Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with video and avi

Creating video from a program help

JohnGL — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:16:24 -0800

I'm looking for a library, package, product or some sample code in either JAVA or Visual Basic that would allow me to create a video from my program. I have some software tools I've developed and I'd like some functionality to my program that could take existing video clips and pictures and then assemble them into a video. I would like the final video format to be FLV however any popular format would do. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Have a great one.

How to import AVI video files in Adobe Premiere Pro?

meta.mark — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:41:22 -0800

When I import an AVI video file I recorded on a Canon digital camera to Adobe Premiere Pro, it only shows up as a still picture with audio. Why does it do this and how can it be solved? We are creating a music video as a school project and we need Premiere to add effects. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Minimum PC specs for playing HD video files?

wastelands — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:08:07 -0800

What are the minimum specs for a PC to play HD video files smoothly? I need to replace my ancient P4 2.8 GHz (w/onboard video) for several reasons, including that it chokes on some 720p videos during high action/movement scenes. Would your basic ~$480 Dell handle smooth playback of high def video files (.mkv, .avi) on VLC media player? Could I run other apps in the background (browser, IM, etc.) without input or video stutters and lag?

For example something like this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 (3MB L2, 2.8GHz, 1066FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2DIMMs
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Integrated Intel® GMA X4500HD Graphics

Or do I need more power?

My video editor suddenly can't see my video clips ... HALP!

jbickers — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:33:20 -0800

All of a sudden Premiere Elements doesn't know what to do with my AVI files. GAAHH! So about two weeks ago, I created this really elaborate video in Premiere Elements (7, the latest version, Vista). Lots of edits, lots of clips from lots of different source files, all of which were taken on a Flip camera. No problem, it worked great.

Today, I go back to make edits ... and all of my AVI files in the timeline are sound only, no video. (Actually, a tiny little bit of squiggly color along the bottom - it's like the whole video has been smooshed down to about ten pixels tall). I've got some still photos in this project, they're fine. It's just my AVIs.

When I open the source files in WMP, they play just fine. So there's nothing wrong with the AVIs. And the fact that I can play them in WMP means there's no missing codecs or anything like that (doesn't it?)

So, why is Premiere Elements doing this - and more to the point, how can I salvage this edit file with all of those dozens of edits and crossfades and so on? Is there some trick to re-associating them? I'm wracking my brain to think of something/anything on my computer that might have changed or been installed in the past two weeks, but I'm not aware of anything.

Borrowed camcorder uses obnoxious format. How to fix?

®@ — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:55:11 -0800

Converting ".mts" to ".avi?" I've been recording stuff for work on our office camcorder. The software that came with it is useless, it's basically Canon's "picture browsing" software that they just threw in the box (if there's a "video edit" software, it's not included or mentioned in the manual). I can pull the files off the camera via USB, but they're in MTS format. I need to edit these down into discrete clips, preferably as AVI's (Adobe Premiere). Tips? Advice? I've seen a handful of programs online that claim to be able to shift MTS to AVI, but they're in that "sketchy freeware might be adware" territory. Thoughts?

Videoplayback in Vista

Iax — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:51:18 -0800

Windows Vista seems to have much worse video playback compared to Windows XP. Any way to fix this? I just got a new computer intel duo 8400 with 4 gigs of ram and two Nvidia 8800 GT in SLI.

Ive installed windows xp on one harddrive and windows vista on the 2nd harddrive. So I can easily boot into either one.

Neither XP or vista could play some my video files (just audio of the files), so I installed the CCCP (it also comes with Zplayer, which i like) and it works fine on XP, but in Vista the edges of moving stuff seem noticably blocky. Is there a way to fix this?
Playing XVID files in vista, this is the most noticable.
Also, after installing the cccp, windows media player can play the video, and the video looks finr, not blocky atall. but I hate the user interface for any version of windows media player.

How can I turn a picture into a video?

Rabulah — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:17:55 -0800

I have a picture that I want to make a video out of. It's a jpg, but I want it to be displayed for about 3 minutes, with an accompanying mp3. I want the end result to be something like an .avi, so I can send it to a friend and they can play it out of the box, probably in VLC. Powerpoint is not an option, but that's something like what I want, without all the fancy animation. Just a stationary picture, displayed to music.

How do I go about creating this? I know a little about muxing video and audio (I'm assuming VirtualDub will do the job?), but I have no idea what program to use to create the video of the image. I'd prefer some nice simple point and click software to something technical.

Cannot see .XviD avi files inside Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, am I missing a codec?

cheero — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:24:41 -0800

Cannot preview .XviD avi files inside Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, am I missing a codec? Hello all,

I'm trying to edit some video files I downloaded that are compressed with .Xvid. I basically try to load them inside Premiere Pro CS3 and its all black with no audio. Then I have to convert the file via TMPGEnc to windows media format which takes about an hour or so (for 25 mins worth of footage) and only then am I really able to see real footage. I am wondering if there is a faster way of doing this? Am I missing a codec for Premiere?

Is there a good alternative to the AppleTV?

itchi23 — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:45:28 -0800

Is there a good alternative to the new Apple TV 2? We just got a new HDTV as a gift for the holidays, and I've been connecting my laptop (Windows) to it in order to watch downloaded TV shows & movies. It works ok, but the gfx card on the laptop's a bit old, & doesn't really support HD resolution. Now that the Apple TV's (re)released today, I was wondering if there's a good alternative ....something small that'll playback hd video files in divx, xvid, etc, super easy to connect to the wireless network, plays back in full hd res., etc. Storage space isn't really an issue, just a few gigs is ok considering we usually delete a video file or backup to dvd-r after watching it. I'm also concerned the AppleTV won't playback all the random video formats that VLC & a codec pack handle with ease. ...oh, and definitely cheaper than the AppleTV - think grad student income. Thanks!

Why won't my Canon let me upload my .avi movie?

arielmeadow — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:26:06 -0800

I recently shot an 8min .avi video with my Canon point 'n' shoot (SD800 IS). Now, I'm unable to upload the file onto ANY of my computers (pc, macbook, ibook). Is the 1gig .avi file just too big? I get an different error on each machine, with the PC saying there's not enough room to import the file (despite hundreds of gigs of room), the Macbook saying the import failed, and the ibook simply stalling out.

I can play the video on the camera, so I know it's ok. I can import other photos and video from the camera, so I know that the USB connection is ok. So why can't any of my computers deal with this file?

Censoring Aduio in Quicktime

Smarson — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:54:26 -0800

How can I censor the audio in an .avi file using Quicktime Pro? I've got this hilarious video of my wedding reception "after party." It's comedic gold and I wanted to post it online for some other friends and family to see except that in two separate sections someone says something totally inappropriate. Thus I just need to either cut the audio at those two points (for like 2 seconds each) or dub it over with a censoring *BEEP* (which might actually be funnier). Using Quicktime Pro I've figured out how to overlay the current audio with other audio (i.e. inserting a soundtrack), but this doesn't actually remove what was said and it can still be heard over the insert. Can what I want to do be accomplished with QT Pro?

Video was shot as .avi.

Schlock & Roll! Eddie Furlong is so cool! He is HERO!

aristan — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:48:31 -0800

I need a rather rare video tape copied to DVD or saved as a video file. I don't have the equipment to do it myself and the tape is out of print, only released in Japan, unlikely to ever be released on dvd, and still under copyright. It's official documentation of an American child actor's Japanese music career. It is my 'happy' tape because I always feel better after I watch it. What is the best way to get this copied? Bonus points if it's cheap or free and/or local to Charlotte, NC. After he became famous in Terminator 2, Edward Furlong had a music career in Japan. His uncle was his manager.

The video is so hilarious, with Furlong singing Doors covers with a cracking voice. You can literally hear puberty set in over the course of the album. The video is poorly shot, covering his promoting of his albums to his fan club and on Radio Stations. I love it when his uncle starts bowing to a DJ so deeply that it borders on genuflection. The poor DJ just wanted to shake hands.

The ending of the video is god awful, a seemingly neverending shot of Furlong walking down a dark corridor in an airport, alone.

And just when you think it's over... they fade back in with the "Making Of The Video".

I love this tape and I watch is often because it's so unintentionally hilarious. I know it sounds mean, but I love it. I'd love to share bits on YouTube, but I have to get it off the Videotape first!

How can i get a copy of this ripped and burned to DVD or saved as video files? I'd prefer not to let go of the tape, I don't want to mail it off as I'm afraid it wouldn't come back. I'd like something local to Charlotte, NC if possible. It's under copyright, so I'm assuming the more legit places won't touch it.

Fraps is giving me craps!

cowbellemoo — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 18:05:51 -0800

How can I edit Fraps AVIs from my windows machine on my Macbook (iMovie)? Importing the file directly results in a black movie file, and I couldn't tell if I didn't have a codec or what. Trying to play it in quicktime takes me to an addon page but I have no idea which will solve the problem. Reencoding in Windows Movie Maker produces WMV files, which iMovie can't use.

Anyone know what codec to get so that iMovie can read that Fraps AVI?

(Windows XP machine, vanilla yr-old low-end Macbook, no extra video software -- I'm a noob at this)

DYC into something useful?

LGCNo6 — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 23:35:18 -0800

Mission Impossible? Converting ICUII video to AVI or MPG or MOV? Got a bunch of video files of video messages from conference delegates from an online consortium earlier this month. BUT, here's the kicker: they're all saved in ICUII's DYC format. I need to convert the video files into something viewable by people who don't have ICUII. What tool can I use to do this? I've been searching and have found absolutely zilch.

DivX to .SWF conversion always converting without a sync.

cheero — Mon, 22 May 2006 21:53:11 -0800

DivX to .SWF conversion always converting without a sync. I have a video that is an .AVI (DVcodec), I converted it to DivX via VirtualDub and later on converted it from DivX to .SWF via (Flash Video Studio 1). For some unknown reason, whenever it gets converted to .SWF, the audio/video are not in sync. The main reason why I did this is because more people can see flash videos rather than DivX (at least my friends group.) I am looking for the correct way to convert this so it does not keep coming out of sync.

I've tried converting the raw file (the avi/dvcodec) one and it converts it to flash just fine, however, the file size is rather large, I am also looking for a way to compress it a little bit.

If it helps, the original avi file (DvCodec) is 270MB. When I convert it to DivX via VirtualDub, the size is knocked down to about 26 with almost no quality loss. So the third step is where I get shafted, which is the conversion to SWF which normally works, but never when I do it via DivX to .swf. Is there an alternative way? Should I convert the original file via VirtualDub to some other codec and then try to do in Flash Video Studio? Or is there another way I should do this entire procedure?

Any help is greatly welcomed. Thank you in advance!

Downloaded video to DVD?

killdevil — Mon, 15 May 2006 13:05:47 -0800

How do I convert the various popular flavors of digital video floating around the Internet into a format I can easily and reliably burn to DVD and play on a DVD player? I'm technically savvy, but this remains beyond me. What I'm looking for are simple, free tools I can use to convert various AVI and MPEG video files for playback on a DVD/TV. The formats I need to deal with are those popularly used to encode movies and tv shows for distribution via bittorrent and similar.

I'm on Windows, if it matters.

Why are some YouTube videos so much better quality than others? What video specs and file format (AVI, MOV, MPG) produce the best results?

JudgeBork — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:56:13 -0800

Why are some YouTube videos so much better quality than others? What video specs and file format (AVI, MOV, MPG) produce the best results?

simple images-to-video converter for mac/unix?

sergeant sandwich — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 13:19:55 -0800

can anyone recommend a simple piece of Mac (or unix) software that will take a bunch of image files named abc001, abc002, etc and string them together into a video file that i can view with a lowest-common-denominator video player? i have some code that spits out a bunch of images - currently into the simple PPM format that's part of netpbm package. the images have filenames with sequential numbers in them, and i want software that will just string them together in order into one of the more common (mpeg, avi, quicktime, or whatever) video formats.

i was planning to use ppmtompeg that comes with netpbm but i'm having a hard time getting the netpbm package to compile on my powerbook. while i try to sort that out, i'm wondering if there's any other software available to do what i want?

i see from this thread that apparently quicktime will do this, but i suspect i need the quicktime pro that you have to pay for, as opposed to the free quicktime player.

so, my only absolute requirement be that the software is free. it would be nice if it supported the PPM format (if not, i can batch-convert my images in graphic converter) and extra nice if i could run it from the command line like ppmtompeg so that i can incorporate the conversion into a shell script.

any ideas? thanks in advance!

What does everyone know about XVID settings that I don't?

chudmonkey — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 09:50:31 -0800

double-pronged question about working with XVID I download TV shows using BitTorrent on occasion, and I find the bulk of the videos I download are encoded similarly so half-hour programs and hour-long programs are almost always ~175 Mb and ~350 Mb in size, respectively. (with commercials removed, of course.)

I understand the basics of codecs and rendering, have several low-to-high-end apps that can covert video, and have played with the XVID configuration panel, but I just don't know what settings to apply to create video files like the ones I download.

Considering that there are hundreds of identically-encoded videos added to BitTorrent every week, I feel like there must be some standard format or setting being used, and I feel like an idiot for not being able to find anything using Google. Can anyone tell me what I should be doing?

And since we're on the topic, I'm also wondering if there is any means by which someone could erase a few frames from within a XVID-encoded video without having to re-encode the video to save the changes. For example, if I download a show that has 25 seconds of blackness where a commercial break should have been, can I trim out that blackness without having to re-encode?

Convert QuickTime to avi

beniamino — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 08:07:28 -0800

How to convert QuickTime movies into a Windows-readable format? I have a Mac Powerpoint presentation that contains two video-only QuickTime movies. The presentation needs to run on a Windows PC. I have a Mac with both QuickTime Pro and ffmpegX. I know I need to convert the .mov to .avi using one of these programs, but no codec (MPEG1, MPEG2...) produces a file that is actually viewable in Windows Media Player. What lowest-common-denominator format I should convert the QT files to? Is any extra magic involved?

Make VLC the default player (OS X)

rossination — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 19:27:01 -0800

How do I set up VLC to become the default player in OS X Tiger? I've tried right clicking a file and selecting "VLC" then clicking "always use this program", but it seems to only make that association for the particular file, not for all of that type (.avi and .wmv, in this case). I know how to do this in Windows, but it seems to be trickier on a Mac. Or maybe I'm just stupid.

How to get an AVI file burnt to DVD with proper audio sync?

gwenzel — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 12:57:34 -0800

Ok, my google-fu has failed me. I'm trying to find a simple software program that will allow me to take an AVI file (or multiple AVI files - TV shows, mostly) and burn them to a DVD-R while still having the audio sync up properly. I've tried a couple of programs, and for some reason, the audio ends up being out of sync toward the end, although it's just fine at the beginning.

Why are movies embedded rather than linked?

Nelson — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:17:07 -0800

Why do sites show movies embedded in a tiny web page rather than linking to it so I can view it in the media player of my choice?

Flaggin particular parts of avi videos

humuhumu — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 04:47:46 -0800

Is there any way to bookmark or flag a particular point in a video file (avi specifically, but any other format is good) and then to be able to have the video start at that point automatically when opened?

Combining video files on a Mac

majick — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 09:18:37 -0800

Joining video on a Mac: I have a friend who has several sets of WMVs and AVIs and would like to combine them into single, contiguous movies. ~~I'm~~He's not going to have to buy something expensive, is he? What do you use to rejoin your porn on OSX?