Convert DV video to MPEG, H.264, other?
 

Hello.

So, I started converting analog tapes to DV (576i50). And after capture I need to compress them.

I seek advice on compression, software, encoder, bitrates.

MPEG2?
MP4/H.264?
To deinterlace, or not?

FWIW the DV format is compressed, although not anywhere near as much as MPEG or MP4.

The best method will depend on what you intend to do with the captured video, and how you intend to view/distribute it, and whether or not you plan to do any restoration? or just simple cuts editing.

(Capture to the DV format is not recommended for restoration.)

I do it as a hobby for other people who want their old tapes in digital format.

I don't do any restoration, simple capture, cut and compress.

IMO: For a simple quick and easy (and cheap and dirty) MPEG2 for DVD, MP4 for digital memory stick, etc. type media. No need to deinterlace, especially if they will be viewed on TVs. In fact recording directly to a DVD recorder is the fastest way to do it if no restoration or significant editing is planned.

Note that noisy analog video (typical for VHS/8mm/Hi8 home video) makes for crappy DVD viewing even at the highest permitted data rates.

I don't have DVD recorder.

All transfers are made via Firewire to PC, resulting in DV-AVI. Then from computer I can compress to digital file, or author DVD/SD-BD.

And you'd be surprised in the quality I got from the few tapes I have captured to DV, though they were barely watched on good quality tape.

If you, and more importantly your clients, are satisfied with the results you can declare victory and move on.

Most home folks are happy if they can view the content of their old tapes for which they no longer have access to working players.

To do more will cost you time and effort = money. Worth doing if there is corresponding payback, but only you can judge that.

The question is, what software to use to compress DV-AVI and what format to compress to with which settings.

Vegas takes a full day to render 1 hour video, that's certainly not an option.

A full day for one hour? Forgetting the fact that Vegas isn't all that great to begin with, there is suspiciously more than just encoding that's going on. There's no way to avoid added quality loss involved in encoding analog to DV in the first place and then going thru another stage of lossy encoding degradation for a more playable format, but having no cleanup or restoration doesn't help either.

If you want DVD, you have no choice but to encode to MPEG2. DVD can't be anything else. MPEG2 can also be used with any and all set top players, smart TVs, and DVD players, and other media players. MPEG is a universally playable format. If you want standard definition BluRay you have your choice of MPEG or AVC/h.264, in either interlaced optical disc format or as data format for media servers, external drives or USB sticks. For h.264 you'll need a BluRay player or other device that can decode h.264 encodes. DVD-only players can't decode h.264.

But if Vegas is taking a day to encode a 1-hour video into any of those formats, something is amiss. One thing is certain: you have some pretty noisy, unfiltered video -- it eats up bitrate and requires a higher bitrate for all the noise rendering, and higher bitrates and multiple passes take longer to encode.

A full day to process? :eek:

That's 1:24 time. Hmm... frame per second calculated in my head... somewhere between 3-4fps? (3~4:60)
Those are speeds I can back in 2001.
What is the system specs for that? If not something from 15+ years ago, something is definitely amiss.

Anyway ... MPEG2 vs H.264 depends on final use. Since interlaced tapes, I'd go for an MPEG of some kind. Don't deinterlace unless you are viewing on a phone, or want to insult your eyeballs.

IVTC before H.264 is another choice, but really depends on source and quality. I rarely opt for that. Too much work just to watch and enjoy. Save that for restoration and edit source for compilations (documentaries, etc).

What is your PC?

Video encoding time will depend on you PC, its configuration, and the software you use. A modern higher end PC should run close to real time. There are a number of common issues that can kill encoding speed including the following:
- Running AV software on the video drives.
- Storing source and destination video on the same drive
- Using the system (e.g., C:) drive for any video storage
- Running other processes on the PC while encoding
- Insufficient memory forcing the PC to move stuff in/out of cache.

MPEG2 is usually faster than H264. But H264 can be quick on a machine if Intel QuickSync is implemented and used.

FWIW: If doing simple authoring to a DVD, I usually feed the DV AVI file to TMPGEnc's Authoring Works and let it do the encoding. It also lets me do simple cuts editing and build menus.

HP HDX 18.
4GB RAM
2x 960GB SSD

Video transfers to C and is processed there, second SSD is full of my personal data and using external is pointless, as it only has USB 2.0.

I only need sofware for conversion and compression, I could burn DVDs for autoplay without any menu.
What would be a basic software to make DVDs with choosing compression based on length of the video and using LPCM audio track?

That is a ~10 year old laptop technology with an 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor. Excellent in its day, but time passes.

Its processor speed based on tests such as PassMark is perhaps one eighth of current processors such as the I7-8700K. H264 encoding is very processor intensive. Considering the age of the processor, 8+ hours to encode 1 hour of video to H264 is not a surprise.

You might find this thread of interest:
https://superuser.com/questions/3831...xpectations-be

Bottom line about the only way to significantly improve your encoding speed is a new computer with a modern 4+ core processor.

Some encoders are faster than others and some more expensive than others.
Many folks like FFmpeg and HandBrake for speed, quality, and price (freeware), for H264/X264 encoding.
This provides one comparison for your consideration
https://www.slant.co/versus/4948/494...rake_vs_ffmpeg

As to which software for DVD, it all depends on how "close to the metal" you want to get. There are a lot of choices both free and pay-for. I've found TMPGEnc's AuthoringWorks (moderate cost) to be easy to use, and it provides a wide range of output options including DVD, BluRay, and AVCHD on DVD (which many BluRay players can read nicely), and it can work with a wide range of input file formats. If necessary I can set it to run overnight and find a burned DVD in the tray in the morning freeing me to do other stuff like eat, sleep, etc. while it churns away. But other software can do similar stuff as well, so it ultimately becomes a matter of what you like based on your research and recommendation from others..

I know. But it is still sufficient with everythign else I do, beside, find me a laptop with equal or greater screen size for the same amount of money. And yes it was top of the line in its day...

The key factor for me is budget: currently I have none to spare on new laptop, or software, all spent on video cameras and deluxe editions of music albums...

So I'll learn how to operate ffmpeg in command line.

I'm as close to metal as one can be, I listen to it since I've turned 5.

And I'll try that DVD one.

If you transfer to MPEG2 video better use a VCR/DVD combo, saves you a lot of troubles, and no pc needed, or you can edit the VOB's > rename to .TS extension, and you can easily convert or import

Not an option.
I do not have such device.

Not to mention there is an increasing number of people who want their videos in digital files, rather than on a crap medium that DVD is. I don't know how about others, but I can see how terrible DVD compression is...

And I already have a DVCAM deck, so that's the main workhorse.

It fully depends on the goals of the project, and quality of the source. I use DVD recorders for my own hobby materials, and have in the past for professional work. But I'm also not just using any old recorder, but ones specific to the task (JVC LSI for tapes, Zoran for off-air, Philips 3575 for 16x9). Lossless has always been better, or even a high-bitrate (15mbps) MPEG, or even MPEG 4:2:2 @ 15mbps+.

No. VOB is a "video object" file formatted with additional DVD data. You cannot rename the file. Without proper extraction, a VOB is essentially a corrupted MPEG file. Proper extraction is required, and the easiest extractor is still DVD Decrypter.

A lot of your posts are misinformed lately. I think you need to do some more reading. :wink2: