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mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

HI everyone
I am new to Shutterstock footage, i have had a few files accepted but am totally addicted already and am working hard to add to them.
I have a quick question if anyone has time to help - i´ve noticed some footage has the audio while others are silent, i am guessing it is best to remove the sound ( we are talkng just general background noise here ) i am not very computer clever, my videos are Quicktime and i am finding it difficult to find something that can accept quicktime and allow me to remove the audio, I have downloaded various free video editing software but they didn´t accept Quicktime. - do i need to convert the file? and if so, what do you recommend converting it to?- will it lose quality? will i have to convert it back ? Any suggestions of some easy to use software would be greatly appreciated.
hehehe sorry if i sound totally thick but i told you i wasn´t very computer clever !!!

varius · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:43 am

MPEG_Streamclip should be able to do what you want. It's free, but you need to have Quicktime installed. (Not neccessarily the Pro version)

mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

Thankyou for the quick response, i got it and it is really easy to convert the files, do i still need an editor to do the audio, or should i be able to do it in this software.
Also (again with no knowledge about these things) do i lose quality when i convert the file?

varius · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:04 pm

To remove the audio you only need to export the movie without the audio track. You can easily do that in the batch mode - i.e. simply stip all audio from those files that only have background noise (or worse: music).

As for conversion, which codec does the original footage use? For uploading MJPG (for interlaced) and PJPG (for progressive) are best. Files get huge though.

mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

Woohooo now we´re getting somewhere. I did what you said. It is quicktime so i selected "export to quicktime" ( as i don´t need to change it) and then when it popped up all the options, simply selected " no sound" and Tada horrible noise gone!! I didn´t touch anything else except the quality slider - which was at 50% default and i put it to 100%. Everything else i left as default ( i assumed it was automatically correct)
The sound is gone but the file size has increased from 11.7KB to 55.9KB. Should i have left the slider at 50%??
Oh and i think i was getting confused about needing to convert the file ( that was when i was trying to use other software) this seems nice and simple :) except the new giant size ofc :D

varius · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:18 pm

OK, we have the sound covered. Good. :)

Now the codec part. That is the compression algorythm that encodes the video part of the footage. The default setting of Streamclips is not necessarily the best setting. Depends on what your footage is originally encoded with.

So, basic question: What do you use to generate/record the footage. Since you're mentioning background noise I assume it's a video camera/camcorder. What brand/model is it? Does it record on tape/DVD/hard disc/memory chip? What's the original resolution (PAL DV, NTSC DV, HDV, HDTV...)?

Oh, and don't be alarmed by the file size. 30seconds of HD footage can easily be as large as 1GB or more. And don't be shy to ask - there are no stupid questions. We all had to learn this techno-lingo at some point.

mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

AAargh omg this bit sounds complicated :)

I will try to answer as best i can

I am using a digital camera (panasonic TZ3 ) which records to SD memory card. The last part of your question i don´t know! once the files are on my computer they are Quicktime movie, format is Photo-JPEG 640x480. THis is ok, they upload and are accepted ok. I don´t want to change this, really just the audio, which we seem to have sorted, only problem was for some reason the file changed in size from 11kb to 55kb!!
I hope i have given you enough information.
ty

varius · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:02 am

Ah, a digital photo camera. OK, in that case when you make your next clips choose Photo-JPG as your codec and set to 95% quality. That way you should end up with reasonably sized files.

mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

AHHHAAAA yuppers, ty so much that works perfectly it has become a 24kb file from an 11kb which is so much better than the 55kb :D ty for your help.
Believe it or not i have a new problem ( since we have been sorting this out) i was using an older version of quicktime and all the files i uploaded were perfect, then i upgraded to version 7 and uploaded 4 files which all show as coloured confetti ..... :(
I am just trying 1 again now to see what happens.
HEHE makes me feel i´m going a little mad, thinking of going bak to the old version ( which seemed much quicker too) but then i can´t use this new MPEG-stream for the audio LOL ahhhhh computers. knew i should stick to photography ( and i´m new to that too LOL )

mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

ooo by the way will the 95% make any noticeable difference to the quality, as you know its a photo camera so i need all the quality i can get ;)

mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

hmmm, so the 4 files i uploaded yesterday (that look like confetti) gave me a pop up at the end of each one ( which i never saw b4) saying something about source file and target file ( can´t remember exactly but was something about existing already and what action i want to take - i cancelled it as i didn´t know :D )
Then today i uploaded 2, the 1st one gave me the pop up and i selected one option, it made no difference and the thumbnail is confetti, the 2nd one didn´t give a pop up and it looks fine ( thumbnail has correct image), so i uploaded a 3rd and that says (image not available) -Currently being processed and has done for about 1/2 hr - i am trying another couple but will be few mins more b4 i can say what happened ................ooooo i have a headache!!

varius · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:37 am

A pop up? When did you get that and what did you use there? Never seen one when uploading.

As for the confetti preview: If that happens something went wrong with the uploading. Usually the only option is delete and re-upload.

And the 95%: Makes a huge difference in file size, but hardly noticable in quality.

mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

:) wow you really do have all the answers :D

erm the pop up - on the 1st 4 (confetti) files i just cancelled it but wondered of i should have done something, options were stuff like overwrite, resume and i can´t remember the rest - they popped up on completion of the upload, which is why i cancelled.
i have now uploaded them all again, with no pop up appearing but except the one mentioned earlier none have images they all say
(image not available)
Original filename: xxxxxxxx
Currently being processed

mayb these will work ??

varius · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:57 am

Most likely they will. It usually takes a few minutes and up to a day or so for the thumbnails to be generated.

mooncaz · Joined: 24 Jan 2008 Posts: 20

Really!!! Oh thats brilliant, i hope they do, before this lot they were fairly instant, but i will wait and see. I really hope so - don´t think you or i can cope with any more problems ;)
Thank you so much for all your time and help

BTW you will be delighted to know by helping me with the audio side of things you helped me be able to upload a Spice Girls clip ( previously rejected as sound was copywrited) HAHAHA bet you´re pleased to hear that !!! :D

Guess the pop up confetti issue was a one off glitch ( fingers crossed)
Thank you once again