Basic capture Question Re AVI

[David Lewis]

Greetings All,

What exactly is the AVI file format used for? From my recent first attempts
at Editing using either Premier 6.5 or Windows Movie maker I noticed that DV
camcorder clips were captured (via Firewire card) to AVI files that play on
Win' Media player.Those AVI clips are then imported for editing
purposes.This surprised me as I thought AVI was of reasonably low quality,
and that both capture methods produced AVI files (of same low quality?).My
ultimate goal is to produce DVD quality output so I am a little confused.

Thanks for any insights

--
Kind Regards,
David

[NoNoBadDog!]

DV-AVI is of very high quality. If your ultimate goal is to render the
video to DVD, then capture and editing should be done in DV-AVI format and
then rendered to lower quality MPEG-2 DVD at the very final stage.

Go here for more information

www.dvdrhelp.com

Bobby

"David Lewis" > wrote in message
...
> Greetings All,
>
> What exactly is the AVI file format used for? From my recent first
attempts
> at Editing using either Premier 6.5 or Windows Movie maker I noticed that
DV
> camcorder clips were captured (via Firewire card) to AVI files that play
on
> Win' Media player.Those AVI clips are then imported for editing
> purposes.This surprised me as I thought AVI was of reasonably low quality,
> and that both capture methods produced AVI files (of same low quality?).My
> ultimate goal is to produce DVD quality output so I am a little confused.
>
> Thanks for any insights
>
> --
> Kind Regards,
> David
>
>
>

[David Lewis]

Thanks Bobby for reply.

Am I right then in assuming that quality is the same irrespective of what
software (or hardware) captures the DV -AVI.Similarly *quality* should not
be affected by whether you use expensive or freeware editing and authoring
programs (but the more expensive programs may have more features etc)?



--
Kind Regards,
David


"NoNoBadDog!" > wrote in message
...
> DV-AVI is of very high quality. If your ultimate goal is to render the
> video to DVD, then capture and editing should be done in DV-AVI format and
> then rendered to lower quality MPEG-2 DVD at the very final stage.
>
> Go here for more information
>
> www.dvdrhelp.com
>
> Bobby
>
> "David Lewis" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Greetings All,
> >
> > What exactly is the AVI file format used for? From my recent first
> attempts
> > at Editing using either Premier 6.5 or Windows Movie maker I noticed
that
> DV
> > camcorder clips were captured (via Firewire card) to AVI files that play
> on
> > Win' Media player.Those AVI clips are then imported for editing
> > purposes.This surprised me as I thought AVI was of reasonably low
quality,
> > and that both capture methods produced AVI files (of same low
quality?).My
> > ultimate goal is to produce DVD quality output so I am a little
confused.
> >
> > Thanks for any insights
> >
> > --
> > Kind Regards,
> > David
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[NoNoBadDog!]

Generally speaking, yes. I recommend TMPGEnc for encoding to MPEG-2. Its
free. But if you want a good all in one package, either Sonic MyDVD Video
Suite or Ulead Digital Movie Factory are good choices (not free, though).
They allow you to make DVDs and VCDs with motion menus and subchapters and
many advanced features and are easy to use/learn.

Bobby

"David Lewis" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks Bobby for reply.
>
> Am I right then in assuming that quality is the same irrespective of what
> software (or hardware) captures the DV -AVI.Similarly *quality* should not
> be affected by whether you use expensive or freeware editing and authoring
> programs (but the more expensive programs may have more features etc)?
>
>
>
> --
> Kind Regards,
> David
>
>
> "NoNoBadDog!" > wrote in message
> ...
> > DV-AVI is of very high quality. If your ultimate goal is to render the
> > video to DVD, then capture and editing should be done in DV-AVI format
and
> > then rendered to lower quality MPEG-2 DVD at the very final stage.
> >
> > Go here for more information
> >
> > www.dvdrhelp.com
> >
> > Bobby
> >
> > "David Lewis" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > Greetings All,
> > >
> > > What exactly is the AVI file format used for? From my recent first
> > attempts
> > > at Editing using either Premier 6.5 or Windows Movie maker I noticed
> that
> > DV
> > > camcorder clips were captured (via Firewire card) to AVI files that
play
> > on
> > > Win' Media player.Those AVI clips are then imported for editing
> > > purposes.This surprised me as I thought AVI was of reasonably low
> quality,
> > > and that both capture methods produced AVI files (of same low
> quality?).My
> > > ultimate goal is to produce DVD quality output so I am a little
> confused.
> > >
> > > Thanks for any insights
> > >
> > > --
> > > Kind Regards,
> > > David
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

[David Lewis]

NoNoBadDog! wrote:
> DV-AVI is of very high quality. If your ultimate goal is to render
> the video to DVD, then capture and editing should be done in DV-AVI
> format and then rendered to lower quality MPEG-2 DVD at the very
> final stage.

One thing that I am still curious about is editing *compressed* video and
subsequent impact on quality. If you capture/transfer DV to an AVI file
format it remains compressed as would say an analogue source captured to
..avi,.mov,or .mpg file format,Yes?
As far as I can make out,your video editing program then edits this DV
compressed video,you render whatever effects and save back to say .avi.After
all this you encode (or is it re-encode) with another codec such as MPEG2 to
distibute to DVD.Isn't there an inherent loss of quality in this sort of
process?

Thanks again :-)
--
Kind Regards,
David

[NoNoBadDog!]

Yes, which is why I said to do all editing/mixing in DV-AVI mode, which
suffers much less loss than MPEG-2. There are lossless codecs (HUFFY), but
the files are very very large. MPEG-2 is a "lossy" format, especially in
scenes there there is a lot of fact action.
Mpeg, which is more "lossy" should only be used at the final rendering
stage.

Bobby


"David Lewis" > wrote in message
...
> NoNoBadDog! wrote:
> > DV-AVI is of very high quality. If your ultimate goal is to render
> > the video to DVD, then capture and editing should be done in DV-AVI
> > format and then rendered to lower quality MPEG-2 DVD at the very
> > final stage.
>
> One thing that I am still curious about is editing *compressed* video and
> subsequent impact on quality. If you capture/transfer DV to an AVI file
> format it remains compressed as would say an analogue source captured to
> .avi,.mov,or .mpg file format,Yes?
> As far as I can make out,your video editing program then edits this DV
> compressed video,you render whatever effects and save back to say
..avi.After
> all this you encode (or is it re-encode) with another codec such as MPEG2
to
> distibute to DVD.Isn't there an inherent loss of quality in this sort of
> process?
>
> Thanks again :-)
> --
> Kind Regards,
> David
>
>
>

[David Lewis]

NoNoBadDog! wrote:
> Yes, which is why I said to do all editing/mixing in DV-AVI mode,
> which suffers much less loss than MPEG-2. There are lossless codecs
> (HUFFY), but the files are very very large. MPEG-2 is a "lossy"
> format, especially in scenes there there is a lot of fact action.
> Mpeg, which is more "lossy" should only be used at the final rendering
> stage.

Bobby,thanks for reply and your patience.

Is there not a way to d/load raw video and edit same prior to distributing
to DVD? Or is this simply not practical due to file sizes ...unless your
using very low resolution?

BTW I'm not sure of the distinction b/n rendering,authoring and
distributing.These terms are not in any of the glossaries I've found
--
Kind Regards,
David

[NoNoBadDog!]

David;

If you have large hard drives, then RAW video can be edited as easily as
any other format. I would recommedn looking into two large drives on a RAID
card if you want to get serious. It will handle your large fiels and times
will be shorter.

Authoring is the process of getting the video, audio and
titles/captions/special effects just the way you want them. Adobe Premiere
is an example of a video authoring suite.
Rendering is the process of converting all the parts you put together into a
single final product (such as a DVD). Rendering converts all the diparate
parts into a single package with the proper audio and video codecs. For
home consumer use, this usually means MPEG1 / 2 encoding.

Distributing is just as it sounds; Once a master is authored, it can be
used to make multiple copies that are packaged for distribution. I have
seen distribution used as related to streaming a video across a network, so
there may be a gray area here.

I haope I haven't made it seem too cloudy.

Bobby

"David Lewis" > wrote in message
...
> NoNoBadDog! wrote:
> > Yes, which is why I said to do all editing/mixing in DV-AVI mode,
> > which suffers much less loss than MPEG-2. There are lossless codecs
> > (HUFFY), but the files are very very large. MPEG-2 is a "lossy"
> > format, especially in scenes there there is a lot of fact action.
> > Mpeg, which is more "lossy" should only be used at the final rendering
> > stage.
>
> Bobby,thanks for reply and your patience.
>
> Is there not a way to d/load raw video and edit same prior to distributing
> to DVD? Or is this simply not practical due to file sizes ...unless your
> using very low resolution?
>
> BTW I'm not sure of the distinction b/n rendering,authoring and
> distributing.These terms are not in any of the glossaries I've found
> --
> Kind Regards,
> David
>
>
>

[David Lewis]

Thanks for info and assistance :)
--
Kind Regards,
David