Convert DV AVI to something smaller file size for archive

[Moemors]

Hello experts,
I have plenty of old videos from my Sony VX1000 and I got them into the computer by firewire. The files are really big, so my goal is to convert them into a smaller format, which is good for archiving and watching. What would be the best option? Main questions are, what Container? Which codec? Which bitrate? How to handle the interlacing (keep it same)? I use premiere Pro 2019 for doing the job, so there are plenty of possible settings. please someone who really knows about this answer. It is important for me to do this as good as possible. Thanks a lot in advance

These are the specs of the files:

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Commercial name : DVCPRO
Format profile : OpenDML
File size : 9,99 GiB
Duration : 47 min 21s
Overall bit rate mode : konstant
Overall bit rate : 30,2 Mb/s
Recorded date : 2004-12-19 11:47:03.000

Video
ID : 0
Format : DV
Commercial name : DVCPRO
Codec ID : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint : Sony
Duration : 47 min 21s
Bit rate mode : konstant
Bit rate : 24,4 Mb/s
Encoded bit rate : 28,8 Mb/s
Width : 720 Pixel
Height : 576 Pixel
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : konstant
Frame rate : 25,000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : unteres Feld zuerst
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.357
Time code of first frame : 00:00:01:02
Time code source : Subcode time code
Stream size : 9,53 GiB (95%)
Encoding settings : ae mode=shutter priority mode / wb mode=pre-set / white balance=incandescent lamp / fcm=manual focus

Audio
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 47 min 21s
Bit rate mode : konstant
Bit rate : 1 411,2 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 Kanäle
Sampling rate : 44,1 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 478 MiB (5%)
Alignment : Ausgerichtet an Interleaves
Interleave, duration : 1000 ms (24,99 Video-Frames)
Interleave, preload duration : 1000 ms

[LigH.de]

Main disadvantages of DV, even DVCPRO25: A rather constant bitrate (waste during easily compressible scenes, lack during complex material), and as a keyframe-only format, no efficient compression (but editable, you can cut it at any frame you like).

In addition, the audio stream is uncompressed PCM, also a waste of space.

I don't know which codecs Premiere Pro offers. But possibly an MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoder you could set up for a low quantization and a short GOP length (interlaced, BFF). That will compress to a smaller size than DV and still not lose much more quality. A matching audio codec may be AAC or maybe MP3.

[Moemors]

Hello! thanks for the answer, as this seems to be a science, im not 100% sure if I get that right. But thanks I will check what I can do in PP. If there is someone who is familiar with PP, I would be thankful for further information. Thanks again Liga.de

[JVRaines]

If you really care about these videos, then archive them in the original DV format. Re-encoding them will adversely affect quality.
Casual viewing copies can be encoded avc(h.264)/MP4 for widest player support.

[Cornucopia]

+1 what JVRaines said.
"Archiving" and "Watching" are 2 very different use cases, and so 2 very different strategies are needed. For what most mean when referring to archiving, they expect long-term storage where one can restore them as needed after a time and continue to work with the material with same quality as started, not giving priority to storage capacity limits. Which in this case would mean leave it as DV source files. Watching it needs to take into consideration the storage capacity limits and playback computing power limits. These days, that often means something stored as MP4 or MKV container, encapsulating h264- or h265-encoded long-GOP video and similarly compressed audio (varies: AAC, AC3, DTS, mp3, etc).

Scott