Customising import of DV tapes using Quicktime Pro

Question

Hi all,
I am trying to import a lot of DV tapes onto my Mac (and some other analogue stuffe that I route through the camcorder so it ends up in DV even if it originated from VHS), the ultimate aim is to have the videos available within iTunes so I can stream them to my Apple TV 2 after some minimal editing (cutting out bad bits mainly).
I have tried to import via iMovie, but it has the following drawbacks: Huge file sizes, spends ages creating thumbnails, and then is really really slow to encode into H.264 compared to something like Handbrake.
I am not *too* fussed about final image quality, I am more concerned with being able to complete the job without spending too much time.  What I want to do is encode into H.264 during the import, and then quickly be able to cut out what I don't want, and save into iTunes.  Quicktime Pro is the closest I have found, but it seems to have the following limitations:  Very limited selection of encoders and sizes without any ability to customise means I can't choose an appropriate quality level - the best is only 640x480, with no info on bitrates etc.  This should be fine for my analogue sources, but potentially no good for some stuff in genuine DV format.  Also, there seems to be a limit on how long it will record for, which doesn't make a lot of sense as it's capping out on videos less than 200Mb in size leaving me with extra steps to combine the individual videos into a larger one (References movies are quick to make, but won't stream to the Apple TV 2)
Is there a way to customise these settings to ammend the import settings and increase the maximise size, either unofficially or not?
Many thanks for yout time.

Answer 1

In the interest of ripping this stuff with the least complexity possible I was wanting to use QTP, but it seems that using the "best" preset with a widescreen DV input provides a file that is only 640x360 encoded at 96kbps, which is a lot smaller than the input native and isn't really good enough for me sadly.
The stated data rate looks more like an audio data rate that a video or video + audio data rate. Since the preset must be compatible with both NTSC and PAL "standards," it appears Apple programmers lower, more universal settings for greater device compatibility.
I can select Device Native, but that would get me back into massive DV files again.  Not sure if this would be better than using the Vidi Firewire Capture would be better or not than this setting?
The basic rule of thumb here is "you can never have enough hard drive space." I currently have 25 TBs in external hard drive space connected to my main iMac for recreational/non-professional use. And, while you may consider DV data rates/files to be massive, HDV data rates/files would quadruple yours and some Apple Animation data rates/files could easily quadruple the HDV data rates/files. As to the question of using Vidi, if you are going to capture your files as DV content and don't want to use iMovie or other video editor application, then Vidi would be the utility to use.
Either way, at a couple of hours long the timeline within QTP becomes too "small" to be able to select bits to cut with any accuracy as it is not zoomable unlike iMovie, but putting them in iMovie would then start with the old thumbnailing again...
The QT 7 Pro Player "time line" is zoomable to some degree. This "zoom" capability is related to the size of the player. If you expand the size of the player to fill your screen as much as possible, you can "scrub" the playhead in smaller relative increments. Basically you should start your edits by expanding the player as large as your display allows and scrub the playhead to the rough area of your edit and then refine the position of the playhead using the fast play and jog controls in the A/V pallet and finally use the left/right arrow keys to select the exact frame you wish to edit. With some practice, you should find this work flow to be fairly quick if/when you know what and how you wish to edit the file.
As an example, a 1 hour 58 minute 23 second and 15 frame 640x360 file displayed at its default size can scrub the playhead in approximately 15 second increments. If I expand the player to its maximum dimensions on my monitor, the "scrub" increment is reduced to about 4 second with fast play and/or jog able to refine the playhead location to within a few frames of where I want to be.
What I was doing to remove the bits I don't want in iMovie was to create a project, include the bits I want, then delete the events using the option to only remove unused elements.  This is a yet further step which takes a long time, but then gives me chunks of files I can queue in handbrake and then stitch back together using QTP.
Most strategies fall into either a "subtractive" or and "additive" work flow. I normally make "rough cuts" in the first pass and place the results in an folder/bin for further refining later. Once I have everything sorted and trimmed, I then merge/join the DV clips to create a single file which is then converted all at once to the target compression format or, in frequent instance, to several different compression formats or variations dependent on target use—burning to DVD, burning to BD, TV viewing, posting to the internet, etc.
I just tried a native capture with QTP, and it gives me the following video settings:
DV, 720 x 576 (1024 x 576), Millions
16-bit Integer (Little Endian), 4.0 (L R _ _), 32.000 kHz
1024 x 576 pixels (Actual)
If I encode this with Handbrake using the Apple Universal I get:
H.264, 720 x 592, Millions
AAC, 2 channels, 32000 Hz
1033 x 592 pixels
I would normally encode the file using the source file standard. In my case that would the NTSC 720x480 (853X480) equivalent of your PAL 720x576 (1024x576) anamorphic DV import. Would also prefer the AAC audio track be encoded using a 48,0 KHz sampling rate at 160 Kbps since my DV audio is set for 16-bit/48.0 KHz. (I also include an DD5.1 passthrough at 448 or 640 Kbps if available.) You can create and save your own custom resets which is what I use for HandBrake conversions specifically targeting the TV2 device and which include additional analysis/motion prediction settings.
So it looks like getting QTP to encode into H.264 just won't do it well enough, even though it should be able to go better without extending beyond the limits of the source
If you are referring to the conversion of DV source files to H.264, then use the "Movie to MPEG-4" or "Movie to Quicktime" export option to enter your own custom target settings. However, nether of these export potions offer the same ease for setting up custom anamorphic encodes for custom dimensions as HandBrake does. (I personally prefer using HandBrake here.)
I think the size limit was CPU bound with it not keeping up with the input fast enough to real-time encode and thus stopping.  It's not done it since.
That may well be the case. My old G5 processed files in handBrake at 4 to 6 time "real time." My MacBook Pro converts files in roughly "real time" using my custom HandBrake presets. On my new iMac the default TV2 HandBrake preset process at about 180 fps and at 70-90 fps using an even higher quality custom preset I just added. As you can see, the different CPUs involved cam make quite a difference in conversion speed.