Exporting H264 - Adobe Premiere MP4 vs Quicktime MOV?
 

I have captured vhs video that is a .dv file (which I know is not the best). Is it best to export the video after editing as ntsc .h264 or ntsc .mov? Thank you.

.mov = Quicktime

And Quicktime is both a container AND a codec.
So do you mean Quicktime compression, or just a .mov file with other codecs inside?

In cs4 I have the option of encoding as h264 container with mainconcept codec or as .mov container, with dv/dvcpro codec. Of course I also have the option of a .mov container using an apple intermediate codec, or h264 codec. This is getting confusing...Is there a big difference between .h264 in mainconcept and .mov in h264?

Basically I will have to de-interlace for YT, but once I do there is no going back. Maybe it's best that I don't de-interlace and hope YT develops better de-interlacing software down the road than my CS4? I'm on a Mac, and did make edits to the video.

Thanks again (and again).

MainConcept (now Rovi) uses an MP4 container. And yes, MP4 is better than MOV for H264 encoding.

You can:
- save an interlaced "master" output copy to match the interlaced source (i.e., not lose quality from deinterlacing)
- save a deinterlaced version for Youtube now
- indeed, hope Youtube deinterlace method improve in the future (though it does nothing for you now)

Thank you, and if I upload a h264 .mp4 file, and it is re-encoded by YT, is that still better than uploading an .mov file which will be re-encoded?

Maybe, maybe not. It completely depends on the deinterlace method.

Well in CS4 I think it's a simple removal of half of the lines. And if I was using virtualdub/avisynth how would that differ?

Yeah, I think it's a simple drop-frame too. (Or the slightly better variant.)

VirtualDub has Yadif. Much better!

Better yet is Avisynth, with QTGMC. And within QTGMC, there's several options to make it fast (15fps) or ultimate quality (1fps). I use a mid-grade setting most times (8fps), but the slow one for very important videos (family clips, work that pays $$$$).

If you're on Mac, you can use VirtualDub with Wine (free), VirtualBox (free) or Parallels/VMware (paid). Avisynth doesn't work in Wine.

Thanks, I will look into that for the next video. But for cs4, if YT does re-encode, would it better exporting as the mp4 or the .mov with dv codec, or .mov file with apple intermediate codec hq (though this is only a vhs tape). If YT does re-encode, would it still be better in progressive versus interlaced?

And when using virtualdub then, would exporting with Yadif progressive be best regardless if YT decides to reencode my video?

Youtube's deinterlace is based on an ffmpeg switch, which is probably better than a basic Premiere drop field (even or odd). So in that case, using Youtube for deinterlace may be better. Just upload the DV file, I guess. It will be slower for sure.

Neither of these two choice is ideal, of course.

Yadif would be better.
QTGMC would be better than Yadif.

I often use Yadif. It really just depends on the content of the video.

Do you have Wine? For some reason when I run virtualdub through winebottler it does not recognize dv or mov files. I think ffmpeg can handle mov, but not .dv.

Did you install the VirtualDub available on this site?

Yes, I installed it via Winebottler, but I could not find out how to install plugins through the program. When I tried to open an .mov file (it can't detect .dv), it said it needs the QT plugin. I think the only way is to go through Wine, as I could find zero mention on the Web of Winebottler and Virtualdub (and actually not much on Wine on Mac and Virtualdub).

I also read that Avidemux has Yadif and other deinterlace options, but I assume that since you did not mention it, going through Wine for Virtualdub is worth the effort.

The plugin is here:
And that's where it belongs.
There's never anything to "install" in VirtualDub. It's all done through the file system.

Thanks, and it's there, but when I open a quicktime file it says "Unable to Initialize Quicktime: InitializeQTML.

Also, in order to install the HuffYUV codec I need to run the .inf file, which I can't do with Wine normally. From what I've read I have to move the file to the C Drive within Wine. Another site said I run
but that didn't work either.

Have other people installed the huffyuv codec on wine? It has an .inf file which is a Windows installer.

You have to install it via the DOS prompt in Wine. (Right click Wine icon on Mac menu bar.)

Try this:
The syntax you tried looks wrong for DOS. It looks like shell (Linux ala Mac X terminal) commands on the "./huffyuv.inf" part.

Thank you but I don't have an icon for wine--I run Virtualdub via the Terminal. Is there a way to go through there? In other words, how do I access MS-DOS in Wine through the Terminal?

I have windows and can't even get Huffy to work...I end up using freemake video converter to convert to uncompressed and edit from there.

Thanks, my goal is to deinterlace video I already have in .dv form with the least possible downgrade in quality. I don't know if I need the Huffyuv codec, but else I will need to export the video in a similar lossless format.

I also still get a message when trying to open a QT file, "Unable to Initialize Quicktime: InitializeQTML."