Hi,

I've just started using Adobe Premiere Pro V2. What I need to do is split a video in different parts. I've got a long video (wmv format) which I import into a new project. Then I cut almost the whole video except for 30 secs of video. Now I'd like to save this small part of the original video as a new wmv file.

Currently I do this by exporting the video to the adobe media encoder. Here I select 'WM9 NTSC 1024 K Download' profile and then I encode my new wmv file. However the quality is significantly lower than the source file.

I've been experimenting with some options like onepass/twopass encoding, image quality, max bitrate and so on. However I can't seem to get it right. Is there a way to make smaller clips of my source video without losing significant quality??

Is there a better way then reencoding using the media encoder or do I need to alter the settings in the media encoder?

Is there a particular reason why you want to encode as WMV? Why dont you "export" your new edited clip as an AVI file? You shouldnt loose much if any quality.

Mark
www.onlinevideosolutions.co.uk
enquiries@onlinevideosolutions.co.uk

Well the new file is to be used on a webpage. The file has to be played on a webpage in an embedded windows media player element. Therefore using an avi file is not an option. Can I also create a wmv file without losing (hardly any) quality?

No, but why not create the AVI file and then convert to a FLV file using something like Macromedia Flash 8 Media Encoder or like software. Thats what I use for my website and the quality is more than ample for the internet. If you dont have such software and the video is not too big then by all means email a copy to me and ill convert it for you. The choice is yours.

thanks again! But is a flv file a good choice for use with a website which only uses windows media player elements to play videos? I know that the latest version of windows media player can play flv files perfectly but I don't know how to do that is with earlier versions. Of course I don't want to end up in a situation in which visitors with earlier versions of wm player can't view the videos

Also, I want to stream video files so that they can't be downloaded directly but only played on the webpage. I'm currently trying to find out how to this with wmv files. I know how to stream a file and send it to the users local computer (with a restricted bandwidth so that the user can't download the whole movie at once) but I don't know how to play the stream directly on my webpage in my windows media player element. Does someone here know if this can be done using a wmv file or any other type of file (flv file for example?) and which file format should be preferred in this kind of solution?

By the way, I can convert files to flv myself, but thanks for the offer!!

It probably wont work to be fair but Media Player does play AVI files. Its an awkward one because Premiere wont export WMV and as you know encoding will loose the quality.

This is how I would do it.

1. Open the original WMV file in Windows Movie Maker

2. Trim/split it as you require

3. 'Save to my computer' using appropriate save settings for your target bandwidth - the result will be a WMV file

If Windows Movie Maker's export options are not flexible enough, try saving it to DV-AVI format. Encode the resulting avi file using Window Media Encoder (free download).

I suppose the quality of the resulting WMV file could never be better than the original source file. What quality was this?

Also, what was it's frame rate? This should determine whether to choose an NTSC or PAL encoding profile.

Hope this helps

Simon

PS - If all you want to do is trim the original WMV file (as opposed to rearranging it in any way), Windows Media Encoder also comes with a utility called Windows Media File Editor. This will allow you to 'top and tail' a WMV file without affecting it's quality.

What is the quality of the original file?

If the original is already compressed to 1024 then when you recompress it will only get worse.

VBR (twopass) is definitely the way to go and if it is larger in size like 720x576 then encode it out to 320x240 and the loss will not be quite so obvious and the smaller size is exceptable for web use.

Another option is to use file splitting software that will discard the bits you don't want and just rewrite the header. There are loads to choose from and most are not so expensive either, just Google it.

__________________
Edius Pro 4 Broadcast, Edius DVX, ADVC300 -- PremPro 2.0, Matrox RT X100

Thanks, I'm now using windows media file editor (shipped with media encoder 9) to split the files without re-encoding. I didn't knew that splitting without re-encoding was possible.

Thanks for the other advices as well, they'll surely come in handy!!

I apologize for I'm late for a while. But actually I don't understand a problem..
As far as I know the best way is convert video to flash (if u need embed it to web).

May be u should try another prog? For example Video to Flash Converter Pro at geovid. I've never had problems with conversion. I like quality and all. Also it's able to add logos and text.
And besides all questions about conversion u may ask to support service . I think it's very useful.