I'm at a loss - help please

[Peppercorn]

 

I am trying to capture video from TV onto my HD via a bttv capture card into a format which gives me decent quality to convert to dvds or svcds. So far my efforts have left me aimless to say the least.

 

In windows, you have .avi files which you work with. What are the linux standards ????

 

 

Then, I am making home movies, with the same basic setup. So I need a movie editing program. I have tried Cinelerra which just seems designed to just "hang" when you ask it to do something. Main Actor 5 won't import the video format which I have been capturing to which I think has been either avi or mpeg. I actually forget to tell the truth.

 

I am running an up to date, stable version of Mandrake 9.2 Amd 2600xp 128nvidia agp and 512 ddr ram.

 

Can anyone show me a website that can lead me through this maze of capturing and editing video (with quality) on linux??????????

 

Or if you are generous enough take me by the hand and give me some ideas?? I have plenty of time in front of the computer because I am an invalid. I am capable of learning and understanding. But over the last 3 months, the truth is I have got NOWHERE on this subject.

 

Thanks for any help!

Edited February 15, 2004 by Peppercorn

[scoopy]

I believe the standard file formats would be MPEG 1/2, MPEG4 (divX), or AVI. I also haven't much luck with video projects. I would first suggest trying mencoder with its gui of Gmencoder to rip and encode stuff and also read up on things at http://www.dvdrhelp.com/

 

Unfortunately they don't seem to know about LInux there, but they know a hell of a lot about anything video.

 

I have not had much luck myself and have gotten as far as being able to encode something using mencoder from the command line, which looked pretty good when playing in Mplayer, but looked like garbage if played on a windows box... So if you find any secrets to doing this, I am sure I am not the only one here that would like to know.

[Peppercorn]

Thanks scoopy,

 

Seems like I'm not alone after all.. The thing is that I know a friend of the producer of an up and coming "Shrek" type movie and they are using Linux programs exclusively, based on Red Hat. So, surely the progs must be out there "somewhere"

 

Something like the truth being out there too!!??

[sitor]

First of all, I've never really done any video editing so far (but that will change, just ordered my DV camera today), so I'm not at all an expert. But I have read some on digital video out of interest, so here is some of the things that I do know (but I can be mistaken here and there):

 

On video formats:

In M$, almost anything is in AVI, but that is just the extension. What does count is the codec that is used to compress the video. As raw video is so huge, it does not make a lot of sense to use lossless compression, but the Motion Pictures Experts Group (or short MPEG) has created a number of different compression algorythms that perform well depending on the purpose (video conferencing, DVD, ...). For storing video in good quality, and not too large files, MPEG 2 is the de facto standard (if I'm not mistaken, the format used on DVD's is an MPEG 2 based codecs). Next to that MJPEG is used as well (Motion JPEG, JPEG = Joint Pictures Experts Group and also the name of the most popular foto compression codec) This is a frame based compression codec (each frame is compressed independently, while the MPEG codecs also use interframe compression). If I'm not mistaken this is used as a codec for DV (low in artefacts but relatively high in files size) but also by Apples Quicktime. In order to get even smaller file sizes, MPEG 4 has been conceived. Although a lot of companies are still working further on better MPEG 4 codecs, MPEG 4 is already used quite often in the form of DIVX and XVID codecs, well known for sharing video content over the Internet . It does not make a lot of sense to use MPEG 1 today to store video (at least not as master). For the editing of home movies (probably entering as DV), I would suggest to keep a master of the edited movies again as DV, or at least as MPEG 2 on DVD. You can of course transcode a copy to MPEG 4 (DIVX or XVID) or even to lower quality (VCD or SVCD) for distribution (to get small files to distribute over the Internet or for compatibility reasons with DVD players that might be able to read one of these formats. The extension does not matter too much (can be AVI or MPG or MPEG).

 

For the second part of your question, I would advice you to try two programs:

Lives for working with movies in formats other then DV. This is relatively new software, still quite often some bugs, but from experience (wanted to rotate a movie shot with a still camera at 90°) the author is very helpfull (thanks again Salsaman!). From what I see on the mailing list, there is a small but active community in the rise around this project and it progresses quite good. Mandrake rpms do exist.

Further for working with DV files (home movies from a digital video camera), I would suggest Kino. Seems only able to get DV as an input, but is able to export to a lot of other formats. Also for Kino there is a Mandrake rpm.

 

What I would advice you as well is to have a look at the Dynebolic Live CD distribution:

You don't need to install anything, you don't even need an harddisk to run a whole free software operating system running out of the box on your PC! Download the ISO-image, burn your own CD, reboot your machine and you'll get back true love ;^)

dyne:bolic is shaped on the needs of media activists, artists and creatives, being a practical tool for multimedia production: you can manipulate and broadcast both sound and video with tools to record, edit, encode and stream, all using only free software!

This can show all that you can do on video and audio editing on Linux. Use it to test with and if you find the software that you like, you can install it on your Mandrake.

 

I hope this will help you further. Good luck.

 

CIao,

 

Sitor

[Peppercorn]

Hey Thanks a lot for your reply.

 

There is much to conteplate and look up which I will!

 

But I really do appreciate your extensive reply,

 

Cheers,

 

Peppercorn