Subscriber Discussion

Highlight Reel For Corporate Office

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Tony Darland
Oct 31, 2014
IPVMU Certified

Does anybody know of any free editing software that we can use to put together a highlight reel of past video footage? The idea is to have the highlight real available in our Corporate Security Office to show the value of security cameras/footage, and the general education regarding cameras, and also to show the kind of incidents that have/can occur.

U
Undisclosed #1
Oct 31, 2014

iMovie is great for this.

JH
John Honovich
Oct 31, 2014
IPVM

Come on, you damn Mac user....

Signed fellow Mac user.

(1)
GC
Greg Cortina
Nov 01, 2014
Windows Movie for windows lovers.
JD
Jim Daly
Nov 03, 2014

FREE editing software... For Corporate Security Office? To edit video into something worth showing in any office requires skill not only how to use the software but more importantly what to keep or discard.

If you are looking for free editing software I assume that you have not done this before, so if you value your time and sanity outsource this job to a freelancer on fiverr.com, elance or pph.

GC
Greg Cortina
Nov 03, 2014

I will say one of my customers gained a higher budget for future projects after showing the corporate management team successful captures and attempts. It's certainly worth doing and if movie making isn't your strong point I would find a friend or co-worker that is good.

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Ross Vander Klok
Nov 03, 2014
IPVMU Certified

We are not looking to put together anything fit for broadcast or trying to win any awards. Tony and I already have all the clips edited and saved the problem is they are in all different formats. Pelco, OnGuard, Windows, etc. etc. etc. Problem is everything we saved is in the native format and some of the formats we have not used in years.

So when we need to do a little dog and pony show for HR or Senior management I want one file that the Officer can just click on and let it play for five or ten minutes as opposed to trying to find and open all these separate players and clips.

JH
John Honovich
Nov 03, 2014
IPVM

Ross, good explanation.

How about using a screen recording application, play each clip back from various vendors / players, and the screen recording app will record it all into one single video that you can then export with standard file / video player? If interested, try Camtasia (Windows) or Screenflow (Mac).

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Ross Vander Klok
Nov 03, 2014
IPVMU Certified

Thanks John! We will take a peek at those. Right now I would prefer to do it within the department and not have our AV services crew involved so the screen capture route would be perfect!

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Gerald Becker
Nov 03, 2014
GC
Greg Cortina
Nov 03, 2014
VLC will do the capture as well and opens many non-proprietary formats. Unfortunately it's a little cumbersome to learn. It is free though.
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Ross Vander Klok
Nov 03, 2014
IPVMU Certified

Thanks Greg we have tried VLC in the past and at that time it did not open Pelco's PNS format.

GC
Greg Cortina
Nov 03, 2014
VLc also does screen capture. Not easy though! From there once you convert or capture into eithe MOV for apple or AVI for Windows the task will get much easier.
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Ross Vander Klok
Nov 03, 2014
IPVMU Certified

You lost me with the "Not easy though" part!

JH
John Honovich
Nov 03, 2014
IPVM

Or you can get a 30 day free trial to Camtasia :)

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Carl Lindgren
Nov 04, 2014

I've found that unless the VMS has built in editing capability (some do, like Geutebruck and IndigoVision), your best bet is to convert the clips to a non-proprietary format like MPEG4. Once that is accomplished, there are several free and/or inexpensive editing softwares, including Windows Movie Maker.

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Hal Bennick
Nov 04, 2014
Trafficware, a CUBIC Company

If you're looking to do this on the cheap, I would just sub it to someone on fiverr.com.

JH
John Honovich
Nov 04, 2014
IPVM

I like Fiverr and used it a number of times but I am not sure if I would be comfortable sending them my security video clips. That's obviously Ross / Tony's call here.

(1)
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Ross Vander Klok
Nov 05, 2014
IPVMU Certified

No chance we are letting these clips out of our control. If some of them showed up on online it would be a VERY bad day in the HMI Security department!

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Hal Bennick
Nov 05, 2014
Trafficware, a CUBIC Company

If you can't trust a 23 year old Albanian kid with a fiverr account, who can you trust?

(2)
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