Best video file format for future compatibility

panzer948 wrote on 12/19/2012, 1:39 PM

Hi all, going to get back into editing after taking a break for a couple of years. I want to capture / edit both my current HD footage as well as converting some of my old VHS analog tapes to the digital era. So thinking ahead, what HD file format (and non HD) is the best to save the final edited versions for future playback on computers. I no longer am interested in burning videos to DVD as I think the medium will have a similar fate as my old VHS stuff. Previously I saved as bunch of stuff as .avi files.

Thanks,
Bryan

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TheHappyFriar wrote on 12/21/2012, 9:17 PM

If you're worried about losing any data then use uncompressed, no codec's. That's been usable for decades. The object here is using a coded that will be usable in (assuming) 10+ years. Will .mp4? I'd say no, not unless it's a BD file, but then those aren't made for editing, HDV is. ANY re-compression is going to loose data, no matter what. But if you're using the HDV files to edit with & make new content with, that's a non-issue. It's alike saying if you take Kelly's 100 year old wax disc and transfer it to another wax disk, then another, then another, it's worthless in it's first iteration because you'll eventually wind up with something that's lost audio detail.

PeterDuke wrote on 12/21/2012, 11:50 PM

"not unless it's a BD file, but then those aren't made for editing, HDV is."

BD can be MPEG2 or MPEG4 AVC. HDV is MPEG2.

It is not too many years ago when DV AVI was the norm for editing, and people said that MPEG (meaning MPEG2) was a "delivery" format.

Here is an old quote from

that has since been updated.

"Why MPEG Editing is Hard

Before you buy an MPEG editor, you must realize that MPEG was not designed to be edited. MPEG is a high-powered compression algorithm made for pre-edited video that is simply played back as-is and never changed."

There are successors to MPEG4 AVC (H.264) which are more problematic to edit, so in time we can expect that AVC will be considered easy and editable. You can even smart edit AVC these days with such tools as VideoReDo and Smart Cutter.

larry-peter wrote on 12/22/2012, 10:48 AM

Agree that uncompressed has the best chance to be played back for any video that's going to be "time capsuled" indefinitely.

My backup strategy is possibly a neurosis, but I back up all source files in their original formats and all finished projects in uncompressed .avi to external HD, then use Backup4All to write this archive to BluRay. Backup4All can be set to zip each file individually and can make uncompressed video files pretty small. And it verifies the backup by a bit comparison of the unzipped file to the source. Of course on already compressed sources, there's not much redundancy so the effect is minimal.

Then I lose sleep worrying how long the HD and BD will last. I'm a sick pup.

Laurence wrote on 12/22/2012, 11:55 AM

Mpeg2 (in it's various container formats) is my choice. It is relatively small, can be recut or reused or burned onto a final DVD or Bluray, all without generational loss.

john_dennis wrote on 12/22/2012, 4:09 PM

@atom12

Using Backup4All to further change the form of the original files adds yet another possible piece of lost software for future archivists to sort through. It's like the ancients encasing their precious artifacts in a concrete slurry. Rather than brushing the dust away with a paint brush, the grad students will have to use tools to break the concrete.

On your neurosis, you might be able to simplify your life a bit.

larry-peter wrote on 12/23/2012, 1:24 PM

True, john. Zip will probably be a lost format as well. But without my neurosis, what would I have left?

Merry Christmas.