Is there a better way? - Video encoding

R

RAD

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
489
Hi everyone,
A little background on the situation:
I frequently need to help people create video files with a final target universally either .wmv or .mov (depending on whether the person needs to be able to work on/view the video on a PC or Apple). Due to their common nature and the high probability that anyone with a computer will be able to view them once they are in one of these formats, .mov and .wmv are ideal for our purposes.

These files come to me in many different formats and I end up usually relying on a self designed toolbox of various programs to get it from whatever format it comes to me in, to a usable format. However, sometimes this ends up with me having to run the clip through multiple different encodings with different programs in order to end up with a final result that I can hand back in appropriate format.

An example:
I had a clip come in yesterday from a random camcorder, that had been edited with Adobe Premier and turned into some form of mpg.

In order to turn this clip into a .wmv I ended up having to encode it 3 different times:
First - Handbrake to change it from mpg to m4v.
Next MPEG Streamclip (which refused to recognize the original mpg) to change it from m4v to avi.
Finally, Windows Movie Maker (which rejected both the mpg and the m4v) to turn it into a .wmv.

Re encoding this video 3 different time did result in a bit of quality decline, as well as taking several hours by the time all was said and done (the computer I do this work on is not cutting edge, although it is not bad either.

My question is this: Could I have streamlined this process? Is there a freeware or cheap program that could have gotten me straight from an Adobe Premier mpg to wmv or mov? Is there a well designed universal translator type program, or is my current procedure of just having a toolbox on hand to deal with the million different formats things come to me in as efficient as I could get?
 
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I generally use applications like VirtualDub, VirtualDubMod and AviDemux to read in and encode various video formats. They're all-in-one applications which support a wide range of (VfW) codecs and container formats, AviDemux being the newest of the three. I still use VDM a lot, though.
 
Use AviSynth to source and process your incoming video. Should be able to handle anything your DirectShow filters can play, and offers lots of resizing and crop options etc. With addon plugins you can do pretty much anything. Of course, you have to be capable of editing a text file and using your brain to use it...

Then frameserve to whatever encoder you need. I've never used crap such as Quicktime and Windows Media, but even if they won't load the AVS files directly, there are AVS->AVI frameservers out there that will almost certainly work. See: http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/FAQ_frameserving

However I'd just forget these crappy formats and use MP4/h.264 via Handbrake. Should be supported natively in recent Windows and MacOS, and you can just direct them to download MPC-HC or VLC or ffdshow & Haali if not.
 
DVDFlick will encode just about anything into .vob
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keenan said:
However I'd just forget these crappy formats and use MP4/h.264 via Handbrake.
Click to expand...
Agree. The MOV container is dead. WMV is dead. Both Windows Vista/7 and OS X (from...10.3 and up?) will play back H.264 video with AAC audio in an MP4 container without installing any additional software.

Use your favorite x264 encoding GUI and stop goofing around with MOV and WMV.
 
here then click on the Specifications tab to see the input and output formats it supports, not free but you can download a trial version. make sure to enable Intel SSE4 and Nvidia CUDA.
 
Ill jack this thread

I have several H264 movies and Im looking to burn them to DVD. Easiest way to do so?
 
DVDFlick does a reasonable job, is free, and is pretty easy to use.

Nero's DVD authoring thing, whatever it's called, does a decent job as well and should support those media, but it's a lot clunkier (but also more featureful) IMO.
 
I can easily recommend MediaCoder to solve all of your encoding troubles.

Link: http://www.mediacoderhq.com/

It gets the job done but you have to be patient enough to learn your way through its unintuitive interface but best of all, it's FREE! :D
 
There has been some interesting feedback in this thread and I will take a look at mediacoder.

I do think a few respondents are missing the point a bit of the situation I have put forward and maybe I need to clarify a bit.
1) I have little to no control over what format things come to me in.
2) It -HAS- to leave me in wmv or mov. This is purely because these two formats are playable by the most technology illiterate of computer owners with a basic player that runs on quite outdated tech. That is critical as many times these videos go out to people who barely understand "download quicktime, open file" let alone anything more complex. Thus simplicity for the final user wins out over better quality/ease on my end every time. If my target audience was reliably remotely computer literate, then yes other formats would be feasible. This is not the case.
3) I have no interest in personally editing or changing the video, outside of making sure it is small enough to fit on a cd and in one of the two target formats.

Droc...would it really have been that hard to post a new thread rather than cluttering a completely unrelated one?

Thanks again for the feedback, folks.
 
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Nice information in this thread. I was just getting ready to make a thread asking similar to the same thing. I use FRAPS to record video in my games for raids etc.. but need a way to encode/shrink them down from the huge files that it creates.

Just to clarify Mediacoder should be able to do this for me correct? Can it split long files like 1hr 30min files down into like 10min segments? You have to forgive me because I am new to doing this but a friend asked me if I would be willing to do it during our raids etc.. since I can do it without much system strain at all.
 
As far as I'm aware, there would be no simple way to do multiple segments with MediaCoder, apart from perhaps AviSynth scripting. The documentation may be able to shed some light on it.

As far as the actual encoding, though, yes, MediaCoder should be able to handle it, depending upon the input format.
 
Thanks for the reply. The input is .avi the best I can remember off top of my head. I know a 1hr 30min segment is about 50gigs and that is at half screen resolution. I am thinking of going to full and then encoding it down that way to see how that turns out.
 
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