Hey guys, Nice board you have here.

I just have a question. I used to do some editing back in the lat 90's. I just got a new camera that records in MPEG4 to an SD disk. I can't believe how simple it is nowadays to transfer the files from the camera into my PC.

I use to use Premire way back then and loved it. I loved the timeline feature where you could drag and drop clips and audio and transitions. I am very intetrested in getting back into it now that I have kids.

Can you guys recomend a program that supports MPEG4 for some pretty basic editing?
Thanks again,
-=Spode.

Premiere Elements 2 handles mp4. PPro 2 doesn't. Go figga.

To be honest, this makes sense to me; low end video editors are designed to work with the lowest common denominator, so that means you'd expect them to work with what most people have. At this moment in time MPEG4 is the most accesible due to more or less every stills camera on the market offering video in MPEG4. If the editing application didn't offer it, it would be pretty useless.

On the other end of the spectrum you have an application designed for the experienced or professional. You wouldn't need MPEG4 support as the kind of people that pay £500 for a piece of software won't be using a digital stills camera to make their videos. So from a marketing perspective, it's sensible. It's drawing a distinction between the products.

It may also help stop piracy. Once people start to realise that the version of Premiere they downloaded doesn't do what they want, they may well just think, "hell, I may just as well buy software for £50 that does EXACTLY what I want, sisn't illegal and doesn't need infest my PC with a virus".

Or not.

__________________

| video editing guides | our videos |
| wedding guides | website hosting |

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree, Marc.

OK, I'll try and explain my way of thinking with an anaology. Should a Ferrari have ample boot space and room for baby seat? You could quite easily make a Ferrari with a big boot without sacrifising on speed or looks, but there's no demand for it. If you want these features, you'd buy a people carrier. A sports car is pitched at one market, whilst a people carrier's picthed an entirely different one.

Premiere Pro does things Premiere Elements doesn't (isn't required?) and vice versa. It's a part of market segmentation that enables Adobe to pitch at different markets.

__________________

| video editing guides | our videos |
| wedding guides | website hosting |

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree, Marc.

Today I went to work, picked up a camcorder from the pool (as in camera pool, it hadn't be chucked into a swimming pool by a wannabe rock-star) and trundled off.

The £40k HDcam doesn't have a "snapshot" feature, nor does it have any "digital effects"

My £200 mini Dv can take still pictures and has a handful of tacky effects.

Go figga.

(It might be that the pro camcorder doesn't need these effects or a still-snap feature because that's what the cheap cams do. In the same way that Premiere pro doesn't need to edit MPEG4 because that's what the cheapie systems do.)

I've never really thought about this one way or the other but I have to agree here. A 'Pro' would never wasnt to edit mpeg4 so why go to pains to add the feature?

Editting mpeg4 is the realm of 'home' users doping things on the cheap (otherwise they would have a format other than mpeg4) and so is only in the 'home' version.

Skribe, what is it that you don't agree with here exactly? Just saying you don't agree is the equivalent of my wife (god bless her) arguing with me by saying "It just is! ok?" (sigh, I miss those days!).

__________________
I'm not young enough to know everything!

Interesting....

I like my editor cos it handles most things well, but editng compressed footage is a pain, glitchy and apt to cause unpredictable results - I only use it rarely, usually random stuff found on the net for daft spoofy reasons, like footage of G Bush or T Blair, and I only use it then cos that is the only source I have.

For a 'real' piece of work, a commercial piece of work I would buy the decent footage for sure.

If my editor didnt do mp4 ect it wouldnt bother me, I would just convert it to dv, no problem really.

__________________
Lowering the tone of video since 2004.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.