Convert h264 to what for edit/slow computer

[krisbee]

I just got a Creative Vado HD and the camera records pretty good HD video. However, I can't edit the videos because my computer is too slow to play full res h264! As a matter of fact, I still only have an SD TV at my house.

We watched the videos on our ROKU unit by changing the output container to mp4 (keeping the video codec native to the camera), and it looked fantastic... but, like I said, editing on my computer is impossible due to its' slowness. I run linux here, btw.

So, I can either change the video to an mpeg2 (maybe at same resolution instead of 16:9 DVD resolution?) or dv, and then import that into my editor... which would you suggest would maintain the best quality? The final destination will either be DVD's, or youtube (or archived and maybe burned to a data disk for playing on a computer or ROKU)...

Thanks in advance...

[Baldrick]

DV-AVI. Convert with avidemux or ffmpeg.

Or if you are only doing basic editing(cut, join) you could convert directly to dvd mpeg2 and use a lossless cutter.