Assistance Needed

Spence · #1 (**permalink**) 09-01-2006, 12:31 PM

Hi Guys,

I hope you dont mind me asking for some help.

I work for a property firm, and one of the problems we have is that we need to feature videos on the site.

Can you recommend some decent software, that we can purchase, that will allow us to edit and convert videos, in many different formats.

Thanks.

Ian

Mark W · #2 (**permalink**) 09-01-2006, 03:09 PM

Buying a screw driver dont make you a carpenter....

All decent editors will do as you wish. You will probably be happy with one of the stripped down versions of full featured editors - vegas movie studio, premier elemets ect...

Come to think of it moviemaker built in to xp will do the job and you already own that.

Nikosony · #3 (**permalink**) 09-03-2006, 10:51 PM

If it is only going on a website, then as Mark says Windows Movie Maker will do fine.

Spence · #4 (**permalink**) 09-04-2006, 08:20 AM

So, all of the programs you mention will allow me to edit the videos, remove logos from frames, and convert to other formats?

komatoast · #5 (**permalink**) 09-04-2006, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spence

So, all of the programs you mention will allow me to edit the videos, remove logos from frames, and convert to other formats?

vegas and premiere will do for the editing and logo removal- not sure about movie maker. however they are not all that good and compressing for web. there is a very good prog called sorenson squeeze. that will convert to anything except divx once you have done your editing.

Mihai · #6 (**permalink**) 09-04-2006, 09:02 AM

What about hiring a professional? You would probably save more money, and save yourself from headaches, and get better quality, than the DIY method.

Spence · #7 (**permalink**) 09-04-2006, 11:31 AM

Some of the ones in London are charging around 100 smackers per video.

Say for example we launch with only 20 videos, that is still around £2,000, which is quite extreme.

We really only need to edit out logos and convert and compress for internet use, nothing too fancy really.

Some of the packages mentioned I will look into.

But any other ones, please let me know.

I really appreciate your help.

Andy Lockwood · #8 (**permalink**) 09-04-2006, 12:39 PM

Hi Spence.

You say that you want to convert to 'many different formats'.
I would suggest you only really need to convert to WMV as virtually everyone on the web can view these. Perhaps different levels of quality would be an idea though. I assume your desire to remove logos would be other vendors boards? If so, as mentioned above, that it pretty easy in most decent editors. Make life easy for yourself though by having a static shot externally. Otherwise you're getting into masking stuff out with keyframes moving the mask across the picture as the board moves.

One other thing.... two grand to sell how many thousand pounds worth of property? Looking at it that way would make more sense. And a pro will do it far better for you than a diy job.

Mark W · #9 (**permalink**) 09-04-2006, 05:43 PM

Yes, I would hire someone.

You have to buy the s ware, learn to use the s ware, get to grips with codecs, bit rates, good filming techniques ect, in the end after some time you may be able to produce good results in a sane time, or maybe you wont....

What with estate agents charging thousands per sale I would have thought 100 a clip was a good deal.

Decent editing takes skill, resources and time, and time in business is money... you spend a bit and it will save you lots. imho.

Andy Lockwood · #10 (**permalink**) 09-05-2006, 07:11 AM

Further to mine and Marks posts, if a local estate agent came to me with this proposal, with a guarantee of long term work, starting with 20 houses, I would consider a small discount. I'm sure there's a deal to be done with a local videographer out there somewhere. Why not ask around a bit?