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  1. Sorry for asking such a novice question.
    I have not done video editing or compressing in many years (since DVD burning was new, LOL!)

    I have a bunch of MiniDV, D8, and Hi8 tapes that I have captured with Sony Vegas, but want advice on the best conversion method that has the most universal playback options, and keeps the quality as close to the original as I can.
    I'm not worried about the end file sizes being large, just not obviously as large as the raw captured size.

    I have Vegas Pro 12 for editing and compressing, or I can edit in Vegas before using Handbreak to compress.

    Please give me your advice,

    Thanks,
    Barney
    Ok Ok Ok, I know I'm not as smart as all of you. But look how much smarter I make you look!
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  2. The closest thing to universal today (who knows what it will be tomorrow?) is mp4 with h.264 video and AAC audio.

    Vegas has several presets that will output this just fine -- and they can be tweaked.

    If you want to use the highly regarded x264 encoder, the same one used in handbrake, Vegas can access it directly 1) if you have it loaded on your system and 2) if you output as avi. Since avi does not really support aac audio, the additional (fairly quick) step of reencoding the audio and remuxing it to the video can be done in a tool like AviDemux.
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  3. So you have lots of DV avi files,
    one of the way is to edit them in Vegas and export them into DVavi movies. This is done without loss. Only changed parts will be rendered again, like cross-fades, parts after color correcting or other effects. You have basically originals edited on your hardisk. And then you edit those DVavi movies into mp4, dvd, whatever you want to compress them and make your movies playable on hardware players.

    One of encoders you can use in this situation is this one, DV avi helper, I specifically made this for this purpose, for tons of DV avi footage, you can convert lots of DV avi's using same settings, it is x264 based, makes best mp4 progressive (automatically using QTGMC, that is why i made this), or interlaced mp4 or DVD (one drop of DV avi to makes DVD) from DV file. It is DRAG & DROP based. You just need to install Avisynth and Cedocida DV codec, but you do not need any knowledge of Avisynth, scripts are created behind scenes.


    If you do lots of changes in video while editing do not use DV avi render, render directly into some format for hardware players and to compress it, but you do not have a nice descent original master of that movie for later or back up then:
    -Render directly to some format (mp4, dvd)
    -use lossless and that lossless load into Handbrake or any other encoder of your choice
    -use frame server, but frame server does not work with Handbrake
    Last edited by _Al_; 20th Mar 2014 at 08:49.
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    @_AI_: Thanks alot for the DV avi helper, its ridiculous cool after spending alot of time trying to get everything to work.

    I tried to mod the make_progressive_mp4.bat into accepting .avi and .mov with no luck, it still complains about not getting a DV stream.
    Is there a version of your scripts that will take .avi or .mov (with qtinput)

    thanks again!
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  5. I set it up for DVavi type2, Avisynth loads that if Cedocida DV codec is installed.
    Not sure what container for DV you have also, if I wanted to load another dv type like coming from quick time for example I would have to load it into Avisynth with ffmpegsource I guess.
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    yes DVavi is no problem, works perfect! Is it possible to mod it so it can load avi and mov? at the moment it specifically checks for DV codec.
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    Why do you want to do that when your source files should all be DV?

    Scott
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    i have a few Recordings as .mov and .avi (ProRes422 and UTVideo Codec) which i do not have the original tapes of anymore.

    Plus i read that when dealing with NTSC Tapes that DV Video is only suboptimal. Since i have a blackmagic intensity pro i could capture those analog off the camcorder.
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  9. For more general avi you can use this make MP4 from avi.BAT , drag & drop avi files on it, but it will ask you for some input (only one time) - aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9), field order (bff, tff or none) and encoding method (interlace or progressive). AVI format does not have aspect ratio info, etc., you put that info manually. But still input resolution should be 720x480 or 720x576. It can be used for DV files as well, if you put correct input.

    To accept any resolution would ask for more comprehensive GUI, dealing with SAR and output resolutions, this would make less and less sense to make this batch for universal purpose. There is lots of converters out there, I know no QTGMC batch, which is quite important with these small resolution sized videos. But if you have particular resolution you can modify that batch easily so it works for your purpose, or ask what to change.
    Last edited by _Al_; 24th Apr 2014 at 14:18.
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    thanks so much! i managed to modify your script also to accept .mov (ProRes422) testing right now...

    trying to find a way to make x264.exe utilize more than 55% CPU, has to be a switch somewhere.

    is there a way i can donate for your work? the scripts just work for me.
    Last edited by Opticum; 24th Apr 2014 at 14:23.
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  11. I made these scripts for myself so no problem at all, I'm glad it is helping you also.
    It is QTGMC that causes CPU not going close to 100%, you'd have to modify scripts so it utilizes CPU better , I did not bother to go into this, it needs another version of Avisynth and some tuning up to make it work.
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    i managed to get MT working but it is sometimes crashing. regarding ProRes422 Conversation i ran into a few hurdles that i am trying to iron out. Had an issue with async sound that i am now testing if it persists. Probably better not to bother with MT unless you really need it often and alot.
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