Do I need a Mac to make HQ videos?

[HI-TECH]

I make a lot of gaming videos and wanted to know if they're any top notch video editing software out there..I mean the best of the best

I know that Macs have really good editing software but Im not sure if I will be able to get one anytime soon

[Cheesus]

Sony Vegas Pro is the best of the best.

There are several other alternatives, most of which are much simpler to use... but in terms of raw power, Vegas is the way to go.

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[Fadingz]

Adobe After Effect (expensive lol) -$1000
Roxio Creator™ 2009 (cheap) -$100

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[masta.g.86]

Vegas Pro is great software, but it only works in the RGB32 colorspace. Since most capture hardware captures to YV16 or YV12, a colorspace conversion must be performed, slowing down the editing and especially the encoding phases significantly.

Adobe Premiere Pro is almost as good editing-wise and they have (finally) added native support for YV16 and YV12 as well as the DV colorspace (4:1:1).

I personally don't use either since freely available tools can do most of the things that both of these programs can do. The big exception being timeline variation and scene transitions which can be a real pain to do in AVISynth, my main non-linear editor.

Originally Posted by Fadingz

Adobe After Effect (expensive lol) -$1000
Roxio Creator™ 2009 (cheap) -$100

Oh yeah! I've also got Nero 8 which has Nero Vision. It's got the fastest available MPEG4 AVC encoder available and works in HD. It can create and burn Blueray discs, if you've got a burner. $79.99

Usually they lower the price a bit around Christmas to around $50-$60...

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Last edited by masta.g.86; November 5th, 2008 at 17:04.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

[HI-TECH]

Originally Posted by masta.g.86

Vegas Pro is great software, but it only works in the RGB32 colorspace. Since most capture hardware captures to YV16 or YV12, a colorspace conversion must be performed, slowing down the editing and especially the encoding phases significantly.

Adobe Premiere Pro is almost as good editing-wise and they have (finally) added native support for YV16 and YV12 as well as the DV colorspace (4:1:1).

I personally don't use either since freely available tools can do most of the things that both of these programs can do. The big exception being timeline variation and scene transitions which can be a real pain to do in AVISynth, my main non-linear editor.



Oh yeah! I've also got Nero 8 which has Nero Vision. It's got the fastest available MPEG4 AVC encoder available and works in HD. It can create and burn Blueray discs, if you've got a burner. $79.99

Usually they lower the price a bit around Christmas to around $50-$60...

O wow really!?! This might be a huge problem becuase when I use my HAVA Platinum Capture Device for my xbox 360 and whenever I wanna edit a video, I have to put in Movie Maker and make it into WMV which I think thats wut your saying (correct me if im wrong)

If I were to take the videos I recorded which are in mpeg4 would it let me edit the vids in Vegas?

[masta.g.86]

Originally Posted by HI-TECH

O wow really!?! This might be a huge problem becuase when I use my HAVA Platinum Capture Device for my xbox 360 and whenever I wanna edit a video, I have to put in Movie Maker and make it into WMV which I think thats wut your saying (correct me if im wrong)

If I were to take the videos I recorded which are in mpeg4 would it let me edit the vids in Vegas?

I'm not sure if Vegas can capture directly from you're HAVA Platinum. I know it can capture from DV and HDV camcorders though. With you already converting to MPEG4 to capture the video you're already at a big disadvantage video quality wise.

Yes, MPEG4 looks good, but capturing it to this, editing it, then re-encoding gives you unnecessary quality loss. If you use Vegas you also have the colorspace conversion to go through, which further reduces quality and takes more time to re-encode.

I would just use VirtualDub. It can capture, perform basic editing, and re-encode (without colorspace conversion) and best of all, it's free.

Setting up your capture device might be a pain, but since there are so many different devices out there, a LOT of device options had to be put in. Once you have everything tweaked to your device, just capture with a lossless codec like Huffyuv. Then, open the video in VirtualDub's main editor and do whatever you need to do, then encode the video with Xvid or Divx.

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[tuanming]

No you don't need a Mac because anything a mac does a pc can do it better because it's far more advance in terms of technology, cheaper, high-end hardwares, upgradeable/repairable (once a mac break, you can't do jack with it ), best computer gaming platform, tons of applications supports, and etc...

I'd suggest you go quadcore, 4gb of ram, and a good modern video card. Go with Adobe products they are the best but come with a price.

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[HI-TECH]

Originally Posted by masta.g.86

I'm not sure if Vegas can capture directly from you're HAVA Platinum. I know it can capture from DV and HDV camcorders though. With you already converting to MPEG4 to capture the video you're already at a big disadvantage video quality wise.

Yes, MPEG4 looks good, but capturing it to this, editing it, then re-encoding gives you unnecessary quality loss. If you use Vegas you also have the colorspace conversion to go through, which further reduces quality and takes more time to re-encode.

I would just use VirtualDub. It can capture, perform basic editing, and re-encode (without colorspace conversion) and best of all, it's free.

Setting up your capture device might be a pain, but since there are so many different devices out there, a LOT of device options had to be put in. Once you have everything tweaked to your device, just capture with a lossless codec like Huffyuv. Then, open the video in VirtualDub's main editor and do whatever you need to do, then encode the video with Xvid or Divx.

Just checked out VirtualDub capturing capabilities and was wondering how I can do this using my HAVA if you knew becuase my HAVA box works wirelessly through my router and video is captured wirelessly onto my laptop. How could I could I configure Virtualdub to work with this?

[masta.g.86]

In VirtualDub, go to File>Capture AVI

Click on Device and check the list. There should be a device labeled "HAVA" or something along those lines.

If you see 2 listings for HAVA, choose the VFW version, if possible.

If you don't see HAVA at all, try updating the software. HAVA released an updated driver in the 1.8.0.11 release.

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[HI-TECH]

Originally Posted by masta.g.86

In VirtualDub, go to File>Capture AVI

Click on Device and check the list. There should be a device labeled "HAVA" or something along those lines.

If you see 2 listings for HAVA, choose the VFW version, if possible.

If you don't see HAVA at all, try updating the software. HAVA released an updated driver in the 1.8.0.11 release.

Thank yu soooo much!!! You are a godsend! I hated recording off of the HAVA software they give you. Especially because of the fact that you can't choose what video format you want it in. I'm gonna try this and let you know if it works

[HI-TECH]

Originally Posted by masta.g.86

I'm not sure if Vegas can capture directly from you're HAVA Platinum. I know it can capture from DV and HDV camcorders though. With you already converting to MPEG4 to capture the video you're already at a big disadvantage video quality wise.

Yes, MPEG4 looks good, but capturing it to this, editing it, then re-encoding gives you unnecessary quality loss. If you use Vegas you also have the colorspace conversion to go through, which further reduces quality and takes more time to re-encode.

I would just use VirtualDub. It can capture, perform basic editing, and re-encode (without colorspace conversion) and best of all, it's free.

Setting up your capture device might be a pain, but since there are so many different devices out there, a LOT of device options had to be put in. Once you have everything tweaked to your device, just capture with a lossless codec like Huffyuv. Then, open the video in VirtualDub's main editor and do whatever you need to do, then encode the video with Xvid or Divx.

I tried using virtual dub 1.8.1 to capture the video off of HAVA and I got "VirtualDub cannot connect to the desired capture driver" even with the updates. Is there an alternative in recording through my HAVA Platinum without using their software becuase having to re-encode my videos twice is really hurting my quality now that I hear you say it

[Anatasia]

VirtualDub says it can't connect to my capture device...?
VirtualDub requires a Video for Windows (VFW) compatible device to capture video. Some newer devices are shipping with a Windows Driver Model (WDM) driver, that VFW programs can only use through a Microsoft conversion wrapper; this wrapper doesn't always work very well and generally can't cope with IEEE-1394 ("FireWire") devices at all, such as DV camcorders.But it is crippled in functionality and it also appears that the wrapper is buggy.The wrapper will show up as "Microsoft WDM Image Capture (Win32)." If it works for you, great.

Only found that.

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[masta.g.86]

The previous quote is incorrect and concerns older versions of VirtualDub. I have an ATI TV Wonder 650 USB and it uses both VFW and WDM capture drivers. VirtualDub recognizes and works fine with both.

Also, 1.8.6 is the most up to date version of VD at the time of this post.

OK. I did a TON of digging around, and I found an answer in a linux forum (figures). Apparently, the HAVA box does hardware MPEG2 or MPEG4 encoding on the fly. VD requires RAW video(VFW) or a codec supported in DirectShow(WDM).

What formats can the HAVA software save to? What is the video's extention? .mpg, .mp1, .mp2, .mp4, .m4v?

I ask this because you will likely have to record with the HAVA software and edit it in VD or maybe in some other program. I'll recommend one based on what the software saves to.

Also, if possible, make a short video (only a couple of seconds long) and post it online at a place like megauploads.com so I can download it and verify which program would be best.

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Last edited by masta.g.86; November 10th, 2008 at 02:38.. Reason: content update