MPEG-

Click on the images to download MPEG !

As you can see the MPEG has been edited with a software I found as a free trial version on the internet. Its only 641 kb in a zip file. Go to : http://www.bernclare.com/mpegsw.htm The catch is, it will only save up to 10 seconds in the trial version. I found another company in Australia with an editor : http://www.mediaware.com.au	This is just the place where I live. Nothing special done with this MPEG. Some birds decided to build a nest on my garden umbrellas, stored away in a corner... just a plain MAVICA MPEG

This is an other example for adding titles, the audio part of the MPEG has been removed. Its possible to replace the removed audio part with a completely different audio file.	Here are small parts from different disks "glued" together. Again the audio part has been removed.

Yes I know this are not great pieces of art. But its just to show what is possible - and I am just a beginner.
With the right software and a stack of floppys containing more interesting stuff, you can produce your own videoclips, send them as e-mail, include them in your multi-media projects, store them on CD..

Its a pitty (and cheap) that Sony did not add a MPEG editing software to the MAVICA.
So most people having bought this camera never will enjoy the fun or getting hooked on editing their video clips.
Okay its not so easy as pictures (and you know mastering that can be a challenge, too) but sharing the ready production with others can be very rewarding.

I am wasting a lot of time to get behind the secrets of MPEG, I realy got hooked on that. Searching for software on the internet, downloading it, trying it and getting frustrated as its not working as promised or you get only crippled trial versions...

What I wanted was to convert a series of single pictures into an MPEG-movie, for example to poduce a stop motion animation. For my first example I used a my series of 29 pics of a "rotating" quartz crystal from which I produced a GIF animation some time before.

The catch was as some software should convert a series of JPG´s or BMP´s to MPEG it did not work out so easy. First step convert JPG to BMP. Second convert BMP to AVI. Third convert AVI to MPEG. Fourth as the stupid BMP to AVI software produced a lot of supperflous frames I had to edit the MPEG to get a more "natural" look.

But finaly I got it, a 640 x 480 pixel MPEG made with an old MAVICA FD 7 !

As Hitachi has a MPEG cam, too. I tried to get the "Digital Movie Studio" from them. I only found programms for download on some pages completel in Japanese and the programms had been in Japanese, too. Big help and did not work on a non Japanese windows either !

But so far what I found out is this :
You can convert MPEG´s of different sizes into each other. (However a "blow up" will not be very efficient).
You can extract the audio part edit it or completely replace it by an other.
You can convert AVI or MOV etc. into MPEG.
You can edit MPEG´s, "glue" them together and add some special effects.
You can take single BMP´s, JPG´s etc. and convert them to a MPEG video (if you want even with sound).
However there no software yet which has it all, is easy to use, simple and has an affordable price

Okay, finaly I found something you can work with, however its still not perfect and not easy.
I made my first "movie" of about 2 Mb size, with sound in 640 x 480 pixel (app. 11 seconds).
Staring again the "notorius" rotating quartz crystal. To download click on the picture above.

The name of the software is "MainActor" and its "made in Germany" (an english version is available of course !). You can download a fully functional version (14 Mb!!!!) under :

http://www.mainconcept.de (Europe)
http://www.mainconcept.com (USA)

The only catch is that the text "MainActor" is layed over your finished video clip The licensed version wan´t do this and you can order your secret number to unlock your trial version by credit card over the internet.
My personal opinion is, spend the money to support good software development of a small indipendent company. The "MainActor" is far from beeing perfect but has so many options and clever details that it takes months to get fully into it. One problem is that MPEG´s never get as small and compact as the MAVICA MPEG´s are. Also as I am a lousy computer nerd I easily got the program to crash several times.

Simple MPEG Editing with an "HEX EDITOR"

I recently found out that you can simply edit your MAVICA-MPEG´s with a regular "HEX-EDITOR".

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW EASY IT IS !

The "Turned" Video Problem

Some of you (as me, too) may have encountered the problem that you took some videos in "high format" like 240 x 320 pixels instead of 320 x 240 pixels. The problem is, there is no function like in any picture editing software "turn 90 degrees". Also I found out that MPEG does not like strange formats like 240 x 320 pixels - MainActor crashed on that problem (however it saved the thing in AVI). MainActor can rotate a movie in any direction, but it seems that just 90 degrees is to simple (there is still distortion). Okay here is my cooking recipe :

First, extract from your "turned" movie all single frames as a series of BMP. Note that IrfanView seems to have a bug as from a 320 x 240 MPEG I get always 320 x 239 BMP´s. But you can do the same with the video editing module of MainActor.

Second, save your sound as seperate WAV file.

Ahh, forgot something of course you have to rotate your BMP´s with the batch function of IrfanView...

Third, open a movie in the sequenzer with 320 x 320 pixel.

Fourth, import your series of BMP´s, go to the movie sizing tool, choose "rectangle" and type in 40 for "x" and 240 x 320 as size. Sorry there is a bug and this tool wan´t work yet with a picture series - may be fixed soon. So you have to do the intermediate step 3.5 and convert your series of BMP to a non compressed AVI...

Import the AVI, now you can use the sizing tool...

Add your sound.

Export it as MPEG (be shure that the audio sampling rate is 192 kbps or less....)

To download the latest version 3.02 of IrfanView go to :

http://stud1.tuwien.ac.at/~e9227474/

Its freeware but please be so kind and send the guy $ 10.00 or $ 20.00 (cash) to support this good work !

More and more and more...
boring MPEG´s
Okay I couldnt stop it and was working on a more enhanced version of "Quartz the Movie".
Here it is :

total size : 29,732,526 bytes (28.36 Mb)
1 minute 32.24 seconds at 25 frames per second = 2315 frames
would make an uncompressed AVI video of 2,133,504,000 bytes (1.987 Gb)

sound : 16 bits stereo 32 kHz
would make an uncompressed WAV-file of 11,806,720 bytes (11.26 Mb)

featuring : a 640 x 480 pixel animation (the notorius quartz crystal); 5 different MAVICA MPEG´s; 3 different animated GIF´s, 2 MAVICA still pictures - several special effects....
music (a part taken from "Time" by Pink Floyd).

Click on image below to download movie !

28.36 Mb !

Click here to download 27.84 Mb zip-file

Recommended if you encountered problems downloading the file directly (for example Internet Explorer tries to start movie before its completely loaded and crashes then etc...)