Need also expert advice about video and sound files!!

[vantechmag]

Please read carefully my 5 questions and give me then any good advice (best with some "why" it's like that) that naturally can help others too

Yes, I did finally decide that I will buy Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum (from Amazon uk) as soon as I have the money next month... Longing as xxx

But I have only 160gb of free space on the HDD and no money for an external hard drive, so I have to be smart with the file formats... And I still want VERY high visible quality!!

I save pictures as jpg (but with 4:4:4 color, that preserve gold tones) and not tiff, because the result look exactly as the original and my photo editor Corel Photo Paint X4 can edit a jpg picture many times - without any visible degradation

But now must I maybe save the best video parts 3 times on my computer, if I understand right and my video material is now on Hi8 and miniDV 4:3 interlaced... Yes, I plan to copy everything I have on Hi8 to miniDV with help of my fine Panasonic miniDV video camera and use Fuji tapes.... *1* Or is it better to use the S-video connector on my notebook (if it's work in that direction) and line in??

- First time must I save when I capture everything and save it... *2* My BIG question here, is if it is any really good format (instead of the miniDV file) that can save space, without loosing any visible quality AND naturally be perfect for Vegas to work with????

Yes, I know that miniDV take 2mb for every minute and already is compressed (mostly losslessly) about 1:5 times, so I understand that I may not save much space, if I save in another VERY fine format?!!

Then is it the sound archive format... *3* Is there any better "wide standard" alternative (slimmer but just as good quality) to 320kbps MP3 with help of LAME trough Audacity?!?

- Then must I also save the edited original file, so I can go back and do adjustments and especially create outputs in different formats and sizes... *4* Or is this only a rather tiny reference file, that store all the edit actions and POINT to the original files????

You see, I know almost nothing about editing yet!!!

- Third time must I in addition save any files I want to copy many times from my computer, but they will probably be in a rather handy compressed "output" format.... *5* But is there any "just as good" file format that take clearly less space, for material that is made for DVD??

Yes, I could probably find most of this if I spend another week looking everywhere.... But I guess some of you have very good expertise in this area and I am also very curios on your opinions

Hopefully

BB

[guns1inger]

If you are working with MiniDV then that is the format to stick with. Yes, it takes up space, but there is nothing that is compressed better that will preserve your quality and be easy to work with. MiniDV is designed to be a great editing format, and in that it succeeds. It also takes several re-encodes to introduce compression problems, something that other, more lossy formats cannot do.

As with your video, avoid using lossy compression formats as intermediate stages. Formats like MP3 are designed for end stage storage, not for editing and intermediate work. Repeat encoding quickly introduces damage.

If you want to preserve the quality then space is the price you pay. Buy a large external drive to give you more room. None of the compressed formats will serve you better, and most will make your life much harder. Oddly, while they work very well for end viewing storage, using formats such as H264 for lossless compression usually leads to even larger files than your source, and you still get all the editing headaches that come with the format.

[edDV]

What are the model numbers for both camcorders?

How are you capturing the Hi8? Through the MiniDV camcorder?

Generally you would capture to DV format, edit in DV format and output either to DV tape or compress to MPeg2 for DVD. Camcorder material should use high MPeg2 bit rates (~8Mb/s) due to shakey video and noise.

160GB is plenty of space. The edit program would perform better if you had video and temp files on a separate drive from the OS.

[jagabo]

I don't know about Sweden but in the USA you can get a ~320 GB hard drive for about US$50. A ~500 GB drive for US$60.

[vantechmag]

What are the model numbers for both camcorders?

How are you capturing the Hi8? Through the MiniDV camcorder?

The Hi8 is a rare Hitachi VM-H59E that give over 390 lines sharpness and has excellent (very high quality) auto functions and the miniDV is a Panasonic NV-MX8 with optical stabilizer and ONE great sensor that give amazingly 525 lines sharpness (better than most HD cameras) and both was made for the PAL system...

I will probably copy the Hi8 material to my fine miniDV camera - if it's not better to use the s-video port my Acer Extensa 5620G have (that I don't know work for input) as I told you above

** And I know that an external HDD is very cheap today, even if you select one with 5 years warranty - but I have EXTREMELY little money and that's also why I cant buy Vegas before next month ;-(

*** As I also wrote above... I don't know what's best to select and it's very hard to find this type of basic info "everyone know" so I don't know any better sound format alternative than 320kbps mp3 coded with LAME trough Audacity - so you are VERY welcome to tell me and also tell me if it will be smarter to use Vegas to capture the analogue sound, that I know have on fine MiniDisc's?????

Hopefully

BB

[vantechmag]

I understand that I simply have to save the original video on miniDV tapes, with one backup miniDV for each and a DVD record for two tapes, that I use to look for scnenes and so on... Because miniDV are too sensitive for use and begin to show dropouts after only 5-10 playings!!

And with 0.2GB per minute on the HDD take it too much space, to store 30 hours of original material there...

Then can I store my edited films plus little extra stuff, on my HDD and a backup HDD if I can afford one later... Hopefully must I not (question 4 above) save the working copy of each film, to be able to adjust stuff later in Vegas?!!

[vantechmag]

Arggg.... Im sorry, but Im lousy at math - my talents are others... That's also why i can't handle avisynth scripting!!!

I have now the original material on 19 one hours Hi8 tapes, that is recorded to 90% and I guess that I can cut away at least 10% of that, leaving max 16 hours...

But if I copy that to miniDV will that cost me 39sek x 16 and that's is 624sek (about 60 euro) and for that money can I actually buy a fine external "320GB" hard drive, that has room for at least 24 hours DV video - type 8 hours more!!!!

And the same goes if I make miniDV backup copies (another 320GB disc will cost the same) and then have I not even be able to work with the original material directly!!!!

So I guess that I have to save for a fine external 320GB hard drive, first...

Sorry for my lousy math grasp...

BB

[edDV]

What are the model numbers for both camcorders?

How are you capturing the Hi8? Through the MiniDV camcorder?

The Hi8 is a rare Hitachi VM-H59E that give over 390 lines sharpness and has excellent (very high quality) auto functions and the miniDV is a Panasonic NV-MX8 with optical stabilizer and ONE great sensor that give amazingly 525 lines sharpness (better than most HD cameras) and both was made for the PAL system...

I will probably copy the Hi8 material to my fine miniDV camera - if it's not better to use the s-video port my Acer Extensa 5620G have (that I don't know work for input) as I told you above

So long as your NV-MX8 has external analog recording capability this would work. I can't find details on that camera. Some models allow "analog pass through" so that analog inputs are passed to the DV IEEE-1394 output without need to record to tape first. That would allow direct capture to the hard disk. Check your manual to see if this camera supports that mode.

The S-Video port on your Acer is most likely an output not a capture input.

[edDV]

I understand that I simply have to save the original video on miniDV tapes, with one backup miniDV for each and a DVD record for two tapes, that I use to look for scnenes and so on... Because miniDV are too sensitive for use and begin to show dropouts after only 5-10 playings!!

First priority is to copy your Hi8 material to DV tapes or hard disk. Hi8 tapes are subject to increased dropouts and deteriorate with use. MiniDV (digital) tapes can be played many times without deterioration. They will last 15 years or longer.

I recommend 1 hour recording to each DVD disk. The quality will be much better. You can encode 8000Kb/s CBR with uncompressed PCM audio or 9500Kb/s CBR with MPeg audio.

And with 0.2GB per minute on the HDD take it too much space, to store 30 hours of original material there...

Then can I store my edited films plus little extra stuff, on my HDD and a backup HDD if I can afford one later... Hopefully must I not (question 4 above) save the working copy of each film, to be able to adjust stuff later in Vegas?!!

You can get alot done on 160GB (~ 12 hours) while you are saving up for more disk space.