Reflow video without editing/clipping/stitching

July 6, 2007 12:30 PM

I can't think of a better word than "reflow". Basically, I just want to take a video and put markers in the timeline that determine what portions of the video get played and in what order. This would allow you to abridge videos without having to modify the video, which might violate certain copyright laws. I'm looking for a tool, program, or website with this feature, can anyone help?
posted by bumper314 to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

If you are making these edits for redistribution, the method by which you make them is irrelevant, as far as copyright law is concerned. A derivative work isn't dependent on the method that you use. Be aware that there is already established case law defending the rights of the creative artist to prevent non-authorized modifications (there was some company that produced safe-for-family versions of films that weren't originally, who got sued into oblivion by hollywood).

If you are making them for personal use, it's just a technical problem, which opens a host of questions,

1. What format is the source video in, physical DVD, an .avi file, ?
2. Where do you want to what the abridgement? Can it be on the PC, or does it need to be playable in a regular standalone DVD player?
posted by nomisxid at 12:58 PM on July 6, 2007

Response by poster: My copyright example was a bad idea. That isn't my intent. I'm actually taking Creative Commons video and trying to reflow it into a new work, but without needing the painful editing/clipping/stitching workflow.

As for format, I see I wasn't very specific...
Standard PC videos, not DVDs. The format, at that point, is almost irrelevant, since we can convert between formats pretty easily. Quicktime, MPEG, DiVX, MPEG4, FLV (flash) are all fine, WMV is the least preferable.

Thanks.
posted by bumper314 at 1:06 PM on July 6, 2007

These guys, http://corp.vquence.com/, sound like they might be doing something similar to your needs. I could have sworn video-lan supported cuelists as well as playlists, but I can't see any evidence of that on their wiki page.
posted by nomisxid at 2:30 PM on July 6, 2007

that sounds like it would be pretty simple to do with max msp/jitter.
posted by atom128 at 3:30 PM on July 6, 2007

Response by poster: I know "beggars can't be choosers", but I just can't imagine this not being achievable through a few mouse clicks in a simple flash interface. Do I smell a MetaProject in the making =)
posted by bumper314 at 3:37 PM on July 6, 2007

Best answer: VideoReDo?
Cuts.com?
posted by Otis at 4:11 PM on July 6, 2007

Response by poster: I like it Otis, those are getting pretty close. Thanks for the links!
posted by bumper314 at 5:07 PM on July 6, 2007