Quicktime Pro as a video editor

Steverino · Post by **Steverino** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 4:34 pm

I was looking for an inexpensive bare-bones video editor. The ones I found either couldn't handle 1280x720 or they degraded my image quality pretty severely.

Its editing paradigm is strictly linear, but for $30 Quicktime Pro let me stitch together a series of short .MOV files, with audio, then add a background soundtrack under the whole thing. That was all I needed. Unlike the "real" video editors I tried, Quicktime Pro seemed to be merely combining digital files, resulting in no degradation of image quality at all.

EDIT: Here's a screen capture comparison of my attempt at getting a high quality .mov file using the trial version of Cyberlink Power Director 8, versus the smaller file size and sharper output of Quicktime Pro.

I did lose a little quality later, doing a smaller-file-size export for upload to YouTube, but it still looked a lot better than the output of other low-end video editing software I tried.

themonster · Post by **themonster** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 6:51 am

why you don't try sony vegas movie studio ?

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegassoftware

I have vegas movie studio platinum, and is really cool, you have different options, but, for me, vegas movie studio, is the best and cheap....

Steverino · Post by **Steverino** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 2:26 pm

That was next on my list to try when I had the good experience with Quicktime. If I start making longer pieces, I'll definitely give it a look.

dm · Post by dm » Sun Jul 11, 2010 4:59 am

I'm curious about how what editing software was degrading your files?

Which software were you using?

http://tv.isg.si/site/?q=node/873

list of some free editing software.

themonster · Post by **themonster** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:16 am

this one is free, I thin this is better for editing than quicktime

http://www.virtualdub.org/

or Free Video Editing Software for Windows:

http://jaypeeonline.net/freeware/free-v ... e-windows/

Steverino · Post by **Steverino** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 1:51 pm

The main issue was blurriness and compression artifacts. Other discoveries:

Windows Movie Maker, the one that came with XP -- For 16:9, it couldn't save 1280x720, only 856x480. Being a Microsoft product, naturally it wouldn't load Quicktime files, and .avi files seem blurrier to me than .mov straight out of ASP.

Avid Free DV -- no longer freeware.
Avidemux -- I couldn't play anything it saved.
Videopad -- couldn't handle 1280x720, though I have liked it in the past for 640x480 work.
Wax -- seems to be for effects not editing.
Virtualdub -- Like Wax, I keep seeing this on lists of freeware video editors, but its own homepage describes it as an AVI-only video capture/processing utility. Do you actually edit with this, themonster?

When I found the Quicktime Pro solution, I had also tested one commercial trial version, Power Director 8, and its web output at a high quality setting was also blurry from too much compression, not much better than Windows Movie Maker.

There are also some new online video editing solutions,
http://savedelete.com/10-best-and-free- ... tware.html
but there's something creepy about corporations wanting to paw through people's unedited video, so I didn't try any of these.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 2:05 pm

You can get 1280 x 720 on Windows XP, search for WMV-HD-1280x720.prx. Download it and drop it into C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\Shared\Profiles.

It good for 720p HD. All my videos since Feb have been made in Windows Movie maker using this add on. Take a look at a few of my videos that have HD. I simply save uncompressed from AS as AVI, edit it in WMM and save using the add on I downloaded.

It may not be the quality you are looking for but it works for me. Good luck finding a solution.

Steverino · Post by **Steverino** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 4:32 pm

Your 720p HD videos on YouTube look just fine expanded to full screen. I installed that .prx file in case I want to give .AVIs and WMM another try at some point, but for now I'm happy with the Quicktime Pro approach.

themonster · Post by **themonster** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:34 am

Steverino, I told you in my first post that I use Vegas Movie Studio platinum

Good look with quicktime pro.............

I Use it once and I would not suggest to anyone for video editing

jonahbrown · Post by **jonahbrown** » Mon May 02, 2011 4:57 am

I seem to be not finding the magic render setting. I am trying out sony I get lousy renders. What is the best way to export a render in ASP 7 so that I can use it in sony vegas and get good renders?

Quicktime Pro as a video editor

Quicktime Pro as a video editor

Okay I some questions