Video format for digital video recorder

A video camera comprising:

• a user interface of the video camera to receive a user's selection of a specific encoding scheme from a plurality of different encoding schemes that includes at least one intra-only encoding scheme and at least one non-intra-only encoding scheme for encoding video captured by the video camera, the user interface of the video camera comprising:
• a display to display a list of the different encoding schemes;
• and
• user input controls to receive user interaction in order to select the specific encoding scheme from the plurality of different encoding schemes that includes the at least one intra-only encoding scheme and the at least one non-intra-only encoding scheme for encoding video captured by the video camera;
• at least one storage of the video camera to store (1) the plurality of different encoding schemes and (2) captured video encoded with one of the different encoding schemes;
• a video encoder of the video camera to encode video according to the specific encoding scheme selected from the plurality of different encoding schemes that includes the at least one intra-only encoding scheme and the at least one non-intra-only encoding scheme, the video encoder comprising:
• a discrete cosine transform (DCT) unit to perform DCT operations on blocks of image data according to the selected encoding scheme;
• a quantizer unit to perform quantization operations on DCT coefficients that are an output of the DCT unit according to the selected encoding scheme;
• and
• an entropy encoder to encode input data into a bitstream according to the selected encoding scheme;
• and
• a video compression controller of the video camera to identify the selected encoding scheme, retrieve a set of settings for encoding according to the selected encoding scheme, and send the retrieved set of settings to the video encoder to perform the DCT, quantization, and entropy encoding operations.

A method of providing a graphical user interface (GUI) for a video capture device, the method comprising:

• providing a display area for the video capture device to display a list of a plurality of video formats for encoding video captured by the video capture device, the plurality of video formats comprising a temporally compressed video format and a non-temporally compressed video format for encoding video captured by the video capture device;
• providing a selection indicator for the video capture device to indicate as selectable a specific video format in the list of the plurality of video formats that comprises the temporally compressed video format and the non-temporally compressed video format for encoding video captured by the video capture device;
• and
• providing a plurality of user interface (UI) controls for the video capture device to (1) move the selection indicator among the video formats in the list of video formats and (2) select the specific video format in the list of the plurality of video formats indicated by the selection indicator to encode subsequent video captured by the video capture device.