archiving home movies 'by scene'

[chris langham]

Hi all,
I use videostudio 7 and archive my home movies in mpeg2 format before also making a DVD. When I first play the DV footage I use the 'split by scene' option. Is it possible to then save those split scenes automatically as individual mpegs, rather than one big one. I know I could do it manually one by one but that seems a bit long-winded.

i'm thinking into the future when I might want to make a movie of the best bits from my archive, it would be easier to find the scene I want if I can split them all (thought I would add keywords to the properties section of each mpeg). Any other ideas welcome.
Thanks a lot

[lechtin]

You have 2 options:
1. Videostudio allows you to convert in MPEG as you capture (if you have enough horsepower), so I assume you would end up with your scenes in MPEG just as you want. Editing afterwards may not be optimal depending on how far you go with effects and titles.

2. Get a batch encoder like Canopus Procoder, which now has a cheaper consumer version. I don't know of any other batch encoders.

[guns1inger]

If you are planning to reuse the footage, I would store it as DV rather than mpeg.

[chris langham]

Thanks for the ideas so far. I've read about the MPEG capture straight off, however I worry about subsequent loss of quality then as I crop and edit (as you mention). I also think it might still store it as one chunk, rather than separate scenes, but I'll try it.

As for storing as DV I would love too, but for the fact that they're so huge, and keeping the tapes is costly. Maybe the batch encoder is worth a try too.

Any other suggestions welcome. Thanks again

[thecoalman]

One hour of an AVI using a DV codec should fit on 3 DVD's. It won't be cheap but I come across old family pictures all the time that I wish someone had preserved better. Just a thought.....

[chris langham]

Thanks mr Coalman, you're probably right about the quality. Blank dvd's a much cheaper now, so 3 discs is not much more than a quid. I've been trying to find out what bitrate I should save my home movie mpegs and DVD's at to give some compression but to not regret it too much in a few years. Is 3500kbps roughly a good bitrate for archiving?

I'm still not sure on two things though - my original question was if I can save my home footage as separate scenes automatically instead of one big one, making it easier to search and compile 'best bits' later - any help please?

Also do you have any fancy way of splitting your DV footage to 3 discs or do you just upload from your camcorder in 20 minute chunks and save as you go?

Thanks

Chris

[mikesbytes]

I would use the split by scene functionality to separate the DV tape into mutiple files.

If your current software doesn't split by scene and save as native DV, then you could try WinDV

[chadd_st_clair]

I'm in a very similar situation to you Chris. I use Windows Movie Maker to capture the DV and split it into scenes. I use the tapes that have the date/time stamped electronically so WMM does an excellent job of finding these splits.

I then save the files as DV from WMM. I use TMPGEnc to batch the files into MPG2. (The new version is easier to do batch encodes with)

Until recently I only had a 40 GB drive, so I then moved the MPG2 files to DVD to free up space.

I'd also love to store the videos loss-lessly, but the DV format is so large. I hadn't considered moving them straight to DVD.

calculus