What to do!?

[Regios]

Hello AMV

I've been pondering on what to do lately about an anime which I wish to make into an AMV.
I have, as always, bought it in BluRay format, so I can play it on my PS3 and enjoy full quality. But seeing as I don't have a BluRay drive for my PC I have come to the conclusion that I need to acquire my material source elsewhere.
That also at a lower quality.
My thought now is what editing software accepts .mkv files or do I need to convert these as well!?
Or do I really need to buy a new optical drive + editing software to fill the gaps?

Thanks

[Nya-chan Production]

Converting .mkv can be done in PC via AviSynth/VirtualDub, that's fairly everything you need. It takes time, but it's well worth it.

[Regios]

Thanks for your answer Nya-chan
I bought WinAvi Video Converter for a fair price and it has done what I wanted. But I'll check those two app's out the same. Another question would be, is Windows Live Movie Maker adequate at editing the actual video clips or do I have to grasp once again in my wallet?
Honestly I did expect that i'd had to pay up at some point, but what software am I looking for? Adobe Premiere, Aftereffects and/or that Sony application?

[Nya-chan Production]

Converting can be totally priceless - and it's usually better. It looks slightly more difficult at the first glance, but after some time you'll understand it and will convert without any money input. AviSynth and VirtualDub are totally freesource.

As for the editing, you'll probably want to start with Premiere or Vegas. After Effects is for something else - advanced effects, vector work, work with text. For most editing you see on these pages, Premiere/Vegas and some graphics editor (PhotoShop, Illustrator, free GIMP, etc) is enough. There are also some other choices (like WMM, Blender (primarily aimed for use with 3D modelling), Cinelerra, Magix (which you may want to try too), or, hell, you can even edit using AviSynth, if you have the guts to do so!), but most people will tell you these two are the best.

As for the choice, the best bet if you consider buying one of them is trying them out. They both provide Trial downloads, which you can compare and decide what you want. And don't forget that both of them (iirc, Vegas does for sure) provide student discounts, so they are quite affordable if you study.

[Regios]

Thank you very much for your feedback. It's been helpful and I look forward to what I can come up with .
Enjoy yourself and once again thanks.

[Pwolf]

you can buy bluray drives for about $80 now.

[kickass331]

avisynth, megui, sony vegas pro, mpc hc, ffdshow, adobe photoshop, after effects, aegisub... all you need then is TIVTC, DGIndex, DVDDecrypter, IMGBurn, msmooth, asharpen, derainbow, and undot

[Nya-chan Production]

avisynth, megui, sony vegas pro, mpc hc, ffdshow, adobe photoshop, after effects, aegisub... all you need then is TIVTC, DGIndex, DVDDecrypter, IMGBurn, msmooth, asharpen, derainbow, and undot

Okay, while you understand this field, you have made a few mistakes here.

1) The most important - you spew a lots of terms at a begineer who just asked which program to get and how to get something to play. At this point, your message would just confuse him.

2) Why have 3 editing programs when you can use just one? |:

3) MeGUI causes memory leaks - it's better to use ZarxGUI or simply learn how to encode using command line.

4) Why would you need Aegisub for EDITING?

Basically I see your message as a self-ego booster. "Hey, I have all of these and can work with them." Which might be true and I don't say it's wrong, but it's not helping the person at all.

[kickass331]

avisynth, megui, sony vegas pro, mpc hc, ffdshow, adobe photoshop, after effects, aegisub... all you need then is TIVTC, DGIndex, DVDDecrypter, IMGBurn, msmooth, asharpen, derainbow, and undot

Okay, while you understand this field, you have made a few mistakes here.

1) The most important - you spew a lots of terms at a begineer who just asked which program to get and how to get something to play. At this point, your message would just confuse him.

2) Why have 3 editing programs when you can use just one? |:

3) MeGUI causes memory leaks - it's better to use ZarxGUI or simply learn how to encode using command line.

4) Why would you need Aegisub for EDITING?

Basically I see your message as a self-ego booster. "Hey, I have all of these and can work with them." Which might be true and I don't say it's wrong, but it's not helping the person at all.

I listed programs since providing guides would take pages and well written ones are readily available. The last time I used meGUI was like 3 years ago (haven't edited for around 3 years except a tiny bit) and I never heard of ZarxGUI, plus I don't like CLI editing, since there are wrappers for CLI tools that allow you to update x264.exe frequently for example, meGUI autoupdates so it's great. My memory can take a leak on the floor for all I care. Also, Aegisub works wonders when doing fake anime ops or AMVs where the song is german, russian, japanese etc. / parodies of trailers and such. Vegas is a video editor, Photoshop is for images, necessary for chroma keying and making banners and poster like things to promote your amv on the forum, after effects allows for complex manipulation of individual scenes, in case you want to whore effects, or make something complicated like a collage of sorts, or a matrix, and /or use 3d effects that are more complicated to manipulate the z axis. If someone is unwilling to do the research when I provide them with a list, then it's their loss, I rather not waste time reiterating the basics of editing. I, myself have mastered encoding, ftp, irc, ripping, subbing, and now just have to learn blu-ray, dxva, cuda, gpu encoding, web hosting, and how in the hell to make an amv that isn't completely terrible. The last one I've been working on the longest.

[Nya-chan Production]

Okay, now read the first post carefully... does it sound like a guy who can understand what is "TIVTC, DGIndex, DVDDecrypter, IMGBurn, msmooth, asharpen, derainbow, and undot" and that you can use Aegisub while making not AMVs in literal sense (btw, the thing you mentioned can be done in Vegas/Premiere too, since OPs and such have mostly static subs).

"since there are wrappers for CLI tools that allow you to update x264.exe frequently for example, meGUI autoupdates"
Heard of RSS feeds and such?