simplest video compression

[xrfang]

Dear All,

I found this forum because I am looking for the simplest video backup solution... My purpose is to backup DV to harddisk, with compression. That's all, no editing, cropping, just simple plain exporting + compression.

While I use Linux, Kino or dbgrab seems good, but now I am using Windows, I found 50% of the perfect solution: WinDV, which export DV through 1394. However, the 2nd half is a big headache. I tried to use x264.exe on the exported AVI, but it does not work. Then I found a quite good one: StarxRip, it does what I want, however, It has problems:

1) It needs TOO MUCH external applications. I would like to get ONLY what I need, but I don't know what is what I needed :(

2) Now it does not work, it stops after extracting sound track (by calling virtualdubmod), and hang there.

My question is, could any of you experts recommend some tools to replace StarxRip, my requirements are:

1) use as few programs as possible (if there is a simpler command line tool, I don't care to use it to replace WinDV
2) very reliable on the Windows platform
3) I am a programmer, I don't care using command line tools, I would prefer command line because I can do batch processing easier. Instead, I am so unfamiliar with video compression, I desperately need your guidance on choosing the right tools.


Thanks a lot!
Shannon

[Dark Shikari]

Try MeGUI--you can set up a profile and batch-encode videos with x264, I believe.

[foxyshadis]

If you want an all-in-one commandline tool, then mencoder is basically created just for you. =p But you really have to be familiar with some of the steps to process video before you can create good commandlines with it, the most important one being IVTC/deinterlacing, unless you wish to keep your DV interlaced.

[nm]

Handbrake could be a handy tool for this kind of work. It has both a GUI and a command-line interface and it doesn't depend on external programs. Then there is Avidemux, if you need to cut the video.

[Theliel]

I use premiere CS3 (other premiere work fine, but CS3 can edit perfectly mp4 container in h264) for DV exporting and editing, and megui (x264) for compression. In time, I made a specific profile for DV content and other AVS template.

Now, when I need backup any DV content only have change a couple of things.

For me, megui work perfectly, and give me a awesome final results

[xrfang]

thanks for all of you for such quick help... I am confused about some basic concepts:

1) what is "keep your DV interlaced"? What's the difference between interlaced and not?

2) I see StarxRip is separating audio from video then merge them together, am I right? If so, I hope the tools you recommend is simpler and do not require this.

3) What I really want is to archive video of my little daughter, I don't have time to edit them, and to learn something like premiere etc.

4) I am not very keen on top quality video. I am very satisfied with the mp4 StarxRip's default option generates, its just too complex and not reliable. I expect a video to look good on 1024x768. I am even satisfied with the video generated by my Sony T1 digicam (640x480, 30fps).

Thanks a lot!

[Sagekilla]

Sorry to say but it seems like your quest to find a "simple solution" will end up being more complex then simply taking the more "complex" way of using staxrip. To answer some of your questions though:

1) Interlaced is when video is shown using alternating line numbers (show even then odd, for example) at a certain rate. It can give very fluid motion but personally I think it's a bad hack job in the digital age. Go read the wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlace) article for more info

2) Yes, it does this so you can re-encode the audio to a specific codec if you want. In the context of x264 I don't know of any program which doesn't do this. Go use something like Mainconcept's H.264 encoder if you want to avoid this.

3) Once again, this might be a bit tricky, but I'm sure there are people who are more knowledgeable on the all-in-one programs to do this.

[foxyshadis]

I'm not sure how you should encode, too tired, but I can tell you that you should buy a $100 hard drive to store the raw footage on semi-permanently. (DV tapes are cheap and easier to store, but since your camera doesn't use them you'd need a separate reader, not cheap.) Someday you or someone else will want to do more with the original footage than you can now. Even if you end up throwing out 80%, it's always better to work from the first generation.

[Sagekilla]

I'm not sure how you should encode, too tired, but I can tell you that you should buy a $100 hard drive to store the raw footage on semi-permanently. (DV tapes are cheap and easier to store, but since your camera doesn't use them you'd need a separate reader, not cheap.) Someday you or someone else will want to do more with the original footage than you can now. Even if you end up throwing out 80%, it's always better to work from the first generation.

Well, for archiving I suppose that would be best the idea since for $100 you can get a nice 400 GB drive off newegg I believe. That should be able to hold quite a bit of video..

[xrfang]

Hi there,

I have just tried handbrake and mencoder, handbrake does not support avi at all.

mencoder is very good. I use SimpleRip (http://f0rked.com/projects/simplerip) to generate the required parameters...

I decided to stick with WinDV + Mencoder for my video backup.

Thanks for all suggestions!

[audyovydeo]

Dear All,
My purpose is to backup DV to harddisk, with compression. That's all, no editing, cropping, just simple plain exporting + compression.


I had a similar approach last year, but found I'm alergic to storing data in any MPEG[_your_favourite_digit] format.

Can you be certain that you will not go back to edit (or even just pick out scenes) 1, 2, n years from now ?

What I've come up with is that, instead of storing raw DV data, I immediately deinterlace it (avisynth + TDeint) and encoded with lagarith codec.
Rough storage policy :
< 6 months old : external HD
> 6 months old : DVD-ROM

cheers
audyovydeo

[nm]

What I've come up with is that, instead of storing raw DV data, I immediately deinterlace it (avisynth + TDeint) and encoded with lagarith codec.
Rough storage policy :
< 6 months old : external HD
> 6 months old : DVD-ROM
Does your Lagarith-encoded video really take less space than the original DV? I think DV should usually have a higher compression ratio than lossless codecs, even if you used half-framerate deinterlacing. And if the lagarith-encoded version really was somewhat smaller with good, full-framerate deinterlacing, I would still be a bit worried about using current deinterlacers instead of future ones.

[buzzqw]

may i suggest AutoMen ? it's a very simple frontend to mencoder

BHH

[audyovydeo]

Does your Lagarith-encoded video really take less space than the original DV?

Of course not. In my previous I didn't make clear that I went the "new 100€ Hard Disk" way. I am not 100% convinced by lagarith, as I recently noticed that Premiere has problems with transparency when using lagarith.avi files. Not so with HuffYUV.

I would still be a bit worried about using current deinterlacers instead of future ones.

Why ? Interlacing has been around along time, and software deinterlacing too (in computing terms). I expect any improvements to be micro-incremental, not major.

cheers
audyovydeo

[nm]

Why ? Interlacing has been around along time, and software deinterlacing too (in computing terms). I expect any improvements to be micro-incremental, not major.
Well, maybe not major improvements, but still very noticeable in some specific cases. There are good methods and implementations available, but most of them are either proprietary (and not even available for consumer use) or need a lot of CPU time to run. If I had space to store the untouched originals, I certainly wouldn't deinterlace until I actually use the videos for something.