HD to avi, quality expectations

[CNT]

The image below is the output format available from the Adobe Premiere Elements 9 :


AVI formats


MPEG formats


First, I tried few trial downloads, those kept freezing my PC. Then tried Pinnacle Studio (latest version), same thing, freezing my PC.

So I just bought the Adobe P/P Elements 9 for my Win7 (64-bit). It does take long to load the program, but it doesn't freeze the PC. I was able to do "last minute" avi's for my wife. But then, I ask her to actual test the avi on the PCs that she need to show on campus, some worked and some not work (my guess is some of the PCs didn't have the codec?). Those PCs were WinXP.

First question... could you suggest the best format to output (AVI or MPEG) the video? It would be in United States (NTSC) and for PC (later will need MAC, my guess would be MOV and MP4?). Fair enough would be start with WinXP and Win7. Which AVI format would the WinXP and Win7 have already codec to run the video? Again, the question is what's the best video file to produce to playback on general PCs?

Second question... since most of my videos would come from my Sony camera (AVCHD, 1080i, MTS) and other SDHC cards. Am I supposed to expect that conversion from MTS to AVI will produce lower video quality? Would MTS to MPEG also produce same low video quality? How would you output your AVCHD videos into computer file?

Interesting that even with MTS file, some PC can play it while others can not read it.

Thank you.

Chuck

[redwudz]

For AVI type formats, Xvid or Divx would be my choice. For MPEG on older Windows PCs, the safest is MPEG 1, but it's low resolution. XP comes with the MPEG-1 codec and some other MS ones that are mostly useless.

MPEG 2, as in the DVD specification, is not native on XP, so that codec would have to be installed, as would Xvid or Divx codecs. What you might consider is a portable version of VLC Media Player as it can handle most any format and doesn't need to be installed on the computer. But I still wouldn't advise HD video on older PCs.

HD video is a problem as it isn't within the DVD specification and may not play back, especially on lower power computers, even if they do have a MPEG-2 codec. And if you reduce the resolution from HD to the SD resolution DVDs use, you will have quality loss. H.264 is a great format that gives you good quality in a small package, but you may run into a lot of problems with older computers not being able to handle the playback processing it requires, even with the proper codecs installed.

If you want to use DVD format, you can use up to about 10,000Kbps bitrate for MPEG-2 encoding and that should help with getting the best quality. But the video will need to be downsized from HD (Such as 1920 X 1080 or similar) to DVD specifications of 720 X 480 for NTSC video.

But others here may be able to give you some better advice.

[edDV]

AVI isn't a format. It is a container. It can hold any of dozens of codec formats from low res to high res, uncompressed to highly compressed.

You need to start with the target playback device. Although some organizations continue to load Windows XP on new machines, more likely we are talking about Pentium 4 level computers or older with non-HD assist display cards.

I'd say DVD MPeg2 should be your target at 720x480i or 720x480p and 8 Mb/s ave VBR encoding (9.5 peak).

You can also encode an h.264 m2ts "AVCHD" disc playable on Blu-Ray players and many recent PC's with "PureVideoHD" or "AVIVO-HD" h.264 decoding display cards. A good free software player is MPCHC.

[edDV]

I didn't see Redwudz while I was posting but we came to similar conclusions. Free VLC or MPCHC can play DVD on computers that lack an MPeg2 codec. You can include these program installers on the DVD disc.

Most educational facilities will have a stand alone DVD player. Not many will have HD displays or Blu-Ray players.

[jagabo]

Note that Windows XP does not include an MPEG 2 decoder and Windows Media Player will not play MPEG 2 unless you install one (or use a player that includes its own, like VLC). Windows XP has included a DV decoder since SP1 if I recall correctly. DV only supports 720x480 (NTSC) and 720x576 (PAL) frame sizes. So your high def source has to be downscaled.

[CNT]

Excellent. I think what I am supposed to do is practice the bitrate. In other words, I will have to spend time on produce different outputs. It comes to what is acceptable to me, instead of standard (if any?). I just thought there was guidelines on creating computer video files, for general public.

One is education settings computer systems (which is not often thing, plus schools are beginning to upgrade some of their PCs). YouTube is another (I only posted one and it was MTS directly to YouTube, and it works! ->link<- ), even it accept MTS, I am sure I would have to use some other formats best for YouTube. Nowdays, most do not attach videos to email anymore, but use links.

But, mainly it will be mostly home videos (family, vacations, etc), so I will have to decide what would be best format (perhaps start saving all videos on DVDs instead of storing on HDDs or thumbdrives). I am not into Blu-Ray yet, so should I start on that? If I start on Blu-Ray (which I would then have to order a Blu-Ray Burner for my PC), I can alway use the Blu-Ray to create lower formats for older PC or Window Media Players, right?

Yes, I have VLC on my thumbdrive. VLC is great, yet, it has issues with FLV (downloaded from YouTube). It still plays, I just have to close the popup "error" window to see the FLV playing. I thought VLC would fix that by now. There is another player that plays just about ANY videos, but I am bias and like VLC. If someone here works with VLC, I have the file that you could use to fix the VLC (FLV file is 3.78MB).

I am finally able to start working with video files and photos. Thus, I bought Adobe P/P Elements 9 to be my editor. I want to start off the right track, so I am hoping to hear more from you guys with suggestions and feedbacks.

Thank you very much!

Chuck