Is there an alternative to avi capture? only, solution, another, problem

andy

I have many hours of analog video that I would like to put on DVD. The problem is that if I capture in avi I only have about 2 hours of harddrive space and I would like to put about 4 hours on each DVD. The quality of the video is just fair. Is there an alternative to avi that would yield a smaller file? If so which program(s) should I look at? If not is there another solution?

I would like to edit and author the file. I looked at Adobe Premiere Elements and WinDV and both capture only in avi as far as I can determine.   

The O.S. is Windows XP.

Thanks

Marlau

The problem is that if I capture in avi I only have about 2 hours of harddrive space and I would like to put about 4 hours on each DVD

The determining factor is which Video and Audio CODECs (and what configuration of those codecs) you are using...

I think he's saying he has 2hours of lossless AVI space avaliable... you could try using PICVideo's MJPEG codec, that often takes much less space than huffyuv.

I think he's saying he has 2hours of lossless AVI space avaliable...

Yes, that's probably so - and that's why I was suggesting the use of different (higher compression) video and audio codecs...


Originally Posted by marlauI looked at Adobe Premiere Elements and WinDV and both capture only in avi as far as I can determine.

Are you capturing from a 1394/firewire card (DV cam etc.) or from an analog capture card?

I use WinDvd Recorder and capture directly to mpg2.

Qjimbo offers what might be the solution and is correct in his understanding that I have only 2 hours of lossless AVI space. In answer to communist's question I'm using Sony Media Converter. The VCR is connected to the Sony with quot;Analog Inquot; and quot;DV outquot; via firewire. This works well and I get no dropped frames.

As for WindDvd Recorder I couldn't find a trial version for download. I'm loathe to buy a program if I can't try it out first. Scott, do you know if there is a demo version?

Thanks to all for the quick response.

Well since you're source is quot;DVquot; (via passthrough) you may want to take a look at this thread:
showthread.php?t=106636

There are some suggestions inlc. freeware.

@marlau Qjimbo offers what might be the solution and is correct in his understanding that I have only 2 hours of lossless AVI space.

And, within the .AVI container, what is the format of the audio that you are capturing? If it is PCM (.WAV), you can reduce your space requirements/extend your recording time significantly by using .MP3 instead - and, on a test basis, you could try using a DivX codec for video, also within the .AVI container...

@marlau
As for WindDvd Recorder I couldn't find a trial version for download. I'm loathe to buy a program if I can't try it out first. Scott, do you know if there is a demo version?

Here is a link to get the trial of WinDVD Recorder 5 Platinum.
jsp/WinDVD...r_Download.jsp
Hope this helps!

Since your source is DV, I'm moving this thread to the DV forum...


Originally Posted by setarip_old@marlau And, within the .AVI container, what is the format of the audio that you are capturing?

I'm not sure how I would know this. As I'm using a firewire the video and audio are in one file xxx.avi. The two programs (Adobe Premiere Elements and WinDv) that I used to capture do not seem to indicate the format for audio.

Thanks Bruce for the link.

quot;Capturingquot; DV to AVI via firewire means streaming the tape content to your PC HDD. The result is a DV AVI file, which means the video codec used is DV, and the audio is PCM. There are two types of DV AVIs: type-1 and type-2. The video inside the AVI files ist just the same, as is the audio. But type-2 contains the audio twice for VfW compatibility reasons. Thus type-1 files are smaller (ca. 5%).

In my opinion the best and easiest way to get your video on DVDs is to leave it in the DV format during editing, and when converting to DVD compliant MPEG-2 you should use the lower resolutions (352x576 for PAL, 352x480 for NTSC). Four hours is pretty much for a single layer DVD... Maybe you have the option to use dual layer media.

bb

[QUOTE=bb Four hours is pretty much for a single layer DVD... Maybe you have the option to use dual layer media.

bb[/QUOTE]

What in your opinion would is the maximum amount for a single layer DVD? I don't have the option of using dual layer media.

if you're capturing DV, you might want to splash out on a new hard disk... they're extremely cheap now, and DV isn't too taxing on a hard disk (25mbps... you could do far worse than that).

four hours worth of DV = 48.3 gigs in type-1 DV, and about 51 gigs in type-2 DV (the only difference is type-2 is more avi compatible and easier to edit - it makes a copy of the audio out of the DV stream and places it in the audio stream part of the avi container, so effectively the audio is stored twice).

my point is you could grab yourself a bottom-end new hard disk and have 183 gigs to play with (quot;200 gigquot; in drivespeak is closer to 183 gigs), which is plenty.


Originally Posted by marlauWhat in your opinion would is the maximum amount for a single layer DVD? I don't have the option of using dual layer media.

I wouldn't put more than one hour of DV sourced video on a single layer DVD. If it's ok for you to compromise quality, you may go for two hours, but not four (too much loss in my opinion).

I once converted a four hour VHS wedding video to be placed on a single layer DVD. Making use of heavy filtering, I finally got a soso result at 352x576. For my friends the quality was good enough, but you could definitely see the artefacts, and a fair amount of detail was lost. To achieve this result I had to experiment - it took me three or four days to get everything done...

I second Mug Funky's suggestion: go and get a new hdd; you may consider to buy an external USB2 drive. This is great for backups, too - e.g. if you don't need it anymore for video purposes.

bb

Thanks Mug Funky and BB. Obviously I didn't do the math. The use of an external drive is a good idea which I'll look into.