analog video- divx/xvid, which codec?

[bluejeans]

I'm capturing video from an analog video 8 handycam. My region is PAL, so the video is 352x288, 25fps. I have 2 questions.

 

1) I capture to mpeg then convert to divx, because capturing straight to divx causes the audio to go out of sync. Doing it this way doesn't really bother me... but should i be capturing to mpeg1 or mpeg2? I know mpeg2 is double the resolution, but thats irrelevant because the source tape is only mpeg1 resolution. Is mpeg2 better for fast motion, or just results in a better quality output or something?

 

With my capture software, i have 2 options: video quality, and target data rate. mpeg1 optimal (which i'm using) is 1000 quality and 4000kbps data rate. mpeg 2 optimal is 666 quality and 6000kbps data rate. I can go up to 1,000 quality and 10,000 data rate with both. Since mpeg1 is 4000kbps and mpeg2 is 6000kbps, would using mpeg 2 be any better than just telling mpeg1 "i want 6000kbps data rate"? My only gripe with using mpeg2 is virtualdub won't handle it, most media players won't play it back, and the file size is just too big.

 

2) I'm shooting video from trains and buses. The quality is pretty crappy at night, before I even capture, so I know i can't do anything about that, but what codec should i use for fast motion stuff? divx looks ok, a bit blocky, but thats a given with compression. would xvid be any better? I need 3 hours of footage to fit onto a 4 gig file, at least, but since ripping dvd's to divx/xvid is only 700 meg for a 90 minute film, i figure i should only need to end up with a file size of double that. Or do i need more, because the source is mpeg1 and not a dvd?

 

Ok, thats more than a couple of questions, and its more for a video capture forum, but i'm registered with enough forums already.

[SIP YEK NOD]

i would suggest using ording to Mpeg1, then using a program such as DVX(uses virtuadub, and simplifies the whole process) to convert to Dvix video and MP3 audio. should get your bitrate down to about 800kbs with fullscreen(640x480) video and high quality sound.

 

 

 

and this may seem a little blashpemous to some windows haters, but windows movie maker is wonderful for getting small file sizes, unfortunatley, it only exports to WMV. but it can get about 1GB/H without any quality loss.(as opposed to about 4GB/H for Mpeg 2)

[Bond996]

i would suggest using ording to Mpeg1, then using a program such as DVX(uses virtuadub, and simplifies the whole process) to convert to Dvix video and MP3 audio. should get your bitrate down to about 800kbs with fullscreen(640x480) video and high quality sound.

 

 

 

and this may seem a little blashpemous to some windows haters, but windows movie maker is wonderful for getting small file sizes, unfortunatley, it only exports to WMV. but it can get about 1GB/H without any quality loss.(as opposed to about 4GB/H for Mpeg 2)

I would say to use VirtualDub with XviD instead. Xvid is much better quality then DivX and free.

 

However, I agree with WMM. the WMV9 codec is just about the same as XviD in terms of quality and compression. But it IS proprietary, and it is very hard to convert for other uses.

[maelstrom]

I have gotten excellent results capturing to mpeg2 (close to dvd quality) and then performing the conversion using Doom9.org's guide to divx/xvid conversion using Gordian Knot. Works great weather I am importing from DV source or an analoge capture on my ancient Athlon 800 / Radeon 64 VIVO.

 

Once configured, the Gnot front end handles all the freeware configs very nicely and you have full control of each tool's settings. Definitly worth a look.

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the first step is to create the DGIndex - project file (.d2v) from the source mpeg as mentioned in the "ripping" tab. Then follow the rest of the guide.

Edited September 2, 2005 by maelstrom