video editing

when you edit a video what causes it to lose quality? does editing out a part make it lose quality? such if i deleted the last minute of my video because it was excessive?

 

Usually, it is the fault of proprietary codecs and the inability of video editors (i.e. freebies) to support them.
Which codec is the video you're editing compressed in? And which editor you're using?

 

i video recorded something with my camcorder and feel like the last 30 seconds of what i recorded was unnecessary so i want to cut it out but not if it cost's me video quality. im using windows media to edit the video

 

I'm a bit confused here.Are you asking if by cutting the duration of the video,will you lose quality? If so the answer is no.You'll only lose quality if you compress the video into a lossy format or by using a poor quality converter.
Simply editing the video won't have any adverse effect,consider it like splicing an old 8mm film.

 

even if i added special effects to the video or made a compilation none of this will effect quality? only converting it to a worse format e.g avi to wmv or using a a poor converter is the only way the video will lose quality?

 

If you use good quality software then there's no reason for any loss of quality.If you're concerned about the possibility you can always save an additional 'untouched' copy in case of unwelcome results.

If you wish to research more,here's a couple of links:

http://www.videoforums.co.uk/

http://www.computervideo.net/

 

You can't re-encode a video without some quality loss except you can use a lossless format therefore.
If or at which degree the loss will be visible to your eyes depends on the tools you use and the settings you will apply.
If no re-encoding is involved (cutting, merging) than you can edit your video files without any loss of quality.

 

then im screwed because im planning to cut, merge alot of my videos maybe add brightness to them too

 

You're hardly 'screwed'.
When we talk about 'loss of quality', that loss can be so miniscule as to be virtually undetectable by the human eye.

Video quality can also sometimes actually be *improved* by re-encoding.
You can take a fairly poor quality video and make it not as poor. (Which is not to be confused with turning a poor quality video into a fine quality video-- because that's not going to happen.)

The more you learn, the more you try different things and what-not, the better you'll become at tweaking videos when re-encoding.

But there's no question that the better the quality of the video you're starting off with, the better the end result of any re-encode is likely to be.
"Garbage in, garbage out", as they say.

 

I can guide you to cut that video without loss of quality. tell me what format it is.
and someone mentioned about avi bieng worse format. how come avi is worse format? tell me an avi without any compression is worse ? an avi containing xvid codec with bitrate of 1000 is worse ? check it and tell me.

 

Do you know about an AVI container with a compression format without any compression ??

An avi containing xvid codec with bitrate of 1000 can be fine or pretty poor.
It depends on the quality of the vid you want to re-encode.

Agreed with ABee.
You can't improve the quality of a vid by re-encoding. However sometimes you can make a bad encoded vid look something better for human eyes.

@chris45
You can easily cut or merge a vid without re-encoding.

 

without any compression means just rgb channel. now dont ask me about rgb channel. any video editor or graphics artist know that and im one of them.

Then how come avi becomes worse format?

 

for avi, you can use the free avidemux to cut scenes without reencoding the whole video. Where the split occurs it uses "smart rendering" to rejoin the video without causing video loss. It's the best editor for AVI (xvid/divx/h264).
If you need to reencode AVI always use the h264 codec, it will leave a finish video that looks almost like the original. Xvid codec is the worst of the bunch.

For mpeg video (dvd quality) the best editer is "womble mpeg video wizard dvd". Thats what I use to remove commercials from my tv recordings. It is frame accurate and doesn't reencode the mpeg video, no video loss. It also can add special effects/transitions and even a background music. It's best feature is you can use it to join different codecs together. You can put mpegs,avi,mp4 on the timeline and edit them at the same time to make a compilation video.

Everytime you reencode you loose quality (that's a law of physics) but using the right codec h264 or mpeg2 and high enough bitrate you can end up with acceptable video. I'm always end up with a good finish product almost as good as the original.

 

Originally Posted by jonyjoe81

Hi,

In the Analog world, i agree with you. But Digital processing audio/video "should" be bit etc perfect. Of course if you are downgrading from say for eg, 24 bit to 16 bit, and/or lower sample rate, there will be losses. Just like mp3/itunes etc etc sound quality is inferior to a 16 etc bit 44.1 kHz etc sample rate WAV file, or CD.

On a general Digital note, people have been misled/lied to for years by industry/media. Digital audio/video is NOT perfect, but it is possible to make perfect "copies" = BIG difference. But only if the correct methods etc are used

Thanks for the Womble heads up, i hadn't of it before

You didn't provide a link ? so for those that might be interested http://www.womble.com/products Not cheap though, even at the discounted price of $179

Just DL'd it

 

You can join mpg videos using this script:
copy /b *.mpg FullMovie.mpg

It basically joins every .mpg files in the folder alphabetically using no encoding, therefore no quality loss. You can also specify the files, but that needs a lot of variables.
Can also work for .flv's but that seems to cause problems with some players.

 

There is no "best" or "worst".
I've seen H264 .avi videos that look like pure crap, and .flv videos (using the Sorensen codec) that look great.
There's nothing whatever wrong or inferior with the XviD codec, either.
And I'm also a regular user of Avidemux.

There's a whole lot more to re-encoding video than picking a codec.
You've posted your personal preferences, which is fine. But let's not confuse those preferences with the 'right way' or 'only proper way' of doing things.