Video editing software NO RE-ENCODING?

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Batman

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#143071 2-Apr-2014 16:04

I have so far stayed away from video editing ... but I feel an itch ... is there any software (free or paid) that can join / cut / etc clips without re-encoding them?

If you are a purist (read OCD) you'd know that everytime some consumer product re-encodes your videos they do usually all of these things
- increase the file size
- massively degrade the video quality
- take ages in the process

Which one(s) do not re-encode?

timmmay

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#1017314 2-Apr-2014 16:14

Not 100%, but take a look at asfbin and mpeg streamclip. Neither seem great to use, so I'd like to hear other ideas too.

farcus

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#1017316 2-Apr-2014 16:16

Avidemux

TwoSeven

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#1017471 2-Apr-2014 19:22

Note sure what consumer products you are using, but I have not experienced this re-encoding issue unless I have changed out output format so it is different from the input format.

Adobe Premiere Pro is probably the main one used - it does have a rather heavy learning curve though.

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CutCutCut

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#1017523 2-Apr-2014 20:42

I'm a video editor by trade and thus don't really know any of the consumer level products very well, but if you're on the mac platform you might like to look at Final Cut X, maybe a bit price though, I think it's $300 USD. I think they have a free basic one also iMovie I think it's called.
If you're on a PC, then the Creative cloud by Adobe would give you access to Premiere Pro, it's a monthly subscription. I'm not sure if Adobe still make a consumer Premiere Elements app, they used to. You can proably get free trials of all of these.

The no re-encoding part may force you to one of the pro-level apps. Part of the reason, we often re-encode the video even if the software is capable of working with it natively is because the native format is compressed in such a way that editing quickly becomes impossible. The complexity of the codec can put a strain on even the high end work station. The codec may be good for capturing the footage, keeping file sizes low etc, but a real pain to edit with. Of course if you are only wanting to join a couple of files together then this may not be an issue.
I'd be interested in seeing what you end up using, as I'm often asked the question, but have no idea of what's available in the consumer level space.

surfisup1000

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#1017532 2-Apr-2014 21:01

womble video wizard was quite good at avoiding re-encoding. Although, I used it during the period when it was more aimed at mpeg formats and i'm not sure if they updated it.

You didn't mention which formats you are working with though.

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#1017549 2-Apr-2014 22:03

I think all my video clips are re-encoded to 1080i/p mp4 with handbrake.

yes I have all the old mpeg SD ones like video-redo (I think no re-encode), womble video ... very basic, but does the job.

I guess once you want to make a proper video edit then a re-encode is a must, but I am not that smart and just tend to snip and join