size of Mini-DV recording on PC

[fan_of_fantasy]

Hi,
newbie question: I am trying to transfer my mini-DV recording to my PC using the software that came with my digital camcorder (Sony HC42). I notice that one minute of recording takes up 400 MB on the PC. Is this right?
When burning it to a DVD (as mpeg2), how much is the data compressed?

Thanks!

[wwjd]

DV from a digital camcorder should be about 12-13GB per hour of video. The size of the mpeg2 file for DVD will depend mostly on what bitrate is chosen when the DV avi is converted to DVD compliant mpeg2. Most software apps have default settings for DVD like best, good and so on. If you choose Best for example, you should get a file around 4.2GB or so. Roughly speaking that translates into 1hr of DV at the Best setting will fill a DVD.

[fan_of_fantasy]

wwjd, thanks for your reply.
My avi is 400 MB per min = ~24 GB per hour. This is twice the size you said. But as far as I know, there is no setting in my camcorder about the quality of the recording. Do you know why my recording takes up more space? This is BEFORE I do any processing on my PC -- essentially, this is a dump of my miniDV cassette.

BTW, I have the Sony HC42 -- it records in the wide aspect ratio (16:9). Can this be why more space is required?

[edDV]

wwjd, thanks for your reply.
My avi is 400 MB per min = ~24 GB per hour. This is twice the size you said. But as far as I know, there is no setting in my camcorder about the quality of the recording. Do you know why my recording takes up more space? This is BEFORE I do any processing on my PC -- essentially, this is a dump of my miniDV cassette.

BTW, I have the Sony HC42 -- it records in the wide aspect ratio (16:9). Can this be why more space is required?

Are you using the IEEE-1394 firewire connection?
DV format is fixed at ~13.5GB/hr for all camcorders even the $30K DVCPro pro broadcast models.

The IEEE-1394 stream is made up of 25Mbps video + audio + metadata + transmission overhead for a stream that totals approx 35Mbps.

[fan_of_fantasy]

No, I am using a USB 2.0 connection.

[edDV]

Not good, use IEEE-1384 ILink for best quality.

Sony, and most others, only provide low resolution streaming video + stills on the USB port.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProduc...me=specs&var2=

Sony will rip you off for their cable. It should have been included.
http://www.cwol.com/firewire/1394_cables.htm

Cards are cheap too, if you need one.
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/ieee-1394_host_adapter_card.html

[wwjd]

Also, what software are you using to do the DV transfer to HDD? Many software apps can do the DV transfer but if you are not careful with the settings you could actually be encoding on the fly. There are other forms of avi that are less compressed than DV.

[edDV]

Also, what software are you using to do the DV transfer to HDD? Many software apps can do the DV transfer but if you are not careful with the settings you could actually be encoding on the fly. There are other forms of avi that are less compressed than DV.

DV transfer is straightforward. Here are some I use.

Sony Vegas - just because that is where I will edit it plus it will run in the background.

Premiere/Premiere Pro - good but capture stops if you open another window.

WinDv - simple and direct.

ULead video studio - basic for direct DV. VS8 and 9 also has an optimized realtime version of Mainconcept v1.4 MPeg2 encoder that works fine for me on a Celeron 2.4 GHz. Your mileage may vary. I only use this for TV captures. For camcorder material I want to work in DV format.

Another to consider is Scenalyzer which adds "optical" scene change capture. The others use camcorder stop start data to detect scenes. I usually capture in long segments so this isn't important to me.

[edDV]

There are other forms of avi that are less compressed than DV.

Yes but if the source is DV, DV is still your best working format except for special cases (e.g. chroma key).

[wwjd]

edDV,

I completely agree!! DV is the way to go for editing.

The point I was trying to make was that there are other avi compressions and that just because the file that ended up on his HDD was avi that did not mean that it was still DV avi. Care needs to be taken in ensuring that the DV file is transferred to the HDD, not encoded on the fly!

[edDV]

edDV,

I completely agree!! DV is the way to go for editing.

The point I was trying to make was that there are other avi compressions and that just because the file that ended up on his HDD was avi that did not mean that it was still DV avi. Care needs to be taken in ensuring that the DV file is transferred to the HDD, not encoded on the fly!

Right you are. Keeping the original DV from camera to edit is best for most situations. DV levels are already correct for DVD MPeg2.

For extremists who want to stretch the quality for better match with digital 4:2:2 material, you don't decompress the Y channel, you process the U and V as shown in this paper.

http://www.nattress.com/Chroma_Investigation/chromasampling.htm