Best Quality and best compression

[pochrist]

Before you answer Divx may not be an option, Here's what have and here's my goal, I have a 20 min capture of a family thing from my mini DV camera to a 3.5gig AVI. I want to covert it to a format that will retain as much quality as possible and compress it small enough to store on a cd for future "editing" I want to be able to basically pull it off the camera-covert/compress it/stick it on a cd fro future editing (when I have time) and then this way I can wipe the tapes for my camera. I tried MPEG1 its not too bad. But I want to put it in a format than won't close the door to going to a DVD in the future, VCD is not an option till after I edit. in a nutshell something Good, clean and versatile.

[FiEND]

I can only suggest a computer tape-backup device for making backups of the original capture or a dvd-rw for 7 or so GB of rewriteable dvd space if you have the cash.

[speedy]

If you want to retain quality then keep it in AVI format until you do your editing. In the states you can get a really large hard drive for under $200. You can get a 80GB firewire external Maxtor for under $300.

The problem with saving in any compressed format is you lose bits and each re saving the quality goes down. The trouble with saving on a CD is you simply don't have enough space.

[TheInformer]

Um, wouldn't it just be best to buy another MiniDV tape so you can keep the video in its native DV format?

Just a thought...

[Bree]

Well let's see:
Extra miniDV tape ~ $5.00 (can be reused later also)
DVDRW ~ $7 (+encode time or possible just data copy, and assuming you have a DVDRW; as good as the original quality)
SVCD ~ $0.30 (+encode time; great quality)
VCD ~ $0.30 (+encode time; modes quality)
buy a bigger hard drive ~$100 to 250 but reusable

the real question is, what are you trying to accomplish?

[FiEND]

you may also capture from video into 650-700MB AVI segments and span them over standard cdr's.

[Khizhiy]

One more option: Digital8 tape - half the price of a miniDV

[pochrist]

"you may also capture from video into 650-700MB AVI segments and span them over standard cdr's."
This seems the most logical solution because: I don't have the money for a DVD Writer, New Hard Drive, one thing I don't want is to store video on any Mini-dv tapes, I want to use and reuse, not store. So what program is for splitting into 650-700 mb sections-and is it possible to divide video by hard disk space instead of recored time.

[TurboRunner]

I'm not sure with firewire if that what you capturing with but if your using composite you could use avi_io or Virtual Dub and enable Multiple Segments then under disk_io or something not using my capture machine at the moment but you can select what filesize you want the segments to be. Then you can write the to a cdr and when you want to edit them and save them to your final format you can copy all segments together in a directory on your hdd and tell virtual dub to append all segments together.

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-12-22 17:42:39, pochrist wrote:
This seems the most logical solution because: I don't have the money for a DVD Writer, New Hard Drive, one thing I don't want is to store video on any Mini-dv tapes, I want to use and reuse, not store. So what program is for splitting into 650-700 mb sections-and is it possible to divide video by hard disk space instead of recored time.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[baz00ie]

A good choice would be the SVCD/MPEG2 for video storage. It's what the pros use.

[Khizhiy]

Do the pros use SVCD??? With it's 2.6 Mbps limit? I really doubt that.

[kramerica]

"..So what program is for splitting into 650-700 mb sections..."
I use winRAR (you can get it from download.com)

[vhelp]

Don't ignore my idea! I'm only trying to help you with this. . . .
Not many people have mentioned this, so here goes. . .

I tried this out earlier today and it worked flowlessly!!

by coensidence, baz00ie is correct. I have a mpeg2 clip (svcd) that was
encoded with 480x480 and 2520 bitrate and was exceptional quality.
I was cuorious as to how much quality I would loose if I re-encoded it
again, as some posters here were asking about and I was answering
with, "you'll loose quality" ...and even posted some detail about it!
However, if the quality of the encode is in excellent shape - done right
with excellent quality, then you could later on do this, after you've
encoded to, ie, SVCD 480x480 with 2520 bitrate:

* grab a hold of DVD2AVI
* drag your High Quality encoded SVCD clip to DVD2AVI's window
and proceed to RIP your SVCD creation into an AVI. Don't do a save
Project (though I didn't try it), just Save As AVI using HUFFY codec.
* once you've done this,...
* drag the AVI clip back into tmpgenc and re-encode it.

With the above method that worked flowlessly, you'll have VERY few CDs
to burn your backup captures that you can re-encode again with newer
settings/tempates.

NOTE: you can try and DVD templete encode yes, but I was sparing you
the time, being that I only waated you to see for youself that the quality
is very good. Later on, you can encode all your captures in DVD format
for archival purposes. No need to store/archive all those huge AVI's!!

If you need assistance in this process/method just ask again here for more
help on this topic. I'm sure others have done this and can help you.

Good luck!!

- vhelp

[vhelp]

po,

when I was advising to do a sample, I ment just a small sample, like a 30 second
clip. It's real quick. It wont kill ya to run a few short test to satisfy ya!

This can be:
* a DVD rip (the best quality) (480x480 / 704x480**) **best
* a Satalete capture, again, 480x480 / 704x480
* home movies, well, I've never done this

As long as you don't go up in your re-encodes, you'll be fine.
So, if you do a 704x480 DVD type encode, w/ 4mb bitrate or higher, you'll
have no problem doing re-encodes of 352x240/352x480/480x480, etc.
and with the BEST quality ever!

This is the BEST way to archive your Captures or DVD RIPs for later re-encodes!!

Senario:
------------
a tipicle DVD holds aprox 8gig of VOBs or MPEG2, right?
Ok, how many CD/R disks would you have to use to back up 8gigs??? ...11 cd's
and then to have to decripted them all over again, etc., etc...
But, using my method above, you could cut those disks to 1, 2 or 3 cd's! ! !
...depending on how you encoded it of course! ...and all this in much less time!

Might sound like crap to you, but works for me - sort of my secret for a while,
but since it's the holidays, it's my gift ta ya's all!!! I don't like giving out
secrets, cuse no one believe's these things like this works!! So, mostly, I
just keep'em ta myself, he, he. . . . . Just this one here, and no more!!

Later peoples.

PS: How's that for "Best Quality and Best Compression???"
--> This IS your answer!!

Happy New Year!!

- vhelp

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: vhelp on 2001-12-25 23:48:34 ]</font>

[Tommy]

If your intent is to just have it around for later use but not as a vcd. why don't you just use the dvd template in tpmg and just lower the bitrate a little as to fit on a single cd.

[mtb_boy18]

I would really think you should concider either one of these to formats for a 20min family video onto 1 CD:

Mini DVD @ (4500 - 9300 kb/s) VBR

DivX - 4500 kb/s

either will look excellent quality and could definately transfered onto DVDR in the future with mimimal loss of quality. Plus, store on very inexpensive CDR media.