Advice on video conversion strategy for TV Shows and Movies
 

I have now upgraded to a Premium Membership. I am sure its well worth it, given the knowledge I have accumulated already by being a Free member for 2 years.

I need advice on video conversion strategy in two different scenarios.

CASE 1:

I capture a huge number of episodes of a TV Show from Satellite box using Canopus ADVC-110 in DV-AVI format (PAL). Each show usually has an expert giving lecture on a health topic. It is like a 'talking head' most of the time. No movement, with occational graphics. Duration of each show: 20 minutes. I have captured about 200 episodes so far.

My goals are...

1. To preserve the original captures in a format that doesn't degrade (much) the quality further when converted to another format. That would be my master copy, instead of DV-AVI, which is simply taking too much space. (Matrox's I-Frame only MPEG-2 is a choice here? though it cannot be played via a media player)

2. To 'shrink' each episode to some format (H.264???) in order to store them on USB storage and watch using a media player, also, make them compatible with Blueray, so I can, in future, make a Blueray disc with menu for selecting each episode and play it.

CASE 2:

I regularly capture Black & White movies from Satellite box using Canopus ADVC-110 in DV-AVI format (PAL). After cutting out the commercials, they get converted to DVD-Video format and stored on the hard drive. I also burn each movie onto a DVD Blank so that serves as a back-up copy. Once done, I delete the original DV-AVI file.

With the advent of newer compression technologies and media players, I would like your suggestion on which compression to use (H.264???) for both storing on hard drive as well as storing on blank optical media (currently I only have DVD Blanks. Might go for Blue-ray in future). I tried playing a Matrox I-Frame MPEG-2 file via my ASUS Media Player but it didn't recognize the format.

Your suggestions are appreciated.

Regards

Thanks. :tiphat:

DV is only 13GB/hour. It's pretty much maxed out on in-frame (intraframe) compression, which leaves temporal (interframe) compression as the way to achieve further file shrinkage.

I-frame requires a higher bitrate that a typical IPB GOP (or even IP GOP) MPEG-2 encode. As such, the file size is comparable to DV. The benefit of MPEG-2 vs DV -- for NTSC only, not PAL -- is that MPEG-2 4:2:0 or MPEG-2 4:2:2 has better color quality than DV 4:1:1 on captured and converted sources. (Note that DV for "shot" video is fine -- it's converting/recording that's an issue.) So there won't be much savings here.

This also becomes problematic for you. Lots of media players want 1:1 aspect ratio video, not 4:3 encoded MKV or MP4 files. I'd almost say that a good IPB GOP compressed MPEG-2 for Blu-ray would be an ideal master file for you. And then downconvert a media center version in 1:1 aspect, at a smaller resolution even, with tight compression settings for convenient watching; a non-archival copy.

Though 15Mbps would be ideal, 10Mbps would be perfectly fine for talking heads.

I think my question here would be whether you need the discs authored into some format, or if you'd be fine with storing the assets as data. Not "DVD" (DVD-Video) or "Blu-ray" (BDMV,BDAV), but simply as commonly accepted files like MKV or MP4.

The Matrox MPEG-2 codec is excellent, but it's really more of an editing/archive codec, not a distribution codec. It's not the same as a "normal" MPEG, even though it's perfectly valid MPEG-2 video. The AVI container alone is usually enough to confuse the relatively dumb media boxes. Computers (and therefore HTPCs) are not quite as easily tricked.

You have a number of options, but I'll be glad to help you sort out the ideal workflow. :congrats:

Thanks admin.

What specifically will this be? I need English please... :wink2:

Are you suggesting this (10 Mbps) for the master copy of talking heads? When I encoded with Matrox I frame MPEG-2 with 15 or 10 Mbps, the file size was lesser than the original DV file

Can this be H.264?

Also, is 'Master Copy' different from 'Archival copy'?

I think, I want to do away with DVD-Video and store each movie as MKV or MP4 data files either on discs or hard drive. This is based on the assumption that H.264 (or whatever format you suggest) will be much superior in terms of compression, compared to DVD-Video, and all Blue-ray & Media Players play H.264 without issues. Also, I can fit more movies. You can suggest here as well.

Regards

Admin is across the room from me, so I am quoting him.

yes

yes

yes

no, its the same

not really
It's going to be more compression maybe, its not going to be better or worse, its just a different kind of compression and it takes longer to do.
I worry that in 20 years from now, some data files wont be playable anymore as compared to a DVD/Blu-ray Video disc. Some of the realmedia files and even some avi/wmv files from 10+ years ago can't be played today.

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Thanks for remembering to answer this.