Export as DivX, Xvid, x264, MP4 Posted by DJKnuddel - 28 May 2011 17:09 Hi, first of all, thank you for this wonderful programme here. I am new in Video Editing and the far best piece of software out there is Lightworks. But I really miss the possibility of creating a video in "normal" formats like DivX, Xvid, x264, which can be played by most standalone DVD players these days. All I get is some exotic formats from Matrox codec pack that I never had heard of before. So I have to convert first from AVHCD to MP4 to get the clips from my camera imported into Lightworks, what is not so bad - I simply use a converter for this. But I have also convert the export file a second time. Thats not soo good - what speaks against a clean good Xvid file or maybe a x264 codec file. All I want is a small file size with good quality that I can watch on my DVD player. I know this is not the best quality but its like a standard in the scene I think. And the most important argument is Xvid and x264 are fully free codecs. Regards, DJK Posted by drkuli - 28 May 2011 17:24 Well, what's normal for some users, might be unacceptable for the others. None of the codecs you've mentioned are designed to edit, with the quality as premier factor in mind. All of them are designed to deliver small files with "acceptable" quality. Some advanced techniques of fooling the human's eye are also involved. LW comes from broadcast/film industry, what's quite different. If you need some fast free tool, which can edit the aforementioned files - use Videopad. 1 / 6
Posted by DJKnuddel - 28 May 2011 18:47 Oh no, I think you missunderstood. I really want to edit in high quality, its only about the export, means the finished movie I want to export in a small and handy file. The import is okay for me and I really wonder why the mht files cannot be imported directly, which are the best quality coming direct from my camera. My approach is to work with best quality and then export the product into most used formats. And don't know anybody that wants to see my movie in a format that can only be played on PC. Posted by drkuli - 28 May 2011 19:01 Delivery formats production is not a part of LW. There's a lot of free software, which can produce any desired format from your edit, exported as is. Talking about import - look here, it's a long thread. UPDATE Are you serious, when you said your camera records into MHT files? What's your camera make/model? Posted by dvdsev - 28 May 2011 22:33 Maybe it is not so bad idea to have such export. At the end it is an open source project. And if we want or not, there are a lot of people who would like to use LW but have no expensive equipment and want to share their work on popular formats like xvid, divx and so on. I don't think that LW will be less professional if it will have such a feature. On contrary. And will gain in popularity (we all want this, isn't it?). Posted by drkuli - 28 May 2011 22:51 2 / 6
It is not an open source software. It's free beta NLE for Windows in process of going open source. This process includes clearing of a lot of legal dependencies, concerning codecs. BTW, about what expensive equipment you're talking about? I can only repeat - there's a lot of free software, which can produce any desired format from your LW's edit, exported in any of LW's currently available formats. Posted by DJKnuddel - 29 May 2011 08:33 Oh, I dont know why I wrote MHT format, what I mean is MTS. My camera is a Canon Legria HFM41. And youre right, I can use another piece of software to convert the output. What I concern about is only the time that I have to spend converting all the time. If I cut a movie of say normal 1,5 h it takes a lot of time to do the export in Lightworks and then I'll have to wait another time to convert it into another format I really want, not mentioned the time I spend to convert from mts into MP4 to get the files into Lightworks (which goes by reducing the source quality though). Thats unnecessary for me and I dont think I only speak for myself. This should not be any flame or trolling here. Its just my opinion how this wonderful programme can get better, even better as it is already. And I cannot imagine that this would be a lot of work to do that, on the export side (correct me if I am wrong). And I know Videopad, its really good but I think LW is better and you dont really want to suggest another software, do you? Posted by SMPse - 29 May 2011 08:54 Usually you export a high quality file from your NLE, as a 'Master', and then use an encoding software to convert the 'Master' file, in different resolutions, to x264, xvid, Mpeg-2 TS, WMV or whatever you need, instead of exporting/re-exporting the movie from the NLE. 3 / 6
Posted by drkuli - 29 May 2011 09:07 DJKnuddel wrote: What I concern about is only the time that I have to spend converting all the time....the time I spend to convert from mts into MP4 to get the files into Lightworks (which goes by reducing the source quality though) I hate transcoding. I can use it as a last rescue, when it's unavoidable. But don't get fooled, converting even 24Mbps 1920x1080 video in H.264 codec into Matrox MPEG-2 I-frame HD at appropriate bitrate surely doesn't reduce quality. I can be skeptical or even ironic about Matrox in general, but a lot of users prove this codec being good enough for such task. DJKnuddel wrote: And I cannot imagine that this would be a lot of work to do that, on the export side (correct me if I am wrong). I'm sure Editshare's devs have much more urgent things to do. Export involves the same legal problems as import. It's all about codecs. DJKnuddel wrote: And I know Videopad, its really good but I think LW is better and you dont really want to suggest another software, do you? Well, you have to balance between time-consuming transcoding and LW's features or direct editing and Videopad's features. Or any other app's features, which is able to edit MTS directly. I use EDIUS, but it's out of question here. Posted by THL - 29 May 2011 09:42 Apart from that, please have another look at other NLEs. None does the exporting to consumer formats natively. Sure, the suites deliver an encoder and maybe the NLE even sends the file to it, but it's not an NLEs task to export a YouTube compatible video file. Posted by Forum Admin - 29 May 2011 15:09 4 / 6
Thanks for your enthusiasm for Lightworks, by the way. It's very much appreciated. The thing about Lightworks at this stage in it's life-cycle is that the focus is on improving functionality and stability. That's the purpose of the beta program. Meanwhile, there are legal and commercial hoops to be jumped-through with codec support, which is further complicated by the fact that this is free software! But rest assured that these issues are being addressed. The combination of powerful, free software and a diverse but committed community of active users is set to revolutionise the industry. Posted by DJKnuddel - 29 May 2011 18:25 Good to hear that, really I hope you go on well and progress step by step. In the meanwhile theres a lot of functionality for me to explore, as I mentioned I am just a beginner in this. I definitely stay tuned. Posted by Hyperboreer - 16 Jun 2011 16:40 It would be a big help if LW could export in the codecs mentioned. Right now I've spend nearly half a day converting my project to x264 and to downsize it. I had a lot of trouble finding the right programs, because the programs I'm using usually won't accept the LW export- they just show a white screen with the sound or crashing. First I had to export the project as Avi, than change that file to x264 to make it smaller with an other program. It would be a huge help if I could choose the format and the quality and the limit data rate like eg. in Final Cut right in the export screen. Many times some editors and directors need to send the latest edit versions to each-other because they are not sitting right next to each-other, or many times I have to send a version to the sound designer. Doing that with a gigabyte-sized file is not that fast. Actually this request is just asked because of laziness. 5 / 6
Posted by Forum Admin - 16 Jun 2011 19:38 Hyperboreer wrote: It would be a big help if LW could export in the codecs mentioned. Right now I've spend nearly half a day converting my project to x264 and to downsize it. I had a lot of trouble finding the right programs, because the programs I'm using usually won't accept the LW export- they just show a white screen with the sound or crashing. First I had to export the project as Avi, than change that file to x264 to make it smaller with an other program. It would be a huge help if I could choose the format and the quality and the limit data rate like eg. in Final Cut right in the export screen. Many times some editors and directors need to send the latest edit versions to each-other because they are not sitting right next to each-other, or many times I have to send a version to the sound designer. Doing that with a gigabyte-sized file is not that fast. Actually this request is just asked because of laziness. Lightworks' codec support will improve. It's only in the current state while in the Beta phase, but don't forget that a lot of codecs require to be licensed, that that licence costs money, which is a situation that doesn't sit well with a program that is given out free. Watch this space, though, for more announcements about Codecs. Posted by Hyperboreer - 18 Jun 2011 08:34 I quite understand that fact. First, thanks a lot for giving out free this powerful pro-tool. Though it would be a good feature for users to have the possibility to integrate different codecs in the export tool. Or is this possible right now? 6 / 6