DivX or MPEG?

[mogsub]

hi,
I have many DV videos from my DV cam and I want to archive them. Which codec between MPEG1 and DivX would you recommend for less loss of quality?
I don't really mind about the size as far as it doesn't need 216MB/min like the DV format.

thanks

[Enchanter]

It depends on how you want the media distributed (You surely aren't going to just keep them in your computer?). MPEG-1, though not as great a compressor as DivX, is more widely accepted and does not need any specific codec installed. DivX, on the other hand, is a great compression tool. It achieves high-quality video at low bitrate. However, it requires that a codec be installed into the computer on which it will be played. It is not a difficult thing to do, but many uninformed and computer-illiterate people will be turned off by this.

If you intend to keep them in your computer only and not distribute them anywhere else, I believe DivX will give you the best quality per megabyte used. Just make sure that you assign high bitrate amount for the compression (ie. 1500-2000). Try not to assign too high a value as the CPU speed requirement will increase dramatically. Even post-GHz systems will choke then.

[poopity poop]

Everything enchanter said I agree with and would liek to add more:
I have stuff brought over in DV from my digital CAM. and I encode to SVCD. With SVCD's you won't get encoding artifacts as with DivX, but you do get roughly twice the size for the same quality. Which is fine because home movies aren't like hours long. Also with SVCD(which uses mpeg-2) you can play them in most DVD players. So you can watch your home movies on a TV

[mogsub]

I want to put my movies on Cds but I don't care if they will be VCD/SVCD or playable in DVD players. I just want the best possible quality archieved on CDs so that when I want to edit my videos (in Vegas or Premiere) I won't have to download them from the DV camera again.
I think I will go for the MPEG1 as most professional editing programs support it. On the other hand DivX is not supported by Vegas and poorly supported by Premiere.

Something else I wanted to ask ... What is the maximum bitrate that you can go for a MPEG1 video (considering that I don't want to use it for a VCD)?

thanks again

[Batman]

...the sky's the limit

if you're unconcerned about playability on a dvd player, you can increase the bitrate to your heart's content.

[poopity poop]

mpeg 1 is a good choice for what you want to do I would say. I would still contend that mpeg-2 is slightly better due to better compression algorythms, but mpeg-1 is fine as long as you keep a high resolution. I would suggest storing them at 640x480 at constant bitrate of 7500Kbps. DVD's are encoded at 7500Kbps CBR, some are encoded at 7500Kbps vbr up to 9800Kbps. But for what you want to do, to keep 99.5% quality I would shoot for 7500Kbps CBR.
The other thing you will run into is interlacing. Mpeg-1 does not support compression with interlacing. Well it will but the interlacing lines will be construed as detail. There are a million ways to deinterlace, TRUE interlaced video, but most of them blend fields together. I would suggest area deinterlacer available somewhere, or smart deinterlacer available at donald grafts site. But most likely you can find a threadhere or better yet at forum.doom9.org that can offer better advice about deinterlacing true interlaced video.
Mpeg-2 does support comression with interlacing, but you want to edit it later. If you want to edit special things you will want to truly convert it to progressive film, but if you just want to cut and paste and add music or whatever I would still contend that mpeg-2 compression would suit you.
You can also use elcards mpeg-2 direct show filter to view ANY mpeg-2 mpg's available in the filters section of www.doom9.org
Anyway I hope I gave you some insight as to what you are getting into and some options that are open to you.

[mogsub]

Originally posted by poopity poop
I would suggest storing them at 640x480 at constant bitrate of 7500Kbps.

If I store them at 352x288 at 7500kbps (MPEG2) and later I want to put enlarge them to the SVCD standard (480x576), will I loose a lot of quality?

thanks a lot mate.

[poopity poop]

yes tons. There is no sence in storing them at that resolution because that's nto the correct aspect ratio. That's just the Aspect ratio of VCD's. You want to stor them at the highest resolution possible and the highest bitrate possible. going that low in resolution will result in about 70% original quality, even at 7500Kbps. At 640x480 at 7500Kbps you will maintain about 99.5% quality. At 352x288, bits are wasted, it simply can't put that many bits into so few pixels.

I take it you are using PAL standard. How are you captureing your video? Are you using a video capture card or using firewire/USB with a direct connection to your computer. If you are using a video capture methods, then you are limited as to the resolution you can capture at by your processor and HD speed. But if you are using a digital video camera I would suggest bringing the video over to your HD using real PAL TV resolution of 768x576, then resizeing it to PAL SVCD resolution 480x576, then storing it that way.

[Batman]

DIVX can significantly reduce file size. Also, depending on the quality of your original video you may need/not need such high bitrates.

[poopity poop]

Yes DivX can. The same quality for DivX is about half the file size of an mpg. But...I-frames (Keyframes in DivX) are more frequent producing higher quality. And besides the fact that you want to just store video with absolutly no quality loss for later editing. DivX is more difficult to cut because it can only cut on keyframes. DivX produces macroblock whereas mpg will not because its more of a standard and developed codec. Anyway, you can still jack the bitrate up really high in DivX and tell it to produce keyframes every second or less, and you will maintain high qualityu, but its up to you. If it were up to e I would do mpg-2 for storage. And trust me... I'm not partial to Mpg-2 as evident though my web site, I know both generes VERY well, I woudl really stress very much mpg-1 or mpg-2 at a high bitrate and high resolution.
Remember people, he's not recording an entire movie... so high bitrate like 7500Kbps or even 9800Kbps is fine because thye are jsut home movies not hours long. Anyway...if you want to maintain lots and lots of quality at lesser file size use varible bitrate mpg-2 average about 4000 min=500 max 9800. That would procude less file size and still maintain the same quality as 7500 Kbps constant bitrate

[Batman]

Can you please explain why you are "not partial to Mpg-2 "? Shouldn't it offer better quality than its predecessor mpeg-1? I'm just curious...

Thanks

[poopity poop]

I didn't mean it like that. What I meant to say was that I know SBC DivX as evident from my site. And I was trying to say that Mpeg-2 would be better for your needs.
And the only difference between mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 is that mpeg-2 offers interlaced encoding and very slight changes. It really shouldn't matter which you choose. Its like the choise betwen mp2 or mp3 as audio. Both sound find...just mp3 is slightly better