Saw a reference to dv to mpeg recording as an option, but can't seem to find it. Anyone know?
where is 'record dv to mpeg' option?
chitown
wrote on 4/6/2021, 8:31 PM
Comments
chitown
wrote on 4/7/2021, 7:14 AM
Movie Edit Pro Prem. And yes I have a DV recording I would like to pull into the tool. In the manual there is a reference to saving the recording into mpeg format. It's on page 92 of the pdf file I'm viewing. I'm running the trial version.
Select "DV camera" from the recording dialog. Uncompressed DV capture requires approx. 220 MB per minute of video. If you would instead like to record using the more space-saving MPEG format, then you should first activate the "Record DV as MPEG" option.
johnebaker
wrote on 4/7/2021, 10:34 AM
Hi
To record into MEP using the DV source you need a Firewire card or USB device in your computer - do you have this?
If so then the DV Camera is under the record as shown below - you may not have this in the trial version.
However if you do not have a Firewire card or USB converter, the alternative option is to record using the Composite cable you should have with the camera, it may have yellow/red/white plugs on one end and a mini jack on the other and a USB Video grabber/converter using the Analog recording option
If both options are not available then you will have to get either, a Firewire card to put in your computer - do not try a Firewire to USB converter these do not work, or a USB Video converter such as the Terratec Grabby and use the Analog method - do be wary of the very cheap converters.
HTH
John EB
Forum Moderator
chitown
wrote on 4/7/2021, 2:26 PM
Thank you for your reply John. I have the Firewire card installed and am able to pull the recording. But at 220MB per minute is eating up my disk space. Looking for what the mpeg format will do for space? It shows as an option. Is anyone familiar with the average MB per minute for mpeg?
CubeAce
wrote on 4/7/2021, 3:08 PM
Personally I would always prefer to work with an original source file wherever possible if you want to keep the quality of the recording as each re-encode will lose some quality although how much it will be noticed is debatable. 220MB per minute seems quite small by today's standards and in line with an MPEG-4 recording at today's resolutions.
I'm fairly sure that John CB ( @browj2 ) would be thinking the opposite of yourself. I would be interested on his take on this.
Ray.
emmrecs
wrote on 4/7/2021, 4:20 PM
@CubeAce @chitown @johnebaker @browj2
Using the DV import facility, from VHS, MiniDV or similar sources, I always use the DV-AVI option for saving the imported files. This results in an average of about 13GB per hour of material.
The figure of 220MB per minute for mpeg suggests an hour’s material will not be significantly less than the size of a DV-AVI import. Or have I calculated the 220 x 60 minutes wrong?
Jeff
CubeAce
wrote on 4/7/2021, 5:00 PM
@emmrecs @browj2 @chitown @johnebaker
Hi Jeff. Seems sound to me.
By today's standards the files would be low quality as it is and I would hate the thought of losing any quality personally. Hard drive space should not be skimped ,nor should backing up be. Storage space is possibly the cheapest it has ever been. I could gain more free space deleting scenes and images I've never used or likely to, but maybe that is just me.
Then again they are not my files so I shouldn't judge.
Ray.
chitown
wrote on 4/7/2021, 5:08 PM
Thanks for your comments. I'm going to slap in a 4TB drive and try a tape with the existing configuration to see the space consumption.
AAProds
wrote on 4/7/2021, 6:21 PM
To give you an idea of MPEG bitrates, a high quality DVD is 4.7gb for a 1 hour per disk. That's 78mb/min.
I would second @emmrecs workflow re capturing DV: capture as DV-AVI and then edit it. Then export in the final format such as MP4. That way you are only re-encoding once (DV>MP4 or MPEG). If you capture as MPEG 2, MEP has already re-encoded your video from DV-AVI to MPEG 2. The less re-encodes along the way to the final product, the better.
MPEG 2 is used by some as a high-quality archive format after you've done all your editing.
You'll get 300 hours of DV-AVI video onto the 4tb drive.
chitown
wrote on 4/7/2021, 9:48 PM
True. There was an hour of video on this tape and that turned into 14GB on the drive. Thanks for doing the math on what I can store. Appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions.
Scenestealer
wrote on 4/9/2021, 7:40 PM
Hi
It depends on what your final export format is going to be but if it is going to be DVD and your aim is to not fill up your drive with large source files, then recording straight to MPEG2 is a valid workflow and would not entail significant quality losses from re encoding at export. You can even burn the files direct to DVD disc without intermediate steps.
The DV to Mpeg option is accessed by ticking the little box under the highlighted DV Camera record option in @johnebaker 's first screenshot. You can adjust the quality options in the "Advanced" window from the capture screen. The only gotcha may be that if you do not have a robust PC for encoding on the fly, then the encode might drop frames but this should be reported at the bottom of the Record window during capture, whereupon you may have to revert to the default Advanced settings.
Peter