Transfer Mini DV to DVD at DVinfo.net

Dean Loaney · May 28th, 2007, 09:38 PM

Hopefully someone can help me out,

If you transfer Mini DV to a DVD do you lose quality? I have been told that I would lose none

And as a secondary question, How much quality would i lose transferirng Digibeta to DVD!

Thanks

Chris Harris · May 29th, 2007, 12:17 AM

You're always going to lose some quality going from DV or Digibeta to DVD. DVD has a maximum bitrate of 9mbps using MPEG2 compression. How much quality you lose depends on how much video you're trying to squeeze onto a DVD.

Ervin Farkas · May 29th, 2007, 07:21 AM

Both DV and DVD are sampled 8 bits at 4:2:0 while Digibeta is 10 bit at 4:2:2 - that's what makes Digibeta a professional format (theoretically lossless), while DV and DVD are considered consumer formats. Tech talk aside, you may or may not loose VISUAL quality. Just compare a high quality (say Hollywood made) DVD to your DV footage and you will understand what I mean. If you can put your hands on a high quality mpeg2 encoder (hardware or software), you might get the same (or very close) visual quality on a DVD.

BUT you will SURELY LOOSE something very important, and that's the option to further edit that footage. While both DV and Digibeta are acquisition formats, DVD is a delivery format not suitable for further editing.

Jonathan Jones · May 29th, 2007, 05:53 PM

Other than the more specific info from the other posters, in a basic answer to your question, you DO lose quality going from MiniDV to DVD.

Granted, the codec specifics for each one is quite different, so what is sacrificed cannot easily be quantified specifically as resolution or 'latitude', but taken only from a data file size context, (and using the most standardized or default settings on run-of-the-mill mpeg2 encoding applications, you can estimate that a DVD video is going to be roughly 1/5th the data file size of a standard definition MiniDV file.

A wide variation of user customizable settings in the encoding app can have a great deal to do with how accurately the end result represents the source material, but either way, mpeg2 encoding does indeed introduce a significant amount of compression to the MiniDV file.

Whoever gave you the earlier information about having no loss in quality in transferring to a DVD very likely didn't know what they were talking about.

-Jon

May 28th, 2007, 09:38 PM	#1
Dean Loaney New Boot Join Date: May 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 11	Transfer Mini DV to DVD Hopefully someone can help me out, If you transfer Mini DV to a DVD do you lose quality? I have been told that I would lose none And as a secondary question, How much quality would i lose transferirng Digibeta to DVD! Thanks

May 29th, 2007, 07:21 AM	#3
Ervin Farkas Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta/USA Posts: 2,515	Both DV and DVD are sampled 8 bits at 4:2:0 while Digibeta is 10 bit at 4:2:2 - that's what makes Digibeta a professional format (theoretically lossless), while DV and DVD are considered consumer formats. Tech talk aside, you may or may not loose VISUAL quality. Just compare a high quality (say Hollywood made) DVD to your DV footage and you will understand what I mean. If you can put your hands on a high quality mpeg2 encoder (hardware or software), you might get the same (or very close) visual quality on a DVD. BUT you will SURELY LOOSE something very important, and that's the option to further edit that footage. While both DV and Digibeta are acquisition formats, DVD is a delivery format not suitable for further editing. __________________ Ervin Farkas www.AtlantaLegalVideo.com

May 29th, 2007, 05:53 PM	#4
Jonathan Jones Trustee Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Healdsburg, California Posts: 1,138	Other than the more specific info from the other posters, in a basic answer to your question, you DO lose quality going from MiniDV to DVD. Granted, the codec specifics for each one is quite different, so what is sacrificed cannot easily be quantified specifically as resolution or 'latitude', but taken only from a data file size context, (and using the most standardized or default settings on run-of-the-mill mpeg2 encoding applications, you can estimate that a DVD video is going to be roughly 1/5th the data file size of a standard definition MiniDV file. A wide variation of user customizable settings in the encoding app can have a great deal to do with how accurately the end result represents the source material, but either way, mpeg2 encoding does indeed introduce a significant amount of compression to the MiniDV file. Whoever gave you the earlier information about having no loss in quality in transferring to a DVD very likely didn't know what they were talking about. -Jon __________________ "Are we to go on record, sir, with our assertion that the 'pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers' are, in point of fact', magically delicious?" - Walter Hollarhan before the House Subcommittee on Integrity in Advertising - May, 1974

May 29th, 2007, 12:17 AM	#2
Chris Harris Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: San Francisco, California Posts: 487	You're always going to lose some quality going from DV or Digibeta to DVD. DVD has a maximum bitrate of 9mbps using MPEG2 compression. How much quality you lose depends on how much video you're trying to squeeze onto a DVD.