minidv, dvd, video editing

[lostatlantis]

I just got a panasonic gs-150 minidv camcorder and after my family's first road trip with it, a couple questions came up:

1) Just how much time does it take to transcode an hour of minidv to DVD (MPEG2)? I transferred 90min onto my desktop, a Tualatin 256 1.1Ghz OCed to 1.5GHz with 512MB ram and Seagate 160GB 8MB cache 7200RPM + Maxtor 120GB 2MB cache 7200RPM. The first 60 min was on the seagate, while the rest was on the maxtor (reason: out of space on seagate). I used Adobe Premiere for capture, some light editing (stitched the two segments together with a transition effect), and export to DVD. I was unpleasantly surprised when the system chugged along overnight (9+ hrs) to finish the DVD.

I chose VBR two-pass and MPEG2 224kbit for audio.

2) I thought VBR 2pass would give me the best video quality; however, the resulting DVD had noticeable blocking & combing artifact and the audio ended up as LPCM 1.5Mb. I don't know if the audio issue was my mistake or Premiere screwing with me. Also, I checked "maximize bitrate" to use the full 4.3GB DVD; however, the final DVD only used 4.03GB. Is Premiere a bad choice for DVD authoring? I am used to it editing video, so I went ahead and used it to make the DVD.

3) What is the optimal or most efficient software combo for making DVD from minidv tapes? I've been searching around but haven't found any definite answer.

 

[frank84]

nvm.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: lostatlantis
I just got a panasonic gs-150 minidv camcorder and after my family's first road trip with it

Good choice.

1) Just how much time does it take to transcode an hour of minidv to DVD (MPEG2)? I transferred 90min onto my desktop, a Tualatin 256 1.1Ghz OCed to 1.5GHz with 512MB ram and Seagate 160GB 8MB cache 7200RPM + Maxtor 120GB 2MB cache 7200RPM. The first 60 min was on the seagate, while the rest was on the maxtor (reason: out of space on seagate). I used Adobe Premiere for capture, some light editing (stitched the two segments together with a transition effect), and export to DVD. I was unpleasantly surprised when the system chugged along overnight (9+ hrs) to finish the DVD.

I chose VBR two-pass and MPEG2 224kbit for audio.

9 hours is about right with that setup. Not sure what version of PP you are using and not sure if 1.51 is dual capable, but a 3.4GHz dual processor *can* be faster that real-time on each pass, depending on the authoring tools

2) I thought VBR 2pass would give me the best video quality; however, the resulting DVD had noticeable blocking & combing artifact and the audio ended up as LPCM 1.5Mb. I don't know if the audio issue was my mistake or Premiere screwing with me. Also, I checked "maximize bitrate" to use the full 4.3GB DVD; however, the final DVD only used 4.03GB. Is Premiere a bad choice for DVD authoring? I am used to it editing video, so I went ahead and used it to make the DVD.

Which version of Premiere? It is usually good. For VBR, I set my rates in Liquid Edition to 6000-8500 or 9000 usually with AC3. AC3 is smaller and has better hardware support than Mpeg audio. How long is the final video? Longer than 1.5 hours? I would not go past 1.5 hrs with AC3, 1.25 with Mpeg, and 1 hr with PCM.

3) What is the optimal or most efficient software combo for making DVD from minidv tapes? I've been searching around but haven't found any definite answer.

That mere mortals can afford, Edius NX maybe, but it is tuned for HDV. An alternate solution is exporting an AVI and using the Mediachance combo package for DVD-Lab that has the AC3 and TMPGEnc software bundled with it. There is an even better encoder, but I am having a full brain fart attack remembering the name. Starts with a C though...