Video Wizards - MP4 Editing Questions?

by MarkR
10 replies
I just bought the new Kodak ZI10 video camera. I absolutely love it. Tons of features for the cost. Great quality, simple, just what I need. I usually shoot in HD 720p 60FPS or HD 1080p modes.

It saves videos in MP4 format. Which is great for YouTube, but....

I want to make some quick edits in Windows Movie Maker before posting them.

What (free) PC software should I use to convert the format, so I can edit it? I've used zamzar.com, quick media converter, etc. with some success.

I'm never sure what:

1) file format to convert to
2) bit rate to use
3) custom size to choose

so I don't lose too much quality during the conversion.

Or, is there any easy, free video editor like WMM that edits MP4 files directly?
#editing #mp4 #questions #video #wizards
  • Profile picture of the author MattStrange
    Hey Mark,

    The camera looks nice, be good for travelling.

    Not sure about the features you want when editing the footage but Camtasia converts well, there are also some presets available to. Maybe worth a look.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kierkegaard
    VideoPad works just like Movie Maker and it works with MP4. The Home Edition which is all you need for simple editing costs about £25. You can trial the full version (I think) for free for 14 days.

    Video Editing Software. Download Free Video Movie Editor

    VideoPad Video Editor - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Downloads
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  • Profile picture of the author rajeevmehtaa
    Banned
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  • Profile picture of the author Paleochora
    I also just got a zi10 and I am busy experimenting with the settings.

    The 1080p and the 720p/60fps are settings best reserved for playing on modern HD TV sets or putting on to disc.

    For the web, I think the WVGA is optimum or the 720p for higher def. I am experimenting using Camtasia 7 producing the videos with different settings to find a sweetspot between image quality and sensible file size for quality content in a members area.

    Anyone have more experience of this?

    If not, I will let you know when I find 'the holy grail' of video production for the web

    EDIT> I just finished the latest test and I found this to be the best settings so far. I imported all the clips and stills into CT7 and arranged them on the timeline. Added an intro and some background music and then produced. I used custom settings 480 x 360 - which retains the dimensions of the original 720p content - and I altered the bitrate to 4000. That produced a file of 49MB for a video of just over 2 minutes. Pixelation was low and sound good.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bill Farnham
      Originally Posted by Paleochora View Post

      For the web, I think the WVGA is optimum or the 720p for higher def. I am experimenting using Camtasia 7 producing the videos with different settings to find a sweetspot between image quality and sensible file size for quality content in a members area.

      Anyone have more experience of this?

      EDIT> That produced a file of 49MB for a video of just over 2 minutes. Pixelation was low and sound good.
      Barry,

      49MBs for a 480 x 360 video of just over 2 minutes is huge. You should be able to knock the file size down considerably.

      For instance...this video on one of my websites is 800 x 450 with a bitrate of 707 kbps @ 30fps and is 5:36 minutes long and the file size is 24.8 MBs.

      That video was final rendered in Camtasia 6 at a setting of around 40% +/-, it's been a while so I forgot the exact setting. I regularly use 35% and get great results.

      You'll notice that the video uses constant motion as opposed to static images and even with the low render setting works well.

      I would suggest you can get your file size much smaller and still get good results.

      ~Bill
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  • Profile picture of the author mpeters7
    MP4 is really a delivery format, meaning it's best not to edit with it at all if you can avoid it.

    For Windows a good editing format is AVI. MPEGStreamclip is a good free conversion software that should be able to do MP4 to AVI.
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