Best long-term storage codec?

[timmus]

I have some AVI-DV files that are just way too big to store. I'd like to compress them down into some manageable format for long-term storage. This isn't anything super important, so I can deal with a little compression loss... I've been perfectly satisfied with mpeg2 (but those m2v+wavs are sometimes a PITA to deal with).

I -would- like something that (1) imports readily into editors like Sony Vegas, and (2) is easily scooped up in TMPEG DVD Author to make DVDs out of them.

So what is the best format/codec for what I'm trying to do? Xvid? MPEG4? Or that newer codec, what is it, 262 or something? Again, quality is only half of the game... compression is important and I'd like to get down in the neighborhood of 50-75 MB/minute or less.

Tim

[steveryan]

If I were you i'd keep them as they are, just remember that when you compress you lose quality and you cannot get it back. Get a DVD writer and good quality discs, split your DV files with Virtualdub and burn them to DVD. If your computer specs are up to date then it would take you a long time to convert anyway, sorry if this is not what you want to hear

[Soopafresh]

Just burn the codec installer onto the disk with the media. That way, it'll always be available to you.

[redwudz]

Why not try some of those codecs with a representative sample encode maybe 10 minutes long? There are a couple of H264 codecs available in 'Tools', x264 Video Codec which is freeware and CoreAVC which is $10US. See if they will do what you want. I haven't tried CoreAVC, but x264 Video Codec does a very good job with high compression ratios. It also takes a long time to encode, though I haven't tried the later versions. Core may be faster, also.

I've also experimented with the Aud-x version of VirtualDub and the x264 codec. It's a nice combination.

And I would agree to save your originals as long as you can. Hopefully Blu-Ray or a similar high capacity format will become reasonable enough in price to be able to transfer economically to with no further compression in the future.

[timmus]

Looks like that x264 Video Codec is a bad idea... I took a look at the author's site:

latest changes: - no more decoder. it never worked anyway, and the presence of defunct code was confusing people.

Doesn't make sense why I'd want to encode something, only to find the decoder never seems to work.

[BJ_M]

you dont use x264 decoder to decode h264 anyway ..

h264 is going to be around for a long long time - it is quite the current and future standard (as VC1 will be I bet) ...

[celtic_druid]

x264 had some decoder code, but it was never updated and people kept posting on the mailing list without reading first. That last change was as a result of the last person who posted.

x264 is 100% MPEG-4 Part 10 AVC/H.264 compliant though so any decoder which is also compliant can decode it. So no need for a decoder. Plus libavcodec has a decoder which is worked on by some of the x264 devs, so in a way it is like the x264 decoder.

[edDV]

I'd keep important DV format material in DV format for now on DV tape or hard drive. HD/BD DVDR will soon be available to store 1 to 2 hours of DV format per DVD layer.

Looking to the future, experiment with advanced profile VC-1. It will do best with interlace DV-AVI but wait until you are satisfied with the results.

Software encode times will be very long. Affordable hardware encoders will become available in the next year or two.

DV format (25Mb/s + audio) at archive high quality would be VC-1 Advanced L1 @ 10 Mb/s.

VC-1 is being externally standardized as SMPTE-421M

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC-1
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/vc1techoverview.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoderse/default.aspx
http://www.smpte.org/news/press%5Freleases/003_06.cfm

[AlanHK]

I've been perfectly satisfied with mpeg2 (but those m2v+wavs are sometimes a PITA to deal with).

You've got plenty of suggestions for video. However, if you really are using WAV for your audio, that will eat up lots of space; perhaps as much or more than the video. Convert the audio to something like MP2 or AC3 (both are DVD MPEG compatible). Even at a high bit rate you'll save 90% of the space vs WAV.