
The Pinnacel card only has USB so bye bye to that.
The AV in / out port on your panasonic can also be used to plug in your VCR using the supplied cable -- you set the menu to receive and AV signal and play the VCR tape whilst plugging your firewire cable (you need to buy a 4 pin to 6 pin firewire cable -- don't listen to any other BS about this). So you have your VCR playing and your AV connected into the camera, and your firewire connected out to your PC.
All you need now is good capture and editing software to do the capture. I recommend Ulead Video Studio 11.5 (free trial).  this also does the text and the still image frames that you want.
Here's a good tip -- always capture video as DV AVI -- especially miniDV as it wraps up the DV format beautifully in an AVI wrapper for editing and storage. Use this as a master and simply make smaller edited videos for your website. Use 320 x 240 resolution for the website.
For the best resolution on YouTube save in MPEG-2 format -- provided your video is under 5 minuites and 100Mb. YouTube will then encode it to Flash. But if you send up a lower resolution it will do a terrible job.
fredshovel why recomend Ulead when she has Nero Ultimate 7
Ulead is crap compared to Nero Ultimate. i know I have it.
I beg to  differ with your recomendation as you have seen my youtube video by now, and the quality is noway crap using mpeg1.
as illistrated by my sample of a slideshow I made
MTwithcool is my account name at youtube
what's wrong with my video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjmLI5jDFm8
These  8 samples were videod by my husband last year at Tripples Based in Caloundra
 I did the video conversion from .MOD to mpeg1 for him and uploaded them to youtube
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BritbikerSS&search_type=
I personally don't like Nero, it's been very buggy for me and I really don't like their "Nero Smart Start", which has about 37 menus that you have to wade through to do simple things -- which it seems to have great problems doing. So it's different strokes for different folks.
No problem with MPEG-1 for the Internet and VCDs -- I personally don't bother with it because it's now of no use outside the PC, whereas MPEG-2 is the DVD and broadcast standard -- and all equipment seems set up to deal with it nicely. Notice I don't use MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) as much as I used to despite the fact that it uses half the storage and transmission space of MPEG-2 -- but I've had some compatibility problems with it and I don't really need to use it. But if you had a video that was running over 100Mb (and you wanted to upload it to YouTube) with either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, I would recommend encoding with MPEG-4 AVC (H.264).
Right , with new Nero 7 and 8 the full retail versions we dont actually use Nero smart start, Nero Vision is a separate entity accessed via it's desktop link.
different strokes for different folks. agree
I love the Corel stuff

Corel Simple Video Studio Express (Simple is in its name)
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1175263344580#tabview=tab0

And something more powerful you can step up to when you want more features

Corel Video Studio Pro
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1175714228541#tabview=tab0
This question is undoubtedly abandoned so for anyone else thinking of posting leave it please until the moderators delete it,
she was a limited member probably long gone, and her question was asked 2 years ago>>02/06/08
You could also consider this:

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/videorecorder/

It records H264 via usb and you will get a simple capture program with it. I am not sure if you actually can use the software for editing, but you could use your camcorder to cue up  the parts of the video you want for the 30 sek clips.

H264 can be uploaded to youtube as far as I know.