Video Editing

[Scott from Canada]

I've been working a lot lately on editing and clipping together a bunch of biking/kayaking/skiing footage. Problem is that the file sizes are HUGE. Seems like a ten minute video w/music and minimal effects won't fit on a cd. I know there's gotta be some way to majorly compress these videos, right? My computer is starting to crash all the time mid-edit and losing footage and hours of work is not fun.

[Rik]

WMV format is nice and compact, that and DIVX, they'd be the ones to look at.

[Simo]

i wouldn't recomend WMV format. If possible try and convert it to MPEG or even AVI.
What editing program are you using? Will it be DIVX compatable?

[steamfrog]

Hey get some SW from www.download.com called "media cleaner".
Will work in many formats but can reduce file size massively.

Also download free from microSloth "windows movie maker" this is one dam handy little tool. and will compress video with a suprising lack of degredation to the image.

I have been working in motion video graphics / editing and effects for over 10 years now.

[naz]

if u get divx, once its installed in ur computer it can be used pretty much with any program, it has good compression 2 quality
go2
www.divx.com

[Commander Dilsnikk]

forget all of the digital compression options
they cause more trouble than they are worth and you end up with much lower quality video

the best way to do it is to edit in sections
(i'm assuming that you are importing to the computer through firewire, USB or similar)
once you are absolutely happy with a chunk (you decide how much it will be on how much ram, hard disc space, etc.) export that part of the film back out onto a clean tape.
now, you can either repeat this process until you are finished editing, then re-import the whole thing and fix up the transitions between sections
i am 99% sure that this will not cause problems with space on your hard disk because the imported files will be of a lower size than fully cut up/ edited ones beause the computer is reading the file only and the transitions, sound files, etc. do not add to the total
OR
you can get fiddly at the exporting stage and when you export each chunk, make sure that the split is at a point in the film where there is no special transition
ths method may however cause prtoblems with sound as even if you make the cuts between songs you will not be able to create a perfect transition to the next one

[Scott from Canada]

Sweet, I'll look into your advice, and Simo, I am using MGI Videowave. Exporting chunks at a time sounds good, I'll give that a try.