Captured File Size Question

[pbmc59]

I was asked to capture my D8 tapes of a show in AVI format. I used Nero for this and was wondering if the file size for one hour of 43GB makes sense. The person is going to be doing alot of editing with the files. Before this, I've only ever captured using TMPGenc ( long time ago ), and those one hours files were compressed somewhat to come out at around 14GB. Thanks for your time.

[thecoalman]

If its a digital 8 transfer as DV-AVI, windv is free but any application will work. It's a transfer, you're simply copying the from the tape to the your HDD. It's an exact duplicate. About 14 gigs per hour.

[pbmc59]

You say windv is free, but any app will work. That's what I thought using Nero, but the file came out to be about 43GB for a hour D8 tape. Did Nero do something to the audio? The guy who wants these tapes asked for it to be in AVI format. I did some of this about four years ago, and I think I captured, and encoded with TMPGenc. The file size for a hour was around 14GB, but I never paid attention to the file type it captured it as. I'll try windv and take a look at TMPGenc. I know it's a bit for bit transfer, that's why I freaked out when I saw the 43GB file size. Thanks for your time.

[jagabo]

Saying you want the video in an AVI file is like saying you want it in a "box". AVI is a container (a standardized arragment and organization of audio and video within a file). It can contain audio and video compressed (or not) with any number of different methods. It's often called "DV AVI" when it contains DV encoded video and audio from a DV or D8 camcorder.

What's on the camcorder's tape is already compressed DV video and (uncompressed) audio. Capturing (not much more that a file copy really) with WinDV will put that into an AVI container without otherwise modifying it. The result will be about 13 GB/hr.

Many programs that caputure DV allow you to convert on-the-fly (Nero probably did this) but a DV AVI file is closest to what's actually on the tape. You can examine an AVI file to determine what codecs were used using a program like GSpot.

[pbmc59]

Thanks. What did Nero convert the D8 file too? If anything I would have expected some sort of compression. I just downloaded Windv, and will have to wait until Monday night to try it. Also, I may just have to dust off TMPGenc and try that. Thanks again for your time.

[jagabo]

DV is compressed although not very heavily. Nero may have decompressed it to YUY2. An hour of full D1 uncompressed YUY2 video is about 75 GB -- so maybe Nero then compressed it with a lossless codec like HuffYUV. That would get it down to the 40 GB range. If you still have the file use Gspot to find out. The AVI file includes all the information about what codecs were used.

[pbmc59]

Thanks for your time jagabo. Windv worked fine. I know four years doesn't sound like much, but it's taking a while for this to come back to me. Everyone here helped out alot back then too. Nice to see the help is still here. I just found Gspot on my system too..Thanks again.

[jagabo]

Glad to help out. By the way, did you use GSpot to examine the file Nero captured? I'm curious about what Nero did.

[pbmc59]

My bad. I deleted the 43GB file before I found Gspot sitting on my desk top. I have a feeling, like Roxio (4 yrs ago Roxio), when I captured with that, I figured out for some reason it would double the size of audio track, in PCM format. I would always get a "file too large" error, until people here told me to drop Roxio and get TMPGenc. Thanks again.
ps. many more questions to follow...

[thecoalman]

I figured out for some reason it would double the size of audio track, in PCM format.

DV-AVI use PCM so that's not the issue. Most likely you selected a different AVI codec, you can do this with other applications too. It's not necessarily a bad thing as it's just another option if you need it.

[jagabo]

And doubling the audio wouldn't come anywhere near trippling the file size. It would only add about 700MB to the file.