2010-08-03

HX5 video workflow

Sadly the Sony software to manipulate a video clip is very basic and likes only Sony video clips.
A clear case for the uninstall program. Hey Sony, how about a Vegas light for your customers!

Catching my local wildlife by looking like a clown while gorging the leftovers from the bakery is not too easy. But there is the super macro at 2.4 x zoom (see the posting about that) and a little pocket tripod and then just letting the camera run.

After 18 min and 45 seconds we have 9 minute 10 seconds of action in 3 installments and the rest is just nothing going on.
I prefer 720p since I did not find much more detail in the larger and full HD files so far (see posting).

First we need to cut the 841 MB AVCHD file.
The program of choice is the freeware AVIDEMUX what also has a good wiki about it´s functions in our case the cutting.
Marking the beginning and the end of the 4 non action parts I cut out 9 min and 35 seconds.

Video and Audio is set on copy and the Format is set to MP4, Save video and you are done.
Now drag and drop the 411 MB big file into HandBrake, setting as usual RF:25 and 128 Dolby Pro Logic II and a few minutes later I have a 45 MB small 9 minute video clip.
Setting the B-Frames to 16 results in a 42 MB small file.

Now why are these files so tiny? Because there is very little movement in the video and we are doing a quality based compression. Remember the comparison with the boats and the grasshopper? See - there you go.

Original file 411 MB