MPEG-2 to Moviemaker: Recommended Intermediate Format?

M

Martin

I have a bunch of MPEG-2 files that I'd like to edit in Moviemaker.
Some are from DVD, others are from my JVC Everio Camcorder, which
records in that format.

I know that DIVX and XVID both work in moviemaker, and of course
WMV.

Anyone know of a free converter from MPEG-2 to any of the three above?

thanks,

Martin
 
M

Martin

Super is good, there are a few more here.http://www.myvideoproblems.com/WebPages/UsefulProgrammes.htm

Be aware that xvid or divx don't work well in MM most of the time.

--

Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Mediawww.myvideoproblems.com








- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Thanks, I downloaded "Super" and will try to give it a workout this
weekend. BTW, is there a downloadable "user's manual" for this
software? There seems to be a lot of stuff that I don't quite follow
the ramifications of. For example, what actually happens if you
select WMV output and 10Kbps, or what actually happens if you select
720x480 and 4:3 aspect at the same time? For that matter, what is
huffYUV (selectable under "codec" pulldown)?

best regards,

Martin
 
M

Martin

OK, it seems that I'm having a problem. I went home and installed
"Super" on my PC. When I tried to launch it the first time (double-
clicking the shortcut), I had a very long wait before anything
happened. During this time, everything else slowed down
dramatically. Just clicking on a folder in my file manager produced a
ten-second wait before it opened.

Finally, my antivirus software popped up and said that Super was
trying to access the internet. Is this normal? Anyway, it asked if I
wanted to allow the access, and I said "NO", because I have no other
option. I don't have internet at home.

Anyway, every time I launch Super I get the same problems - extremely
slow launch and it seems to drag down everything else as well. When I
click "Encode", there's about a minute's wait before it starts doing
anything.

Does "Super" require an internet connection to work properly?

I've tried the following:

(1) Uninstalled and re-installed Super on the home PC. Didn't get an
antivirus popup the second time, but maybe that's because I'd already
answered the "allow or not" question during the first install. No
improvement in performance, still tremendous waits to launch, and
after clicking any action.

(2) Temporarily installed Super on my PC here at work, where we have
always-on internet. This install, from the same downloaded zip file,
works fine and fast, and does not bog down the PC. My home PC, by the
way, is faster and has more RAM than this one, on which Super works
fine.

Anyone else experience this problem?

thanks,

Martin
 
M

Martin

One other note - I think the antivirus popup occured during the first
auto-launch of the software, not when I double-clicked to open it,
which would have been the second time.

Martin
 
G

Graham Hughes

I've never seen this problem with super. It sounds like it hasn't installed
properly. Use system resotre to go back before installation and try again.
 
C

Cymbal Man Freq.

I always shut off my modem and turn off my anti-virus before I launch SUPER. It
does take like 15 seconds to launch SUPER on a 1.6Ghz machine. So I'm not aware
that SUPER is trying to access the internet. But I do have problems that SUPER
won't complete a Title that is more than 13 minutes long, it just quits in the
middle of the job. I must have Titles that are 10 minutes or less to have the
best chance of completing the transfer from DVD to a 320 x 240 DivX .avi file.

YouTube, however, compresses videos on the order of Windows Movie Maker. I
uploaded a DivX .avi file to YT that was 53.0 MB, and it redownloaded from YT
(on Firefox using Unplug) as a 13.9 MB .flv file. I also uploaded a 16.0 MB
Windows Movie Maker file (.wmv) to YT and it came back as a 14.0 MB .flv file
from YT. So, YouTube compresses the crap out of any video uploaded such that the
video loses way too much detail...and so does Windows Movie Maker!
 
C

Cymbal Man Freq.

| I always shut off my modem and turn off my anti-virus before I launch SUPER.
It
| does take like 15 seconds to launch SUPER on a 1.6Ghz machine. So I'm not
aware
| that SUPER is trying to access the internet. But I do have problems that SUPER
| won't complete a Title that is more than 13 minutes long, it just quits in the
| middle of the job. I must have Titles that are 10 minutes or less to have the
| best chance of completing the transfer from DVD to a 320 x 240 DivX .avi file.
|
| YouTube, however, compresses videos on the order of Windows Movie Maker. I
| uploaded a DivX .avi file to YT that was 53.0 MB, and it redownloaded from YT
| (on Firefox using Unplug) as a 13.9 MB .flv file. I also uploaded a 16.0 MB
| Windows Movie Maker file (.wmv) to YT and it came back as a 14.0 MB .flv file
| from YT. So, YouTube compresses the crap out of any video uploaded such that
the
| video loses way too much detail...and so does Windows Movie Maker!
(

That was the same 6:04 video that was encoded from SUPER at 1008 kbps, 53.0 MB
DivX .avi & 16.0 MB .wmv .
A 320 x 240 picture uses 76,800 pixels per frame, times 30 frames a second
equals 2,304 kbps. I used 1008 kbps because YT's 10 minute video limit also has
a 100 MB upload limit and the best way to stay under 100 MB with a 10 minute
video is with a lower sampling rate like 1008 or 1154 kbps. But uploading a huge
video file didn't improve results substantially because YouTube processed the
video and crumpled it like a piece of paper then flattened the sheet of paper
back out again. Disgusting.
 
M

Martin

Graham,

That's one of the first things I tried, to no avail. I uninstalled
and then restored to a point from the prior day. Then I turned off my
antivirus software and tried the installation again. Same result -
long time to launch program, extremely slow response to doing any
other simple task while waiting for launch, etc.

When I click on "convert", there is a minute or two wait before I get
the little "working on it" message, just as before. During this wait,
everything else on my desktop slows to a crawl - long waits just to
see a mouse click take effect. Once "working on it" is reached, all
seems OK, but I haven't made enough comparisons to know if the actual
conversions are going slow. I don't have the problem that "Cymbal
Man" posted, though .... file length doesn't seem to matter. I left
it running yesterday and converted a 90-minute video without errors.

I have now installed on two other computers with internet access
disconnected, and it works properly on both. So, I have installed
"Super" on a total of four computers, three of which work normally and
one which does not. The "bad" one is, unfortunately, the one I need
to use!

Works correcly on: Toshiba Laptop 2.3 GHz Celeron, 512 MB Ram, XP-
SP2, no internet; Compaq 400 MHz Celeron, 256 MB Ram, XP-SP2, no
internet; and Dell Optiplex 3.0 GHz P4, 1 GB Ram, XP-SP2, firewalled
10/100 connection. Loads and launches slow as molasses on: Dell
Dimension 2.4 GHz P4, 1 GB Ram, XP-SP2, no internet.

In doing these other installations, I made another interesting
observation. During installation, there is a sequence with a panel
and progress bar that says something like "installing files". On the
three computers that yield an acceptable result, this portion of the
installation sequence probably only takes 15 seconds. During
installation on the "bad" machine, it takes a couple of minutes. BTW,
the "bad" machine has never been online, is defragged, virus-scanned,
and has less "extraneous" software and utilities installed than any of
the "good" machines :(

PS - I also found last night that there seems to be no combination of
settings, including toggling "use direct show" and playing with the
other settings, that will allow this software to generate a WMV file.
Except, that is, on the Dell Optiplex computer. Super on the Optiplex
outputs WMV just fine with default settings. Is this some buggy
software, or what?

Martin
 
G

Graham Hughes

I've never had troub;e with it, I suspect that it and another programme on
your machine are possibly interfering with each other. What this is I don't
know and could take ages to find out I'm afraid. Are you positive you can't
do the conversion on one of the other machines and then take the file to the
other computer to work on?
 
M

Martin

That's basically what I'm going to do, place the MPEG-2 files on a
portable HD and perform the WMV conversions on my laptop.
Unfortunately, this seems to crash because Super wants "Windows Media
Player 9" to be installed. I think my laptop came with version 10,
and it may have upgraded itself online to 11 also. Is there a way to
replace a current version of media player with an older one (9), so
that Super will do the WMV conversion?

thanks,

Martin
 
M

Martin

That's basically what I'm going to do, place the MPEG-2 files on a
portable HD and perform the WMV conversions on my laptop.
Unfortunately, this seems to crash because Super wants "Windows Media
Player 9" to be installed. I think my laptop came with version 10,
and it may have upgraded itself online to 11 also. Is there a way to
replace a current version of media player with an older one (9), so
that Super will do the WMV conversion?

thanks,

Martin
 
G

Graham Hughes

That's a problem with how super looks for WMP, it sees the number 1 at teh
beginning and thinks it is a number less than 9. Again, I don't have this
problem with 10 or 11 and I used super just yesterday.

I'm not sure about installing wmp9, check out the wmp newsgroup for an
answer.
 
M

Martin

Yes, that's the likely plan at this point. I'll have to transfer my
files to an external USB HD, then plug this into my laptop to do the
conversion, then transfer the WMV files back onto my video computer.

I'm wondering now if it might be easier to just figure out how to get
TMPGenc working. I have a copy of that already, but I've never been
able to get it to create a WMV file. I believe the error was due to
not having Windows Media Player 9 installed on my computer (unless I'm
confusing this with another piece of software - I've tried so many, to
no avail). Are you familiar with that? Apparently TMPGenc, if my
memory is correct, requres some portion of Media Player 9 in order to
encode WMV.

My home computer came from Dell with a higher version of Media Player
(maybe 10 or 11, can't remember and I'm not at home now) already
installed. Is there a place where I can download Media Player 9, and
a procedure to take this home on a CD and install it in place of my
more recent version?

thanks and regards,

Martin
 
M

Martin

Graham,

Sorry, I got a little confused because I am replying to messages here
at work, while my computer with malfunctioning Super are at home.

The problems I have with Super and .wmv are not claimed to be related
to version 9 or lack thereof. That is the error I see with TMPGenc,
not SUPER.

In the case of Super, I get "circular reasoning" error messages.
First, it tells me I should try checking the "use directshow" box to
cure the error. When I do so, I still get an error but now it tells
me to try un-checking the "use directshow"! Very frustrating.

Have you used TMPGenc Express to generate a WMV file from an MPEG2
file? That's where I seem to be having the "version-9" issue.

thanks,

Martin
 

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