Sony DV codec

doin wrote on 9/1/2004, 7:09 AM

When talking about the DV codec, are we talking about when edited material is sent back to the tape in the camcorder?

So when I capture from my camcorder it really doesn't matter what I use (Vegas, WinDV, ScenalyzerLive) to capture - all it is doing is putting it on my hard drive with an .avi extension. Or is the quality of my original material being comprimised but what type of program I use to capture?

After I have edited and want to send it back to the tape in the camcorder I would use the "print video to DV tape" feature and it would automatically use the Sony DV codec to do this (from what I have read it is of high quality right). Am I correct about this?

Am I also correct that I do not "render as" to DV.

And lastly, are there any other situations where I would save to DV on my hard drive and get the .dv extension? If there are please let me know.

Thank you in advance!

Comments

planders wrote on 9/1/2004, 7:19 AM

As I understand it, when you capture DV via firewire, no encoding is required because your camcorder sends the data in DV format; it's just bundled into an AVI container file for use on the PC.

That said, not all captures are created equal: I recently tried to sync a clip captured in Vegas with another captured in Windows Movie Maker (don't ask), but it proved impossible and I needed to recapture the Movie Maker clip myself--whatever Movie Maker does to "prepare" the captured clip led to a completely wonky timecode--as though it had rounded up to 30 fps, or something.

When you output to DV (either by printing to tape or using the Render command), unaltered video doesn't require re-encoding, but any transitions or clips with effects/titles/etc. applied will need to be encoded using the Sony DV codec. Thus, when rendering you'll see that unaltered frames zip by very quickly, while manipulated ones take more time.

Whether you render your entire project to a DV file or print directly to tape depends on your needs/preferences.

I don't think you'll ever get the .dv file extension working with DV files on Windows.

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/1/2004, 7:20 AM

The quality of the media isn't compromised as a result of the capture device if you use OHCI 1394 capture tools. It's a direct transfer. The ONLY place codecs come into play is when you modify a video file by putting in text, filters, FX, transitions, or other changes to the original nature of the media.
Sony's codec is one of the most 'true' to original media, therefore you can get away with several renders before seeing a compromise in image quality.

doin wrote on 9/1/2004, 7:33 AM

Thanks for the feedback!

Okay I think I'm getting it. So let's say I have done what I need to do with the file (transitions, etc). Do I render this file because in the dropdown list with all the encorders I don't see what option I would use. Or would it be video for windows and either the Sony YUV codec or the NTSC DV option?

Consequently, could I just use the "print video to DV tape" option and all the required rendering will be performed using the Sony codec?

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/1/2004, 7:35 AM

If you use the DV NTSC option, Vegas will automatically use the Vegas codec for the render, unless you specify another codec.

doin wrote on 9/1/2004, 7:41 AM

So what's with the Sony YUV codec? Won't that preserve the colours better or is basically not even noticable on things like home movies?

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/1/2004, 7:45 AM

The YUV codec is a 4:2:2 codec. It's not so much "home movies" as it is that YUV is native to the camera, but has a different color palette than RGB. Sometimes, in the conversion from YUV to RGB, depending on where a color falls, it might shift. for some scenes, this is a very big deal.
Search out YUV for an incredibly lengthy debate on the subject.

doin wrote on 9/1/2004, 8:11 AM

Thanks Spot, I've looked this up and now I'm more confused about this YUV stuff, I think I'll leave it alone except now I'm curious if I've been doing something wrong when framserving to CCE.

I've been selecting YUY2 in the debug frameserver window (thinking it was the same as YUV) because I thought CCE was able to handle this when encoding. I have to admit I'm no expert about these colour elements and in the end it is only home movies but I would like to get it right.

Should I select RGB24 or RGB32 or YUY2 here?

That's it, last question (I think)!