Audio surgery needed (?)...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Harry
  • Start date Start date
H

Harry

I'm the guy doing the speedup (1x/4x/8x) video of the
route that I drive for training purposes. I'm 95% done
and just want to add some audio narration in a dozen
spots or so, but I'm close to the storage space limits
according to the stats associated with the test VCD and
DVD that I just burned.

My main question is, will the removal of already muted
audio tracks lower the space requirement on the
destination media ???

If so, is there a way to remove the audio originally
associated with the video track without skewing all of
the editing that I've done (I've got 100+ clips and a ton
of text screens sprinkled throughout) ???

Harry
 
Harry said:
I'm the guy doing the speedup (1x/4x/8x) video of the
route that I drive for training purposes. I'm 95% done
and just want to add some audio narration in a dozen
spots or so, but I'm close to the storage space limits
according to the stats associated with the test VCD and
DVD that I just burned.

My main question is, will the removal of already muted
audio tracks lower the space requirement on the
destination media ???
Click to expand...

If I understand: You are saving the project as an avi, then converting it to
mpeg (or using Nero or similar) to save it as a VCD?
I also don't see how you can be filling up a VCD *AND* a DVD! One is between
650 and 800Mb, the other is 4.45Gb.
If so, is there a way to remove the audio originally
associated with the video track without skewing all of
the editing that I've done (I've got 100+ clips and a ton
of text screens sprinkled throughout) ???
Click to expand...

Don't do it! When you encode, the encoder encodes ONLY what it sees/hears.
Assuming you're using variable bit rates and two pass encoding, there's no
reason why you shouldn't be able to make it fit!

Give us more clue as to the process you're currently using and we might be
able to help some more!
 
Alan

Thanks -- That's all I really needed to know, i.e., that,
storage-space-wise, "muting" is equivalent to "removing".

fyi

The background here is that I have a 3hr-35min VHS video
that I chopped up into around 100 clips, of which, 95%+
run at either 4x or 8x speedup. It was saved as a .wmv
file, since the .avi file would have been super-huge,
then brought into ShowBiz v2.0 -- the result was a 4.1gb
(menu-less) file sent to the DVD media.

Also, sorry about that -- you are correct, my DVD and VCD
stats were "apples and oranges". My fully edited version
was what went to DVD, whereas the VCD was little more
than an 8x-spedup version of the entire original 3.5hr
video, split at 50 spots (inserted 5-second still
pictures of the route stops)... which as I recall was
pushing 600mb.

Finally, the reason I did the VCD version was to be able
to add it as an "inro" in my DVD version, however, it
appears as though I'd have to re-do it as a 16x in order
to fit it on the DVD... so I have a bit of a space/speed
dilemma, since the raw 8x-speedup seemed to be about the
limit of comprehension -- what I'll likely do a this
point is bring the "8x-ed MM2" movie into ShowBiz and try
further "fractional" speedups (it has a slidebar approach
to speedup, such that you can go from zero to +/-5x,
e.g., 1.1x, etc), such that maybe (8x)(1.3)=10.4 will be
small enough to fit and slow enough to understand.

Harry
 
Harry said:
It was saved as a .wmv
file, since the .avi file would have been super-huge,
Click to expand...

Just remember that if you're going to recode (or transcode as they call it!)
that the original encoding MUST the the best you can possibly muster.
An example:
Try this: Press "print screen" on your keyboard.
Paste into an image editor and save it as a png - should be about 25 - 50k
for a full colour lossless screenshot.
Now, save it as a jpg, re-import that jpeg, and then resave it as png -
it'll be about 500k.
The reason is that you are having to recode interference; the same thing
happens when you encode an mpeg from a "dirty" source.
Don't trust me on this...try it!
Also, sorry about that -- you are correct, my DVD and VCD
stats were "apples and oranges". My fully edited version
was what went to DVD, whereas the VCD was little more
than an 8x-spedup version of the entire original 3.5hr
video, split at 50 spots (inserted 5-second still
pictures of the route stops)... which as I recall was
pushing 600mb.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that you can get 800Mb CDs which can be overburnt - you can
even get 900Mb ones, but whether all cd players will play right to the end
reliably is another matter altogether! I've never had a failed burn or read
with an 800.
Finally, the reason I did the VCD version was to be able
to add it as an "inro" in my DVD version, however, it
appears as though I'd have to re-do it as a 16x in order
to fit it on the DVD
Click to expand...

It might be worth going to a forum like divx-digest (which doesn't just deal
with divx!) and looking around for tools called bitrate calculators.
These will read in a part of the movie, and then tell you what you can get
away with for a given size.
With a good encoding tool running two passes, there's no reason why you
shouldn't be able to have near-dvd quality at 2.5 to 3 hours long.
And remember the audio encoding, which will often take up MORE than the
video if left uncompressed! (I've seen some DVD's which have uncompressed
PCM tracks which have been nearly 2Gb of a 4.5Gb movie!). AC3 is the way
forward here!
 
Alan

Thanks very much for your time -- I've learned a lot via
your comments, especially re the audio storage
requirements.

The original 3.5hr capture was done to an AVI file...
that's kind of my own "rule of thumb", since you're more
flexible after having done so. However, in this case,
video quality is not my first priority, rather it's
getting the whole ball of wax on a single DVD, if
possible.

Specifically, the goal is to communcate "intelligence" in
two ways: (1) to the left-side of the brain via multiple
still-shots and text-overlays; and, (2) to the right-side
of the brain via the sped-up viewing of the actual route
to be driven... re-enforced by the "super-sped-up" intro,
such that someone could be handed a single DVD and "burn
the route into their mind".

The bottom-line here is that I'm now equipped to complete
the task, thanks to the info provide by you and several
others here. Without this newsgroup, I'd guess that 80%
of people would simply give up using MM2, and, for that
matter other movie software -- since much basic theory is
transferrable. The ONLY wish/suggestion that I have is
that there were/shouldbe somekind of "search" mechanism
that could be aimed at a specific newsgroup, such that
you could call up posts that related to a particular
situation ("audio"; "saving"; "capturing"; etc) -- that
would certainly make life easier for you guys, as well as
us heathens. JMHO.

Thanks again.

Harry
 
The ONLY wish/suggestion that I have is
that there were/shouldbe somekind of "search" mechanism
that could be aimed at a specific newsgroup, such that
you could call up posts that related to a particular
situation ("audio"; "saving"; "capturing"; etc) -- that
would certainly make life easier for you guys, as well as
us heathens. JMHO.
Click to expand...

Here you go:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...a=group=microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker

also:

http://communities2.microsoft.com/c...aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker

You need to copy/paste if line wraps.

You appear to be posting this message from Microsoft's own news posting
interface; do you not see a box at the top which says
"Type a question"? If not, use the above link.

Glad we could help anyhow!
 
Alan

Thanks, I'll check out the link -- all I see is
the "search" hot-text, that does somekind of inter-
galactic search (i.e., useless)

Thanks again.

Harry
 
Alan

Sorry about that -- forest from the trees -- there is a
search button right next to reply button... I'll give it
a shot.

Harry
 
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