Universal clip format?

[Brad Simmons]

Hi all. I own a DVStorm and I need to send some of my captured AVI files to an actor that needs to show these clips to someone asap.

The thing is, I captured these clips using the Storm, which uses the Storm codec. He does not have a Storm. Now if I put some of these captured avi files on a data CD-R or data DVD, he probably won't be able to open the files on his computer will he?

Basically my question is, how do I make an AVI file that can be read on all PCs? If he won't be able to open the canopus clips, do I need to export them out of Premiere using a differnet codec? And if so, which one?

He will need to take some of these clips and bring them into his own NLE - probably Vegas or Premiere without the Storm.

Thanks guys.

[Adrian Douglas]

As bad as it is the Microsoft DV codec would probably be your best bet. Just make sure you set to quality to 100%.

Either that or just export the clips back to tape and give him that.

[John Locke]

Brad,

There are two other options. One (as I learned from Rob Lohman the other day) is to open the files in a hex editor and change the codec identifier. Another (if the actor only needs adequate video quality) is to import the videos into Flash MX. Then any browser can play them.

[Brad Simmons]

thanks guys. Yea, I'll probably just export out as Microshaft DV avi files because he doesn't have a camera or a deck to capture with. Quality isn't that important. I would use Flash MX but that software doesn't seem to handle extremely large files. (the captured clips are around 500mb to 1gb large. )

THis leads me back to my original problem I feel with systems like the Storm which use their own special codecs. It becomes a total pain to work on movies with other editors who don't have the Storm system. I feel as if my clips are "tainted" with this codec and can only be used on my system unless everyone I'm working with has a DVStorm, which is a rarity.

See, let's say I want to send my clips out to an effects guy to do some compositing in After Effects. If he doens't have the storm, I have to write everything back to tape, give them the tape to capture and composite the clips, then they'll have to rewrite the clips back to miniDV and I have to recapture. Surely this results in some generation loss right? It's a pain and I feel like I'm stuck in my own little world here with my DVStorm.

John, I'm a bit confused about the other method you mentioned. Can you give me an example of a hex editor and how would I know what the proper codec identifier would be to change?

[Nigel Moore]

QT gives good compression/quality, and is cross platform.

You will need to compress anyway, if you're planning on burning to CD.

[David Hurdon]

For viewing only, MPEG-1 is the ideal format for CD. Mac and Win systems read it and the quality is pretty good. Canopus, you may know, makes a download available for playing their AVIs on systems that DO NOT have their hardware installed. I've only used it to watch full res AVIs in media player on my second PC, so I don't know if it makes their AVIs editable in Matrox, Pinnacle or other hardware-equipped systems.
Finally, I had recently to deliver a clip to an AE guy. It was short enough that I could export a MS AVI, split the file with slice32 and burn the two halves to CD (two disks in this case), with the additional small file that splices the parts back together. It's a great little tool that I've also used to send web video by email in segments, to deal with file size limits on personal email systems. It doesn't care what file format you feed it, or how many pieces you want the output in, and it's very fast.

David Hurdon

[John Locke]

Brad,

I'm the most UNtechnical person you can imagine...but Rob guided me through the process of editing a file so that I could open it recently...and it was really simple to do (with the right instructions).

The file I received was encoded as CDVC. When you open the file in the hex editor you see that "CDVC" appears twice toward the top of the file. If you highlight that, you'll see that it's corresponding code, "43 44 56 43," is also highlighted. (The "text" version and the "numerical" version can both be viewed)

Just change that code to "dvsd" (all small letters)...or if you can't edit the "text" version, you can replace the numerical code to "64 76 73 64" which is the numerical equivalent of "dvsd."

There's no telling what code you'll see when you open the file, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find it. Most of the code is garbled...appearing as dots and symbols...then suddenly you see two sets of letters, all capitals.

Make a backup copy of your file and take a whack at it.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

Allow me to throw my agreement behind David's suggestion. MPEG-1 is readable by any Windows 95 or better system and MPEG files are much smaller than AVI files to boot. You can use Storm Edit to encode MPEG files.

[Brad Simmons]

hey guys thanks for the suggestions.
Regarding the Mpegs, this guy will be taking these clips into his own Premiere to edit down a bit. So basically, these clips need to be imported into an NLE, not just viewable on a cd. Would those Mpegs work in the standard version of Premiere? If so, then I'll probably just encode to mpeg then.

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

If he's going to be re-editing, better keep the files in AVI.

[Rick Spilman]

What is the final edited project need to look like? How long is the footage that you want to send? What sort of NLE will your friend be using? You mentioned Premiere or Vegas. Does the system have a firewire card?

The easiest thing to do would be to copy the footage to DV tape and send him the tape to recapture if his system has a firewire card and he can lay his hands on a camera or deck. That solves both the storage problem and the codec problem.

Failing that you could dump 20 minutes of video onto a DVD. You would have to either convert the Canopus codec avi to the Microsoft codec using either Premier, Vegas or the Canopus format converter, or put the standalone Canopus codec on the DVD disk for installtion on your friend's machine.

Depending on what and how the final footage would be used you could also convert everything to mpeg1. Premiere and Vegas will edit mpeg1 but the quality will obviously suffer.

[Brad Simmons]

Hi Rick. Yea I would have just put everything on a miniDV tape but he doesn't have a camera or a deck, he only has Premiere. (makes everything much more difficult for me). He just wants to take some of the clips and edit them a bit in Premiere, in order to show a client his acting.

I need to send at least 15-20 minutes of video, uncompressed that fills up an entire data DVD of avi files. Yea I'm going to try to convert to Microsoft avi and see how that works. I that fails, I'll just put the codec on the disk as well and have him install it. Are the codecs available on the Canopus site? I couldn't find them. I see drivers available, but no codecs. If not, how would I get the codec from my system on to the cd? Sorry, this is all greek to me. ;) THanks

[Rick Spilman]

There are two files you might want, both of which are on the Canpus site. Scroll down below the drivers and you will find the stand alone codec and a Canopus file converter which will convert Canopus avis to Microsft and vice versa.

[Brad Simmons]

Ah perfect. Thanks!

[Rob Lohman]

If you are running Windows you can change AVI FOURCC (codec
identifier code's) more easily than with a hex-editor which poor
John had to do due to him being on a Mac <g>. There is a little
program called AVIC(.exe) that you can find on www.doom9.org.

Go to Download, down to AVI Editing tools and select "show all
AVI editing tools". It will be listed as FourCC changer, download
it by clicking on it (not right-click or in a download manager).

The tool allows you to just enter these 4 character codes and it
changes the file for you one the approriate places.

If the storm is writing DV compliant AVI files but with their own
codec identifier this trick should work. As John mentioned Microsofts
DV codec identifier is 'dvsd' (without the quotes).