Looking to go 100% digital. Which codec?

[Paul Hruska]

I've got 40 hours of HDV that I'm editing down into 10 to 30 minute segments. In all I expect I'll end up with 15 - 20 hours of video as I throw away the video that isn't needed any more. I do not want to save the results as HDV back to tape. I understand its good for archiving but I'll take my chances on hard drives for the time being. I currently use a PS3 as my playback device and Sony Vegas Pro 8 for editing.

I've been saving each of these projects as HDV using the included MainConcept template. The resulting files play back great on the PS3 but I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to encode in a different format just to cover my playback bases down the road. I want to limit my choices to what V8 can encode which is why I've posted this here. Has anyone else given this any thought and if so what choice did you make and why?

Thanks

Paul

[Andy Wilkinson]

What I do is save 20-22 minute (max) chunks onto DVD+R's (as a .m2t file, i.e. HDV). As I'm sure you know, this format/method plays back beautifully on the PS3 and can be re-imported into a NLE in the future with no loss of resolution etc.

I must admit I tend to save my "completed"/fully edited projects this way (I use Vegas 7e) but DVD+R's are so cheap there's no reason not to do it for more general raw clips if wanted. It would take you a while to burn 50 - 60 or so DVD's with approx. 20 mins each of HDV video but at least then you would know it's in a more stable format.

External USB HDD's do fail....mind you DVD+R's scratch and become unplayable if badly treated. Take your pick!

[Jeff Harper]

1 TB HDs now available for around $200, internal and external. You can put the archived footage there in the format you choose and shut the drive down till next time you archive. I love the 1 TB drives. I save in the original format.

[Paul Hruska]

Thanks for the feedback. The storage isn't so much a concern as I've something like 3TBs of hard drives both internal and external. My bigger concern is 20 years from now would I rather have that HDV based file in something like WMV or MP4 for compatibility reasons. I understand that no one can predict the future but considering HDV is a codec that mainly supported tapes is there a chance down the road that it will only be supported in a limited number of software packages / playback devices? I once used a Matrix gadget (forget the name) to edit old Hi8 video. The codec used was MJPEG. While I'm sure there is some product out there that can handle MJPEG now I'm pretty sure the windows media players and playback devices such as the PS3 don't support it. In 20 years when my technical skills have passed me by I wouldn't want to be monkeying around using obscure demuxers, decoders, encoders etc.. found on sites like videohelp.com. I still have all the source files for all the little projects I'm working on as I parse through all 40 hours of video. Now would be the time to encode it in an alternative codec but the question is if you could pick only one which would it be and why?

[Andy Wilkinson]

OK, this is a good codec future proofing question.

Problem is that any conversion to another HD format will lead to some loss in quality. For example, a HD WMV format or Quicktime or H.264 might be a little more future proof but when I compare videos I've done these conversions on I can DEFINITELY tell it's not the original despite trying many different settings....maybe I've not got the right expertise yet...so I would say, for now, keep the original .m2t format. The converted files are smaller though so at least that is one advantage but who knows which will still be around in 20 years.

[Kevin Shaw]

Given that both standard DVDs and Blu-ray support MPEG2 video, I doubt the ability to decode HDV would become an issue any time soon. But if you want an alternative it looks like AVCHD has a promising future due to its use in consumer video cameras and support on Blu-ray. I'd suggest saving the M2T files for now and wait to do an AVCHD conversion when real-time converters are readily available at a reasonable price.

[Paul Hruska]

Yes, future proofing is a better way to describe my question. HDV will likely be supported in the future in one way or another but is there a format I can encode to right now while I still have the source video and project file that might be more convenient. AVCHD might be the way to go only trouble is Vegas crashes when I try and convert to it. I can however convert to AVC using both the MainConcept and Sony codecs.

Why is it kind of important to make this decision now? The little videos I create include transitions, velocity changes and to some extent effects such as chroma keying. When I encode to HDV I use the smart rendering feature that only reencodes those parts that have changed. I would hate to put those sections of video through yet another generation of encoding. I've still got the source files and project files so I could easily render to the alternate format and only go through one generation of loss rather than two.

After thinking about it I think the safest option would be to encode as Bluray video streams and then also save the accompanying audio streams.

Thanks for the tips.

[Paul Hruska]

I should have mentioned. My desire to encode into the alternate format is in addition to the originals I will be keeping. I plan on keeping the HDV but just like I have backups of all of my video, pictures etc.. I want a backup of the finished product in an alternate codec.

[Martin Smith]

I compress my videos with the Lagarith Codec, Its free, and fast and is 100% lossless Worth checking out. http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html