Editing raw video material. how to?

[Pandur]

i asked this befor many moons ago but only got some sub optimal answers. by now, i have about 2,5 to 3,5 Gb of raw unedited FRAPS footage stored on my PC to make some nice clip collection of CMSF to up it at youtube.

but whats the best way to get the raw fraps stuff wich is good quality but much to large, into decent quality but much smaler?

also i want to edit the sequences and clips together into one or two big videos, and maybe add some text to the video, like seen in some other CMSF vids on youtube.

i have no idea on how to do such stuff so i would need a programm wich is freeto download, easy to use and understand, and can do the things i require, like cuting pices of clips together and maybe play background music into it and add text.

any suggestions what would be best for this task?

[Clavicula_Nox]

Use Windows Movie Maker, it's located in C:\Program Files\Windows Movie Maker

then import the video files, and edit from there. The video that the program puts out is reduced in quality, but also considerably smaller.

[Pandur]

it's located in C:\Program Files\Windows Movie Maker

aha so i have it without knowing it, heck this makes me look incompetent, many thanks for that

just took a look, its really there, hell, win movie maker, well better then a rock smashed onto the head we would say here, i gona try it out, thanks for the fast help!

by the way are there any alternatives? will win movie maker let me put different clips together into one too?

if yes it looks like this win movie maker is all i gona need.

[Clavicula_Nox]

Yeah, windows movie maker can do alot. I don't know about inserting text onto the screen, but I'm sure there's a way.

[Pandur]

i need some advice again, by now the amount of raw vid data did grow to more then 100GB.

i think about a way to store all this without loosing quality.

now i dont know, when i add one of this large movies to win movie maker and save it i can use a compression, wich makes the vid considearable smaler. what puzzles me now is that, when i would save all raw data i have in such a way to make it smaler, and then at a later point want to use this to make a movie, would this mean that the end product is even worse then the source as i compress it "twice" that way?

[Apocal]

would this mean that the end product is even worse then the source as i compress it "twice" that way?

Yes.

Personally, I have a couple of 500GB external drives laying around I use to store all this kind of stuff.

[Scipio]

Yes.

Personally, I have a couple of 500GB external drives laying around I use to store all this kind of stuff.

Not necessarily, it strongly depends on the output format (codec) and bitrate (compression)! So if you do not furtherly reduce the bitrate, the result doesn't lose additional quality.

But seriously, movie compression is a sience of it's own !

If you won't go deep into this, I recomment to buy a external drive, since they are rather cheap now.

[Pandur]

so its done, i managed to get it to acceptable size and uped it at youtube. my first try, its nothing fancy, just a collection of clips in 2 parts. i tried to make one big file but movie maker crashed, i just have 2 gig ram

please check it out, so i get at least a few views

the quality is supriseingly good! make sure to watch in HD.

next time i try to do a continouse story, more or less.

EDIT

ah yes, i knew i forgott something;

PART 1

PART 2