New To Roxio Video Editor, Scratching Head

[starrigger]

Hi all. I've recently gone from Sonic MyDVD 6, which I understood, to Roxio MyDVD 8, which I don't. I have two immediate points of confusion:

 

1) I've found myself, depending on what I clicked, with apparently identical video editing screens, except sometimes saying VideoWave at the top, and sometimes saying MyDVD at the top. Are they in fact the same? Is Videowave the editor incorporated into MyDVD now?

 

2) In a brief experimental bit of editing, I discovered that I could find no way to insert a simple fade-in or fade-to-black, or cross-fade. There are all kinds of fancy special transitions, but I could not locate the basic ones. Nor is there a reference to them in the Help section. Surely I'm just missing something. They wouldn't be absent from the software...would they?

 

I'm aware that I have just 2 wks to decide whether to keep the software. So far, Windows Moviemaker is looking pretty good to me. But I don't want to make rash judgments.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Jeff

[ggrussell]

to omit it as a one-click function in a video editor that aspires to power is simply astonishing to me.

People wanted more options and now we have them. Very few video editors still have fade to black/white. I own 6 video editors now and I think maybe one of them has that.

 

Everyone has different needs. If Windows Movie Maker works for you, that's great. I find it way too limited even for my simple home movie editing. The only thing I liked about WMM is having some text effects with two different lines of text. EMC8 can now do that with much more control.

[jimbo206]

Instead of trying to deal with vob files use "DVD Shrink", which is freeware, to burn the dvd or whatever you need from it to an iso file. Then you load the iso file into a virtual drive using the "disc image loader". Now open Roxio capture and the virtual drive will show up as a capture device. You can now capture whatever chapter or part you want. The iso files render to mpeg rather quickly making me think the encoding from DVD Shrink is complient or compatable with the encoder Roxio uses.

[james_hardin]

Hi all. I've recently gone from Sonic MyDVD 6, which I understood, to Roxio MyDVD 8, which I don't. I have two immediate points of confusion:

 

1) I've found myself, depending on what I clicked, with apparently identical video editing screens, except sometimes saying VideoWave at the top, and sometimes saying MyDVD at the top. Are they in fact the same? Is Videowave the editor incorporated into MyDVD now?

 

2) In a brief experimental bit of editing, I discovered that I could find no way to insert a simple fade-in or fade-to-black, or cross-fade. There are all kinds of fancy special transitions, but I could not locate the basic ones. Nor is there a reference to them in the Help section. Surely I'm just missing something. They wouldn't be absent from the software...would they?

 

I'm aware that I have just 2 wks to decide whether to keep the software. So far, Windows Moviemaker is looking pretty good to me. But I don't want to make rash judgments.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Jeff

 

Generally speaking the drill is this:

 

For all editing transitions etc., use VideoWave. When you are happy, save the Project (xxx.dmsm file).

 

Open MyDVD to create menus, chapters and burn. Load your xxx.dmsm file into MyDVD and build the interface you want your project to have.

 

Once you work this way a couple of times it will become natural.

[sknis]

1) I believe that VideoWave is the default editor in your version of MyDVD 8. In the full suite, it works differently but gives you a Slide Show Assistant (limited functions). MyDVD 8 is more of a Roxio product that a Sonic product so it is logical that you are getting VideoWave. The fact that the product has two names but are apparently the same may be one of those minor text changes that slipped through the cracks for this Version.

2). Among all those fancy transitions, there is a "reveal" named dissolve, that is probably what you are looking for. You can place it at the end of the production to fade to black. You will have to put a color panel as the first item in your show to get a transition near the front. A lot of people add text to this panel to introduce the slide show. If you don't want the first panel to be seen as a static color panel, simply adjust the duration to a minimum so that the show seems to open with the transition. Start with one half the duration of the transition and with a color panel that is similar to the primary color of the first image.

 

Post back if you have any additional questions.

 

Hi all. I've recently gone from Sonic MyDVD 6, which I understood, to Roxio MyDVD 8, which I don't. I have two immediate points of confusion:

 

1) I've found myself, depending on what I clicked, with apparently identical video editing screens, except sometimes saying VideoWave at the top, and sometimes saying MyDVD at the top. Are they in fact the same? Is Videowave the editor incorporated into MyDVD now?

 

2) In a brief experimental bit of editing, I discovered that I could find no way to insert a simple fade-in or fade-to-black, or cross-fade. There are all kinds of fancy special transitions, but I could not locate the basic ones. Nor is there a reference to them in the Help section. Surely I'm just missing something. They wouldn't be absent from the software...would they?

 

I'm aware that I have just 2 wks to decide whether to keep the software. So far, Windows Moviemaker is looking pretty good to me. But I don't want to make rash judgments.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Jeff

[ggrussell]

Videowave and MyDVD are indeed integrated. While in MyDVD, add a video file creates the menu button. You can select the button and click on EDIT MOVIE. This brings you into a somewhat limited verison of Videowave which is integrated. You can do most anything except export to file. There is a button at the top to RETURN TO MENU.

 

As James pointed out, it really is best to do all of your serious editing in the regular Videowave and then bring that project into a MyDVD project.

 

MyDVD8 is based mostly on a previous Roxio product after the merger last year. Some of the terms may be slightly different than the older MyDVD products. Take a little time to read through the Help files and play the Tutorials.

[starrigger]

Thanks, everyone, for the clarification. It sounds pretty much like the drill of editing in Windows Moviemaker, then importing into Sonic MyDVD.

 

The reason I upgraded is that I was hoping for a more powerful video editor, in particular one that could deal directly with VOB files taken from DVDs. I'm not sure if I've found it or not...

 

2). Among all those fancy transitions, there is a "reveal" named dissolve, that is probably what you are looking for. You can place it at the end of the production to fade to black. You will have to put a color panel as the first item in your show to get a transition near the front. A lot of people add text to this panel to introduce the slide show. If you don't want the first panel to be seen as a static color panel, simply adjust the duration to a minimum so that the show seems to open with the transition. Start with one half the duration of the transition and with a color panel that is similar to the primary color of the first image.

 

I am...stunned...that as basic a function as fade-in/fade-out requires a kludge like that. I understand what you're saying about how to do it, but it boggles my mind that you should have to.

 

On a separate issue, the Sonic MyDVD has a feature called "Fit to DVD," which provided automatic adjustment of video quality for whatever amount of stuff you chose to put on a disc. In other words, it gave you the best video for however many minutes you added to the project.

 

Is there something equivalent in MyDVD 8?

 

Thanks.

 

Jeff

[ggrussell]

fade-in/fade-out

That is provided as discribed. It just a transition an nothing else. Other editors may provide fade to black or fade to white. All they are doing is the extra step for you. The way Videowave does it, you aren't limited to just those colors. You can 'fade to' ANY COLOR. Just a different procedure in different products.

 

I don't know of ANY video editor that edits VOBs directly. Adobe's product will read them, but internally it converts them for editing. You can use Media Import to combine the VOBs back into a single MPG file that can be brought into Vidoewave. However, any editing will cause it to re-rendered.

 

MyDVD 8 defaults to 'fit to disc'. Spend some time running the tutorials and just poking around the program to learn what it really offers.

 

The reason I upgraded is that I was hoping for a more powerful video editor

There is no comparision with Windows Movie Maker. WMM is as basic as you can get. Main video, title track and a transition track. The standard Videowave has 14 tracks. Prehaps Videowave is more than you need.

[starrigger]

That is provided as discribed. It just a transition an nothing else. Other editors may provide fade to black or fade to white. All they are doing is the extra step for you. The way Videowave does it, you aren't limited to just those colors. You can 'fade to' ANY COLOR. Just a different procedure in different products.

 

....

There is no comparision with Windows Movie Maker. WMM is as basic as you can get. Main video, title track and a transition track. The standard Videowave has 14 tracks. Prehaps Videowave is more than you need.

 

Well...except that fade to black is a basic video editing function that way predates anything on a PC, and to omit it as a one-click function in a video editor that aspires to power is simply astonishing to me. Sure, you could "fade" to any color by using the extra step in any editor. But why should you have to do the extra steps for the most commonly used of all video transitions? It just seems like a glaring omission to me.

 

I don't agree with your assessment of WMM, which has far more features than you just described. It does have a tendency to crash when you work with a lot of complex edits, so there's that against it. But I've used it for several pieces with many interleaved clips and audio track changes, and found it to be surprisingly good. Except that it's pretty much limited to starting with avi files, which for me means it's limited to video from my camcorder.

 

Now, the video-editor component of MyDVD 6--that was basic. No timeline editor, for starters.

 

--Jeff