MiniDV to Divx AVI

[Movie-Maker]

First of all I really dont know if a "conversion" is what I need for what I am trying to do.
My panasonic plasma tv can play "Divx" files from a USB flash memory. I would like to copy the raw avi captured from the minidv camcorder to a usb memory stick and just plug that into the tv. But it did not work. No specific messages from the tv but I am assuming it did not like something about the avi file. So what am I missing ? The avi is a typical DVCPRO AVI file. What do I need to do to make this work ? Please advise.
Thanks.

[aedipuss]

avi is a container. dixv is a format. a does not equal b. you can convert the dvavi to divx with an encoder.

[Movie-Maker]

If a conversion is involved then should I rather convert to AVCHD or still Divx ? The tv can play avchd as well.
Not knowing anything about either format I would like to prefer one that gives me the least loss in picture quality in the conversion process.

[Cornucopia]

They can both give you "the least loss", but because avc is a more efficient codec than divx/xvid, FOR THE SAME BITRATE, avchd would look like the lesser loss.

Understand though that avchd is geared toward HD (hence the name), and DV/DVCPRO are Standard definition.
So maybe divx might work better for you...

Scott

[_Al_]

DV avi is a dangerous beast, anamorph, interlaced, not sure if DivX is a good thing to encode into.


Why not to make interlaced mpeg2, 10Mbit, it should look good. You keep same aspect ratio, fields ...... of course I do not know how this Panasonic would handle that mpeg2 ...

[Movie-Maker]

so you're saying converting the dv avi to mpeg2 would be better than converting it to divx or avchd ?
and better in what way ? ease of converting ? or picture quality ?

[_Al_]

AVCHD is meant to be for HD video. I would not say that you need AVCHD on your thumbstick. AVCHD is a subgroup of mpeg4-avc alias H.264. Never come across a AVCHD video encoded into SD size (not high definition), not sure if it is possible or not.

How to explain it and not to confuse you.
You DV avi is 720x480 anamorph, not square pixel, all players "know" that, read flags and show it proportionally correct. Mpeg2 follows the same rules. On screen you see video with 4:3 ratio. Like 640x480 or whatever upscale is. 720:480 is not 4:3.
Mpeg2 could be interlaced like your DV avi. So when you encode into mpeg2 you keep size, you keep fields, no deinterlace of any kind that introduces artefacts.

Encoding is all about bit rate. You have simple mpeg2 encoder, you tell it to encode your video with 10Mbit per second, 10Mbitps, or even 8Mbitps to fall into DVD rules and you make mpeg2.

Not sure how you DivX encoder will handle interlace and aspect ratio not equal one. Smart thing would have to be to fix both, you resize to 640x480 and deinterlace. But you see this is butchering you video without even starting to encode it, compress it. Especcialy if you deinterlace to 30p(29.970) and not to 60p (59.940).

If your TV plays back mpeg2, from your thumbdrive I'd go with that mpeg2. I would not even hesitate.
If I thought to use it later on all nowadays devices, IPads, Tablets etc. I'd encode it to mpeg4-avc 60p (double frame rate) with good deinterlacers, but I am not sure if you would handle that. mp4 is ready for any flash player, html5 compatible and it is set somehow for future. But it is a hassle to do it right.

[Movie-Maker]

yes tv plays mpeg2. I do get your point about “butchering” the video.
Apparently there is something called AVCHD-SD, which is part and parcel of AVCHD. In essence avchd-sd can do 720x480 29.97 interlaced just like mpeg2, except that its mpeg-4/h.264. Although I do wonder though how much and what is mpeg-4/h.264 going to get you (as compared to mpeg-2) for SD video.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD#Interlaced_video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD#Specifications

As quoted from the page –

AVCHD supports both standard definition (AVCHD-SD) and high definition (AVCHD 1080i) interlaced video.
…
AVCHD-SD is not compatible with consumer DVD players, because it employs AVC video encoding instead of MPEG-2 Part 2.
AVCHD-SD can be played on a Blu-ray Disc player.

[_Al_]

Although I do wonder though how much and what is mpeg-4/h.264 going to get you (as compared to mpeg-2) for SD video.

Better result for the same bit rate after compression, especially for lower bitrates, differences could be remarkable. But question is do you need to compress it so much?

They need more power while decoding, after you stick your thumbdrive to older computer, Pentium 4 and such, you might see video stutter.

With mpeg2 you might as well make a DVD right away (convertxtoDVD) . Then use VOB2mpeg and save long mpeg2 file to your thumbdrive