What is the most RAW digital video format?

Question

I know photos use .RAW files.

In the video world, what is the digital file with the least compression?


My past: I've been editing AVCHD videos for events, concerts and documentaries, but editing colors suck. So I plan on moving on to DV/HDV and would like to plan out what equipment would be needed to make that very "raw video file".
I actually don't know how to transfer DV/HDV to digital for digital editing. that's a whole other topic i'm sure.

Answer 1

You will import and edit as DV or an uncompressed AVI-DV.



Generally, your life will not suck with a reasonable computer and pro-software.



Your computer will need:

Firewire, to connect to DV or HDV cameras

TBS of drive space, at 13 gigs/hour drives fill up fast. I have 2TB on a RAID0 and I still have to keep up on maintenance.

RAM- at least 12GB, 16 works well for me

As much processor as you can afford (i7 quad core, 8 thread...very nice)

And a reasonable 1 gb video card or better is helpful.

A Solid State OS drive is ideal and still keeps they system under $2000.



Then for editing there are a lot of choices. Especially if you are a student, it is hard to beat Adobe's student pricing. Avid if you are already generating income, or stick with your favorite consumer software until to find yourself needing more.



EDIT1: You appear to be confused by the different formats. The "D" in DV, HDV, and the media they are typically recorded to MiniDv tape stands for "Digital"! This is digital editing. There are external hard drive video recorders you can attach to MiniDv cameras but they are a little spendy. The data rate demands a high performance drive. Most people capture the video on tape, which is a huge benefit for archiving, BTW, then using either a deck or the camera, they upload it to an editing computer. Once uploaded, it is non-linear editing and speed limited only by your hardware. If you do a bunch of editing, the external video drive might pay off, otherwise yes, you will have to wait an hour to capture an hour worth of video. You can edit this with WMM if you want.



If there were no noticeable difference, pros would not pay $8000 and up for the true HDV cameras. Footage from my old knockabout GL-2 looks far better than any Consumer HD. While I only have 720 X 480 standard def, I am collecting 13 gigs of video data for every hour. The best HD quality collects 11 gigs for a 1920 X 1080 frame size. That's 20% less data for 600% more screen. This is why my video can up-convert and be sharper and more vibrant than native HD. On a large screen or TV, I am the equivalent of a 36:1 compression, still far less compressed than the 200:1 used by so called "HD". ANd with native, true HDV it will look like you can walk into your scenes.



Also, the 5D Mark II is an excellent still camera, it is no better than what you are currently using for video though. It is better than nothing, but will show it's limitations, including limited file size (4 gigs max) , rapidly. At least the 5D gives you good lens and CCD, but AVCHD is a crappy format and makes little difference if it is in MOV, or MPEG, it is all the same 200:1 compression H.264.



The XH-a1s is a fine camera, and as soon as I can find a used one for about $2000 I'll likely have one.

Answer 2

I agree with "Scott" that DV and HDV is the least compressed of the consumer video capture formats, but generally, as RAW is to photos, there are other methods that can provide varying types of compression.



For example, the Canon XF series camcorders and Sony HDCAM and XDCAM series save to video formats other than DV/HDV. As well, some good Panasonic cams save to DVCPRO - DVCPROHD.



1) Set a budget. The camcorder is one part of the system. If you have had you fill with AVCHD camcorders, then hopefully you already have decent lights, mics, steadying devices... all that stuff can be re-used with the new cam.



2) Understand the video format being captured, how it gets from the camcorder to the computer for editing... and understand the video editors requirements for the video format.



Standard def DV format video will use about 14 gig of computer hard drive space when imported/decompressed. High Definition HDV format video will use more like 44 gig of computer hard drive space when imported/decompressed.



MiniDV tape based camcorders mean your computer needs a firewire port to connect the camcorder's DV port to the computer. And use a firewire cable. Firewire, DV, i.LINK and IEEE1394 are essentially all the same thing. Bursty USB can't deal with the streaming requirements of HDV (or DV). USB-to-firewire cable/converter/adapter things do not work.



There are external devices (Focus Enhancements FireStore series and Sony external storage) for firewire-equipped camcorders. They can capture these non-AVCHD formats - they are not inexpensive.



3) Terabyte storage is helpful. HDV is not as demanding as AVCHD. Depending on the computer, it might be that only 4 or more gig RAM is really needed - assuming the start-up hard drive is NOT the video project file storage drive and the start-up drive's free-space is big enough and not fragmented.



4) MiniDV tape is very helpful because after the editing is done, merely export the final video project back out to the camcorder. Excellent long-term archive onto digital tape continues to be a major advantage for the media. MiniDV tape is inexpensive.



Since we don't know what AVCHD equipment you used, we have no way to understand why "editing colors suck". Decent AVCHD gear (Sony HDR-AX2000, NEX-VG10, HXR-NX5, etc) can capture AVCHD video at a 24 mbps datastream and use the same imaging chips in their other (DV/HDV, HDCAM/XDCAM) camcorders. If you had been using consumer-grade AVCHD-compressing camcorders at the 7-17 mbps compression with a small imaging chip, well... I'd rather have a high end standard def DV camcorder (like a Panasonic AG-DVX100 or Canon XL2) than a low-video-quality high def consumer grade camcorder...



But what you can get all starts with a budget number...

Answer 3

the least compressed video format in general use is miniDV at 6:1. professional digital video tape is compressed 3:1 (D5, D9, digital Betacam, DVCpro50) or 1:1 (D1) however this was edited reel-to-reel and not in a computer. Some early digital tape (D2, D3) was not digital video, it was digitized analog video with analog in/outs only.



Those are all standard definition video (480x720 pixel). Least compressed consumer HD video is MPEG2 HDV and most is MPEG4 AVCHD (200:1), although a few cameras use motion-jpeg which is even worse. Professional Panasonic P2 and Sony XDcam solidstate HD memory is 12:1 Unlike the SD formats, HD compression is both inter-frame 16x16 pixel macro blocks, and intra-frame 8:1 GOF. The GOF compression makes HD especially difficult to edit properly. MPEG2 is not fixed at 8:1 like AVCHD/MPEG4 but is variable, up to 1:1 if needed for detailed action.



In a television studio, sdi and HDsdi wiring is used for the cameras, both are uncompressed digital video. the SD version of sdi has a data rate of about 270 Mbps, and HDsdi is about 2 Gbps. obviously these rates are too high for computer recording. Television programs are MPEG2 compressed, same as broadcast.



edit- let me address your concern about HDV being "time consuming". 1 hour to download 1 hour of video via firewire. Well, if you use AVCHD at the best resolution setting, 24 Mbps, it will take more than 1 hour to download 1 hour of video. that is because the overall throughput data rate of USB file transfer is less than firewire. You may have not noticed this because either your tests were made at a lower quality setting, or they were so short that it did not seem overly long. you are going to have a long video from a wedding, so then it becomes an issue. Because USB transfer is slower than real-time, video editors like Final Cut, can't use SD card storage directly, but has to first put on the computer hard drive to get the playback speed needed. The professional memory card systems, like P2 and XDcam don't have this problem, but then you pay dearly for the capability.