VJs. What is your preferred video format if an artist is giving you there own files?

[samhodgkiss]

Many Artists are now bringing along there own branded video files to there shows these days, and for all of you who know what they are like, they tend to give you a USB stick 30 seconds before their set begins.

As a VJ who spends a lot of time designing content for DJs to take on tour as DVD/Looping video file, I would like to know how I can help you all out at much as possible by getting a good idea of what formats you would like to receive, so you don't find yourself converting video during a live performance.

I was going to do this as a voting poll but there are so many combinations of codecs and containers that its best for everyone to just let rip and I can edit a list of the most commonly used formats.

So the two main questions.

Preferred Video codec and container for live performance?
And is file size an issue?

Thanks all

Sam

[alfaleader]

PhotoJPEG in a MOV container is the most used codec for vjs. This will work in all the vj programs, and has a good performance.

The filesize doesn't matter, if it doesn't fit on your usb choose a lower quality for your photoJPEG (75% for example)

[VJ MASTERDAMUS]

SD VJING (640x480 & 720X576) = Avi picvideo MJPEG or quicktime PHOTO-JPG (PJPG).

HD beyond vjing (1024x768 - 1920x1080 or even higher) = MPEG2 15mbps (on Grandvj) & Quicktime DXV (for resolume).

keeping it safe for all vj software - on the pc: go for picvideo mjpeg codec (19% quality)
keeping it safe on all vj software - on the mac: go for quicktime PJPG (90% quality)

MPEG 2 is good when the software can optimize its usage and decompression threads (such as Grandvj).
also, mpeg 2 can work well & supports a mighty fast upload when you have to place the same clip on a "Hippotizer", "wings" or "watchout" setup.
use 15mbps for the mpeg and you get a beautiful result which is easy to load and transfer between computers as mpeg opens on any platform, in most recent versions of windows and mac - no need to install any codec.

codecs i wouldn't recommend (although supported in grandvj) are: Mpeg4 \ divx, quicktime animation \ png, WMV, H264, & MKV containers.

to convert all your footage i would use: video charge.
http://www.videocharge.com/Index.php
as it supports batch processing - and a special treat is that its best for keeping the hierarchy of your massive database within its subfolders - as it created the same subfolders during the conversion...

happy full HD vjing everybody!

good luck!