4 Replies Latest reply: Feb 24, 2012 3:45 AM by Ann Bens RSS

    Need helping establishing workflow for phone video

    sneakyimp Community Member

      I have an Android Nexus S phone and have been using it to capture some really nice footage.  I have Premiere CS4 and would like to develop a work flow that is well-suited to the native footage off my phone.  In particular:

      * I would like to avoid the use of any codecs or compression or processing that will conflict with the native phone formats.  I.e., I'd like to avoid making my output files ugly because by using a codec that doesn't play nice with the native phone format.

      * I would like my workflow to be fast.  Ideally the working video format would not require all kinds of rendering time to view my project with its crossfades, etc. and when I export the final product I hope that it will be quite fast.

      * If some amount of video conversion is necessary to get the raw video into some workable format, I hope that this process might be as efficient as possible.

       

      Being a complete amateur when it comes to video editing, I'm not really sure where to start but I expect that determing the parameters of my phone's native format would be the first step.  I have a lot of footage saved as video files with a file extension of 3gp.  When I upgraded to Android ICS, the extension changed to mp4.  I know that the file extension is not the whole story -- that a codec is also involved -- but my expertise ends right about there.  I'm wondering if there might be some standard procedure for inspecting new footage and determining what the best working and export formats are.

       

      If anyone could help me work through this, I'd be extremely grateful.

        • 1. Re: Need helping establishing workflow for phone video
          John T Smith CommunityMVP

          Read Bill Hunt on a file type as WRAPPER http://forums.adobe.com/thread/440037

          What is a CODEC... a Primer http://forums.adobe.com/thread/546811

          What CODEC is INSIDE that file? http://forums.adobe.com/thread/440037

          .

          Report back with the codec details of your file, use the programs below... a screen shot works well to SHOW people what you are doing

          .

          For PC http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ or http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

          For Mac http://mediainfo.massanti.com/

          .

          Also... different phone, but read Iphone won't edit http://forums.adobe.com/thread/881246

          .

          You MAY have a hard time editing video from a telephone

          .

          What does the maker of your phone have for video editing?

          • 2. Re: Need helping establishing workflow for phone video
            Ann Bens CommunityMVP

            Just import the footage from the phone into Premiere, edit and export with one of the build in presets.

            • 3. Re: Need helping establishing workflow for phone video
              sneakyimp Community Member

              John:  Thanks!  I'll be reading that stuff.  My primary goal is to build a solid understanding for video editing generally.  I have another project involving video file from over 10 years ago -- MY ONLY COPY OF THE VIDEO  -- and for some reason the audio does not play on this windows 7 machine. I have the audio in a separate file and would like to marry the two into a new video file. Much like this phone project, the goal is to make the less-than-ideal original footage look as nice as I can make it.

               

              Why do you say that it may be hard to edit the telephone video?  The phone, a Samsung/Google Nexus S, has an app called 'Movie Studio' but I've got no desire to try and edit video on a phone.

               

              Ann, I appreciate your response but respectfully offer that your suggestion does little to help me accomplish the goals I clearly laid out in my original post --  primarily because not one of those presets appears to match the properties of the video captured by my camera. Having inspected these videos in Windows 7 (right-click->properties), I see that the video resolution appears to be either 720w x 480h or 640w x 480 high depending on which camera is used. Frame rates are variously reported anywhere from 14 fps to 30fps. Audio appears to be mono 16Khz. I've seen presets in the DV-24P, DV-NTSC, and DVCPRO50 preset folders that match my frame size but not my frame rate or audio parameters. I've seen Premiere CS4 create cross fades between subsequent frames when converting from one timebase/frame rate to another. I do not want this to happen. Additionally, I believe that I could expect export of my project to take quite awhile. Most importantly, I would like to learn how *best* to handle my footage and configure my project to avoid unnecessary conversions of audio, frame rates, or codecs that degrade my video and audio quality and waste my time.

              • 4. Re: Need helping establishing workflow for phone video
                Ann Bens CommunityMVP

                Well i am still saying import edit and export.

                CS4 support 3gp and mp4.

                If you cannot find a preset you make a custom preset yourself

                What is the final destination of the footage, because that is relevant.