How to use VSDC for side by side video?

mikek753

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Hello pros,

I'm new to side by side and I'd like to know how to do it properly by any free Video Editor?
I'd appreciate simple steps guidance that I think can help many to contribute to this forum.

My steps for VSDC Free edition:
1. create new project - 1080/60p, I set no audio
2. add video object - 1st video
3. "crop borders" for 1st video - leave width as it, change height to 540; my example position 0,450,1920,990 (1920x540)
4. set Coordinates to Top "-270"
5. add 2nd video object
6. "crop borders" for 1st video - leave width as it, change height to 540; my example position 0,450,1920,990 (1920x540)
7. set Coordinates to Top "+270"
8. save Project
9. go to Export Project tab
10. select PC and appropriate output format; I select AVI with Highest Quality
11. press red "Export Project" to start video conversion
12. upload your resulting side to side video and place the link to it in your new thread for this forum ;-)

I have some issue with "Export Project" that results in large resulting file size that isn't convenient to store and upload.
I have two source videos, both about 400MB sise and expected output should be about 400MB - 600MB, but I got about 4GB!!!
I tried mpeg4 and h264 profile, but the same huge output.
How I can resolve it to get about 500MB resulting output?

Thanks.
 
VSDC isn't too helpful in telling you what the output size is going to be. I used to have custom settings based on a guide on YT but lost that when I upgraded VSDC recently.
What I'm doing now under export project is:
Media device = PC
Output video format = To Mov
Profile = H264/AVC profiles
Normal Quality - Video: H264/AVC; Audio: AAC - 192 kbps

This gives reasonable file sizes, but you can Edit profile... then Configure... to fine tune things, or choose one of the other quality settings.
I should really experiment more, but what I'm doing seems OK for Youtube uploads.
 
thanks for your replies
I sorted out my issue, not sure this is the right way or isn't
this is what I do for the export:
created new profile for AVI, where h.264 is selected and Encoder Mode set to "Target file size" I put 500
profile.JPG
 
thanks for your replies
I sorted out my issue, not sure this is the right way or isn't
this is what I do for the export:
created new profile for AVI, where h.264 is selected and Encoder Mode set to "Target file size" I put 500
View attachment 29001

Some ways to reduce the size without losing the quality are also shown here -
 

Attachments

  • upload_2017-2-1_12-26-2.png
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I tried VSDC a while back and it has a lot of functionality but the video produced wasn't smooth, it stuttered noticeably, any improvements in recent versions or any hints on how to get a better end result?
 
I tried VSDC a while back and it has a lot of functionality but the video produced wasn't smooth, it stuttered noticeably, any improvements in recent versions or any hints on how to get a better end result?
The program is regularly updated and bugs are fixed, latest release (5.7) was last December - http://www.videosoftdev.com/news/new-blur-filters
You can give a try to it, we'll appreciate any feedback.
 
Will have a look when I get a chance, hope to see some improvement, it showed a lot of potential but just didn't produce the right end result unfortunately, we weren't doing side by side video, we were doing top and bottom, it works better for comparison purposes that way
 
If VSDC is using a recent version of the H264 encoder with good encoding parameters it can even create transparent encodes. These days people are not affected so much by final size of an encoding so it is good to offer default values not as 600kbps like is now which is very low for actual HD recordings, the CRF to be about 21 and not 80 like now and for lossless encode the CRF value to be about 16-17.

Can be a waste of work to create a great program with so many features if the encoding process which is the most important part of a project is not set as default for great quality and not smaller size. Most of the videos are uploaded on YouTube or Vimeo and for a user is not important if is uploading 200mb or 2GB for the same video if the user wants the best video quality.

Please create default values for great quality and consider most of the people are recording now starting from Full HD.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
If VSDC is using a recent version of the H264 encoder with good encoding parameters it can even create transparent encodes. These days people are not affected so much by final size of an encoding so it is good to offer default values not as 600kbps like is now which is very low for actual HD recordings, the CRF to be about 21 and not 80 like now and for lossless encode the CRF value to be about 16-17.

Can be a waste of work to create a great program with so many features if the encoding process which is the most important part of a project is not set as default for great quality and not smaller size. Most of the videos are uploaded on YouTube or Vimeo and for a user is not important if is uploading 200mb or 2GB for the same video if the user wants the best video quality.

Please create default values for great quality and consider most of the people are recording now starting from Full HD.

enjoy,
Mtz

MTZ,
would you attach screenshot of your Profile Editor with all parameters that you use or recommend? Please.
 
I am not using VSDC for side by side comparison, but I hope to use it someday for other projects.

I am using an avisynth script like this, for example:
a = AviSource("C:\g1ws\gn.avi").AssumeFPS(30).trim(8,0)
b = AviSource("C:\g1ws\c2n.avi").AssumeFPS(30).trim(1,0)
StackVertical(a,b)
#lanczosresize(840,540)
ConvertToYV12()


And when I am encoding the file I am using H264 encoder with default settings and with CQP = 17 and Medium preset. Maybe @VSDC will understand more from my type of work and will implement in the future quality settings for default encodes. He can even create a profile for side by side comparisons with a transparent encoding output. I don't have a powerful PC and I am encoding at 2-3 fps, but is not a problem for me because my comparison videos are about 1 minute so I can wait 15 minutes of encoding to offer the best possible output.

I made a short test in VDSC with CQP = 17 preset and resulted video have about 2.5mbps bitrate and my CQP = 17 avisynth encode resulted in a 34mbps bitrate.
Is a little complicate to work with avisynth compared to VDSC so my advice is to find a way to obtain transparent encodes from VDSC.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
MTZ,
would you attach screenshot of your Profile Editor with all parameters that you use or recommend? Please.
I've always used the MOV file output so that I can use H264 with it set to a quality of 18 for good quality output and 24 for a much smaller file for upload to YouTube. For the newer better cameras 16-17 is worthwhile as suggested by Mtz.

The CRF value mentioned by Mtz is the "18" and "Target Quantizer" settings in the H264 configure box:
upload_2017-2-2_0-45-57.png
upload_2017-2-2_0-45-17.png

I haven't used VSDC for a while due to it not producing smooth 60fps so these images may be an out of date version, will be interested to know if they have solved that problem. I've always found it OK for 30fps and it does have some great features for a free editor.

Note that by setting the CRF value, it produces a file of consistent quality at the quality requested, if it is night or there is little movement the file will be a lot smaller than if there is a lot of action in daylight. At a value of 18 it is hard to see any quality loss for most dashcams, for the better action cameras 16 is better but gives a larger file.
 
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There are 2 ways of the split:
set A119S to EV+1/3
both are cropped to keep 1:1
I think that horizontal is a bit better
My resulting encoder is set to 500MB that translates to 24000 kbps 60fps
when I tried 1000 kbps I got resulting file as 20 MB size, but quality was bad
I used 2-pass and it takes about 6-10 min for the export and about 10 min to setup positions and crop values
 
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