Q4: Where do I get technical information about DV?
A4: Look here: adamwilt.com.
Another interesting link: shortcourses.com/video/chapter01.htm
Q5: How do I install the Panasonic DV codec?
A5: Windows 98/ME:
Extract the codec and copy the file pdvcodec.dll to the windows\system directory. Add the following entry in system.ini, section [drivers32]:
vidc.dvsd=pdvcodec.dll
Win2000 / WinXP
Extract the attached REG file, then double click it to install.
Or enter the following registry key manually:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\drivers.desc]
“pdvcodec.dll”=”Panasonic DV Codec”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32]
“vidc.dvsd”=”pdvcodec.dll”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaResources\icm\vidc.dvsd]
“Driver”=”pdvcodec.dll”
“Description”=”Panasonic DV Codec”
Q6: How to deal with CCE’s field order bug (V2.50)
A6: CCE 2.50 always encodes with top field first, whereas DV is bottom field first. Use pulldown.exe after CCE 2.50 encoding to revert the field order (set it to even). Then your DVD will play fine on a DVD player.
Instead of pulldown.exe you may use ReStream as well.
Q7: Which camcorder formats exist?
A7: Currently the following camcorder formats are available:
1. DV
The DV format is similar to MJPEG (motion JPEG). Every frame is a keyframe which makes editing an easy task. The compression ratio is 5:1 at a data rate of ca. 3.6 MB/s. This results in an excellent quality. You will encounter mainly two cassette formats, either miniDV or Sony’s Digital8. The data is stored the same way on either cassette type, so there’s no difference in the DV stream.
2. MicroMV
Sony’s proprietary MicroMV format allows for cassettes even smaller than miniDV. It is a keyframe-only MPEG-2 format, and not many editing programs support it. The data rate is 12 MBit/s, which is one of the reasons that make a direct transfer to DVD impossible, because DVD is limited to 9.8 MBit/s.
3. DVD-RAM
Hitachi recently created a camcorder using DVD-RAM as storage medium. The video is stored in MPEG-2 format. A 1.4 GB DVD-RAM is sufficient for 30 minutes recording time. MPEG-2 is not recommended for editing, though.
4. “Hard storage”
Panasonic announced a camcorder for professional use for 2004 which uses SD cards as storage medium. Data is recorded in the DVCPRO format (a professional DV flavour).
