[Craig Seeman]

[Pierre-Luc] “WMV Studio allow frame control ?”

What do you mean by frame control? You can encode at various useful frame rates with WMV Studio.
If you mean bit rate, 1 pass VBR, by its nature, is QUALITY based regardless of app. You do need WMV Studio PRO for 2 pass VBR encoding which targets bit rate. WMV Studio can target a bit rate with CBR encoding but VBR will often look better/be more efficient.

[Craig Seeman]

There are many kinds of “intelligent” deinterlacing. Charles is right in that the FCP deinterlace filter is “primitive.” I haven’t found Compressor 2 buggy (yet) though at least as far as deinterlacing goes.

[Craig Seeman]

[Pierre-Luc] “they can view on their “Oh my god so old” computers,”

You might need to check compatibility with WMV9 output and WMP7.1 on Windows if that’s the case. WMV9 should work with a properly updated WMP7.1 but you might want to test the output file from both Popwire and Flip4Mac. Note that if the PCs are old/slow, you need to keep things like data rate, frame rate (computer’s ability to decode the file) etc. If you want to tweak deinterlace settings, you are looking at a good “front end” app whether it’s CM3 or something like Compressor 2/Flip4Mac (I believe the Frame Control does better deinterlacing than the Deinterlace filter).

[Craig Seeman]

So can you post a link to the spot?

As Nick B mentions, time is a factor. I do know folks who can knock out stuff fast but if it looks a “million bucks” and took sleepless nights, they charge like it.

If you charge too low, you’ll get plenty of word of mouth business but they’ll all expect that low rate. Even as beginners you want to make enough so that if you had a volume of this work, everyone taking part would make enough to pay off the gear you use, your rent and other living expenses. If you can’t survive on what you’re charging then you’re too low even as a talented newbie. Just some thoughts when you think about price.

[Craig Seeman]

Charles,

You’d be surprised how much demand there is for the Importer (I’ve been). It’s seems there’s always some guy in a corporate media dept. or doing work for one, where the only thing remains of an old segment is an MPEG4v3 .ASF file and the boss wants it in the video. Granted this “ain’t no quality” shot. One can make such a clip work by keeping it small with a larger graphic background (sorta the CNN Video Phone look). In any case the demand for the importer is very high. Whether it is with the above post, I don’t know but don’t discount the need to deal with heavily compressed WMV clips as source in some corporate video departments. If one needs a full “front end” compression app, I am impressed with CM3’s speed and “tweakability.” WMV Studio Pro and Compressor 2 is a nice “budget” alternative.

[Craig Seeman]

Flip4Mac WMV Studio works in QuickTimePro, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, iMovie, Cleaner 6, Squeeze 4.1, Compressor 2.

WMV Studio also includes Player Pro. You can import and edit WMV files in QuickTimePro, FCP, FCE, iMovie. In addition, you can open a WMV in QuickTimePro and then Save it as a MOV (Quicktime) no “export” needed. In other words you can edit a WMV in FCP or Save a WMV as a MOV and then edit that in FCP for example. It also includes an Internet Plugin which allows you to play many WMV from the web in Quicktime. BTW you can do that from the desktop too and you can jog through WMVs frame by frame in Quicktime, something WMP9 and WMP10 can’t do on either platform. You’re getting a lot more than just an exporter with WMV Studio.

I’ve been using WMV Studio Pro (includes the ability to create WMV HD with Surround Sound as well as 2 pass encoding) and it’s really helped in my post production enviornment. I don’t think Popwire WM9 Export includes all the above features. For example, I don’t think you can use it in Compressor 2 for example. Of course it depends on if you need all the above additiional features.

[Craig Seeman]

What about the corporate practice of “rip-o-matics” I believe the term is? There are major (and I mean MAJOR multinational) corporations who do this from what I understand. They string together scenes from motion pictures that evoke modes and screen them to see what might evoke the kinds of emotions/response for a future advertising campaign. Basically they seem to rent DVDs and screen highlights at an internal meeting. In other words a business is renting DVDs and screening highlights. I suspect they’re making “clip reels” rather than scanning through stacks of DVDs.

Reason why I ask, is I went to an interview for a freelance gig a few years back and they said they do “rip-o-matics” and described the above practice and who there clients were. It sounded a bit “boarderline” to me and they were put off when I asked about copyright issues.

As alluded to in this thread, there are businesses who want producers to use copyrighted images and/or music in their “internal” pieces. I think this is DUMB risk for any business. All you need is a disgruntled employee showing a copy to the appropriate “interested” party and . . .

[Craig Seeman]

I don’t think Compressor 1 could mux mpeg2. One more reason to upgrade. Compressor 2 is a major improvement over Compresson 1 IMHO.

[Craig Seeman]

Different wedding videographers have different shoot ratios but mine tends to be 1 tape for every 2 hours per camera. Thus 2 cameras for 8 hour wedding would yield about 8 hours of video (1 camera 4 hours). Some would consider this a high shoot ratio. I actually think it’s easier to edit with more video. While the input and logging take more time it’s much easier to have more b-roll and that extra video for just the right shot in the edit.

[Craig Seeman]

Haven’t tried it myself but in Compressor 2 in the Inspector under Encoder/Extras Tab there’s a “Multiplexed MPEG-1/Layer 2 Audio” check box with the discription “Select this to create an MPEG-2 Trasnport stream with multiplexed audio.