Video Storage Advice

[Met-AL]

I am new to this whole digital video thing. I picked up a Canon DV tape camera last year and have collected a fair amount of video of my kid's sporting events.

What is the best format to store my videos in for later usage? Right now, I capture the video off the camera is uncompressed avi's. I then edit the clips out and render them as DVD compatible mpeg 2 files, NTSC.

Am I doing the right thing with this? I plan on possible making a compilation DVD of great moments, but for right now, I think they are just going to be clips of stuff to go back and watch years down the road.

 

[fuelvolts]

I convert to ~2mbps h.264 avi w/ 128kbps mp3 audio

 

[fuelvolts]

To elaborate:

I edit the video in Windows Movie Maker and save as Widescreen DVD quality 3.0mbps WMV. Then use SUPER to convert them as above. My cam is widescreen standard def. Canon Elura 100

 

[NoxTek]

To elaborate:

I edit the video in Windows Movie Maker and save as Widescreen DVD quality 3.0mbps WMV. Then use SUPER to convert them as above. My cam is widescreen standard def. Canon Elura 100

Not much point in saving them as h.264 after putting them through the WMV wringer...

 

[Met-AL]

Not much point in saving them as h.264 after putting them through the WMV wringer...

What method do you use?

 

[Black Morty Rackham]

Right now, I capture the video off the camera is uncompressed avi's.

Are you sure you're not using the DV compression that the camera records in? Because uncompressed video is enormous.

If you want to keep the videos archived without losing quality, just keep them in the original DV format. If that's too big, then H.264 is a good option.

 

[Sean]

I'll add another vote for H.264.

 

[Met-AL]

Are you sure you're not using the DV compression that the camera records in? Because uncompressed video is enormous.

If you want to keep the videos archived without losing quality, just keep them in the original DV format. If that's too big, then H.264 is a good option.

I didn't realize DV format was a compressed codec. The files are huge....

Here is a readout from MediaInfo on a file from my camera.

General
Complete name                    : E:\DV Folder\Source\Districts.avi
Format                           : AVI
Format/Info                      : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile                   : OpenDML
File size                        : 4.53 GiB
Duration                         : 21mn 20s
Overall bit rate                 : 30.4 Mbps
Recorded date                    : 2008-03-15 12:03:56

Video
Format                           : Digital Video
Codec ID                         : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint                    : Sony
Duration                         : 21mn 20s
Bit rate                         : 28.8 Mbps
Width                            : 720 pixels
Height                           : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16/9
Frame rate mode                  : Constant
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Standard                         : NTSC
Resolution                       : 24 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:1:1
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 2.778
Stream size                      : 4.29 GiB (95%)

Audio
Format                           : PCM
Format settings, Endianness      : Little
Format settings, Sign            : Unsigned
Codec ID                         : 1
Codec ID/Hint                    : Microsoft
Duration                         : 21mn 20s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Resolution                       : 16 bits
Stream size                      : 234 MiB (5%)
Interleave, duration             : 50 ms (1.50 video frames)

How much quality am I losing by going to MPEG2 I wonder...They look good. Here is the info from one of my MPEG2 files..

General
Complete name                    : E:\Home Movies\Football 09-13-07l.mpg
Format                           : MPEG-PS
File size                        : 791 MiB
Duration                         : 17mn 31s
Overall bit rate                 : 6 305 Kbps

Video
ID                               : 224 (0xE0)
Format                           : MPEG Video
Format version                   : Version 2
Format profile                   : Main@Main
Format settings, Matrix          : Default
Duration                         : 17mn 31s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 5 643 Kbps
Nominal bit rate                 : 8 500 Kbps
Width                            : 720 pixels
Height                           : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16/9
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Standard                         : NTSC
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Scan order                       : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.821

Audio
ID                               : 192 (0xC0)
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 2
Duration                         : 17mn 31s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 224 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Resolution                       : 16 bits

I will have to look into this H264 codec. Thanks for the advice.

 

[NoxTek]

What method do you use?

I use Sony Vegas to do all my editing and it allows me to render directly to h.264. Vegas is pretty easy to use and allows you to do all kinds of nifty stuff without having a degree in rocket science. I love it.

 

[Met-AL]

I use Sony Vegas to do all my editing and it allows me to render directly to h.264. Vegas is pretty easy to use and allows you to do all kinds of nifty stuff without having a degree in rocket science. I love it.

Yep, I found that it takes Sony Vegas Pro 8 for H.264. It's a bit spendy, but it seems to be the best choice.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 has H.264 support, but you are limited to two built in settings.

 

[Met-AL]

What settings do you use?

I am capturing 720x780 video. When I render with H.264, I am using:

Variable Bit Rate Min 4,000,000 Max 10,000,000
2 Pass
720x480
Best Quality

Is that a waste? Should I do a constant bit rate? Should I drop the 2-pass?

 

[bobdole369]

Overall bit rate : 30.4 Mbps
Looks pretty uncompressed.

another vote for h.264.
4mbits is quite good quality I think 2-pass is a must personally. Even with rips. You could go pretty much straight to DVD from those files with little further loss in quality.

 

[Met-AL]

Ok, here is what I have been using...

Turning off 2 pass results in pretty much the same video as the 2-pass. The file size stays the same and they look same, but take that into consideration that I am working with video from a consumer grade 1.2MP video camera.

Look good, or should I make adjustments?

 

[NoxTek]

You could go pretty much straight to DVD from those files with little further loss in quality.

DEFINITELY.

2+ pass encodes can be a pain in the ass due to the extra time needed, but the difference between a single pass and 2+ pass encode is very real and very noticable. Also the difference is more noticable the higher the video resolution - with 720p or 1080p video 2+ pass encodes are an absolute must. With lower resolution stuff like standard NTSC video or 640x480 a single pass might be passable to most people.

It really depends on how important the video fidelity is to you.

 

[Met-AL]

Check this out... I set up a render farm. Here is the beginning, just two PC's...a E8400 in the blue and a X2 4200 in the red/green

EDIT: Holy cow, this was a HUGE waste of time. After all the rendering is done, the final stitching is doing to put all the peices together and the PC doing that re-encodes the entire thing, totaly defeating the purpoose of distributing the rendering. Oh well, I can at least just send it over to the other PC so my main one is not all tied up.