Encoding with digibeta source

[tominator]

Hi
I want to convert a digibeta to a wmv. Is it possible? What tools can I use?

I have access to a digibeta machine.

Does anyone know how large the digibeta video + audio would be on a hard drive?

Thanks.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Well, digibeta IIRC is straight up uncompressed video. With a lossless codec for capture, you should be able to have a manageable filesize - say 20-40GB / hour. Get it into a huffyuv avi, and then encode that with windows media encoer.

[tominator]

Thanks. Any codec youd recommend?

What is huffyuv avi?

[Blue_MiSfit]

huffyuv is the codec :)

Ideally you would have an SDI capture card for your computer, and connect this to your digibeta deck with a coaxial cable. Then you can use a program that will talk to this capture card like Adobe Premiere to capture the video, selecting huffyuv as the video codec. From there, you can feed this huffyuv avi to windows media encoder, and make your wmv.

~MiSfit

[foxyshadis]

Newer digibeta is actually MPEG-1 20-50mbps, like DV, and older is basically MJPEG with an insane 100mbps bitrate (seen here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betacam)), but since you can't get that off the tape without pricy equipment, it all comes down to analog recording anyway. =\

Coaxial will brutalize the contents though, you might want to go with component if you can find a card for it, or at least s-video.

[Blue_MiSfit]

I was about to whip out the wikipedia reference too... but then I realized I was confused :)

So you're definitely right that it's not uncompressed. I guess I was thinking of the old D1 format. I assume that when they say "DCT compressed " that means what you said about mjpeg? but I would assume almost all digibeta decks would have SDI out. The ideal way to capture then would be to go through SDI (bnc coax)... But you're also right that SDI cards are very expensive :D

So yeah, definitely S-Video if you're using a consumer level capture card. Component or SDI otherwise.

~MiSfit

[foxyshadis]

Oh yeah, I forgot about digital SDI, never having used it myself. =p

And yeah, DCT-encoded is the same way MJPEG and I-frame-only MPEG are stored.

[Mug Funky]

AFAIK there's no way to get the compressed stream off a digibeta tape. perhaps some of the newer discs support something like this, but i highly doubt it.

the outputs of a regular digibeta deck like the DVW-A500 or A500P (the P is for PAL), are 3x SDI, 1x SDI with supers, composite, and optional component.

use a blackmagic, voodoo or AJA kona card to capture SDI. you'll be going 10-bit 4:2:2 if you can, though if you want to process in avisynth best just capture in 8-bit and save some space.

[edit]

fwiw, digibeta is _almost_ lossless. in some cases it is (i checked this out with a particularly good HD-to-PAL transfer of an animation. subtract duplicate frames and you'll find half the blocks are identical, half are only different by +1 or -1).