What's the best codec for DVD quality?
 

We are making some DVD quality to sell to the sponsors who want a top quality version to compress to their needs, so what is the most popular codec?

No one here buy DVDs?

I dont think there is a " most popular " , everyone has its own preferences due to different business platform of sites. Its all relevant according to their own sites, costs, amount charged to customers, etc.

I have no idea, but here is a bump for you! :thumbsup

MPEG2 there's no other easy option really for DVD & re-editability quality.

wmv
 

Windows Media Video 9. It's the type of codec we've been using with great success. Most of our customers are Windows users (hey!:321GFY) and have Windows Media Player installed. So therefore no other codecs need to be installed.

DivX clips look fantastic, though your viewers will probably have to download the codec before watching.

I've downloaded some of the recent episodes of Lost that I missed and they were encoded with Xvid. Couldn't tell the difference between HDTV on the television or on my desktop.

Re: Best codec
 

If you were asking about which format to offer for surfers I would agree with the Xvid or DivX codec being best... But as I understand it the question the content is for reselling, which means you won't have to consider bandwidth costs too much as files will only be downloaded / sent once per sale, right?

If I'm right this far then I would definetely recommend going with an uncompressed format, or at least a format that is only slightly compressed.
You lose too much quality if you encode several times... So if your customers are going to recompress then the only way to make sure the final product is good is to offer uncompressed video. -You do end out with huge files, but on the other hand true DVD-quality is 7-9 GB per disc, which is a lot, but not so much that it isn't possible.

Another advantage of uncompressed files is that they're perfect for editing, they'll open up in any editor without trouble.

There are also several lossless codecs out there (I don't remember any names right now), that can compress the files to a certain degree without ANY loss... AFAIK about 50% of the uncompressed size. The only disadvantage is that they aren't 100% compatible with all editing programs, but if you use the same codec every time then customers will only need to install once, so I guess it wouldn't be the biggest problem.

As far as I remember both DivX and Xvid are a pain in the behind to open for editing, although both are very good codecs for VIEWING.

Mikkel Christensen

Very Kind of you:thumbsup

I don't know but since I got this thread for the 3rd time already on icq I guess it needs a bump!

Paysite Tryout has it. This is about delivering a product to a client so they have a top quality version they can resize or compress themselves to their own needs.

however we did try before to sell the top quality AVI version which our editor does so we can have a top version. It was 3.3 GIGs for 15 minutes, best quality.

Never got any sales, am now trying to see if a DVD versin, which will be smaller will be more successful.

well DIVX as a very good quality :)

yeah, that and xvid

wmv sucks balls big time, how the hell are you gonna offer HD if its wmv coded? waiste of time and money, divx codec install takes 10 secs.

XviD is a continuation of Project Mayo and aims to develop a high quality open-source MPEG-4 codec. XviD comes from the same open-source project that was the basis for DivX 4.x/5.x, but instead of going all commercial, XviD remains open-source.

XviD is fantastic, but you have to download a codec which a lot of people don't like.

I like H264 myself :)

Makes a great 720x480 video that's small

Xvids is the best :thumbsup

Correct.

:pimp

I would go with MPEG2. Depending on the amount of content you want to fit per disc you can adjust the bit rate to increase quality (and lower compression).

Sinclair

MPEG-2 will be better cause it is very popular format, contains interlaced structure. Of course, Divx and XVid have more optimal compression algorithm, VP6 decoder give best results on the lower bitrates, but DIVX, XVID or VP6 are formats for the surfer or paysite members - their advantages, small size, good and the excellent quality. But making DIVX, XVID files, video editor must know that your pure video source is interlaced (DV or MPEG-2) in most cases and the deinterlacing algorithms must be used. If you have expensive camera which could shot truly progressive video (720p) for HDTV, deinterlacing task will not occur.
In your case give to the editors MPEG-2 files and they will be able to make DVD disk, encode them to DIVX, XVID or WMV
IMHO WMV have the strict requirements for the PC hardware in a playback.

DVDs are delivered in MPEGII - There is no codec needed for MPEGII as it is a format in itself

It is very nice and refreshing to see a thread about real issues we face in the business.


Uncompressed formarts would be the best... but will be huge... raw DV is 13gig per hour, but looks awesome...but I find that no matter what codec is used on raw DV... it loses something in the render (so just get used to it)... it kinda flattens it out and washes out some color (in my personal opinion)

The best format for what YOU are asking for and looking for in this case is probrably mpeg2/dvd. (Smaller, easy to edit and will re-compress to a web-distribution codec (wmv, divx, xvid, qt) pretty nicely.

mpeg2 is the way to go for dvds:)

never ever use xvid,divx etc etc on paysites, you'll get too many complaints from people that have problems installing the codec... play safe with mpeg and/or wmv :)

Xvid by far.

Id have to agree with the DivX, Xvid, Mp4 format

many DVD players now play this format and if your selling or getting clients to view in divx format u can get about 10 hours of high quality viewing in compressed format

:thumbsup

I don't think any of you guys are actually reading PM's post...

Arghhhh

I think you are right.

This is not about what I deleiver to you in a finished version for you to put straight onto your site.

It's about a version I sell so you can render it to suit your needs. Today and in the future.

.dv 5678

Paul...

I always like reading your posts and learning from your history...

Hit me up on ICQ... I'd love to pass ideas back n' forth

ICQ: 347-793-328

We offer our stuff in the following formats:

DivX: 640 x 480
MPG1: 350 - 700 - 1000 kbps
WMV: 056 - 128 - 350 - 700 - 1000 kbps

What do you guys think of that?

We offer
1400 wmv
400 wmv
mpeg
The wmv seems to be the one people want

I guess the only FREE codec is Xvid, isn't that right?