Cool Tool

Working with AVCHD video clips can be a hassle, particularly when your computer doesn't have the power to edit that footage in its native format. MPEG Streamclip is a great free tool to transcode footage to more manageable formats:

"MPEG Streamclip lets you play and edit QuickTime, DV, AVI, MPEG-4, MPEG-1; MPEG-2 or VOB files or transport streams with MPEG, PCM, or AC3 audio. MPEG Streamclip can export all these formats to QuickTime, DV, AVI/DivX and MPEG-4 with high quality encoding and even uncompressed or HD video."

Squared 5's MPEG Streamclip
is available at no charge for
Windows and Mac

MPEG Streamclip also supports batch projects and simple editing.

Here are two short clips created using a Koday Playsport. The first [file spec] and the second transcoded to DV. The ratio of transcode time to the duration of the footage was about 1:1.




This first clip is straight from the camera.





Notice that the DV version was mangled by Vimeo. The original file is 720x480 with letter box. Vimeo's transcoding squeezed the image and cropped the letter box. Ugh. Beyond the problems created by the video host, the DV file held up pretty well.

MPEG Streamclip is a great utility to have around. I'll have more on that little Kodak Playsport later, but as you've probably guessed, it's waterproof.