Generic DV format / Codec

Former user wrote on 11/11/2006, 6:23 PM
I am going to upload a broadcast version of two 30 second spots for a local TV station to download and use with their digital spot playback system. They told me they needed a standard NTSC DV AVI format. I rendered each spot to AVI using the NTSC DV template. Each file is 110 megs.

But, it occurred to me that these AVI's aren't really "standard" AVI. They are encoded using "Sony Digital Video" DV codec. I'm pretty sure they won't have that particular codec on their high-end spot player system.

Will these files be of any use to them? Or is there some way to render to a "standard" or generic DV codec that will be more universally usable?

Thanks.

Jim

Comments

Former user wrote on 11/11/2006, 6:42 PM
Okay. I did a little more research and it confirms what I thought -- the DV files that Vegas renders cannot be read by other systems (other than other Vegas systems).

There are a few alternatives, the most reasonable would be to buy the MainConcept DV codec at $49 and encode using it. But I figure this will be just about the only time I'll ever need to do this. So, I'm just going to go the traditional "send a dub to the station" route and avoid the issue altogether.

Jim
Chienworks wrote on 11/11/2006, 6:52 PM
You shouldn't have any problem with the SONY DV codec. The files that it produces are standard DV .avi files. It just makes them much better than other codecs do.
Former user wrote on 11/11/2006, 7:02 PM
Thanks for the reply, but according to the Sony support knowledge base section, the Sony DV codec "isn't available on other systems" and the following forum thread seems to verify that:

Thread

What do ya think?

Thanks again.

Jim
bStro wrote on 11/11/2006, 7:14 PM
What that thread is saying is that if you render a file in some other NLE or application, the Sony codec will not be available to you to use when you do so.

This does not affect your (or someone else's) ability to play back a file that was already rendered using the Sony codec.

Rob
Former user wrote on 11/11/2006, 7:24 PM
Okee Dokee.

I'll just upload the files and let the station give 'em a try. I'll post back Monday with the results.

Thanks again.

Jim
Chienworks wrote on 11/12/2006, 1:54 AM
Right. DV is DV. How you get there doesn't matter* to other systems. As long as it's a DV file and the other system has any DV codec available then the file can be played/used.

*Well, actually it does matter. SONY's codec gets there very nicely. Microsoft's codec gets there very badly. But both of them get there.