what is the best digital output format for miniDV tapes

Question

I have many tapes that I want to encode with some current, compact codec. this is the output from ffprobe:

[dv @ 0x5642a174c5a0] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
Input #0, dv, from 'dvgrab-001.dv':
  Metadata:
    timecode        : 00:15:14;26
  Duration: 00:00:46.88, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 28771 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: dvvideo, yuv411p, 720x480 [SAR 8:9 DAR 4:3], 25000 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 32000 Hz, stereo, s16, 1024 kb/s
    Stream #0:2: Audio: pcm_s16le, 32000 Hz, stereo, s16, 1024 kb/s

which video codec from ffmpeg is recommended? output should be watched on a smart TV with 16:9 physical, but I do not expect result will be wide.

Answer 1

h.264.

For DV the default settings will probably be fine:

ffmpeg -i 'dvgrab-001.dv' output.mp4

If the footage is interlaced (the ffprobe says it isn't, but if you see combing artefacts then use this):

ffmpeg -i 'dvgrab-001.dv' -vf yadif output.mp4

The original video is anamorphic NTSC 4:3, meaning that it's stretched slightly out when played back, this should be fine with the TV, but if not you can re-sample to make square pixels:

ffmpeg -i 'dvgrab-001.dv' -vf scale=728:540,setsar=1:1 output.mp4

If the video is supposed to be 16:9 but is playing back squashed you can set the Display Aspect Ratio thus:

ffmpeg -i 'dvgrab-001.dv' -vf setdar=16:9 output.mp4

Or resample for square pixels thus:

ffmpeg -i 'dvgrab-001.dv' -vf scale=960:540,setsar=1:1 output.mp4