Utilities For Digital Video Editing

Working with digital (or non-linear) editing for film and TV, you often face problems with different types of file formats. This is especially true for TV, where the material you want to use isn't always tailor made for your production. How do you get that file into your editing suite?

On the other hand, you might have a finished video that you need to distribute fast and/or easy. Maybe you want to send it by e-mail to get your client's approval, or you simply want to put the video on your website.

There are numerous ways to solve these input/output issues, and I thought I'd share two of my favourite (free!) applications. AVIcodec and SUPER ©. (PS: These are PC only applications).

AVIcodec

I recieve a lot of footage to be used in various productions, and working with DV on a PC means a lot of AVI files. As you might know, an AVI file could be a lot of things, with a number of different codecs and compression amounts. For a quick way of checking that AVI you just recieved, AVIcodec is a nice tool. Just right-click in Windows Explorer and click AVIcodec, and the program will show you detailed information about your file. Also works with a number of other file formats.


Get it here


SUPER ©

I also recieve a lot of footage that ISN'T a DV or uncompressed AVI. SUPER © is a "universal player, encoder and renderer". You can drag just about any videofile into the program, and quickly export it in a number of formats (even compatible with your cell phone).


If you are working with a lot of different clients on different projects, this could be an invaluable timesaver when shipping out updates by e-mail or via your website. Or it could be a big help getting that one video clip you wanted to use into your editing suite. It could actually do a lot of things, depending on what you need it to do. Just take a look at the supported file formats...

• Video format: 3gp/3g2(Nokia,Siemens,Sony Ericsson) asf, avi (DivX,H263,H263+,H264,XviD,MPEG4,MSmpeg4 etc..), dat,
  fli, flc, flv (used in Flash), mkv, mpg (Mpeg I,Mpeg II), mov (H263,H263+,H264,MPEG4 etc..), mp4 (H263,H263+,H264,MPEG4), ogg,
  qt, rm, ram, rmvb, str (Play Station), swf (Flash), ts (HDTV), viv, vob, wmv
  
• Audio format: ac3, amr, mp2, mp3, mp4, mpc, ogg, ra, wav, wma

As you can see, this is an invaluable buddy for publishing your video on the internet or for use on different types of portable mediaplayers (especially the popular iPod Video and PSP).

Get it here


These are both freeware, and definately worth a look!

Tags: film, tv, video, editing, application, windows, filmmaking, film production, digital, file formats