Codec and encoding recommendation

[donkey_puncher]

I have a Canon digital Elph that we sometimes use to take video clips (AVI(Motion JPEG; WAVE (mono)). We use the highest setting on the camera which ends up being 640x480 30fps. After uploading these to the PC I've noticed that they are rediculously large in file size. For a pocket cam the quality is pretty good. But I'd like the encode these clips to something that is a little more reasonable in file size while still maintaining the qualty.

Using Super I've tried to encode them to divx 5.0 with a bitrate of 1000 but the image loses a lot of quality and shows a lot of pixalization. I've also encoded them using 720x480 H.264AVC with a bitrate of 2500 with much better quality results. THis reduces the file size by about 75% which is great but it's pretty damn processor intensive and takes a long time. (Athlon 64 X2 5600, 4GB ram).

I occasionally plan to re-encode to mpeg2 for creation of DVD's but in most cases they'd just reside on my PC and occasionally get streamed to my PS3.

Any suggestions? Codec and encoding software?

[Baldrick]

Convert to avi xvid(or divx) with the Constant Quality/Quantizer encoding setting if you don't need a specific file size and you want to get good quality. I would convert using Xvid4PSP or avidemux. Don't resize the video, convert to 640x480 with 30fps.

You could also try mp4 h264 with constant quality-setting in xvid4psp or avidemux and see how slow it is compared to super.

[aedipuss]

if you don't want to have to do any of the conversions twice encode them to mpeg-2 dvd specs. 720x480 at about 3000kbps. if you are sure you only want to have it for computer viewing keep the size at 640x480 and try wmv9 at 30fps progressive. maybe 1500kbps or so.

[donkey_puncher]

Well I've done some testing and also downloaded both Xvid4PSP and avidemux. I'm not a real huge fan of either of their interfaces. ANd I experienced some crashes with both. In Xvid4psp I'm having trouble encoding to H.264. Every time I try it the software blows up. With avidemux I can encode to H.264 but can't encode to MpegII without a crash.

So for now I'll stick with Super.

I used a 25MB 13 second test clip from my camera (M-JPEG 15,000Kbs, 8-bit PCM mono audio). Encoding to the following formats: (640x480, 30fps)
XviD-1536kbps - Decent quality overall file size 2884 KB
H.264AVC-2000kbps - Good quality - Slower to encode - File size 3808 KB
H.264AVC-2500kbps - Better quality - File size 4708 KB
DivX-1536kbps - Decent Quality - Fastest encoding - 2947 KB
MpegII-3000kbps - good quality - 5596 KB
MpegII-4032kbps - SImilar quality to H.264(2000) - 7392
WMV-1500kbps - Not real good, blurry - 3394 KB

Overall I think the H.264avc2500 looked closest to the original file. IT also had a reasonable file size which was about 20% of the original size. My only concern is that it takes a little longer to encode. It will play fine on my PC and will stream to my PS3 via Tversity. I'll just have to re-encode if I want to go to DVD.

One more question. I see a lot of people are using MKV instead of AVI as the wrapper. What advantages does it have. Seems to have a smaller supported media player base. Would it have an advantage in the coarse of encoding these camera files? Or would it come in to play more when it comes to ripping DVD and HD content where multiple menus and audio tracks are concerned?

[poisondeathray]

Correct: .mkv supports more audio & video formats, subtitles, etc... than .avi, but .mkv is not supported by as many hardware devices

Super isn't the best front-end for x264, you have very limited access to quality settings. But it might not matter if your source material is poor to begin with.

[donkey_puncher]

I upgraded my PC and redownloaded XVid4PSP. I've gotten used to the interface and have had very good luck encoding to H.264AVC Turbo quality.

However, I do have one gripe. With Super I could just drop several files into the window and encode them all at once. But with Xvid4PSP it appears that I have to load each on individually and then save each one to a batch list that I can then encode later. This unfortunately takes a long time becaue I have to load each file seperately and then rename each file. I set up a batch to encode 35 files and it took forever for me to load and rename them. With super I could just dropp all the files and Super would rename them for me.

Is there a way I can do this with XVid4PSP

[thymej]

If you want to do some more testing with AVC (x264), try MEGUI. Use the PS3 or DXVA profiles so you can still use Tversity.