easy question - General issue around setup

lmayhead · #1 (**permalink**) 04-13-2005, 01:42 PM

Hi,
Just a general question around initial seup... I have a digital camcorder linked to PC via firewire. I want to archive my tapes onto DVD with a few simple editing effect but at the same quality. I have started off using MS Moviemaker which seems a breeze to use. I just want to check what the best format i should be using - curently capturing at DV-AVI which is a bit rate of 25mb and a PAL format. MS Movie maker can only seem to save in avi format - is this an issue ??? for best quality should I be using another sw tool that can save in mpeg ?? So basically question is - what the best format for DV capture ?

Thanks

les

Mike Thorpe · #2 (**permalink**) 04-13-2005, 01:53 PM

the DV AVI codec is best quality. It's what the DV cameras use.

You can download the panasonic dv avi codec from here:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...c_DV_Codec.htm

have fun

lmayhead · #3 (**permalink**) 04-13-2005, 02:49 PM

ok thanks - so there is no reason to try to use a different format such as mp3 ? or mpeg. Avi is a good a format as anything else ?

thanks
Les

Mike Thorpe · #4 (**permalink**) 04-13-2005, 03:02 PM

mp3 is for audio files only.. the video MPEG standards are MPEG1, 2 and 4.

MPEG2 is the technology that DVDs use (i think?) and there are many different standards of MPEG4 - DivX and XviD being the two more popular ones.

If you're planning on creating DVDs, stick with DV-AVI until you're ready to finally author it. If you're planning on putting it on the web, consider using DivX, XviD or possibly Microsoft WMV.

OnTheWay · #5 (**permalink**) 04-13-2005, 11:32 PM

Yes to author onto a DVD, you will have to convert to MPEG2, you will lose quality, hece why your file maybe 12 gig for 1 hour, but you need it around 4.3gig to go onto dvd.

The avi, is basically a non compressed raw video file, straight from camera. On adobe prem pro, you can out put after adding your effects as a mpeg file ready to import into a dvd authoring program like DVD LAB PRO. You can get results which are not far of the quality of your orginal footage, esspecially once played onto a television instead of a pc monitor.

I have basically just expanded on the advice mike gave you, and hope its of some use. happy to answer any other questions if you need any more help...

Marc Peters · #6 (**permalink**) 04-14-2005, 05:35 AM

Just to avoid confusion, DV is compressed but doesn't use intraframe compression. MPEG on the other hand does, which is why it's not a great choice for editing. You shouldn't notice too much of a drop (if any) when converting from DV to MPEG at higher bitrates - the different compression algorithm takes care of the reduction in datarate.