blob

Move them back again temporarily?

Failing that, you might be able to edit the project vpj file in a text editor and get away with it not crashing... I've just had a look at one and it's plain text with paths and filenames - so with a bit of work you might be able to rescue a project that way.

Try it in notepad with Format..'Word Wrap' turned on, but beware of \ being %5C like the shorthand used in web addresses where URL encoding makes spaces %20 - so it might be easier to just enter \ as normal with all the paths, then in one go at the end do a search and replace from \ to %5C

I've just found that Prism & VideoPad work with AviSynth script files, I don't know if that would help - to force it to open the file in a particular way.

Having said that, I just opened this in VideoPad using this in an AVS file :

FFMpegSource2("00443.MTS",atrack=-1)

- and the preview (and Prism conversion too) was fine except that the colours were sort of negative-ish

Brightness wasn't negative-ised, but red and blue were swapped around in a murky brownish world without green!

Can you not use VirtualDub to change the framerate in the Ctrl-R dialog?

False name and hotmail account like everyone else?

Here's someone using FRAPS and VideoPad... maybe you could ask him...

If a User Interface is designed properly then a manual isn't required

Seriously... I suppose you just have to do what I do - click on everything you see and watch what happens!

> clip off the first 2 minutes of a video clip

Click on the left side of the clip in the timeline and drag it to the right...

Or move the red/blue markers in the preview (left) window when a clip is being previewed, or play to the required point (or click on the time strip to move to that position) and press the red/blue marker buttons... that's 3 ways to achieve the same thing.

> remove a 3 minute section from the middle

move the timeline pointer to the start of the bit to cut out, and press the button to [split Clip] ... then do the same at the other end of the section to be removed. Your original clip is now three clips. Click on the duff middle bit and press the delete key.

If you watch the tutorial videos you should get a good idea of what's possible.

P.S. Try the Prism conversion with another clip in another format (you can download test clips from the net if you know what to google for), and see if Prism makes a good WMV from that. If so, then it would prove that it is the FRAPS end of things that is causing the problem.

To be fair, they do say "this forum is designed to be self-help and relies on the Prism community to answer users' posts." and you would stand a good chance of replies to direct email queries.

no... I'd email them if I were you

Cheers, all the best

Sorry I don't know what else to suggest. Unfortunately we're still somewhat in the dark ages still with PC Video, where you really have to learn way too much to have any great success if things go wrong! http://www.videohelp.com/ is a good one for assistance, if this forum is basically just me!

You could install the K-Lite codec pack to get a common set of useful codecs and Media Player Classic - which might put your PC on a more common footing with so many of the rest of us, although it sounds like the FRAPS codec itself isn't doing what it should.

If I were to have no luck with Prism I'd go back to Super © from eRightSoft, or try another converter .. like Handbrake http://www.videohelp.com/tools/HandBrake ... I'd analyse the original file with Video GSpot http://www.videohelp.com/tools/GSpot or http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MediaInfo to make sure what the file contains (definitely 1920 x 1080) etc. ...

8192 appears in my WMV options, but it's not in the drop-down list! I presume you can just type it in and it will accept it?

Good luck!

Watch from 4:05 on this clip to see our favourite converter being used as a laptop speed test :

http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/blog/episode-10-budget

> I suppose you didn't download the .avi file, since you didn't convert it.

Yes, I downloaded your file, but I'm unable to play it for lack of the correct codec that I don't want to install.

> I had hoped that Prism would "simplify" my life with default settings that worked for file conversions.

Unfortunately, Video is still too complicated to be easy to deal with, so I'm sad to say you'll still need some knowledge of what's going on!

> "Encoder Options button : W. M. V. 9, 8192, W. M. A. 9.2, 256kbps 44kHz stereo CBR"

I meant : press the button marked "Encoder Options" on the bottom line, and with the 4 lines of choices there, select those that match my abbreviated....

W. M. V. 9,

8192,

W. M. A. 9.2,

256kbps 44kHz stereo CBR"

That's what worked for me. I've used Prism so much that I've no idea what the defaults are, but that's probably default settings for WMV as I haven't used that format before (except I think I upgraded the sound quality a bit).

> Does adding that option tell Prism how to configure the .wmv outputted file

It tells Prism what settings to use when creating the WMV version. No command line nonsense required!

> since I have .avi as the original source and that my desired output would be .wmv, that Prism would convert it without my having to convert it first to mpeg or something else.

Correct

> Are you sure you don't have a small .avi file to convert?

Shouldn't need to.

I think of it as follows

1) the PC needs to be able to decode the original file and play it

2) once it can make sense of it, it can convert to another format.

In your case, I presume that Prism can make sense of the original file and work with it, but hasn't made a good job (so far) of saving it in the new WMV format.

By the way, what is "AVCHD?"

Advanced Video Codec, High Def. ... it's a format new HD camcorders record in, and recent Panasonic stills cameras.

OK I've just converted an AVCHD Lite MTS to WMV, and it looks fine, plays well in WMP,MPC and VLC, and loads into Windows Movie Maker.

My Prism settings were:

Options button : Conversions tab : Ticked "Use FFMPEG first"

Output format list : .WMV

Encoder Options button : W. M. V. 9, 8192, W. M. A. 9.2, 256kbps 44kHz stereo CBR

Edit Output : Change framerate : 25 (I need this because my MTS file was "25-in-50".

That's it.

Hmmm... your AVI file contains video encoded with the FRAPS codec, "FPS1", which I don't have and so I can't play or transcode it.

I'm not overly keen to install yet another codec, so what I will do is to try to produce a good WMV from my own AVCHD or MJPEG files - if there are good settings with Prism then they should work for you too.

2 questions in the meantime, before I get much time to play...

Do you have to use "FRAPS Video Capture" (whatever that is?) or is there a more standard alternative?

Do you really need .WMV files to share with your friends - mp4 might be easier - or do you need WMV to use Windows Movie Maker?

OK, downloading now, will see what I can achieve

If you can give a link to an example clip file I'll see how I manage with it tomorrow - put an example on rapidshare perhaps?

It does for me... I convert AVCHD Lite which is h264 in an MPEG Transport Stream wrapper.

You may need to install a good codec pack first though?

Have you tried setting the option "Use FFMPEG first" ?

(Press Prism's Options button, see the middle tab "Conversions" and the tick box is at the bottom)

That made a big positive difference in my early experiments with Prism.

Does each file start as 720x576 and end up as 720x576 too, but within black borders?

If the original and final resolutions match, it would be a bit strange for borders to appear.

You may need to email them, this is more of a self-help forum, and a bit sparsely frequented

I know, it's confusing isn't it?

See http://nch.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=13601

I finally chanced onto this page :

http://www.nch.com.au/action/reginfo.html#prism

Prism

Plus Edition: This Prism license class supports all video formats except for MPEG2.

Plus MPEG2 Edition: This Prism license class supports all video formats including MPEG2

VideoPad

The "VideoPad Pro Edition Registration" lets you use a single installation of VideoPad (on a single computer) without restrictions.

The basic version of VideoPad has all the features of VideoPad Pro but after 14 days trial the range of export formats will be limited to .avi, .wmv, .asf and DVD.

Well... it's free to download Prism and try... so the phrase "suck it and see" springs to mind!

If there's a test clip anywhere I could download it and try for you...?

There's one on Vimeo now as well, showing Videopad and Prism in action