Recommendation for AVI encoder

[dbbd]

I am starting a conversion of all my videos to digital media.
I'm using an AverTV USB20 analog capture device. The device can
encode the captured data using various encoders.

I need help deciding which encoder to use. The criteria is obviously quality.

The available video encoders are:
None
DV
MJPEG
Cinepak by Radius
DivX6.7
Intel Indeo R3.2
Intel IYUV
Microsoft RLE
Microsoft Video1
XVID MPEG-4
DivX 6.7 YV12

The available audio encoders are:
None
MPEG Layer-3
CCITT u-Law
CCITT A-Law
GSM 6.10
Windows Media Audio V2
DSP Group TrueSpeech
Microsoft ADPCM
PCM
IMA ADPCM
WMAudio encoder DMO
WM Speech Encoder DMO

If I understand correctly, None means no encoding - raw data will be used, and that would be space-wasting.
I also think I can use any encoder that is installed, so I guess I can get recommendations that are not on these lists.

The AVIs will be then loaded to video editing software, so I'd like the encoder to be as lossless as possible, yet provide decent compression.

Thanks for any guidance

[redwudz]

Of that list, I would use DV AVI and PCM audio. I'm not sure what they mean by 'None' with the audio. It might be WAV audio or just no audio.

DV is 'made to edit' and is fairly low compression, about 5:1, if I remember correctly. It uses about 13GB per hour of hard drive space. The PCM or WAV audio you will probably convert at the same time as the DV to other formats like Divx with MP3 audio, or MPEG-2 with MPEG-1 Layer2 or AC3 audio for a DVD.

EDIT: If it will let you add codecs, you might try the Cedocida DV Codec for DV encoding and the Lame MP3 codec for audio for the Divx/Xvid formats. It has more settings than the MS one. You can also use ffmpeggui or Aften to convert your audio to AC3 after editing, for DVD use.

Since I don't see MPEG encoders there, you would need one of those also if you want to make a compliant DVD for a set top player. You would also need a authoring program.

[dbbd]

EDIT: If it will let you add codecs, you might try the Cedocida DV Codec for DV encoding and the Lame MP3 codec for audio for the Divx/Xvid formats. It has more settings than the MS one. You can also use ffmpeggui or Aften to convert your audio to AC3 after editing, for DVD use.

Since I don't see MPEG encoders there, you would need one of those also if you want to make a compliant DVD for a set top player. You would also need a authoring program.

Thanks for answering.
Isn't MPEG Layer-3 mp3? I think it is, if I'm right I don't need Lame (except the extra settings I guess).
Converting to DVD would be the last step, but I want to keep a digital version of the raw data as well.

Thanks,
Dan

[Krispy Kritter]

While it is a good idea to keep an original unaltered version, the problem is often how to store it as it can be quite a lot of data. The best bet is often HDD. And to be safe, you would ideally want two copies.

[dbbd]

After playing around quite a lot with the device, I find that software encoders do badly.
The device has a hardware encoder that encodes MPEG2. I get the best quality
when using this built in hardware encoder.

So the next step is to fiugure out what video editing software to use. I looked
at Premiere and Vegas, they both are quite intimidating. I have no wish to become
a video professional. I plan to look at elements next.

The functionaliy I need includes:
trip, cut, copy & paste,
adding voice overs
adding text titles
adding audio
authoring DVD

It all should be VERY simple and easy to use.
Any recommendations

[Krispy Kritter]

Encoding is irrelevant at this point. You want to capture your source video onto the pc using the format with the highest quality that your editing software supports. After capturing the source video, you will want to create your backup files before editing. This gives you unaltered video sources for future projects or in case your source medium is damaged. You can then edit (using copies of the files) and encode the video to your destination format.

[Soopafresh]

I've found hard drive prices to be pretty cheap these days. 500GB for $100 is pretty good, IMHO.

As far as a lossless codec is concerned, there are several options, both free and commercial:

Free - Huffyuv, Lagarith (several others free ones out there, but none faster than these two)

Commercial - Morgan Mjpeg-2000 $30, Cineform $200-$500+ (both have free eval periods)

All have advantages and disadvantages, and one can debate the pluses and minuses of each.

Huffy is fast, but doesn't compress that well

Lagarith compresses pretty well, but isn't that fast

Morgan has 4-4-4 colorspace and multicore support, but is commercial

Cineform is very fast and compresses amazingly well, but it is far from free.