Quote Hi Alan et al -

I just did a little test here, since we're weighing up using converted files or PDR's shadow files. I understand from Alan's posts that the .MOV files from his dashcam take "too long" to generate shadow files... hence considering conversion in a separate application.

I don't know what the camera is so I don't have sample files to test. Instead I used 6 short 4K/UHD .MOV clips from Canon DSLRs - 5D MkIV, 6D MkII & C200. The clips range in VBR from 520 - 2,298 Mbps (so they'd be demanding to edit in that form). Total duration of the 6 clips is 00:01:57:26.

In Handbrake (free & does batch conversion), the 6 clips were converted to 1080p MP4. It took 5:50, after an initial scan time of ~30sec.

I imported the same clips into PDR, with shadow files enabled. It took 5:55.

From that little test, there is no time advantage. Other converters may do the job faster.

Alan - for your final production, do you intend to use the original clips or the converted ones? If original, you can do that with file substitution shown in this little tutorial. If not, don't click that link

Cheers - Tony

Hi Tony - thanks for getting involved - just to add a little background info - my primary motivation was to reduce the size of the raw materials, as my dashcam makes .mov files that were about twice as large as equivalent duration .mts files I am used to working with. Really impressed with the HD quality of the dashcam footage - and as such see it becoming an interesting part of our holiday movies providing an insight into what we are driving through to get where we are likely to be filming. Never thought of that at purchase time. PD16 is an ideal tool to speed up video over the boring (motorway) parts.

So - reduced filesize of raw material is the prime mover. Reduced shadow file creation time is a welcome bonus - which triggered off this task as I had not really noticed how much larger .mov clips were until I started playing in PD and noticed the longer shadow file creation times. If you see what I mean.

On holiday I need to reduce filesizes as dashcam will not hold all we will film so I will need to upload dashcam footage to laptop and whilst I am not sure how much storage we might need by the end of a 2 week motoring holiday I am in with a fighting chance if I can reduce the storage required by dashcam footage. All worked well last year with Canon footage over 10 days, but this year we are off for two weeks and have dashcam adding to storage requirements.

You know I just had to click "that link" despite not planning file substitution - neat little technique though.

See next post for detailed results of VLC player conversions.

Thanks for your input - much appreciated,
Alan.

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I agree, sorry for that. This one says it's really free:
http://www.freemake.com/offline/offline_all/

Or the famous Handbrake (supports encoding in Hardware with Intel QuickSync):
https://handbrake.fr/

Any success with those?

Tried Freemake - until you pay $40 it adds branding (watermark) and on the small run I did the speed looks slow albeit batch facility looks possible.

Now going to look at Movavi again for speed and batch capability.

Alan.

Installed Movavi video converter - heavy boasts about how fast it is - setup 2 .mov files as input and set mp4 as output - clicked convert - a few seconds later was all done - albeit only half a file (trial limitation) - was very impressed with the speed - then I noticed filesize was almost exactly half the .mov version - fair enough its half a file - plays perfect under WMP.

I am going down this route to save space and although fast - this looks like saving no space - further reading and Movavi reveal its effectively a remux job, same video different container, quality is the same - size is the same just the container that changed, fast this may be but its not giving the space I desired.

Now going to test VLC with the same task

VLC does a nice job, good because I already use and trust it.

Had to get latest version 3.0.0 as only that has acquired batch capability.

Conversion time to clip duration is approximately 1:1 but I don't mind as batch means I can at least walk away.

Loads my Intel i7 system fairly heavily - so earning its keep.

Just converted a batch of .mov files total 8.01GB down to .mp4 with a total size 3.78GB - impressive space saving.

Shadow file creation also similarly reduced.

I lose the GPS data, but have a utility from the manufacturer I can screen capture the route detail from for each clip.

Used PD16 to edit and produce mp4 end product and quality and resolution are indistinguishable from results using the .mov originals. Mission accomplished.

Thanks to all for interesting inputs.


Alan.

Thanks for posting here about VLC.
I am using it, but I didn't had the 3.0.0 version, now I had installed it.