MiniDV2mkv

These instructions are for PAL tapes. You can encode according to you preferences after the deinterlacing step.

Capture raw data

You will need a PC with an IEEE 1394 (firewire) port running linux. Connect to your camera over IEEE 1394. Then run:

dvgrab --timestamp --size 0 --rewind --srt --showstatus dv-

You will get a .dv file which contains the raw data from the tape. You will also get a .srt0 file which contains the timestamp as subtitles. You should save these.

mkv master

This creates a lossless master with corrected timing and correct color metadata. Use this file when processing further to avoid issues. The video will be encoded with ffv1 and audio with FLAC. Both are lossless. You should permanently keep either this mkv or the .dv file.

ffmpeg -i .\dv-*.dv -vf "setparams=colorspace=bt470bg:color_primaries=bt470bg:color_trc=bt709,format=yuv422p,setfield=bff" -color_range tv -chroma_sample_location center -c:v ffv1 -level 3 -g 1 -c:a flac -sample_fmt s16 master.mkv

Deinterlace using QTGMC

You need to have vapoursynth installed and the lsmas, havsfunc and vsutil plugins installed. These can be installed using vsrepo.

Copy the qtgmc.vpy and master.mkv to the working directory. Then run:

vspipe -c y4m qtgmc.vpy - | ffmpeg -f yuv4mpegpipe -i - -i .\master.mkv -c:v ffv1 -level 3 -g 1 -pix_fmt yuv422p -vf setsar=16/15 -c:a copy deinterlaced.mkv

On Windows you need to run this in CMD. Powershell does not work.

Automate .dv processing

Once you have verified that the above works, you can just copy process.bat and qtgmc.vpy to a folder with the .dv file and run process.bat after dvgrab. If you are on linux converting the .bat script to bash should be easy.

Recommended encode settings for Handbrake

AV1 10bit (SVT)

25FPS

Constant Quality RF 10

Preset 0

Embed .srt0 subitles