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Best format
I’ve been browsing the site the last two days, trying to find anwsers for my question, got close a few times, but the problem never appeared to be quite the same as mine. Well, its not really a problem, just a matter of inexperience. From what I’ve learned the past few days is that there are a big amount of codecs and formats out there which are good for video-editing.
But I’ll cut to the chase. I’ve recorded tapes (I believe hi8) from an analog video camera using a little Grabee. I used WMM to record the videos. Currently they are in .wmv format (wmv3 codec), but I want to edit them in Premiere CS3.
1. Which format should I convert my videos too?
2. And which program should I use to do this?I’ve gathered that DV and uncompressed avi are desirable, but I’ve only got ~15GB working space. I’d be greatfull if someone could shed some light on this and help makes things a little clearer.
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4 Replies
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Codec: Uncompressed (none)
App: AVS Video ConverterConcerning your space issue, you know the answer to that. Either backup and clear space or add additional/larger drives.
If you have additional internal drive bays, using them would be ideal as it appears you have a SATA setup.Vince
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Resolved the space issue as much as possible and got as far as ~40GB of free space. I don’t think this will be enough for +35min videos. Will it?
I’ve tried converting to other formats such as mpeg-2 (Mpeg-1 codec) and .avi (MP42 codec I believe). However when I compare the converted videos to the original one I notice quality loss, the video doesn’t appear to run as smoothly. I’m not sure but this might be due to “dropped frames”?? Will converting it on a more powerful pc minimise this and thus give a smaller quality loss?
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Converting to “mpeg-2 (Mpeg-1 codec) and .avi (MP42)” would be an additional generation of degradation. This is why I almost always suggest Uncompressed, as it it gives you a visually perfect copy of whichever codec you may be using. Also, it’s easier on your processor, when editing – but you need a good bit of ram also.
You probably wont have enough space to decompress 35min’s into a 40GB space. :(. Could the project be broken down into smaller sections?
Not sure if this is an option, but could you recapture to a DV codec, which is ideal for editing. WMV is not so good for editing.
Vince
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If possible, transfer from the original hi8 over to DV tape or use the pass through function on some camcorders to record directly into Premiere. 1G will give you 4 1/2 minutes of video storage so your 40G space will be big enough. 40G will provide for 180 minutes of DV video.
In other words, play the hi8 and connect your analog out cable to a DV or digital 8 camcorder analog in. You can either record onto DV tape or use passthrough so you are converting analog to digital with a DV camcorder.
Rich Baim
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