VIDEO FORMAT QUESTION: .vob .avi etc.

[Anonymous]

I use a MiniDV tapes in a Panasonic PV-GS320 in 60 minute mode. I bought the camera to catch vacation and family memories, knowing that my old computer at home would not be able to edit them or make disks. Now a year later, I have a Dell Studio Hybrid 140g with Vista Home Premium and the included Windows Movie Maker.

I have read many posts on the subject of the “best format” to select for storage, editing, etc. One member recommended keeping all video on the MiniDV tapes. One suggests .avi is the best. Another counters that by saying it depends on the bit rate and compression ratio. Yet another member takes the time to describe the differences between intra-frame compression and inter-frame compression. It has all been good reading and I am plenty willing to do more reading. But I would like a little direction.

My software imports the video from the camcorder as .avi. Then when burning the DVD, I noticed the disk is full of .vob files. I copied them back to the desktop and noticed they are not as useful as the tape or the .avi for editing.Yet .avi files are huge, approximately 1GB per 5 minutes of run time. That would require a whole different storage solution than my C: drive.

I look forward to the posts that this may receive. Especially any post that link to other good reading. While waiting, I will read from http://www.video101course.com and http://www.filmhelp.com, both recommended reading in other posts.

Thanks.

[birdcat]

Captured SD AVI files run about 13GB per hour. VOB files are MPEG-2 and run about 2 GB per hour.

For SD projects, I would suggest you capture from tape to AVI and work with that, once editing and final render is complete, just store the file MPEG-2 you will be burning to disk for archival purposes and keep the tape if you ever need to edit the source again.

I do not re-use tape but do just that (store it for future possible use) – AVI’s are just too big to archive (HD files are even larger) until BluRay gets cheaper and larger.

I would also suggest you get some decent editing software, like Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier (they both have entry level versions for under $100) to do your editing/DVD authoring with.

[Anonymous]

I keep my tapes and archive the dvd files. I figure if I need to recapture the tapes in the future, then that’s what I’ll do. Now, as a side note, if you really wanted to backup the avi files, 1TB drives are getting really cheap now.

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