DV-avi to Xvid and back to DV-avi

[Tommybj]

Hi.

Is it possible to get from a Xvid file to an DV-AVI file and the same size, as i started with.

I've captured my DV-avi file at a size at 400 mb, converted it to Xvid at a size at about 60 mb and now i want to get bact to the DV-avi file at 400 mb.

I've tried different codec i Vdubmod, but the file get to large, i end at about 3 GB.

Tommy

[yoda313]

I wouldn't recommend uncompressing a xvid. You're MUCH better off starting over with the original source.

[Tommybj]

I know, but its because i want to store it at a small size, so thart i don't have to edit all now.

I'll have 20 tapes with 90 minutes on, and if I should have all that on a harddrive it should be huge.

Tommy

[yoda313]

But if your original avi was 400mb why not recapture it and burn it to a cdr?

[Tommybj]

Because its a testfile.

The original file is 36 GB and i know i can compress it with Xvid to about 4.3 GB. so it fit on a DVD.

[yoda313]

Have you tried splitting it to several dvds??? I don't know if you can do that with avi. You should try though - its always best to preserve the original quality as much as possible - this wouldn' t be a problem though if you keep the original tape and don't erase it. Its just not ideal to work with xvid if you have a clean dv file transfer.

[Tommybj]

I can do that, no problem.

But it wil take 8 DVD just for this one and i've got 20 tapes more.

But i tried to do it in Vdubmod as uncompressed RGB, at it was about 4 GB instead of the original at 400 mb, and at a very good quality. So it can be done.

[guns1inger]

Install the Panasonic DV codec and you can then convert your Divx file back to DV. Given that DV is pretty much a constant bitrate codec, the size should be the same as the DV original. The quality, however, will not be. Compressing it down so much with Xvid throws away a lot of data that you cannot get back.

[jimmalenko]

By my calculations, a 400MB DV-AVI is about 1 min 45 seconds. Are you sure your original DV-AVI was only 400MB ?

[guns1inger]

That was a testfile to check what sort of compression and quality he could get by doing this. The real project appears to be almost three hours of DV down to one DVD full of Xvid compression.

[jimmalenko]

Ahhhhhh.

So the question really is this;

"I can compress a 400MB DV-AVI test file down to 60MB as XVID. I then want to know if I can convert this back to a 400MB DV-AVI file ?

Also, this is just a test scenario as it would then stand that I can compress a 36GB DV-AVI down to about 4.3GB to store on DVD and I want to be sure that I can expand this back to a 36GB DV-AVI when I choose to edit these further on down the track."


How's that ?


If that is the case, yes, install Panasonic DV Codec.

[Tommybj]

Ahhhhhh.

So the question really is this;

"I can compress a 400MB DV-AVI test file down to 60MB as XVID. I then want to know if I can convert this back to a 400MB DV-AVI file ?

Also, this is just a test scenario as it would then stand that I can compress a 36GB DV-AVI down to about 4.3GB to store on DVD and I want to be sure that I can expand this back to a 36GB DV-AVI when I choose to edit these further on down the track."


How's that ?


If that is the case, yes, install Panasonic DV Codec.

Jimmalenko, you took the word right out of my mouth

Ive tried the Panasonic DV codec with no luck.

It says: Cannot start video compression. The source image format is not accetable. (error code -2)

[Baldrick]

have you resized to dv format? 720x480 or 720x576?

[Tommybj]

have you resized to dv format? 720x480 or 720x576?

Ive tried to resize to 720 x 576, Xvid file is 640x480.

[Tommybj]

Got it going, just reinstalled Panasonic DV Codec and uninstalled Canopus DV Codec.

I can see a slight difference between original DV-avi and decompressed Xvid file, but that was expected.

But it will do.

Thanks for your help, much appriciated.