Which codec? There are sooo many to choose from.

[thief_]

This is prob asking for a flame, but.....

I capture a lot of video from my VCR, mainly home movies. There are two questions I'd like to ask:

1. Capturing from the VCR using my DV camera, I use the camera's Firewire port to capture to PC (where the DV camera acts as an analog-2-digital converter). Being a Sony, the captured video is coded using the Sony codec. If I want to be able to distribute that video to others, where do I find the Sony codec and how do I distribute it?

1. I use Vegas Video 5 to edit DV. There are soo many codecs available, so which do I choose if I want the output shown on ANY Windows PC without having to distribute any codecs? Is there a standard codec which Windows uses?

1. Which codec is the clearest quality but smallest file size? I would have thought DivX, but when I tested it, it looked like a VCD movie?!

Thanks for your help.

PS. How do you use the open-bracket LIST= close-bracket tag?

[p0rnLiME]

Tried Xvid?

Maybe you used wrong settings when encoding with divx, or maybe your source is crappy...

[solarfox]

Actually, that's more than two questions. Anyway:

Capturing from the VCR using my DV camera, I use the camera's Firewire port to capture to PC (where the DV camera acts as an analog-2-digital converter). Being a Sony, the captured video is coded using the Sony codec. If I want to be able to distribute that video to others, where do I find the Sony codec and how do I distribute it?

What model of Sony is it? Most DV camcorders actually encode the video as DV-Type-1 or (sometimes) DV-Type-2, so any DV codec ought to be able to play it. DV would be a horrible choice for distribution, though, since it requires some 3.5Mb per second. I seem to recall there being some free playback-only DV codecs around; try looking in the tools section here on the site.

I use Vegas Video 5 to edit DV. There are soo many codecs available, so which do I choose if I want the output shown on ANY Windows PC without having to distribute any codecs? Is there a standard codec which Windows uses?

It depends on what you mean by "any Windows PC" and "standard."

Microsoft would tell you that Windows Media 9 is the "standard" codec, since that's what they ship with the latest incarnation of Windows Media Player and Windows XP.

However, if you want it to be playable on any Windows system going all the way back to, say, Windows 95 or NT 4, without knowing what codecs the end user has and without having them install any, your options are going to be pretty limited: Microsoft Video 1, Cinepak, Microsoft RLE, and maybe Intel Indeo 3.2. Oh, or MPEG-1. Unfortunately, none of these are going to give you particularly small file sizes unless you crank the compression way up at the expense of image quality.

Which codec is the clearest quality but smallest file size? I would have thought DivX, but when I tested it, it looked like a VCD movie?!

You might need to adjust the compression settings; like any codec with adjustable bit rates, your image quality will depend on how large you allow the file to be. It might also depend on your source material -- unless the camcorder is locked down on a tripod or has a really good "steadicam" function, camcorder footage tends to give encoders more of a headache because of the constant small camera motions.

[junkmalle]

where do I find the Sony codec and how do I distribute it?

You probably don't want to do that because DV AVI files are quite large -- about 3.6 MegaBytes per second.

which do I choose if I want the output shown on ANY Windows PC without having to distribute any codecs?

MPEG 1 and Microsoft's WMV are about the only "universal" codecs. WMV 9 might require a download from Microsoft if the user hasn't updated within the last few years.

Which codec is the clearest quality but smallest file size?

Well, there's a lot of debate about that but Divx and Xvid are among the best. I prefer Xvid because it's open source. But both of those will require installation of the codecs if your receipients don't have them.

I would have thought DivX, but when I tested it, it looked like a VCD movie?!

you probably used too low a bit rate. For 720x480 (720x576 PAL) you'll probably want to use around 1500 kbps for the video. More if the footage is shakey.