Archive: MPEG2 -> AVI(DV)

[ebonovic]

I am starting to get into the video capturing and movie making on my home systems (finally).

I am using Pinnacle Studio 7 to do the captures from DV camcorder.
Then using Studio 7 to make my videos out to an AVI
Then using TMPGencPRO to encode them to MPEG2 for eventual burn on DVD-R

What I am looking for is a way to store all those original captured AVI's before I make them into a movie. They are so huge they won't fit on a CDR easily and would maybe fit about 10 minutes on a 4.7gb DVD-R.

Is it possible for me to encode the captured AVI files, convert them (via TMPGenc) to MPEG2... Store those MPEG2 on CDs and DVDr's... and then if I need them again in Studio or another "movie" program, convert them back up to AVI with the proper codec?

Or am I looking at getting a DAT drive that can hold 40gb to store these files?

Ultimately I would like to store the caputured video as a computer file and not have to re-capture again.

Thanks

[q1aqza]

I asked this question myself recently about the best way of storing my video. Basically once it has been compressed to MPEG1, MPEG2 or DivX then you have lost the quality from the orginal AVI.

I encode all my home movies to SVCD so I just store the MPEG2 file on to CD-R and if at some time in the future I wish to re-edit then I know I can convert the MPEG2 back to AVI using either TMPGenc or Vidomi and then open with Studio 7, re-edit and then re-encode to MPEG2 (using TMPGenc for MPEG2 encoding - not Studio 7 as Studio 7 MPEG2 is poor). Obviously, this time around the AVI will be MPEG2 quality and the re-enncoded MPEG2 is still of similar quality to the original.

Another option as you have DVD-R for large is storage is to use Virtual dub and download the huffuv codec which gives lossless compression and reduces the AVI filesize by approx 50%. I have never used this but I understand it gives alsmost the same quality as full DV.

Some people compress to DivX which reduces filesize considerably but again at a quality cost. My own tests concluded that to maintain an MPEG2 quality video file in DivX I the DivX filesize was the same as an MPEG2. So I save a step and just store the MPEG2 for future use.

I hope this helps.

[liquid217]

why not output the rendered video back to your dv camera and store the tape somewhere, dv stands for digital video so its pure digital data. you can then export it back to your computer at any time. there is no quality loss this way as long as it is a dv camera (in other words, your using firewire)

[ebonovic]

Thank you for the ideas.
I may re-encode it with the other codec to shrink the size.

The goal was to keep them in a computer format so I would not have to recapture them (and also so I could re-use the tapes I have the DV camcorder). I guess with DVDr media still at the $5 range, it is a wash between the cost of a tape for the camera or the blank DVD.

HMMM delema... Thanks for the ideas and the information.

Maybe I will just build a hugh hard drive disk array and store it all there

Does anyone know if I could use my Sony-DV camera as a DAT drive via the firewire? Just a far out there ballpark idea.

[liquid217]

i know you probably allready know this, but if your using firewire, you are not "capturing", you are simply transferring data. "capturing" referrs to converting an analogue signal into a digital one. The data stored on your dv tape is allready digital, and yes in a sense, a dv tape could be considered similar to a dat tape, although there is no way of accessing it like a dat tape at this time. I have a digital8 camera and the medium is cheap enough that i can leave the original media alone (in the event i need to do some re-processing), and be safe knowing that is it still preserved in its digital format. Granted, cd's and dvd media will last a whole lot longer than tape will (digital or otherwise), but your talking decades for the shelf-life of tapes.

[ebonovic]

Hmmm... Actually that never occured to me, that it was not "capturing". I knew it was digital on my tape, but... wow that one went by me pretty easily.

I think was threw me was the fact (at least this is the case with Studio 7) that the "capture" phase aka moving it from the TAPE to hard drive is done in real time.

Is there a way that I can pull the data off the tape at a faster rate?
I guess that is where the camera starts to act like a dat drive versus a camera.

Looks like I will be breaking down and getting some more tapes until someone comes up with the ultimate codec or archiving method... As I don't want to lose the quality and the ability to re-mix the footage at a later time.

Thanks everyone.

[rimshot]

Ebonovic, I've gone through the same thought process recently and saw a similar thread on www.dv.com. The common conclusion seems to be to just save it on the DV tape.

At the prices you can find for tapes either on ebay, at www.tapebargains.com, or www.thetapecompay.com it's hard to beat it.

Capturing again is a hassle (Transfering...) but bearable. I really like the MovieMaker that comes with XP, it makes "clips" for you as it captures while I'm doing something else which greatly reduces my editing time and it's easy to delete the clips that just didn't work out. BTW.. microsoft has a bonus pack for it available on their site with a lot of extras.

I like to keep the original data anyway, the advances in our hobby here have been tremendous even just in the couple years now I've been messing with it. Since I'm mostly taping my son I'm focused on quality and I'm sure what I can, and want to do, in 1, 3, or 5 years will surely be different than what I'm doing now.

I'm curious what tape you all have found to be best? I'm mostly using Sony and have had good luck, the premium tapes which are considered professional grade and work great in my JVC DV recorder can be bought for $4.50 plus shipping. Anyone have a better tape to use?

Thanks for the thread,

Terry