muvee AutoProducer DVD Edition

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.muvee.com/?promo=jdunn' target='_blank'>http://www.muvee.com/?promo=jdunn</a><br /><br /></div>If you haven't heard why I think muvee is the most innovative software of the past year, <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,9010">stop right now and read this column.</a> Ok, good, now you're up to speed! The cool news is that the muvee team has released a slightly update version of their app - the core app is the same as before, but they've souped it up by integrating the excellent <a href="http://www.mainconcept.com/index.shtml">Main Concept MPEG2</a> codec, giving muvee the ability to output video files that are DVD and SVCD compliant, ready for burning with a third-party application.<br /><br />"muvee autoProducer is the fastest and simplest way to create a finished production from raw video. With the DVD Edition, you have the added benefit of saving your videos as DVD-ready MPEG-2 files. Yes, you can now experience your masterpiece in DVD quality! muvee autoProducer DVD Edition takes one minute to learn and is typically a hundred times faster to use than any other video editing software.<br /><br />You simply give the program your video, choose any piece of music (MP3 or WAV) you like, select an editing style and it does the rest. From one piece of raw video you can create a dozen different productions in a few minutes - each one in a radically different style, each one a polished production with a finished, professional feel."<br /><br />If you've never taken muvee for a spin, <a href="http://www.muvee.com/download.php?item=lPage&promo=jdunn">download the free demo right now</a> - it will put a smile on your face! :mrgreen: [Affiliate]

[snowlion]

having not tried this software..i should probably keep this to myself but...

but how does this software not include dead-scenes (i.e. like 20 mins of the ground when someone forgot to turn the camera off) or conversely make sure important scenes are included.

looking at the sample tutorial seems like this would require a separate editor. also not clear whether it actually gets the video off the camera or not.

if this software read the video off the camera, had a way of tagging each scene as dead or key, auto-edit and then saved it back to camera or dvd disk...then it would be a very nice app to have.

[bblock]

I haven't used it yet, but I *have* to get this for my 200+ hrs of MiniDV footage.

One question - Jason, you mentioned in your initial review that there's no way to force-include a particular scene (other than by re-running muvee until it happens to include it). Has this feature been added to this release, and if not, are they going to add it? It would make a fabulous product even better!

[Gordo]

but how does this software not include dead-scenes (i.e. like 20 mins of the ground when someone forgot to turn the camera off) or conversely make sure important scenes are included.

I fortunately have not yet taped 20 minutes of the ground, but have taken lots of bad video. The program analyzes the video looking for shapes like faces, which it then includes in the final product. One example I have seen was when I had about 10 minutes of a ski-doo. The software extracted the best clip (about 15 seconds) from the entire footage and included it. It did this consistently on each of the three times I ran the program. The short clip showed the ski-doo weaving back and forth as it went away from me. I would bet that unless you taped a person lying on the ground, the software would ignore the entire 20 minutes.

Usually I do some very quick edits on the raw footage before letting the software create my final version. I typically feed in 45 minutes of video and pick a 5-10 minute song, and then let the software do the work.

Video editing is an art that requires way too much time to get good results; this product usually produces results with minutes that I would be unable to complete in days of work.

[Jason Dunn]

but how does this software not include dead-scenes (i.e. like 20 mins of the ground when someone forgot to turn the camera off) or conversely make sure important scenes are included...also not clear whether it actually gets the video off the camera or not.

I can't explain how it doesn't include the bad footage, but in most of my tests it simply "does it's thing". Once I saw it include a shot of a wall that I would have cut out myself, but it only kept that shot for about 1 second, so it wasn't detrimental to the overall video.

It captures directly from your camera over Firewire, and can also output the finished product back down to the camera.

Download the demo and take it for a spin!

[Jason Dunn]

One question - Jason, you mentioned in your initial review that there's no way to force-include a particular scene (other than by re-running muvee until it happens to include it). Has this feature been added to this release, and if not, are they going to add it? It would make a fabulous product even better!

No, a way of tagging key scenes hasn't been included yet, but I've hammered this point home with the muvee team and I'm confident that they understand how badly something like this is needed. In the meantime, there's a clever workaround suggested in the other thread that would work really well I think:

"There was mention before about not being able to ensure a certain scene was included. There is a workaround. Plop the whole video sequence into another edting program. Crop out all but that scene. Save as new movie. In Muvee, add both the full-length video as well as the new clip (you can add a large number of video files to the Select Video dialog)."

[Steven Cedrone]

Was this the program you and Jeff used to create the music video from the Pocket PC Summit in Philadelphia??? Just curious...

Steve

[Jason Dunn]

Was this the program you and Jeff used to create the music video from the Pocket PC Summit in Philadelphia??? Just curious...

Yup, that was muvee. :mrgreen:

[rlngstrt]

Thanks for posting this Jason!!

I have been doing this by hand with Premiere for a while, but this is so much easier! I downloaded the trial and bought it 2 days later :)

I'll stil.l be using Premiere when I want total control over the video, but this software is great for when I'm feeling lazy and want to get out a few videos very quickly!