Anyone use H264 for archiving?

[Flying dutchman]

I did some testing with Nero Recode and the H264 encoder is
awesome. I could compress a 2 hours DVD into 700 mb and the
quality and sharpness was still good.

I wonder if this format is any good for archiving DV?

[Dr Mordrid]

I'm using my DVD recorder to archive most personal videos on DVD+/-R.

The 1 hr/disc mode (9500 kbps) is awesome, and it matches 1:1 the time available on a DV tape.

2 hr (5100 kbps) is also very, very good and the 4 hr halfD1 mode (352x480) is great for stuff that'll not require editing; TV movies, birthday parties etc.

Once created I run an *.iso of the disc and store it on my archive HDD's.

Dr. Mordrid

[Flying dutchman]

But how about stuff that you *might* want to re-edit at some later time?

I was thinking about using H264 as an almost-lossless DV backup (storing 1
DV tape per DVD+R, overkill-bandwidth intentional!).

[arciervo]

But how about stuff that you *might* want to re-edit at some later time?

I was thinking about using H264 as an almost-lossless DV backup (storing 1
DV tape per DVD+R, overkill-bandwidth intentional!).

I've been playing around with Nero Recode as well and have also been impressed. However, I'm wondering if it is compatible with any editors other than Nero's own offering.

BTW, does anyone know of standalone DVD players that can handle these files? Are they likely to be usable with players that claim to support DivX/MPEG-4?

Tony

[Apulo]

Yes there will be players that play AVC in the near future, no, current DIVX players can't handle it.

Be aware that some players claim to play "NERO" files. What is meant is that they can play Nero's MP4 file format, which contains standard (non-AVC) Mpeg-4. These players still can't handle AVC because their hardware chipset is not up to it. The decoding of the MP4 format is a simple firmware issue for DIVX capable players.

[Flying dutchman]

Alternatively you can use a tool that replaces the fourcc header in the file into DivX, or so I've read.