[VideoKnife]

This thread contains my suggestions for changes or enhancements to the Bytessence AMVConverter 0.2. By all means try this converter. Early adopters are coming back with great reviews. Special thanks to the talented programmer who makes it available for free!

Special kudos for the on-line help in the Bytessence AMVConverter 0.2. Very nicely done.

Nothing in this posting is intended as a criticism. I hope this list, and any additional ideas other folks add to this thread, can generate some great ideas. Okay, here is the list.

1. Add explicit support for the .FLV extension in the file open dialog box. The support for FLV in FFMpeg takes care of the hard work. Just make adjustments so that it is an important feature in the user guide and dialog boxes.

2. Along the same lines, add the ability to stitch three or four FLV's into a single AMV. This is a typical scenario if, for example, you are converting TV shows or Anime fansubs from YouTube. People would probably pay money for this.

3. If you are a VirtualDub user, you know that one of that program's greatest features is the ability to show (in File menu, File Information) what video and audio codecs any AVI file requires, even if you don't have them installed. Every other application if have seen simply displays "unknown codec" if you do not have the matching codec installed. If the Bytessence AMVConverter could show, next to the Input field, what codecs are expected and display them in read with a hyperlink to an on-line help file directing people to possible codec sources, it would make many people very happy. If Avery Lee can do it, you can too!

4. I find that, on a 1.8" MP4 player, the resolutions 160x128 for TV programs, 160x96 for wide-screen movies, and 160x64 for ultra-wide movies help to keep the videos from being stretched when converted. I wonder if it would be possible to look at the source AVI file and, based on its aspect ration, suggest a "recommended" AMV size for the output to reduce distortion. Perhaps the user of the software should be prompted to enter the screen size of his/her player when setting up the software to facilitate this.

5. Just about any kludge to preserve the legibility of fansubs when transferred to small MP4 screens would be terrific. I am looking into technical solutions to this one myself. I will post whatever I come up with in the forum.

6. On my secondary computer running Windows 2000, none of the pull-downs in the Edit dialog box pull down. This is not my video editing machine, so something might be missing from the environment. If FFMpeg is required for the software to behave correctly, the application should refuse to open without it.

That's all I have for the moment. I hope other users will add their suggestions to this thread so that they might be considered and discussed.

VideoKnife