Will Head
Here are 12 of the best free tools to get you out of sticky situations in which most video editors will find themselves from time to time.
Video work means you’ll inevitably spend a lot of time inside your editing application, but there are times when you’ll need to work with files from third parties that you can’t just drop straight in. There’ll also be occasions when you need to convert a file to another format and don’t want to fire up an editor just for a quick job.
Luckily, thanks to open source and the Internet, there are plenty of video tools out there that make your life easier. And the best bit is they’re all free so there’s no need not to have them ready to hand.
AJA System Test
If you’re not sure whether your Mac’s hard drive is up to the job of handling high bitrate video files, the AJA System Test is an easy way to find out (aja.com/products/software). You can simulate tests with different file formats, from Pal DV all the way up to uncompressed HD, and it will tell you the read and write speeds of the disks in your system in MB per second.
Alternatively, if you have some source files to hand, you can use those to check how fast they can be read. As long as the bitrate of the codec you’ll use is lower than the speed of your disk then your system will be fine.
Apple ProRes Decoder
Apple’s ProRes video editing codec comes as part of the company’s Final Cut Studio application, but you’re sure to run into problems if you try to play back files created using it on a machine without the suite installed.
To save you from having to transcode them to another format, which takes time and risks losing quality, you can install the ProRes QuickTime Decoder to access them. The program is available for both Mac (support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_for_Mac) and Windows (support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_for_Windows), so it doesn’t matter which platform you’re using.
Avid DNxHD codec
Avid also offers a video editing codec that’s similar to ProRes called DNxHD for use with its editing systems (avid.com/codec). If you need to play back files encoded with DNxHD, then Avid supplies a QuickTime component for both Mac and Windows that you can download and install.
In addition to letting you playback DNxHD files, you can also create them.
FFMPEGX
If the task of setting up the open-source encoder FFMPEG from scratch involves more command-line tinkering than you’re altogether happy with, then FFMPEGX is a great drag-and-drop alternative (ffmpegx.com).
FFMPEGX lacks the flexibility of the command-line version, as you don’t have access to all the options and it does use a relatively old version of FFMPEG, but it’s still a handy tool to have around for quickly converting files.
Handbrake
Handbrake (handbrake.fr) is another handy file converter to have around, and not just for its pineapple and pinacolada Dock icon. Although originally designed to handle DVD video files it will happily turn its hand to other media files as well.
It converts the input to Mpeg-4 or H.264 and in addition to templates for devices such as iPhone, iPod and Apple TV you’ve got a fair bit of control over tweaking the settings to get the exact results you want.
JES Deinterlace
Interlacing can cause all sorts of problems with video files. Thankfully, JES Deinterlace (xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html) can solve most issues for you.
In addition to doing basic deinterlacing, it can help solve field dominance problems or even reinterlace video if you so wish. It’s also handy for converting between different video formats, such as from Pal to NTSC or vice versa, so you can work with different sources of footage on the same project.
MediaInfo
MediaInfo (mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en) is another very useful tool for helping you track down compatibility problems with a file that won’t work. Given the enormous number of different formats and settings out there, it’s easy to end up with a file that won’t play where it’s meant to. MediaInfo will let you see the exact specs of the file in question, so you can double-check precisely where you’re going wrong.
Miro Video Converter
Miro Video Convertor (mirovideoconverter.com) is also based on FFMPEG, but concentrates on converting video files into formats suitable for playback on specific devices.
There’s no manual configuration option available: just drag a file you want to convert and choose a device template, such as iPhone, PSP or Nexus One. Finally, hit Convert and wait for the finished file to be produced.
Mpeg Streamclip
Mpeg Streamclip (www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html) is an invaluable tool for tinkering with source files before importing them into your editing application. It can open QuickTime, DV and HDV files, and convert them to other formats without a problem.
You can resize clips and de-interlace them as well, so if you’ve been given a file that’s proving troublesome for your editing app, then running it through Mpeg Streamclip and converting it to another format you know works first could do the trick.
Perian
Perian (perian.org) is a free-of-charge QuickTime component from the open-source community that adds support for a number of different video formats and codecs to your Mac. Install Perian and you’ll be able to work with files such as AVI, FLV or MKV and a huge variety of codecs.
As Perian is open-source software, someone has modified the code to provide individual QuickTime components for DVCProHD, HDV, XDcam and Mpeg-2 (blog.lib.umn.edu/mcfa0086/discretecosine/164630.html). This is useful if you’ve been given a file and you’re having trouble getting it to play back on your Mac.
VLC
Every Mac comes with QuickTme installed, but VLC (videolan.org/vlc) is a handy additional video player to have around. If you encounter a format that QuickTime can’t play back out of the box, then VLC may be able to let you watch it instead.
VLC supports everything from well-known formats such as Mpeg-1, -2 and -4 to lesser-known encoders such as Cinepak and Theora. The software is also handy for double-checking final files for any playback compatibility problems, as you’ve got an extra application in which to test them.
Vox
While iTunes is a great place to store you music collection, it can be a little overkill to fire up every time you just want to check some sound files to see if they’ll work in a video edit. This is where Vox comes in (voxapp.uni.cc/index.html). It’s a lightweight audio player that loads in seconds so you can quickly preview lots of files.
You can also quickly see the file properties and even convert between formats – for example, Wav to AIFF – and you can change the sample rate, too.
