DVD vs USB playback for SD video

jak.willis wrote on 11/21/2018, 2:12 PM

I have another question regarding compression & video formats. I have a standard definition video that I’m currently editing and was wondering what the best way to watch it on a TV was so that no or as little compression as possible occurs. I know that DVD has to use MPEG-2, and seeing as the files that I’m editing originally came from a DVD, im guessing there would be another layer of compression made when burning to a new DVD?

Otherwise, if instead I exported the edited video to MPEG-4 and transferred the file to a USB stick/drive to then play back on my TV, would that produce me the best result in terms of retaining the original picture quality? Or is there another codec that I could use instead of MPEG-4?

Comments

CubeAce wrote on 11/21/2018, 5:32 PM

Hi Jak.

You can only really use codecs your TV can read. We have a Sony TV in our lounge and a Samsung in the kitchen. Both read several different codecs but both seem to read MPEG-4. Our Samsung for instance doesn't seem to support AVI files whereas the Sony does. The main thing for me is neither can read any format at 60fps. Video must (for me at least) be exported at 30fps maximum to play on either TV but that may also be country or TV dependant. I don't know. The compression or lack of it doesn't seem to be an issue whereas frame rate is for me. Personally speaking, watching from a USB stick or similar seems to give a better output than using our DVD player but a lot could depend on the buffer memory of your TV and which codecs it supports as well as how good is your DVD player. For instance any commercially made DVD sometimes makes dark backgrounds or large areas of unmoving colour seem a bit blocky, whereas I don't see that from a memory stick. Try looking for a pdf manual for your TV if you are not sure of that information and don't have a paper manual. Sometimes if you don't compress a video there is too much information to clear the buffer memory for smooth playback.

As with everything, the quality rests mainly on the poorest link in the whole system which could be any part of it.

RogerGunkel wrote on 11/21/2018, 7:01 PM

I film and edit weddings as a major part of my business and deliver on both dvd and usb. Usb gives far sharper images as you can use 1920x1080 HD file sizes but you need to use a bit rate that is appropriate to the length of the video. For example my weddings for usb are rendered at 10mbs for a maximum individual video file length of 55 mins to keep within the Fat 32 4Gb file size. For much shorter video lengths I would use up to 20mbs for still sharper images. I also frequently make up my dvds from the mp4 files by exporting straight out to dvd iso images.

Roger

yvon-robert wrote on 11/21/2018, 11:33 PM

Hi,

Format your USB memory in NTFS you can to remove the Fat32 limitation 4 GB size.

Regards,

ericlnz wrote on 11/22/2018, 1:12 AM

Hi,

Format your USB memory in NTFS you can to remove the Fat32 limitation 4 GB size.

Regards,

YR

But check first that your TV can read NTFS. My Panasonic requires FAT16 or FAT32.

RogerGunkel wrote on 11/22/2018, 5:20 AM

Hi,

Format your USB memory in NTFS you can to remove the Fat32 limitation 4 GB size.

Regards,

YR

I don't like having to limit each file size to 4Gb, unfortunately, as ericlinz mentioned, many tvs just will not recognise NTSF formatted drives as I have found out to my cost. Sadly, as dvd is slowly disappearing as a delivery format, incompatibility between makes regarding codecs, formatting etc, means that there is no universal alternative to dvd for delivery to multiple clients.

Roger