How to make dv captured files smaller and easier to stream?

[videomav]

Hi,

I own a 5 year old Panasonic DV camcorder. I'm trying to capture all the video on my computer and I use the software suite that came with it called MotionDV studio.

It generates these humongous avi files that are anywhere from 1gb to 10gb that are incompatible with X360, PS3 and even too large to buffer with TVersity. Plus they're hard to copy to a flash drive and require a separate drive to back up.

I don't believe Panasonic's software will let me capture the files to another format or maybe there's a way to do that.

How can I convert these files to a format that's both PS3 & X360 stream friendly and has a smaller footprint?

[videomav]

Sorry, I accidentally submitted before finishing the thread subject.

Is there a way to update it?

[Baldrick]

Click on edit and go advanced to update the title.

[aedipuss]

they're standard DVavi. capture to your hard drive with winDV. import the file into almost any converter - ripbot264, handbrake, xmedia recode, mediacoder, etc.... convert to mp4 using x264 at your choice of bitrate(around 2k would be fine).

[Cornucopia]

Re: How to make dv captured files smaller and easier to stream?

Make them NOT DV.

Seriously, that is the only answer.

Standard Definition DV has 1 and only 1 data rate: 25Mb/sec. Slightly more, if you use type2 vs. type1.
(Not talking about higher-rated Pro - 50Mb/sec, 100Mbps - or HD variations here, just standard prosumer type)

It's capping without any conversion at all - just a stream dump from your camcorder via Firewire to a file on Harddrive.

You want smaller? Convert them to something else (xvid/avi, divx/avi, h.264/mp4, wmv, etc.) Plenty of apps here that can do that (some already mentioned).

Scott

[videomav]

Thank you for the replies.

So in addition to capturing them which is a labor-intensive process, everyone has to convert them unless they run redundant SANs at their home to store the movies on. I was finally able to tweak the TVersity settings and make streaming possible on the X360 and PS3 albeit at the expense of visual quality.

I read another post where another person had the same issue and there were similar recommendations although it was overwhelming.

I'll look at the software that aedipuss recommended - thank you for taking the time to list them. Could I use Windows Live Movie Maker to convert them? If not, are any of the ones listed free and easy-to-use?

I should probably also ask this. I will be buying a new HD Camcorder. Do the new camcorders capture video as DV files? Can I take the USB stick or whatever it uses and plop into my PS3 and X360 (ipads in the future) to watch the movies easily circumventing my need to become Spielberg for a few hours a year?

Thank you,

Michael

[Cornucopia]

videomav,
I certainly don't consider dv capture to be a labor-intensive job.

• Hook up camera to firewire port.
• Fire up DV cap app that supports logged/timecoded capture
• Set start and endpoints (FF, & RW to get back to begin)
• Start capture and come back later when it's done

Yes, others have to convert them - unless they never cap via Firewire in the 1st place. You could do it via Analog composite out and then make use of your own capping app & video codec of choice, but you'd be losing a WHOLE LOT of quality through the Digital - to - AnalogComponent - to - AnalogComposite - to Digital roundtrip.

Plenty of converter apps here, incl. free + easy (well, relatively - you SHOULD understand the workflow, requirments of good video, and what the parameters mean).

New camcorders, specificly those those that do HD, DO NOT use DV. It's a mixed blessing. Yes, you can much more quickly and easily transfer and use the clips on your computer, but now you'll have to deal with codecs that are both MORE demanding (of you equipment's performance capabilities) and difficult to work with (editing, compositing, rendering) because of the LONG GOPs of Interframe compression. Plus, the fact that you're already starting from a MUCH more compressed source...

Scott