Archive for the 'Video' Category

03
Nov

Tutorial: Video Frame-Serving for Post-Processing

By Blink 7 0 Comments
Categories: Tutorials and Video

The Challenge

You’ve completed your latest movie masterpiece and now it’s time to put on the finishing touches. One problem – your Non-Linear Editor (NLE) cannot do exactly what you need. Perhaps you would like to render the final project using a proprietary codec unavailable in your NLE of choice. Perhaps you would like to render an MPEG-2 file using CinemaCraft Encoder or other software that produces better output than your NLE’s internal algorithm. Maybe you are not done applying filters to the final video, but those last few filters reside in a different software package.

In the past, the primary solution was to render the project to an intermediate file and then load that file into other software packages for post-processing. While this approach may be adequate for smaller projects, several problems arise when working with longer video segments or with High Definition content:

  1. Quality Loss. Rendering a project to a lossy intermediate format (e.g. DivX, Neo HD) results in loss of visual quality. Further processing and rendering causes more quality loss, which may result in unusable video output
  2. Disk Space. The problem of quality loss can be avoided by rending the project to a lossless intermediate format (e.g. Lagarith, Huffy). However, the resulting file size may be prohibitively large due to the much lower compression ratios of lossless formats.
  3. Time. Rendering any intermediate format takes time and then more time must be spent re-rendering the file after further processing.

The Solution: Frame-Serving
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Popularity: 10% [?]

17
Oct

Review: AVIDemux 2.4

By Blink 7 2 Comments
Categories: Reviews and Video

Product: AVIDemux
Version: 2.4
Platform: Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows (reviewed)
Description: Non-Linear Video Editor
License: GNU General Public License
Rating: 80%
URL: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/

When it comes to video editing -particularly the creation of MPEG-4 files from DVD movies- no program is as indispensable as VirtualDub. The simple non-linear editor has been central to video preparation/encoding as both a standalone application and as a tool called by automated video encoding tools. The attraction is simple: VirtualDub is easy to use, remains extendable for new codecs through its support for VFW (Video for Windows) and boasts a dizzying array of 3rd party plug-ins that perform various tasks, ranging from color correction to image stabilization. That VirtualDub is absolutely free, as are most of its plug-ins, does not hurt either.

Alas, “VDub” has been showing its age over the past couple of years – the original program cannot handle variable bit rates when importing MP3 audio and is generally unreliable at encoding its own audio. Only the AVI container is supported when exporting and MPEG-2 is out of the question. Derivative programs, such as VirtualDubMod and VirtualDubMPEG2, have addressed some of these issues but as of now it is difficult to create an entire movie using VirtualDub alone.

Enter AVIDemux, VirtualDub’s first serious competition in the freeware video editing arena. While the visual similarities between the applications are obvious, AVIDemux aims to be more universal and self-contained. The package comes bundled with video codecs, audio codecs, AVISynth support, support for multiple containers and a generous helping of filters.
Continue reading ‘Review: AVIDemux 2.4′

Popularity: 7% [?]