MPEG Streamclip - which format for export?

[Jarrod Tully]

Hey folks.

I recently had some old Hi-8 tapes dumped to DVD. I'm now using MPEG Streamclip to capture the VOB files so I can edit them in Final Cut. I realize this probably isn't the best workflow but it's just a personal project so it's not crucial.

I'm just wondering what format to export my clips as. I'm currently using .dv but it ends up that my files size is about 20 gig per DVD. Obviously it's got to be 4.7 gigs or less to fit on the DVD so I'm using up a lot of extra file size for no apparent reason. Which format should I export to in order to retain all the quality while ending up with an editable file that isn't going to be a monstrous file size? (One DVD isn't a big deal but I've got about 14 to go through so the space adds up in a hurry!)

Thanks for any replies, I haven't been able to find any FAQs or anything online.

J.

[James Miller]

Hi Jarrod.

I think editing in DV format is the best format for this job. You could edit one DVD at a time then use media manager to duplicate or move your project excluding footage left out of the edit thus keeping the files size down. (see attachment). - Note FCP

Alternatively if you are on a fast Mac you could encode and edit in H.264. This would give you equal if not smaller files than the .m2v.

If you are colour grading the footage and adding effects then H.264 is not the best option, I would stick to DV.

If you are going back to DVD then there will be no problem fitting back to disk once encoded back to Mpeg-2. If you do not require DVDs keep in the H.264 or generic Mpeg-4 with .mp4 extension, handy for PC friends or family.

James

[David W. Jones]

NTSC/DV is an easy editing format.

[Ervin Farkas]

Originally Posted by James Miller

I think editing in DV format is the best format for this job.

You loose quality every single time you transcode, so your best option is to edit those vob files natively! Since your quality is low to start with, unless you plan on doing extensive grading/color work (makes no sense with DVD quality), there is no reason for transcoding.

Some NLEs will not be able to handle vob files - if you use one of them, then save the vob as mpeg in Streamclip - there is no transcoding whatsoever, so no quality loss. Every decent NLE can edit mpeg.