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Should I get H.264 or DNxHR DVD's?


Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

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A guy will sell me a few scans of his vintage film shorts for a nominal fee. He asked if I wanted them on H.264 or DNxHR. From what I understand he said he got the films scanned in 2K. He is charging $2.50 per DVD extra for the DNxHR DVD's. 

Is it better to get DNxHR? 

Will DNxHR work with most editors?

Thanks

 

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Are data dvds being used just as a way of getting the files to you?

That seems a bit odd nowadays. Most people would use file transfer for the sort of data sizes dvds can hold. 

 

If the videos are being burned as playable video dvds then I think that whatever format the videos originate in (eg h264 or dnxhd) would be transcoded to the standard dvd format  (mpeg2?) and then you’d have to re-rip then into something else to make use of. 

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Very odd question because DVD's don't hold much data, so why would he bother trying to fit DNXHR files on to them? 

Can you send him a hard drive? That's how everyone else works these days. 

Yes DNXHR is what you want, not .h264. 

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On 1/2/2021 at 7:59 AM, Mei Lewis said:

Are data dvds being used just as a way of getting the files to you?

That seems a bit odd nowadays. Most people would use file transfer for the sort of data sizes dvds can hold. 

 

If the videos are being burned as playable video dvds then I think that whatever format the videos originate in (eg h264 or dnxhd) would be transcoded to the standard dvd format  (mpeg2?) and then you’d have to re-rip then into something else to make use of. 

After further checking, you are right. He is using digital downloads. I just assumed they were on DVD.

I'm an old school film photog, so used to thinking in terms of physical media. In the past someone sold me some films about 16mm projectors and film handling on DVDs, so I was assuming he would too. 

mpeg2?

Don't know. More to think about.

I told him I'd buy a sample of DNxHR to see how it worked out with my software then go from there.

 

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22 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said:

Very odd question because DVD's don't hold much data, so why would he bother trying to fit DNXHR files on to them? 

Can you send him a hard drive? That's how everyone else works these days. 

Yes DNXHR is what you want, not .h264. 

 

Yes, I was wrong. As per my previous reply he would offer downloads. I thought if the files were big he would put on BR-D. I'm still in the stone age, mailing DVD's and BR-D around. 

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6 hours ago, Daniel D. Teoli Jr. said:

I told him I'd buy a sample of DNxHR to see how it worked out with my software then go from there.

What software are you using (OS and editorial) also, can they offer Pro Res files? We deliver 90% of the time on Pro Res HQ or XQ depending on if the client wants 10 bit or 12 bit. 

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Don't think he offer ProRes.

He gave me a sample of the DNxHR to download. It worked fine with Movavi.(the software I'm using.) Only issue was it took +/- 3.5 hours to download 1 GB sample. The total purchase is about 40GB+. So not that practical to download.

I have asked if he will put them on BR-D and mail them. Internet in Rustbelt is very slow. BR-D is about .80 cents each and hold 25gb each (22.5gb actually.) They got hi-cap BR-D that hold 50gb and 100gb (actual capacity is less)

He may be in England, so postage is an issue, but what the heck. Even with $$ postage it is cheaper than buying films and getting them scanned. And that assumes he will put them on BR-D for me. The sample was a beautiful scan. I think he wants to be in the stock footage biz, albeit as a side gig, to help pay for scanning costs. 

 

Edited by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.
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3 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said:

Why not have him ship out an USB thumb drive? We do that all the time with files under 128GB. Much over that and we just buy hard drives, they're so cheap these days. 

Yes, that was kinda what he wanted to do. He told me he didn't have a Blu-ray burner, so he wanted to have a friend in the USA with faster internet download the material and ship me a thumb drive. (He would not say what country he is in,  but I guess he is not in England.) It got to be too much of a hassle / expense for me with the additional complications involved.

I was not that interested in his footage. But the price was cheap, quality of scans was very good and the material was 'interesting enough,' so I thought about acquiring for my Archive. But once you involve more people and $$ it started to lose its luster. If it was footage that really interested me, then OK, it would be worthwhile to throw more money at it.

Also he had restrictions on the material. He didn't want me using hi-res online and took off a few titles from his original offer of sale once he found out I wanted to use it online. In any case, I learned about DNxHR, so all was not wasted time. Now, I was not selling the material online, I would donate it to the Internet Archive. So I have to pay to donate it.

Acquiring material this way is an excellent way to add to ones collection / archive. You can acquire it for a fraction of what it would normally cost. You don't have to buy the films or pay for scans. Of course the flip side is, people usually don't want to sell you their scans. I am more successful buying scans of still photos than films. But even then, people are very stingy selling still scans and most solicitations to sell me scans fail. I was a very early adopter of collecting digital material. You can't always get the original, but a hi-quality scan is fine for me. 

Collecting Digitally – Daniel D. Teoli Jr. (wordpress.com)

Sometimes people think you are nuts asking to buy scans from them. But seems normal to me. I donate for free, so why not make a little $$ on their end. 

Anyway...thanks for all the replies!

Edited by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.
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