HomePage 2 of 5: MPEG Video Joining, Cutting
Section 2A: MPEG Video Joining
One of the most commonly asked questions, at least in our forums, is the ability to join MPEG video files without having to re-encode everything. MVW allows you to do this quickly and easily.
The "proper" process is to load your input video sources (the files you want to join) into the "Source" window. To load a video into the source window, simply drag the video file into this area, or right click and select "Import Items". Once loaded into the source window, proceed to drag the loaded videos onto the timeline. A shortcut (and especially useful if you're not planning on re-using the input videos in other parts of the project) is to simply drag the input video files directly onto the timeline's video track (the top most track), without going through the process of adding them to the source window first. Either way will work here. Simply repeat this for every video file you want to join, in the order you want to join them:
Once the video is on the timeline, you can press the "+" or "-" buttons to the right to zoom in and out of the timeline area, so you can have a better view of the timeline.
You can check the output to make sure everything is fine by using the playback controls in the "Output" preview area. Note the marker on the timeline (the yellow upside down triangle, with a vertical line down the timeline) that will show you on the timeline which part of the output is being played at the current time.
If you wish, you can also add effects between the joined videos. Click on the "Effects" tab in the "Source" area, and select one of the many available 2D or 3D effects. This can be helpful if the joining point between two videos is too abrupt, and you want to add in some effects to make the transition better on the eye. Single mouse click on any effect to preview what it looks like, and to use this effect, simply drag it onto the timeline between any two clips. It's a little bit hard to see the effect on the timeline, so you may need to zoom in a bit. A join without an effect will appear as a vertical line between the two videos. An effect will appear as a diagonal line instead (see screenshots below - the marker, is also shown in the screenshots below). Again, preview the output to see if you're happy with the effect on the actual video.
When you're done, click on the red record button (which is actually the "Export" button), and you can then save the now joined MPEG file. To check to see if re-encoding was necessary (it can be if input files do not have the same video and audio properties), click on the "Detail" button, which opens up a new "Export MPEG detail information" window - the blue area shows the part of the video that won't need re-encoding (stream copy), the red areas is the parts that need to be re-encoded. If you added in any effects, then the effects part will need to be re-encoded.
Save the file as a new MPG file, and in a while, joining will be complete.
Section 2B: MPEG Video Cutting
MPEG video cutting is a similarly popular discussion topic. MPEG cutting follows a similar procedure to MPEG joining above. Again, you can choose to import items to the source window, or this time you can drag the video you want to cut straight to the "Input" window (not the "Timeline").
The controls under the preview video area allows you to navigate to parts of the video - the play button simply plays the video, but the "Next" and "Previous" buttons allows you to skip to the next and previous frames, frame by frame, or hold down these buttons to skip through faster. Go to where you want to start the cut (hover your mouse over these buttons to find out what they are) and press the "Mark In" button. Then go to the part where you want to end the cut and press the "Mark Out" button. Press the "Cut" button to cut the marked area. Alternatively, you can also choose to mark in and out the scenes you want to keep, and then use the "Trim Left" and "Trim Right" buttons to remove the parts to the left and right of the marked area (or even easier, simply with the area you want to keep marked in green, proceed to drag to timeline as described and only the part marked will be added to the timeline).
Once you're done with editing, move your mouse to within the preview video area, and then drag it onto the timeline. If you've cut a piece of the video in the middle, then the video will appear as two separate clips on the timeline. You can check the output to make sure everything is fine by using the playback controls in the "Output" preview area. Note the marker on the timeline (the yellow upside down triangle, with a vertical line down the timeline - see screenshot below) that will show you on the timeline which part of the output is being played at the current time.
When you're done, click on the red record button (which is actually the "Export" button), and you can then save the now joined MPEG file. To check to see if re-encoding was necessary, click on the "Detail" button, which opens up a new "Export MPEG detail information" window - the blue area shows the part of the video that won't need re-encoding (stream copy), the red areas is the parts that need to be re-encoded.
Save the file as a new MPG file, and in a while, the cut MPEG file will emerge.
