What codec do you use?

anarkia · 28th April 2007

Hi all,
what codec do you use for your movie in .avi format?
The common one is Microsoft DV avi PAL codec which set as default, i believe.
Any other codec which is better in quality then above? Like;
-DIVX 6.5.1
-Cinepax codec by radius
-Lingos
-Cineform HD
Have anyone tried? cause i have seen the DIVX Codec movie is much better quality then the Microsoft DV avi PAL codec .

If uses any of the alternative codec above, will the video be able to play once converted into DVD?
-----------------------------
About Transcode setting?

Usually i set to auto, and let my DVD authoring software do the transcoding.
If i want to set manually because i concern about the quality!
so which one should i choose? from the selection below? Which one produce best quality?

-PAL DV High Quality 4mb VBR 2 Pass
-PAL DV High Quality 7mb VBR 2 Pass
-PAL DV High Quality 8mb CBR 1 Pass
-PAL Progressive High Quality 7mb VBR 2 Pass

-------------------------------------------

Please anyone or any GURUS out there...please educate me in this

Thanks

jaegersing · 28th April 2007

Hi Anarkia. If you are shooting DV then it is good to use a DV codec while editing, because most editing software is optimised for that. Canopus, Matrox or Sony DV codecs are better quality than Microsoft. There are free codecs available for download if you search.

Assuming you don't do anything to degrade the video during editing (e.g. by converting unnecessarily to other formats), the biggest factor that affects your DVD quality is the MPEG2 rendering codec and how you set it up. The higher the bitrate, the higher the quality, but the shorter the video that can fit on the disc.

For short videos (less than one hour per DVD), you can use 7Mbps or 8Mbps CBR. this will give very good quality. As your video gets longer, the bitrate has to be reduced, which affects the quality. Using 2-pass VBR helps by allocating more bits to complex images (high detail, lots of motion) and less bits to simple images (low detail, not much motion). It takes a very good codec to get good results below around 4-5Mbps.

For longer than 1.5 hours, you probably need to encode the audio as Dolby Stereo instead of uncompressed wave file, but hopefully your DVD authoring software will take care of that for you. This allows you to squeeze more video on the disc by reducing the space that the audio takes up (one hour of uncompressed wave file is 600+ MB of data).

anarkia · 28th April 2007

hi jaegersing
thanks for the info, at least now i understand

Thank You

tommon · 9th May 2007

Wah you let out so much trade secrets who will the pros be servicing?

28th April 2007	#1
anarkia Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Up North Posts: 202	What codec do you use? Hi all, what codec do you use for your movie in .avi format? The common one is Microsoft DV avi PAL codec which set as default, i believe. Any other codec which is better in quality then above? Like; -DIVX 6.5.1 -Cinepax codec by radius -Lingos -Cineform HD Have anyone tried? cause i have seen the DIVX Codec movie is much better quality then the Microsoft DV avi PAL codec . If uses any of the alternative codec above, will the video be able to play once converted into DVD? ----------------------------- About Transcode setting? Usually i set to auto, and let my DVD authoring software do the transcoding. If i want to set manually because i concern about the quality! so which one should i choose? from the selection below? Which one produce best quality? -PAL DV High Quality 4mb VBR 2 Pass -PAL DV High Quality 7mb VBR 2 Pass -PAL DV High Quality 8mb CBR 1 Pass -PAL Progressive High Quality 7mb VBR 2 Pass ------------------------------------------- Please anyone or any GURUS out there...please educate me in this Thanks

28th April 2007	#2
jaegersing Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,141	Re: What codec do you use? Hi Anarkia. If you are shooting DV then it is good to use a DV codec while editing, because most editing software is optimised for that. Canopus, Matrox or Sony DV codecs are better quality than Microsoft. There are free codecs available for download if you search. Assuming you don't do anything to degrade the video during editing (e.g. by converting unnecessarily to other formats), the biggest factor that affects your DVD quality is the MPEG2 rendering codec and how you set it up. The higher the bitrate, the higher the quality, but the shorter the video that can fit on the disc. For short videos (less than one hour per DVD), you can use 7Mbps or 8Mbps CBR. this will give very good quality. As your video gets longer, the bitrate has to be reduced, which affects the quality. Using 2-pass VBR helps by allocating more bits to complex images (high detail, lots of motion) and less bits to simple images (low detail, not much motion). It takes a very good codec to get good results below around 4-5Mbps. For longer than 1.5 hours, you probably need to encode the audio as Dolby Stereo instead of uncompressed wave file, but hopefully your DVD authoring software will take care of that for you. This allows you to squeeze more video on the disc by reducing the space that the audio takes up (one hour of uncompressed wave file is 600+ MB of data).

28th April 2007	#3
anarkia Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Up North Posts: 202	Re: What codec do you use? hi jaegersing thanks for the info, at least now i understand Thank You

9th May 2007	#4
tommon Deregistered Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Currently, Singapore but hope Posts: 729	Re: What codec do you use? Wah you let out so much trade secrets who will the pros be servicing?