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Trying to understand digital video.....

G

Garet Jax

Diamond Member
Hello all,

I have been doing some reading online and I just want to confirm what I understand about digital video. To start, I am loading the video in from my digital camcoder using firewire. When I load it in using the default software the camcoder came with, it is brought in as an AVI. From there:

1) I can burn the AVI to a CD and distribute it to family and friends to view on their computer.
2) I can convert the AVI to an MPEG format and burn the MPEG to a CD and distribute it to family and friends to view on their computer.
3) I can convert the AVI to VCD and burn the VCD to a CDR/CDRW/DVD-R in hopes of letting family and friends play the video on their DVD player. I can view a DVD compatibility list on VCDHelp.
4) I can convert the AVI to SVCD and burn the SVCD to a CDR/CDRW/DVD-R in hopes of letting family and friends play the video on their DVD player. SVCD has higher quality but is less likely to be able to be transportable across a wide variety of DVD players. I can view a DVD compatibility list on VCDHelp.

At a very high level is this all true?
Are there any things that I am over simplifying?

Thanks a lot.
 
You can also convert the AVI to MPEG2 and burn a DVD for your friends and family to play on their set top boxes (assuming you have a DVD burner of course).


Lethal
 
>it is brought in as an AVI. From there:

AVI can mean many things. It can be a RAW DV codec or a compressed codec.

AVI is just a name that includes a codec. in other words your camcorder is most likely using a DV codec and the resulting name is AVI. There are Diff DV codecs all resulting with the AVI extention. When you record in a DV Codec (Digital Video) it's in RAW format meaning that it's uncompressed.

In theory you edit RAW Digital Video and once your finished you render it or compressed format like MPEG, RM - Real Media, QT - Quick Time or an AVI codec. There are many compressible codecs like Microsoft's MPEG4 v8 codec the resulting file name is WMV but it's still an AVI file. DivX for example is another compressible AVI codec.

1) I can burn the AVI to a CD and distribute it to family and friends to view on their computer

Yes, this process is easy IF the data fits on one CD if not you will need to either edit or split it.

2) I can convert the AVI to an MPEG format and burn the MPEG to a CD and distribute it to family and friends to view on their computer.

Technically yes, but there are two major types of MPEG there's MPEG1 and MPEG2

There's a big difference between manipulating and editing video. There's also a big difference between mpeg1 and mpeg2.

Let me tell you, no matter what editor you have, MPEG2 was never intended to be edited, MPEG2 was intended to be rendered from RAW streams and that's it, it was never intended to be an open codec.

MPEG2 is not free and contains proprietary codec algorithms, MPEG2 codec algorithms can be made by several different companies, even the worlds best MPEG2 editors may not properly work at editing MPEG2 streams. I for instance use the main concept MPEG2 codec that's included with Vegas Video but my ATI-AIW capture card captures MPEG2 with the Go Motion MPEG2 codec. Editors 'do their best' at editing proprietary MPEG2 streams. The more complicated the algorithm of the MPEG2 codec stream is the more difficulties MPEG2 editors will have at decoding the proprietary algorithms.

On the other hand MPEG1 is free an is an OPEN non-proprietary codec and contains simple algorithms that are available to almost any editing/manipulating software. Since it contains a non-proprietary algorithms, editors have a much easier time working with the codec.

To manipulate MPEG1 I use VCDCutter, it basically cuts and merges MPEG1 clips. There is no re-rendering involved. Just yesterday I took commercials out of a 1.9Gig two hour clip in about 30 minutes. I then split them for the appropriate size to fit on two cd's and that took about 10 minutes.

MPEG2 for example, since my ATI-AIW uses the Go Motion MPEG2 proprietary codec. Even when I use Vegas Video to edit the MPEG2 clips, it sometimes can't (how can I say this) properly decode the proprietary Go Motion MPEG2 algorithms used by my ATI-AIW. Problems can vary from out of sync clips to program crashes, ect...

This is not a problem with MPEG2 editors, it's the nature of the proprietary MPEG2 codecs. Not only that but if you have successfully edited your MPEG2 clip, you then have to render it once again when your finished. For example to render two hours of MPEG2 video can take hours depending on your system.

It all boils down to what do you want to do, what quality you want, what you want the end product to be and what codec was used in the first place.

Here's my rule of thumb, you render RAW video to MPEG2 for very high quality video with the intention of not editing it again and you use MPEG1 for the intention of editing it again. You manipulate video when you can, and edit video when you have to.

3) I can convert the AVI to VCD and burn the VCD to a CDR/CDRW/DVD-R in hopes of letting family and friends play the video on their DVD player.

Yes, but be carefull between MPEG1 VCD and MPEG2 SVCD most players will play VCD MPEG1 while the same player won't play SVCD.

>Are there any things that I am over simplifying?

My suggestion is to keep things simple to start, Capture your Camcorder clips in a RAW DV codec, get a few tools like VCDCutter, M1 or M2-Edit Pro, Sonic Video Factory, Nero with MPEG plugins and a few more. Stick with rendering to VCD MPEG1 to start once your comfortable with that then move up to more complicated stuff.
 
Minor addition to NicColt's post.

1. Yes, AVI is just a wraper, and the codec yer footage ends up being is determinded by the software you used to capture the video. For example, if you were using a product from Canopus the captured video on yer PC were be in Canopus's proprietary<sp?> DV codec, but it would still end in a .avi extension.

2. There is no such thing as "raw" or "uncompressed" DV because DV is a compressed video format (5:1). And sometimes it does get confusing talking about compressing a compressed video format 'cause the word compression just gets used way to often. 😉


Lethal
 
Another valuable tool is VirtualDub. This program is like a digital video universal joint. It lets you convert video formats, and do modifications like cropping, deinterlacing, resizing and so on. And it's freeware.

I've recently purchased Pinnacle Studio 8.0 (a very recent release ~$80) and it is a very handy digital video editing software that can output most of the popular formats. It makes adding several audio tracks a breeze (original audio, narration, music, sound effects). Transitions between scenes is literally drag and drop. It's a very good solution for the beginning editor.
 
Thanks a lot to all who responded. I am working through things slowly and people's responses have helped a lot. I made some progress last night. These are the steps I followed:

1) Used MGI Video Wave III to import the 2 minute video through Firewire into a 450 meg AVI file
2) Used TMPGEnc to convert the AVI to a 3 (it was either 3 or 30, can't remember 😱) meg MPEG1 file.
3) Install ForcedASPI (so I could use VCDEasy)
4) Used VCDEasy to write the MPEG1 file to a CDRW for use on my DVD player.
5) Enjoyed my 2 minute video on my DVD player 🙂

I have a few follow on questions:

1) The AVI and the MPEG1 video are still quite small (I am running 1280X1024) in relation to the rest of the screen. Can I change the size? If so when would I do it - before or after step (2) above? Can I use TMPGEnc to do this? How about VirtualDub?
2) There are a couple of screens of unrelated video that I want to remove (at the end). When would I do it - before or after step (2) above? Can I use TMPGEnc to do this? How about VirtualDub?
3) Can I just burn the MPEG1 file to a CDR and ship this to friends and family rather than creating a VCD?

Thanks a lot.

This stuff is cool! 😀
 
1. What are you using the view the movie? Is there a "full screen" option you can enable?
2. Not sure (never used the proggies you are using).
3. Yes, but they will only be able to play it on their PC.


Lethal
 
Originally posted by: LethalWolfe
1. What are you using the view the movie? Is there a "full screen" option you can enable?

Lethal
Click to expand...

I am using Windows Media Player. When I make the window itself full-size, it doesn't affect the size of the video being played. When I select the full-screen option it stretches the video to fit the entire screen, but the picture becomes pixelated. 🙁
 
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