compress 720p avi (from Canon tx1 )

[bango]

Hi,
I am trying to compress 720p avi to any format with high quality. Basically I want to play it in my HTPC. The avi coming out from my Canon TX1 is 1 GB per 3 mins of video. I tried windows movie maker but the quality is not that great and also it reduces it to 480p. I also tried SUPER but am getting flashes. I also want to merge my .avi (s) to one output file.

Any help will be appreciated.
-Bango

[Soopafresh]

That camera saves in M-JPEG video format, so you'll need to keep that in mind when you look for the best convertor.

I'm downloading a sample right now. Lemme see which app likes it the most.

Edit - I See what you mean about the quality. BTW, if super is flashing, you need to update Directshowsource.dll to any version later than Nov20, 2006.


Also, it does load in VirtualdubMod. That might be the easiest route. Play with some filters to make it look good, and save it as Xvid 2 pass.

[bango]

Thanx Soopafresh for taking a look at this.

[jagabo]

VirtualDub (or VirtualDubMod or VirtualDubMPEG2) along with the Divx or Xvid codecs should be able to compress the files to 1/3 their original size with hardly any visible loss of quality.

[bango]

Hi Jagabo,
I have never used VirtualDub before. Can you please give a bit detailed instuctions and also how to add the codecs.
Also do I have to merge the .avi (s) first and then compress or VirtualDub works 1 pass like Windows movie maker?
Thanx so much for your time...
-Bango

[jagabo]

Start VirtualDub:

1) File -> Open Video File...
2) Video -> Fast Recompress
3) Video -> Compression...

Select Xvid codec, press the Configure button. If you're not familiar with Xvid try pressing the Load Defaults button near the bottom of the Xvid Config dialog. This will set the Encoding type to Single Pass, Target Quantizer (constant quality). The default Quantizer value of 4.00 is probably a good place to start. Smaller values give higher quality and larger files. I usually use 3.00.

If you want to use Divx instead (it's much faster at it's default settings, quality is similar, the free version has some limitations though), select that codec and press Configure... Press the Restore Defaults button at the bottom to get to a known state. Change the Certification Profile to High Definition Profile or Unconstrained. Change Rate Control Mode to 1-Pass Quality Based, set the Target Quantizer to 3 or 4.

If you want to compress the audio too:

5) Audio -> Full Processing Mode
6) Audio -> Compression...

Select the audio codec you want to use and set the parameters. Say, MP3 with 192 kbps.

7) File -> Save as AVI.

[edDV]

Does the file play OK to the HDTV over analog component from the Canon camera? That was their intent.

If your goal is SD you should shoot SD. Why shoot 1280x720p 13min to 4GB only to compress it again? You can record SD 30 min to 4GB at 640x480 with less compression.

[bango]

My intent is to shoot at 720p and then view/archive in my HTPC. Because raw 720p coming out from my Canon TX1 takes a lot of memory, I want to compress it and save in my HTPC hard disk.
VirtualDub works good but how do I combine all my raw .avi (s) first?
-bango

[edDV]

My intent is to shoot at 720p and then view/archive in my HTPC. Because raw 720p coming out from my Canon TX1 takes a lot of memory, I want to compress it and save in my HTPC hard disk.
VirtualDub works good but how do I combine all my raw .avi (s) first?
-bango

The "raw" 720p coming from the camera is already under heavy compression per frame. You might get some additional motion compression converting to MPeg2 or Mpeg4 so long as you shoot from a tripod. Hand held video is unlikely to motion compress well. That is one of the reasons Canon uses MJPEG.

[darciron]

Visit http://powershot-tx1.blogspot.com/ for a list of options and results.
Personally, I like the Nero Recode "Cinema" mp4 conversion. It seems to have the best quality output for the space (somewhere around 25-30% original size)
Ryan

[DiGNAN17]

BTW, if super is flashing, you need to update Directshowsource.dll to any version later than Nov20, 2006.

Could you expand on this information? I also have a TX1, and I'm trying to convert a video I took to H.264 so my folks can play it on their Apple TV. The problem is that when it's done, I get rapidly flashing gray frames. What is Directshowsource.dll? Where do I find an updated version (or how do I tell that mine is old)? What do I do with it when I've got it?

[DiGNAN17]

Well, I figured out the Directshowsource.dll deal for myself. I put a newer version in the avisynth plugins folder, but now I still get bad flickering on my videos. Any ideas?

[edDV]

Well, I figured out the Directshowsource.dll deal for myself. I put a newer version in the avisynth plugins folder, but now I still get bad flickering on my videos. Any ideas?

The "raw" file didn't flicker? You are encoding 720p to 720P?

[DiGNAN17]

Definitely. I kept the original resolution, frame rate, aspect ratio (of course), etc. I just wanted a straight format conversion so it would be playable on an Apple TV.

[45tripp]

Directshowsource is an avisynth component.
Unless you're going to be importing avs scripts into super it's not relevant.

What you could do is change which direct show filters are used to decode your source.
Raising target bitrate also seems to reduce grey frames.

Hardly worth trying it though.
super is good for some things and not for others.

The "raw" file didn't flicker? You are encoding 720p to 720P?

grey frame flicker.
f4.avi

Why h264?
encoding to mpeg4 would probably save you some trouble.
vdub for video.
something for aac audio, super even.
mp4box to mux.

[45tripp]

Was going to post a sample of vdub-xvid encode vs super-mencoder-xvid but
vdub hits it's target and super overshoots, by far, and i'm tired.

Anyway,
If you wanted 264, you could start by trying with vdub and vfw x264.

[Soopafresh]

AutoMKV is another option. Here's a 74MB sample from that camera.

ftp://ia340919.us.archive.org/2/items/CanonTX1CanonTX1Sample2/MVI_0018.AVI