How do I store my anime?

[timojasper]

Hi,

One of my harddisk's is full with anime. It is time to store them on dvd. However i am unsure in what kind of file type i should store them. The number one priority is to convert them into a file type I can use after XX years.

Most of the Anime are .avi files with a xvid plug in. Some experimenting thought me my stand alone dvd player and PC's without the xvid plug in cant play them. I cant store my anime in this file type.
I got TempGenc DVD author and DVD source creator. Today i converted one of the .avi files to a single mpeg 1 file. I soon found out this file cant even been burned on DVD using either DVD author or NERO express.

What to do now? How do I store my Anime on a dvd? In what file type?
Any help would be most welcome.

Timo

[bayoab]

You need to burn it as a video file (mpeg2, there is no "extension" for this) for it to be readable on every system. It really is silly though cause you can only fit ~5 eps/disc.

[timojasper]

What is the diffrence between mpeg 1 and mpeg 2? Does mpeg 2 work on everything (every standart computer and/or standalone dvd player)?

[CaiSter21]

well, the most cost effective way with a dvd burner is to just make a data dvd
that way you can fit about 20-26 eps on one disk
the only problem with that is that they wont play in a dvd player.

but that doesn't matter, cause you can just open the files and just watch them on your computer

[timojasper]

my files are with some sort of plug in called xvid. I cant play the anime on any kind of standart player. I tryed so on 3 diffrent computers with Windows media player, quicktime and winamp.

I do not care how many dvd's i have to burn, I just want my anime to be in some kind of file so i can watch them in the future without any problems.

[Kurz]

Thats because you failed to install xvid on those computers...
Computers need codecs inorder to play divx, Xvid, h.264 to play them back.

[timojasper]

yes i understand that, but that is not the problem.

- I want to succefully store my anime for the future.

Who can tell if ill be able to use the codex in the future? on a new windows for example... Therefor this is not a option. I came to this forum to ask for a good option on how to storage my anime.

[Jekyll]

1. XviD is an implementation of the MPEG-4 Part 2 (ISO/IEC 14496-2) standard (or at least a subset thereof), also known as MPEG-4 ASP (Advanced Simple Profile). A standard compliant decoder should be able to decode it. Such decoders exist (XviD itself, libavcodec and others) and will most probably continue to exist and/or will be developed for future operating systems and hardware platforms. It should also be safe to assume that AVI reading capabilities will not go away anytime soon. Considering this, no conversion should be necessary.

2. Problems that might arise are the FourCC¹, which is not part of the standard (but can easily be changed, if need be) and decoding of packed bitstreams², which are not standard compliant. Still, as AVI support is most probably not going away, one can assume that decoders will still be able to handle packed bitstreams in the future.

3. Consider that reencoding to another format would reduce video quality.

¹ Future codecs might not support current FourCCs like XVID and DX50, but this is quite improbable as they are the most common FourCCs for MPEG-4 ASP. This is not a problem with containers other than AVI (e.g. MP4).
² Quick use of google reveals some tools that are be able to unpack packed bitstreams (and mux the result into the MP4-Container?), if this is of concern.

[Shiryuu]

Originally Posted by timojasper

What to do now? How do I store my Anime on a dvd? In what file type?
Any help would be most welcome.

Timo

Burn a VCD (or an SVCD)? Just drag the xvid\avi files into Nero after choosing VCD\SVCD in the menu. Nero Express can burn upto 3 files in a CD, it can probably burn more into a DVD. It won't be the best quality\resolution when played on a computer, but at least it'll play in all DVD players.

Today i converted one of the .avi files to a single mpeg 1 file. I soon found out this file cant even been burned on DVD using either DVD author or NERO express.

If it's just a plain .mpeg file, then it should burn in Nero without any problems. So that's just weird.

You can also just burn a xvid codec in with the dvd if you want to make sure it'll play on any computer.

[Mr.Hawq]

With nero vision express(if you have that with nero), just add the tracks you want, and then make you menu, and then burn. It automatically converts your avi file to dvd format.

[timojasper]

Thank you all for replying and helping me with my 'dilema'.
However i have some new questions...
I see now that 'AVI' is a good file to store my anime in. However i am still not sure about the codex.

- What is the diffrence and relation beteen Xvid and DivX?

@ Jekyll :: If i unpack MP4 AVI, what do I get? Will i get some sort of standart MP4 AVI file? If so can every standart PC and stand alone dvd player read it? If so than THIS is what I need.

Again I really appreciate all your help.

Timo

[Jekyll]

It seems my last post might have been a bit unclear. Let me explain in more Detail:

General
Currently some hardware players have DivX support. This means they are able to play AVI with DivX video. As DivX implements a subset (meaning not the whole standard) of the MPEG-4 ASP standard, not all standard compliant files can be played.
What I said in my last post was not so much about current hardware/stand-alone player as it was about playback on PCs, although future hardware players might have support for standard compliant files.
Also, the files might not be supported on future PCs out of the box. The point was, that availability of software that supports those files is almost a given.

Container
AVI is a container format , developed by Microsoft. A container format stores audio and video streams in a way that allows them to be in sync. The AVI container is a de facto standard, because for a long time almost everybody used it. AVI is quite old and has some limitations, which lead to problems with features of newer codecs, which lead to things like packed bitstreams.
Other current containers include MP4 (also known as MPEG-4 Part 14) and Matroska. MP4 is an ISO standard and somewhat likely to be supported by future hardware players. Matroska is an open standard, but less likely to be supported on hardware players.

Codec
Both XviD and DivX are implementations of subsets of the MPEG-4 ASP standard. XviD implements more of the standards features, which makes XviD files unplayable on some (most?) hardware players with "DivX support". Nonetheless, a completely standard compliant decoder should be able to decode both. As I said before, decoders that do this are currently available for PC and it will most probably stay this way.

Originally Posted by timojasper

If i unpack MP4 AVI, what do I get? Will i get some sort of standart MP4 AVI file?

You will get a normal AVI file with a video stream that should comply to the MPEG-4 ASP standard, thus making it more probable that future decoders will correctly support it. Of course, you should test after unpacking whether it still works correctly.

Conclusion
If you care about current hardware players, follow the advice of the others in this thread and encode to a video DVD or a SVCD or something.
If you care about quality and mainly playability on a PC in the future, just keeping AVI with XviD and DivX video seems safe enough. Hardware player support might get better, but also it might not.

[Kurz]

You can always keep a copy of Windows XP or Windows 2000. Get CCCP and those are the only two things you really need. Windows 2000 is fairly simple to get since it doesnt have the nasty activation issue with XP.

Personaly I aint going to upgrade to the next OS that Windows puts out for some time.

[timojasper]

K.. ill stick to the current codec..
But what is the diffrence between divx and Xvid? I only installed the divx codec at the moment. Is that enough for both codec?

Tnx all for your help .

[Kurz]

Ewww... divx?
Uninstall that, all you need is Xvid.
It plays back both Xvid and Divx.

What I do is this. I keep a back up of all the programs I use in a folder.
So everything from Java to Video Drivers are stored there.

[Sides]

Or you can use one of those small linux mediaplayer distro,
such as geexbox or movix, just generate a iso with your avi files in it.
Since it is a self booting disc, do it right, no worries.

Alternatively put mplayer (or videolan) on the disc, and if you want you can use a
launcher such as autorun, config the buttons with some command lines
and you got a fancy launch menu. However in this case it will require a WinOS

[Icehellion]

philips dvp642
it will play divx/xvid, and mpegiso (burn to dvd as data)
However, i don't think it will play mkv's or any other container "formats"

[TougeSil80]

Just keep a copy of VLC player with every anime series you burn, it has embedded codec and it should work fine with almost every kind of avi files out there.

[Tofusensei]

Burn a copy of windows XP, all your codecs, and media player classic, etc., along with the original xvid video

Though, burned CDs and DVDs have a very short shelf life, so maybe keeping them on disk arrays is a smarter way to do it?

I think data on hard disks is about the same price per gig as DVDs O_O;

-Tofu

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by Tofusensei

I think data on hard disks is about the same price per gig as DVDs O_O;

-Tofu

DVDs are cheaper per gig if you get a good sale. There are starting to be HDD sales where they are getting below $.33/gig.