Codecs

[duragezic]

I captured video from my Hi8 camcorder using ATI's program (I have a Radeon 64MB VIVO) and saved it as 480x360 MPEG-1 file. Loaded it into Premiere, edited it, etc.
The MPEG-1 file I captured is 156 MB. It's about 3 and 1/2 minutes long. I edited the footage and now it's at 2 minutes, 45 seconds. Which is the best codec to used when exporting so the file size is as small as possible. Does anyone know of any webpages explaining the ups/downs of the different codecs? I used Divx Fast Motion and it went down to 16.7 MB. Nothing else I tried (exporting using Indeo 3.2 now) came close to that file size, so I guess I'll use Divx. Now if i send this to someone else to them to view it, do they need the Divx codecs? That's why I prefer using another codec but they all seem to suck compared to Divx. Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[vlieps]

Try to search on google.com for DVD ripping- there in those pages usually people explain a lot about codecs etc.
One page is:
http://dvdripping.cjb.net/

Enjoy.

 

[NicColt]

I capture with my AIW either TV or Video-in at 3/mbit second with mpeg2 all my captures are done like this, it gives me about 1.3 Gig/hour, I do this for maximum quality. Once that is done, I then use Vegas Video or you can use the cheaper Video Factory which is basically the same, except that it's not multi-linear or Premiere or whatever whatever editor you want to use. Just note however that if you record MPEG2 video you will need an MPEG2 Editor. Not all editors are able to edit or convert MPEG2 video. If you record MPEG1 video then you can use a free editor like VirtualDub. I would recommend Video Factory for $69 which is an amazing MPEG2 editor for the price. with Vegas Video or Video Factory, you can then render or "save" your video to other compressed formats like RealVideo RM, QuickTime QT, Windows Media Video WMV or any AVI format such as DivX.

Once my video is captured, I then use Vegas Video to edit the video and once the video is ready to be rendered or saved, I render the video to a format depending on what I want it for. The format or "codec" I use most often is the Windows Media Video 8 codec. or WMV Basically WMV and ASF are the same thing, the ASF is the streaming version but still uses the same codec. You can get the Windows media 7 or 8 codec by installing the Windows Media 7 Encoder or preferably the Windows Media 8 Encoder once the Encoders are installed it installs the WMV 7 or 8 codecs that are then available to be used with MPEG2 editors.

Divx is basically a hack of the Windows Media Video 3 codec. the advantages of this codec is that it's an open codec meaning that you can read and write to it. the disadvantage is that it's not legal so you cannot use it for legal means.

Windows Media Video 8 codec is Microsoft's latest codec. the advantage is that it's a legal codec and offers better compression and quality than divx (in my humble opinion) the disadvantage is that it's a closed codec. Meaning that once you write or render to it, you cannot re-open it to edit it, so it's a save once type of deal.

Once I'm ready to render my video I use the Windows Media 8 codec with a bitrate depending on what I need the video for. I normally use a bitrate between 512KB to 1MB but I often use 750KB/bitrate. I find that it gives an awesome quality for a very small file size. The resulting video is WMV you can rename it to ASF or AVI but it's still the same codec. So for about one hour of video saved with WMV at 750/bitrate it comes in around 400 megs.

What I do is save 1 minute of video using different presets like 512/bitrate 750/bitrate and 1MB/bitrates so for example if 1 minute of video with a 750/bitrate=6Megs and then I divide the space that a CD-R holds like 700/6Megs=117Minutes so I know that 117 Minutes of video at a 750/bitrate will fit on one CD-R. So if my video is shorter than 117 Minutes I know that it will fit on a cd-r but if it's 134 minutes I will either cut it in two parts or use a smaller bitrate. I hope this helps.