Boy my head is really spiinning after reading all the posts about editing programs for the mpeg2 files from the DCR-SR82. I have imac with both mac & xp. I would like to use imav imovie but realize for usb download that is not near as good as the win xp due to the trancoding required so am going to use the pc side. I keep reading about Vegas, vidiostudio, womble, elements, videoredo and etc being the best program. So could I please some suggestions about the best and easiest for a rather newie should use to end up with decent videos? I am really happy with this camcorder. I would appreciate any answers. jim_joh

I have SONY DCR-SR200, but I think the same software will work for you.

For about a month I was looking for editing software to edit my footage. After trying Vegas, Ulead and Womble I decided to go with Womble.

I chose Womble because it is very easy to use, stable and fast.

Womble has smart-encode which really helps to preserve video quality. I made a 20 minute DVD with a lot of editing and special effects on Saturday; the final picture looked great on 42" Sony Vegas HDTV. It wasn't pixelated or distorted. This is the first time I was happy with how the DVD turned out since I bought the camera about 2 months ago. Now I can finally say that I am truly satisfied with the camera.

My experiences with other editing software.

Ulead
Ulead took three times longer to do the same job and the quality of the final video was horrible.

Vegas
Vegas took a long time to re-encode as well since it was re-encoding the whole video frame-by-frame. The quality of the final video was much worse than Womble's as well.


Also, If you are viewing the footage on HDTV you have to set the picture size to "actual" or "wide screen" in the TV's menu. (If the TV is set up correctly, you will see 2 black bars on the screen. One on top of of the screen and one on the bottom). If you don't use the above settings the picture is going to get stretched and the video will look pixelated and ugly.

Go to www.squared5.com and get mpeg streamclip (free) to use with iMovie on your mac. This will convert the mpeg file from your camcorder to DV. Just import to iMovie after the conversion. Workes good. Probably want as much ram as possible but 1gb will work. You will need a plug in from apple (20 bucks) though.
Randy

Thank you bearcaprt, I have done that but everything that I read now says the different transcodings required degrades the quality more than just a little bit so that is why my direction headed to the pc side. I really like imaovie. jim_joh

Hi
The most popular mpeg2 editing packages that support smart-rendering(to prevent reencoding) are:
-Womble mpeg video wizard
-Ulead Videostudio
-Magix videodeluxe(europe) or movie edit pro(US) - my preference!
-Premiere Elements+Mainconcept mpeg2 plugin

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Regards
Sektionschef

Panasonic SDR-S100
Sandisk Ultra II 2GB SD Card
Raynox QC-505 0.5 WA
IBS 5X Tele
Velbon Ultra Maxi F Tripod
Magix Video deluxe 2008plus

Sounds to me like your project properties settings did not match the properties of the source video. If they match then Ulead will smart-encode. If they don't match then the whole video will be re-encoded in accordance with the project properties.

When everything is aligned then the encode time is very quick and the quality is maintained.

I realized that after reading some forum posts. But after switching to Womble, I do not want to go back to Ulead even though it has smart encode. I like Womble's interface much better than Ulead's. For me Ulead's layout was very confusing to work with.

Also, it took me about only a few minutes to learn all the features that Womble has. I realize that Womble has much less features than Ulead, but I don't think I'll need them anyway.

Yes, womble handles the mpeg2 files very well but it only has a few function/features. Check out Magix, it has tons of features and is easy to use.

__________________
Regards
Sektionschef

Panasonic SDR-S100
Sandisk Ultra II 2GB SD Card
Raynox QC-505 0.5 WA
IBS 5X Tele
Velbon Ultra Maxi F Tripod
Magix Video deluxe 2008plus

I just looked at Magix website and it looks pretty impressive. I am not sure whether I'll need most of those fancy functions but I'll give it a try in the next few days.

What camcorder do you have sektionschef?

I own a Panasonic SDR-S100 which records to SD cards in mpeg2 format. Similar what your SR200 does.

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Regards
Sektionschef

Panasonic SDR-S100
Sandisk Ultra II 2GB SD Card
Raynox QC-505 0.5 WA
IBS 5X Tele
Velbon Ultra Maxi F Tripod
Magix Video deluxe 2008plus

What's the best FREE video editing software that can handle mpeg2? I only make short clips which I put up on YouTube.

I just bought a SR82 and now I can't use Movie Maker since the software doesn't support the mpeg2 format.

Hi
Check out the freeware virtualdub-mpeg2.
At least it can import mpeg2 files and convert it to divx-avi for youtube.

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Regards
Sektionschef

Panasonic SDR-S100
Sandisk Ultra II 2GB SD Card
Raynox QC-505 0.5 WA
IBS 5X Tele
Velbon Ultra Maxi F Tripod
Magix Video deluxe 2008plus

Hi! I tried virtualdub. But the finished product is crappy! LOL. The vid pauses a lot, sound quality cuts in and out, and get this... the file size is a whopping 7.79 GB for a 5 minute clip!!

I throw it in the recycle bin and it's says the file is too large to be put there. LOL.

Sounds about right for a high definition AVI...

SD AVI runs about 13GB/hour for 720x480. HDV 1440x1080 is 4.5 times the data, so that same hour as AVI is a tad over 58GB, 7 minutes comes out to 7GB. These are just quick computations, and may be missing some other factors...

I suspect that to post to YouTube, you are going to have transcode to a smaller resolution... (since the 1440 is anamorphic for a 1920 effective) say 480x270. You'll probably have to set up some custom parameters to do such a transcode, assuming the codecs can be set for such.

You need to install an additional codec(like xvid, is also freeware) and instruct virtualdub to compress its output file using that codec.
The video quality should't have much to do with virtualdub, it mainly depends how good the codec is working and how much the compression is. Check out www.videohelp.com for tutorials how to use virtualdub.

__________________
Regards
Sektionschef

Panasonic SDR-S100
Sandisk Ultra II 2GB SD Card
Raynox QC-505 0.5 WA
IBS 5X Tele
Velbon Ultra Maxi F Tripod
Magix Video deluxe 2008plus