Which is best to use for the Future DV-AVI to Divx or Mpeg4

[pochrist]

I'm looking into backing up my DV-AVI videos to a format that will

1) Retain as much quality as possible.
2) Highest compression available
3) Future compatability with new OS's

I've already made these videos into DVD's, but one day I may want to do them over or something, anyway if the DV-AVI is small enough I just burn it as data to a DVD Disk, but now I have some that are too big to fit on one disk (and one that will take 5 disks) I've heard in passing that Divx offers High quality compression, but I'm concerned about it's future. I've also Heard that Mpeg4 is good too but I don't know which way to go and if I'm missing a better option. Any help would be appreciated.

[pochrist]

Uh...,Hello?, Is this too difficult to answer, or nobody backs anything up around here?

[D_Knife]

ok I'll bite

1) Retain as much quality as possible.
2) Highest compression available

these two requests are pretty much mutually exclusive
the best you could hope for is
1) Retain enough quality so it looks "good" ( good being a user defined level)
2) Resonable compression level

Divx is MPEG4 - there are several variants but they all work on the same base method of compression
You could store the files in say Divx 5 or similar on a DVD as a datafile and still retain some editing controls down the track but really there is not any usable means of storing high quality footage on disc - maybe you should be archiving raw footage onto DV tape and putting it in a cool,dry and dark storage area along with a CD or DVD of source assets. Still images, titles, effects lists and so on.

Or failing that encode the material into a resonably high bitrate and put them on DVD as DVD movies and just be done with it.

[DigitalMan43]

I think the best method would be to just send them to your DV camcorder and save them on tapes if you have a camcorder. You'll retain every bit of the quality and every bit of the ability to edit them at a later date with no quality loss.

Digital Man

[SaSi]

There are 4 MPEG-4 variants I know of currently. DivX, Xvid, Windows Media and RealVideo.

Ok, forget Realvideo, as the tools are too much oriented towards streaming video, however, I think that all the other three are equally well designed compression codecs for retaining image quality.

As far as future compatibility is concerned, anybody's guess is as good, but DivX has established itself well enough with DVD players appearing that can play DivX video.

Windows Media is gaining popularity on a daily basis and has the Microsoft seal, however Microsoft is known for abandoning a "standard" in favour of a new one that they consider better.

Xvid is popular among people not liking Microsoft and not liking DivX.

If you want to ensure compatibility, then MPEG-2 would be a better answer today. MPEG-2 has established such a huge commercial base, especially out of the computer world that changes by the day, that I find it almost impossible for computers not being able to playback DVDs (i.e. MPEG-2) for the next 10 years or so.

If I had to answer this question for myself today, I would encode to DivX in high quality settings (Q<3) and record the streams on a DVD.

DV is much to big to manage and storing it on tape defeats the task. Tape is very vulnerable.