avi files

[videogeorge]

I have some old VHS home movies that were transferred and now exist as avi files on my hard drive. I want to edit them with PE 2020 and wonder what the preferred settings should be. There are several choices from AVCHD to HDV to DV to standard def. Thanks in advance for any tips on the best way to do this.

[Steve Grisetti]

Depends on the specs of those AVIs. Open one of your AVIs in the free download MediaInfo. In MediaInfo, set View to Text and then copy this report and paste it to this forum. With these details we'll be much better able to advise you, George.

[videogeorge]

Thanks Steve. Per your instructions here's the specs from one of the AVI clips.

General
Complete name: E:\1990\1990 01 1.avi
Format: AVI
Format/Info: Audio Video Interleave
Commercial name: DVCPRO
Format settings: BitmapInfoHeader / WaveFormatEx
File size: 207 MiB
Duration: 57 s 124 ms
Overall bit rate mode: Constant
Overall bit rate: 30.3 Mb/s
Frame rate: 29.970 FPS
Recorded date: 2013-11-18 22:51:34.000
Writing library: Tdattc_O

Video
ID: 0
Format: DV
Commercial name: DVCPRO
Codec ID: dvsd
Codec ID/Hint: Sony
Duration: 57 s 124 ms
Bit rate mode: Constant
Bit rate: 24.4 Mb/s
Width: 720 pixels
Height: 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio: 4:3
Original display aspect ratio: 4:3
Frame rate mode: Constant
Frame rate: 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Original frame rate: 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS
Standard: NTSC
Color space: YUV
Chroma subsampling: 4:1:1
Bit depth: 8 bits
Scan type: Interlaced
Scan order: Bottom Field First
Compression mode: Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame): 2.357
Time code of first frame: 08;06;40;11 / 08;06;40;11
Time code source: Adobe tc_A / Adobe tc_O
Stream size: 196 MiB (95%)

Audio
ID: 1
Format: PCM
Format settings: Little / Signed
Codec ID: 1
Duration: 57 s 124 ms
Bit rate mode: Constant
Bit rate: 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 48.0 kHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Stream size: 10.5 MiB (5%)
Alignment: Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration: 952 ms (28.53 video frames)

[Steve Grisetti]

Good news! Those are standard DV-AVIs, what was once the standard for home video editing.

If you use one of these clips as the first on your timeline the program should automatically match your project's settings to them. But if you want to set it up manually just be sure, on the New Project window (When you select the option to start a new project), select the option to Change Settings. Then, for good measure, on the Change Settings screenm, select DV Standard 48 khz. Once you've okayed the selection, back on the New Project window check the option to Force Settings. That should do it!

[videogeorge]

That's great, thank you Steve!
I have many avi clips, shot over several years, with different types of camcorders and cameras. If I run Mediainfo on them, is it just a case of identifying video format, height/width etc. that would tell me what I need to know? Thanks again.

[Steve Grisetti]

Yes. Although virtually all miniDV camcorder footage is DV-AVI. Only a few really old still cameras shot video in an AVI format that used non-DV codecs. So I'm sure most if not all of your old footage is DV-AVI.

[videogeorge]

It will be interesting to find out as I go through them. Thanks Steve!