[lance.carter]

So i'm reading all about codecs etc on Wiki but it just doesn't offer any opinions it's just facts.

So what's your thoughts on different Codecs/rendering options you actually use?

I only shoot my little one say half a dozen 4 minute videos per year, so I use a Panasonic stills camera in 848x480 .MOV format 30fps and then drop them into Vegas for editting (great software).

So what should I render into when my primary goal is longevity/future proofing the format. Happy to display either from a DVD or to keep on the computer/PS3 for some years until writing HD discs comes about. So what format/codec should I render into?

Appreciate your thoughts

[redsox_mark]

I’m starting from a different format, so what I use probably isn’t useful… but I’ll start there.

I shoot mainly HDV (1440x1080 MPEG2, 1.333 PAR). I render this back out in the same format which I save back to tape. This format can also be played from a PC. I also often render it out to standard Def DVD format (to send to family). Lastly I have rendered to WMV-HD for easier playing from PC, uploading video clips to the web etc.

In your case you are starting with a standard definition, compressed format. .MOV is a container, not sure what codec is used, probably some form of MPEG4. 848x480 (I assume it is square pixels) is the format used for widescreen NTSC. So when HD discs come about your footage will still be SD.

To watch this now, rendering for standard definition DVD-Video is a good option. (MPEG2 codec). Choose a widescreen NTSC template.

In terms of future proofing – you could save all the original clips and your Vegas .veg files; then in future you can recreate your edited production from that. If you want to save a version of your edited film for future use (assuming in future you may want to encode this to some different format), then it would be best to use a lossless or nearly lossless codec. You could save it as uncompressed but the size would be huge. A good compromise would be to save it to DV-avi; this is virtually lossless. Again, use widescreen NTSC settings. These files will be approx 13 GB per hour.

[lance.carter]

Thanks Mark that's very helpful regards future proffing.

Apart from the future proofing, the crux of what i'm trying to establish is whether, if having already compressed with the MOV format (MPG4)... would using a different compression after that COMPOUND the artifacts/noise or not? I know i'm probably getting over-concerned for someone who shoots standard def mono pictures, but i'm sort of curious as much as concerned.

Lance

[redsox_mark]

Any recompression (re-encoding) to a compressed format can create artefacts. But this is the case regardless of if you use a different codec/compression (e.g. in this case MPEG2), or the same one (MPEG4). The only advantages to rendering out using the same compressed format as the original would be if the editor can “smart render” (only re-render the bits which have changed). Some software can do this with MPEG2 (but not the current version of Vegas), but I don’t think any software will smart render your original MPEG4 (assuming that is what they are) clips.

In short – if you do a single render to MPEG2/DVD format with a high bitrate you should not see any visible artefacts/noise. If you want to later take this and edit it again or convert to another format, then doing multiple generations of rendering to a compressed format will cause artefacts; for this a less compressed format like DV-avi is preferred.

[lance.carter]

Mark, that's brilliant, exactly what I wanted to know. and sorts me out.