DV computer archiving, no DVD authoring required.

[brooklynyte]

Hi everyone, I just bought my first camcorder (Panasonic PV-GS19), long story short is that I'm looking to archive all my video onto my PC. I know to use WinDV to capture and the files are huge of course, so I would like to convert them into any normal halfway-decent sized format like divX, xvid, mpg, wmv, anything that I could. I dont need the files to be super tiny because I have a good amount of disk space and I want the files to be good quality (for PC). I see alot of quicktime MOV's that are excellent quality, small size but dont know how to create them either. Whatever it is, I prefer (of course lol) that its free software . Its the whole de-interlacing thats holding me back, I really barely know anything about video conversion but I'm computer saavy. PLEASE help me in this situation and thanks for the advice in advance!! Joe.

P.S. I did do a whole lot of searching and find that most of the posts deal with dvd authoring rather than computer archiving therefore just about everything I have read doesnt pertain to my situation although this site is so big I'm sure I could have missed a post or two explaining exactly what I need to do.

[edDV]

Are these TV captures? Movies? Live camcorder material? High action sports?

[junkmalle]

Since you have interlaced video you should stick with DVD compatible MPEG. ~8000 kbps will give you an hour per DVD. You can just save the MPEG files on ISO data disks. Your DVD player might even play them.

[brooklynyte]

Lol, they are regular home movies, and junkmalle, thats my question...how?? I have no clue as to how I would go about compressing and converting these files.

[edDV]

Lol, they are regular home movies, and junkmalle, thats my question...how?? I have no clue as to how I would go about compressing and converting these files.

I like to keep my "home" movies and travel stuff on tape at full DV quality. I edit out the junk ~25-35% and save the rest. My plan is to dub them all to Blu-Ray DVD (25GB per side) in a year or so. HDD storage makes me nervous. One failure and you've lost 10-15+ hours.

That said, 1hr DV saves fairly well to 4.4GB DVD at 8Mb/s CBR. The same can be stored to HDD. Better yet back the HDD with DVDs one per hour.

[junkmalle]

Lol, they are regular home movies, and junkmalle, thats my question...how?? I have no clue as to how I would go about compressing and converting these files.

Your DVD writer probably came with something that will encode to MPEG2 -- Ulead DVD Movie Factory maybe? (Although it's not billed as an MPEG2 encoder it will convert to MPEG2 files before multiplexing to VOB -- it's possible to grab the MPEG2 files before it deletes them.) Otherwise you'll probably have to purchase something like TMPGEnc Plus (currently only $37). TMPGEnc Plus is one of the slowest encoders but otherwise works fairly well and is easy to use.

[brooklynyte]

I dont have a DVD writer or I would just edit and burn, I'm just looking for something halfway decent like MPEG but dont know what progs to use. Please if anyone can list one or two programs I could use to convert the DV AVI to something a little smaller and still good (not great) quality I would appreciate it.

[edDV]

I dont have a DVD writer or I would just edit and burn, I'm just looking for something halfway decent like MPEG but dont know what progs to use. Please if anyone can list one or two programs I could use to convert the DV AVI to something a little smaller and still good (not great) quality I would appreciate it.

If no editing is required, you just need a MPeg2 encoder. I suggest you encode to DVD spec so that you can use it without conversion when you get a DVD writer. Be aware that the encoding process will take 2-10 hours per 1 hr tape depending on the speed of your CPU.

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=40#40

If you want to edit before encoding then you will need a DV editor.

[codecpage]

I prefer CCE basic. It's very quick at CBR. A setting of 9000 kbps BTW is still standard compliant. An 1 hour DV tape nicely fits on a DVD this way.
It's also possible to drive the bitrate limit up to 15000 max. (with CCE, you must uncheck the 'DVD compliant' box to be able to do this). In this case, use 2-pass VBR encoding with 9000 avg./15000 max., so no more disk space is needed and the 1hr tape still fits.
This may even be sufficient for mastering, at least it has some advantages, because tapes tend to get dropout and mechanical problems with time, and DVDs are already much cheaper, so making 2 or more safety copies is no deal anymore. (don't use noname DVDs for archiving !).
Many DVD standalone players handle bitrates of 15000 flawlessly, and computer drives always do, so directly watching these backups is no problem (also not when authored as a 'real' DVD).
As current PC DVD player software performs real time deinterlacing very well, the files are much better for computer playback than the original DV.

Codecpage

[brooklynyte]

Ok, what about if I want to do all this but have absolutely no plans on getting a dvd burner or dont want to use dvd's then what would I use? I really have no urge to burn to dvd, I just want a good quality video for my pc, I just need something that does good de-interlacing most of all, THATS IT! lol.

[edDV]

It all depends on your quality expectations. I haven't yet seen a "good de-interlacing filter" that runs on a PC in reasonable processing times. I'm assuming you aren't downsizing. The realtime deinterlacing viewers do an OK job for most and you don't need to add hours to your encoding times.

I think you need to test your concept with some demo encoders. After about a week of this, a PVR-250 will start looking like a necessity of life.

[brooklynyte]

I thought this would be a reaaaaaaallllly simple question and answer, what do all these people do online when you see they upload video's, like on video blogs and tutorial videos, how could this be such a big thing? I figured there was at least one decent quality DV deinterlacer and encoder. I was trying adobe premier 6 but didnt find anywhere a deinterlacing setting, tried tmpgenc but the quality was REALLY crappy. I guess I'll just keep trying.

[edDV]

This is Premiere 6.5. V6 used the Discrete Cleaner app. That too has deinterlace modes.

[junkmalle]

Ok, what about if I want to do all this but have absolutely no plans on getting a dvd burner or dont want to use dvd's then what would I use? I really have no urge to burn to dvd, I just want a good quality video for my pc, I just need something that does good de-interlacing most of all, THATS IT! lol.

There really is no such thing as good deinterlacing. There's no perfect way to make one whole picture out of two unrelated half pictures. If you insist on deinterlacing, want to minimize file size, and want free software, try VirtualDubMod with Xvid (video codec) and Lame (mp3 audio codec) along with a smart deinterlace filter. I wouldn't call that archiving though.

Or get a DV camcoder that shoots progressive video.

[brooklynyte]

Thanks eeryone for their help, especially ed, I'm going to try that one now. Thanks again!!!

[jdizzy40]

how could this be such a big thing? Thats funny. I'm a novice and have been doing this hobby for 3 years. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't freeware. Lots of time and yes some money can and will give you the results you want. No short-cuts here.

[brooklynyte]

how could this be such a big thing? Thats funny. I'm a novice and have been doing this hobby for 3 years. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't freeware. Lots of time and yes some money can and will give you the results you want. No short-cuts here.

I'm glad I entertain ya!

[ZAPPER]

Maybe not an answer, but just an observation.
Usually when folks talk of archives they want to save it for the next big advance in technology or so. What is giving everyone fits here is that you are willing to give up some quality while most are looking to save or increase what they have. I can kind of see your point on wanting smaller files to be saved on your PC for general veiwing or refferences to be used on the PC only, but lets call them refference vids or thumbnails or anything other than archives.(That might help ease our pain)

If all you really want to do is watch them on your PC, and on the cheap, just dump everything into Windows movie maker and save them as wmv's. That should be alot smaller than full blown DV.AVI.s or fully DVD complient MPEGs. But there will most likely be a snag. Soon you will most likely want them at a better quality and be facing the same old question of how to BEST save your movies and all of their quality.

Yes, you do entertain us, but we are easily amused