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Hello all. I am fairly new to digital video and to this forum. I have experienced several problems and questions as I've been trying to teach myself how to use digital videos. I have gone through and read many of the stickys on here and used the search feature to try to answer my questions, but there is soooo much information, that I am getting overwhelmed.<o
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So, I thought I would describe my exact step-by-step procedure I used to create my final video file. If you see any problems with the way I do these, or if you have any recommendations for improvements, let me know.<o></o>
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First, I mostly create short (less than 2 minutes) videos of my juggling and host them on my juggling web site. So, I want a decent quality video that anyone can easily download and watch one time which has a small file size.<o></o>
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I decided to host all my videos in MPEG1 format, because I figured this is the easies format to use by the majority of PC users.<o></o>
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Here we go:<o></o>
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I start by filming using my Sony Mini DV recorder (not sure of the model off hand). I always use the manual focus option, and I use a tripod.<o></o>
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Then I bring the video into my computer through MS Movie Maker "video capture". I go through and capture just the parts that I will need. Each of these parts is saved as a raw .avi file.<o></o>
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Then I open that .avi file in VirtualDub. Here I trim the video clips to the exact start frame and end frame that I want. It is here, that I also deinterlace the .avi file. I chose the "copy the odd lines" option.<o></o>
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NOTE: For juggling videos, I find it very important to deinterlace. The objects being juggled move so fast that the interlacing makes it look like two object for every one, and it's very unclear to see what's going on. I'm not as much concerned with getting the highest resolution picture, as I am with getting sharp, clear pictures of my arm movements and the objects in the air.<o></o>
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It's also worth noting that the file size of my "trimmed" .avi file is always larger (about 2x or 3x) than the original, longer .avi file. Why is this?<o></o>
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After trimming all the clips I plan on using, I go back to MS Movie Maker to join all the .avi files in sequence. Here, I add titles, transitions, and music. When I'm finished with the project, I save it from here as an .avi file. The resulting file is an extremely large file for such a short video (1 GB or something like that).<o></o>
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To compress it and convert it to .mpg, I use TMPGEnc. Here I load the final .avi file as the source file. I adjust the tuning to get it to a reasonable compression size. (I played around with this for a while until I found a good mix between file size and resolution. I ended up using Max=1200, Avg=800, Min=400. What ever that means?)<o></o>
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My final product is an .mpg file that is about 10 MB for a 2 minute video with sound. It's an alright video, but I wonder if I could be doing something to improve it (sharper and smaller file size, etc.)<o></o>
<o></o>
I also come across the problem of the entire movie not being download properly from my site. The viewer will only see, say the first 1:06 of the 1:45 movie file. I don't know if this has to do with the way I create the video or the way it is downloaded, or the video player that is playing it.<o></o>
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For anyone who has read all this way, thanks for your time. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
></o><o
></o>So, I thought I would describe my exact step-by-step procedure I used to create my final video file. If you see any problems with the way I do these, or if you have any recommendations for improvements, let me know.<o
></o><o
></o>First, I mostly create short (less than 2 minutes) videos of my juggling and host them on my juggling web site. So, I want a decent quality video that anyone can easily download and watch one time which has a small file size.<o
></o><o
></o>I decided to host all my videos in MPEG1 format, because I figured this is the easies format to use by the majority of PC users.<o
></o><o
></o>Here we go:<o
></o><o
></o>I start by filming using my Sony Mini DV recorder (not sure of the model off hand). I always use the manual focus option, and I use a tripod.<o
></o><o
></o>Then I bring the video into my computer through MS Movie Maker "video capture". I go through and capture just the parts that I will need. Each of these parts is saved as a raw .avi file.<o
></o><o
></o>Then I open that .avi file in VirtualDub. Here I trim the video clips to the exact start frame and end frame that I want. It is here, that I also deinterlace the .avi file. I chose the "copy the odd lines" option.<o
></o><o
></o>NOTE: For juggling videos, I find it very important to deinterlace. The objects being juggled move so fast that the interlacing makes it look like two object for every one, and it's very unclear to see what's going on. I'm not as much concerned with getting the highest resolution picture, as I am with getting sharp, clear pictures of my arm movements and the objects in the air.<o
></o><o
></o>It's also worth noting that the file size of my "trimmed" .avi file is always larger (about 2x or 3x) than the original, longer .avi file. Why is this?<o
></o><o
></o>After trimming all the clips I plan on using, I go back to MS Movie Maker to join all the .avi files in sequence. Here, I add titles, transitions, and music. When I'm finished with the project, I save it from here as an .avi file. The resulting file is an extremely large file for such a short video (1 GB or something like that).<o
></o><o
></o>To compress it and convert it to .mpg, I use TMPGEnc. Here I load the final .avi file as the source file. I adjust the tuning to get it to a reasonable compression size. (I played around with this for a while until I found a good mix between file size and resolution. I ended up using Max=1200, Avg=800, Min=400. What ever that means?)<o
></o><o
></o>My final product is an .mpg file that is about 10 MB for a 2 minute video with sound. It's an alright video, but I wonder if I could be doing something to improve it (sharper and smaller file size, etc.)<o
></o><o
></o>I also come across the problem of the entire movie not being download properly from my site. The viewer will only see, say the first 1:06 of the 1:45 movie file. I don't know if this has to do with the way I create the video or the way it is downloaded, or the video player that is playing it.<o
></o><o
></o>For anyone who has read all this way, thanks for your time. Any help would be greatly appreciated.