Can someone explain to me how to perform very simple video edits in Avid or Premiere

  • Thread starter Thread starter quentinhudson
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Q

quentinhudson

Hi,

I have started a temporary contract position with a small multimedia
company. Although, my main area is Windows support, I am constantly
bothered by people wanting spliced and diced audio and video files.
Although I am not familiar with either area, the audio editing software
is fairly intuitive and I have got by. I am afraid with video tools
(Avid and Premiere), I am lost.

I dont want to be able to do anything fancy, but if someone asks me to
split an mpeg or an avi file of 2 hours into one chunk of 40 minutes
and one of 1 hour 20, I want to be able to do it immediately. What is
the simplest way to do this? I know there is a movie editor in XP too,
but I couldn't even figure that one out.

If anyone can help, I would be very grateful.

QH
 
I dont want to be able to do anything fancy, but if someone
asks me to split an mpeg or an avi file of 2 hours into one
chunk of 40 minutes and one of 1 hour 20, I want to be able
to do it immediately. What is the simplest way to do this?
Click to expand...

For AVI files, try VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org/). If all you
need is cuts, you would probably want to use the "Direct Stream Copy"
mode. Check the menus for it. Deletions (virtual ones, which will only
affect the file you save) can be made by marking up "in" and "out"
points on the timeline and pressing "DEL".

For MPEG files, try TMPGEnc MPEG Editor or VideoReDo. (Google for them.)
 
Hi,

I have started a temporary contract position with a small multimedia
company. Although, my main area is Windows support, I am constantly
bothered by people wanting spliced and diced audio and video files.
Although I am not familiar with either area, the audio editing software
is fairly intuitive and I have got by. I am afraid with video tools
(Avid and Premiere), I am lost.

I dont want to be able to do anything fancy, but if someone asks me to
split an mpeg or an avi file of 2 hours into one chunk of 40 minutes
and one of 1 hour 20, I want to be able to do it immediately. What is
the simplest way to do this? I know there is a movie editor in XP too,
but I couldn't even figure that one out.

If anyone can help, I would be very grateful.

QH
Click to expand...

Why not read the manual????

Or press HELP

Or do you just want someone to do it all for you?
 
Jim Budget said:
Why not read the manual????

Or press HELP

Or do you just want someone to do it all for you?
Click to expand...

The person is a temp, give him/her a break.

If this work isn't in your job description, tell the company to go
hire a video editor if that's what they want or need to do. If it
is in your job description you shouldn't have taken the assignment
to begin with.
 
I have started a temporary contract position with a small multimedia
Why not read the manual????
Or press HELP
Or do you just want someone to do it all for you?
Click to expand...
Real helpful, good attitude NOT
 
In message said:
Hi,

I have started a temporary contract position with a small multimedia
company. Although, my main area is Windows support, I am constantly
bothered by people wanting spliced and diced audio and video files.
Although I am not familiar with either area, the audio editing software
is fairly intuitive and I have got by. I am afraid with video tools
(Avid and Premiere), I am lost.

I dont want to be able to do anything fancy, but if someone asks me to
split an mpeg or an avi file of 2 hours into one chunk of 40 minutes
and one of 1 hour 20, I want to be able to do it immediately. What is
the simplest way to do this? I know there is a movie editor in XP too,
but I couldn't even figure that one out.

If anyone can help, I would be very grateful.
Click to expand...
Use the free HjSplit available from
http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/#win32
 
This is a discussion group for people to ask questions. If it pertains to
the subject matter there are no foolish questions. Unhelpful suggestions
from ornery self important people are to be ignored by those who seek help.
Don't let them deter you from trying to get help.... just know the world is
full of idiots both at work and here in your computer too. Just showing
them a knowing smile irritates the crap out of them.
 
DON'T use HjSplit as that will mess up the headers in your video chunks and
will render them not playable. HjSplit is good to split general files in
smaller parts that can be later on re-assembled, but in order to splice and
dice video files in chunks that remain individually playable you need a
video-oriented tool.

I agree that for AVI files probably the best tool is VirtualDub. For MPEG
files I use Womble MPEG-VCR which is awesome (it's not free though).

There is also a "free" version of TMPGEnc which has very good MPEG file
splitting and joining. There is a 30 day limitation to MPEG2 features
though, I am not sure if that includes the cut and join which can be found
under File/MPEG Tools. Anyhow you can download it from here and see for
yourself:
http://download1.pegasys-inc.com/download_files/TMPGEnc-2.524.63.181-Free.zip


Virgil
 
Hi,

I have started a temporary contract position with a small multimedia
company. Although, my main area is Windows support, I am constantly
bothered by people wanting spliced and diced audio and video files.
Although I am not familiar with either area, the audio editing software
is fairly intuitive and I have got by. I am afraid with video tools
(Avid and Premiere), I am lost.

I dont want to be able to do anything fancy, but if someone asks me to
split an mpeg or an avi file of 2 hours into one chunk of 40 minutes
and one of 1 hour 20, I want to be able to do it immediately. What is
the simplest way to do this? I know there is a movie editor in XP too,
but I couldn't even figure that one out.

If anyone can help, I would be very grateful.
Click to expand...

Quentin,

There is probably someone at that company who could help you, or a video
capable friend could show you, which would be the easiest way to learn it.

But the basic idea is this: You import the video into Premiere or
whatever editing program you have. You can then do one of two very
simple things. One, you place the video on the timeline, and then you
can cut the video where you want, with the razor tool, and delete the
unwanted half from the timeline, then export the timeline with the cut
down video as a new AVI file. Do it again for the other half, or as desired.

Two, you can leave the entire video on the timeline and simply adjust
the "Work Area" to be over the part you want to keep, then export the
Work Area only to a new AVI file. Do it again for the other half. There
will be no loss of video quality.

There is no need to purchase a special program to do any of this simple
stuff.

Gary Eickmeier
 
There is no need to purchase a special program to do any of this
simple stuff.
Click to expand...

Except that Avid's NLEs and Premiere are both quite heavy-weight
overkills for this sort of thing (merely starting up the beasts takes a
long time!), and at least Premiere does not know how to smart-render
MPEG video without purchasing additional plugins.

That, and you can get a demo version of TMPGEnc for free (with its
built-in "MPEG Tools" for GOP-bound MPEG splitting). VirtualDub (for
splitting AVIs) is a GPL'd program and thus freely available, too, so
there's no need to "purchase" anything, anyway.
 
Peter said:
If this work isn't in your job description, tell the company to go
hire a video editor if that's what they want or need to do.
Click to expand...

Well, this is not always what one wants to tell the people who pay the
bills, even one would be justified in doing so. When you take on a
contract, you try to satisfy the client, so that more work may come
your way in the future.
 
In alt.tv.tech.hdtv (e-mail address removed) wrote:

| I have started a temporary contract position with a small multimedia
| company. Although, my main area is Windows support, I am constantly
| bothered by people wanting spliced and diced audio and video files.
| Although I am not familiar with either area, the audio editing software
| is fairly intuitive and I have got by. I am afraid with video tools
| (Avid and Premiere), I am lost.
|
| I dont want to be able to do anything fancy, but if someone asks me to
| split an mpeg or an avi file of 2 hours into one chunk of 40 minutes
| and one of 1 hour 20, I want to be able to do it immediately. What is
| the simplest way to do this? I know there is a movie editor in XP too,
| but I couldn't even figure that one out.
|
| If anyone can help, I would be very grateful.

If it is a multimedia, then the bulk of people doing work there, other
that support roles, sales, accounting, etc., should be people that have
experience, or at least training, in using multimedia tools. And most
of those tools these days are computer application software suites.
These tools are the things that should be doing this kind of work.
And the multimedia people should know how to use the tools.

While it seems you're getting some useful help from here in how to use
these tools yourself, my suggestion is that you think about how this
applies to your role. If you want to learn those tools, great ... the
more you can learn, the better. But is it really your job to explain
to multimedia people how to do what they should either already know how
to do? It sounds more like they are just trying to get you to do some
of their work for them, or to cover their a** for not really knowing
their job.
 
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