Getting my AVIs into a smaller file size?

[ArthurDaley]

I've managed to "capture" DV files from my sony camcorder onto my hard drive. I am a little dissapointed that they are grainy.

Anyhow, the AVI files eat up huge amounts of space. What format should I convert them to, MPEG2/4? I am likely to want to make DVDs out of them (I think DVD uses MPEG2?).

Also is my procedure the best - capturing to AVI then going over to something compressed or is there a firewire capture piece of software that goes straight to MPEG2 for example?

Thanks in advance.

[MpegEncoder]

I've managed to "capture" DV files from my sony camcorder onto my hard drive. I am a little dissapointed that they are grainy.

Anyhow, the AVI files eat up huge amounts of space. What format should I convert them to, MPEG2/4? I am likely to want to make DVDs out of them (I think DVD uses MPEG2?).

Also is my procedure the best - capturing to AVI then going over to something compressed or is there a firewire capture piece of software that goes straight to MPEG2 for example?

Thanks in advance.

Is you camcorder digital or analog? How are you "capturing"?

If it's a digital, then it's really a transfer (copy) and should look perfect.

Coverting to mpeg "on the fly" in software will always lead to reduced quality. If quality is important (and I think that it is), you need to start with high quality (like DV-AVI if you camcorder is digital) and convert to mpeg in non-realtime (software). Hardware solutions are different (and generaly much more expensive), they can do realtime in high quality.

[Richard_G]

DV files aren't captured but transferred. They are a data file stored on a tape in your camcorder and you just copy that data file to your hard drive. Hence, there is no capture device that will convert to mpeg. There are some pieces of software that will do it 'on-the-fly' but the results are never as good as transferring the DV file and converting later. They may appear grainy if they have been shot in low light situations or it may be that the codec your computer is using to display them isn't very good. Most people recommend the Panasonic DV codec.

If there is any possibility that you will want to do any editing of the files before burning to DVD, DV avi is where you want to be. MPEG is a final product format, not an editable one. Straightfoward cuts and joins are OK but anythig more complex will end up looking pretty grim.

Once you have the DV files on your hard drive you will need to convert to DVD compliant mpeg2 and author into the correct file structure for DVD (See What is DVD at top left). I use Ulead DVD Workshop as this can take DV format .avi files and do everything right through to the burn (trial version is available for download from the Ulead website). Others prefer to use individual tools to do the various stages but DVD Workshop (or DVD Factory) will do the whole process.

[tmh]

I think you need to provide much more detail as to how you transferred from your camcorder (mini DV, right?) to your computer. What app are you viewing the captured AVI's in? also, Download gspot and use it to chack what codec your AVI uses. It's a quick, easy way to provide info on what you actually have.

Properly transferred, your DV-AVI file should be the same as on the mini DV tape. It is a direct transfer. Many here use winDV for the transfer, nyself included. How did you do it? Files viewed on the computer can not properly be compared to those viewedon the TV direct from the camcorder. winDv will tansfer the "captured" file back to the camcorder tape so you can compare and see if there was truely any loss of quality.

Yes, I would say your plan to transfer to the PC then encode to mpeg2, author and burn to a DVD is the correct plan. If you have a dvd recorder (set top) maybe you just want to use that to go from mini Dv to DVD. Either way, you should be able to get close to the original quality as long as you don't try and cram too much onto one DVD. You'll need to read up on the conversion process - use the guides on the left.

[ArthurDaley]

Thanks...

OK some more detail. The camcorder is a digital hi8 Sony TRV-340. Transfer was via firewire (DV) using WinDV.

The tape transferred over was actually an analogue tape, from some years back.

I have now downloaded the panasonic codec and will see if that makes a difference when I get access to the videos later.

So I guess I am after a DV-AVI to MPEG2 converter. I assume that audio is also encoded in MPEG2?

[ArthurDaley]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I have now looked into using TMPGEnc for the MPEG2 conversion. Does anyone have any complaints with this idea?

The only moan I have is the time required, so "play over" the tape via DV into AVI, then time to compress to MPEG2.

[ArthurDaley]

Now the problem decision is whether to use MPEG2 audio of AC3? Any ideas? (nice article here http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html)

[Richard_G]

As your are using PAL and not NTSC, mpeg Layer 2 is the standard anyway for audio. AC3 would be overkill for footage from camcorder tapes.

TMPGEnc will do the conversion to mpeg for you but there is another step left yet. To make the files into something you can burn to DVD and play on your standalone player, they have to be Authored and turned into .vob, .bup and .ifo files. There is TMPGEnc DVD Author which will do this. I assume it will do the mpeg encoding too although as I've never used it I don't know.

This is why I prefer to use Ulead DVD Workshop. It has sufficient flexibility to get the best possible final output quality, can create some quite nice looking menus (if you want) and can be left to get on with it. You cannot escape the time it takes to transfer the footage as this must be done in real time. Once you have this footage saved (on the 120+ GB hard drive you are almost certainly going to need to buy!), you can drag the .avi files straight into DVD Workshop and leave it to get on with everything while you go to work (or bed).

[CogoSWSDS]

I use TMPGEnc Plus for my DVD conversions. Prior to getting my DVD burner, I made VCDs and just used the freeware TMPGEnc encoder. It's kinda slow on my 1.3GHz computer (full-res 720x480 takes about 4 hours to encode 60 minutes of video) but the quality of the encode is very good.

Because I am a cheapskate and would rather spend money on my kids instead of expensive software, I author using DVDAuthorGUI (thanks Liquid). Menus are usually simple still menus with a chapter list and a few graphics. I burn with Nero after authoring.

CogoSWSDS

[tmh]

TMPGEnc will do the conversion to mpeg for you but there is another step left yet. To make the files into something you can burn to DVD and play on your standalone player, they have to be Authored and turned into .vob, .bup and .ifo files. There is TMPGEnc DVD Author which will do this. I assume it will do the mpeg encoding too although as I've never used it I don't know.
.

Tmpgenc DVD Author (TDA) does not contain an encoder. Tmpgenc plus or express is the encoder - seperate programs. I use them both just as richard said - encode to mpeg2, author with TDA, burn. Lots of other programs to do this as well - check tools section. Some are free, some inexpensive like TMPGenc and some very expensive. There's no concensus on the "best" so don't bother asking.

[ArthurDaley]

OK thanks guys. I now feel safe enough to use MPEG2 audio stream. I will download a trial of Ulead DVD Workshop and see how I get on.