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Need DVD Burning Hardware/Software Crash Course ASAP

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Originally posted by: Ornery
...Capture DV video via firewire into RAW AVI format...

I think I need to start the topic over. We will be using an analog source to start with. My first hurdle is to get that onto the HDD.
Click to expand...
I'm a newb at the DVD burning side and even vcd burning, but I spend a heck of a lot of time editting video, so I'll give a shot at this point.

I'm not exactly sure what DV stands for, but in your case it would represent whatever you are recording onto your computer: that is vhs. It has to be recorded in some format, and if the capture device lets you choose what format to save it as, uncompressed RAW AVI would be where to start if wanting to go the long and best quality route.


BUT........after reading your thread it looks like you're just wanting something very easy to teach your dad how to do it on his own, so this would not be the route to take.
 
"I'm not exactly sure what DV stands for..."

It stands for Digital Video, which is what he doesn't have, but wants to convert to. He's got lots of VHS recordings that he wants to transfer to his PC, edit, then record on either CDs or DVDs.

I made a mistake on the wondrous deal above. Plextor is giving a $50.00 rebate for the purchase of their PX-M401U, not PX-M402U. Sounds like they're trying to get rid of the older technology. Here's links to each of the components that could make up this deal:Gotta figure out whether to buy the PX-M402U or PX-M401U...

Edit: ConvertX PX-M402U Hardware DivX Encoder
  • Last spring, Plextor made a rather bold move by introducing their ConvertX PX-M401U USB 2.0 MPEG1/2/4 encoder. This spring they have followed up with the ConvertX PX-M402U, which boasts the same features as its predecessor, and adds DivX encoding in hardware.
[/list]
 
if its worth doing, its not worth doing to vcd, the quality is just too low for the effort. from shoddy vhs quality ot even shoddier vcd. better to preserve that cr@ppy vhs as much as possible on dvd.
 
Neither of us has a DV camera. I won't have one till my Sony TRV-85 dies. It was purchased in January 1999, and has had quite an extensive workout during it's life, so how much longer can it last? My dad may spring for one someday, but no time soon.

I might be interested in the ADVC100, but I don't think he'll be ready to cough up $250.00+ for it. $240.00 AR, will buy a very capable encoder, including software, and quality DVD recorder. That may even be a hard sell, since he's probably already seen the $60.00 DVD recorders at OfficeMax.
 
Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
Originally posted by: Ornery
...Capture DV video via firewire into RAW AVI format...

I think I need to start the topic over. We will be using an analog source to start with. My first hurdle is to get that onto the HDD.
Click to expand...
I'm a newb at the DVD burning side and even vcd burning, but I spend a heck of a lot of time editting video, so I'll give a shot at this point.

I'm not exactly sure what DV stands for, but in your case it would represent whatever you are recording onto your computer: that is vhs. It has to be recorded in some format, and if the capture device lets you choose what format to save it as, uncompressed RAW AVI would be where to start if wanting to go the long and best quality route.


BUT........after reading your thread it looks like you're just wanting something very easy to teach your dad how to do it on his own, so this would not be the route to take.
Click to expand...

Uncompressed raw AVI is freeging huge . . . there are lossless codecs out there that help a ton (usually 25% reduction on clean sources) - huffyuv being the most popular.
 
Originally posted by: Ornery
"I'm not exactly sure what DV stands for..."

It stands for Digital Video, which is what he doesn't have, but wants to convert to. He's got lots of VHS recordings that he wants to transfer to his PC, edit, then record on either CDs or DVDs.

I made a mistake on the wondrous deal above. Plextor is giving a $50.00 rebate for the purchase of their PX-M401U, not PX-M402U. Sounds like they're trying to get rid of the older technology. Here's links to each of the components that could make up this deal:Gotta figure out whether to buy the PX-M402U or PX-M401U...

Edit: ConvertX PX-M402U Hardware DivX Encoder
  • Last spring, Plextor made a rather bold move by introducing their ConvertX PX-M401U USB 2.0 MPEG1/2/4 encoder. This spring they have followed up with the ConvertX PX-M402U, which boasts the same features as its predecessor, and adds DivX encoding in hardware.
[/list]
Click to expand...

Jeez . . . that's insane.
 
Originally posted by: CFster
Originally posted by: Chu
Originally posted by: CFster
This is how I do it:

1. Capture DV video via firewire into RAW AVI format (make sure you're hard drive is formatted in NTFS - FAT32 has a 2GB filesize limit, and an hour of RAW AVI is good for 20GB!).
2. Rip the audio out of the AVI into WAV format using VirtualDubMPEG
3. Convert the WAV into DVD compliant AC3 format using Ffmpeggui.
4. Calculate the proper DVD bitrate with CCEGuesser.
5. Encode the RAW AVI video into DVD compliant MPEG2 video with CinemaCraftEncoder (frameserving with AVISynth - you wouldn't believe what you can do with this baby). This will be the longest step - could take a couple of hours depending on your machine.
6. Take my MPEG2 video, AC3 audio and combine them into DVD VOB format using TMPGEnc DVD Author.
7. Burn to DVD with TMPGEnc DVD Author or any other DVD burning prog.

It's not the quickest method, but it blows away any "do-it-all" suite for results - just ask anybody over at Doom9 or DVDRHelp.

Some would argue for TMPEnc instead of CinemaCraftEncoder, but CCE gives better DVD results. TMPEnc gives better VCD or SVCD results.
Click to expand...


Umm . . . you forgot the 'editing' part - and even for a streight DV -> DVD transfer I have issues with that - you think your average newbie could follow all that? Especially CCE . . . first, unless your spending $2500 the 'light' version is no better then TMPGenc. Secondly, the user interface is wore then counterintuive - sometimes it is downright wrong (don't get me started on the field order bug . . .)

-Chu
Click to expand...

Fine, you can use TMPGenc. I use CCE SP. The difference is debatable even with the Basic edition - I see one. CCE is certainly faster. Does he want to pay $2500? Probably not. But I can tell you this - I'll bet those bazillion photoshopped images all over the web weren't created by people who spent $600 either.

Combined with AVISynth you can do just about anything. Uncheck "Upper Field First " - that takes care of the field order thing. And it's not a bug, it's a feature. Edit your video in VirtualDub, or any of a dozen other progs beforehand. Of if you want to be sloppy, edit the MPEG2 in TMPGenc on the other end.

The reason I posted was because I tried almost every program listed in the posts above and was unhappy with the results. I wasted a lot of time. If he want's a quick solution than this isn't it - I would say get an all in one package and have at it. But if he gets into it, then he's going to end up doing a lot of my steps for the best results.
Click to expand...

I really don't want to get into a debate about piracy here -- but do you really think you can do serious video editing in vdub + avisynth? Vdub is great for simple operations, temporal filtering, and frameserving -- but it is the wrong tool if you need to do serious editing. Let's say you want to do a really simple operation in premiere - you have a two video streams going split screen - and you want to have them fade out and into other video streams on audio cues. VDub + AVIsynth *COULD* do it - but they are totally outclassed.

Also, I don't use TMPGenc, and you don't either -- but we're not talking about you or me -- we're talking about someone completly new to digital media. If you think someone new to DV -- even someone with a good computer background -- could navigate CCE without shooting themselves in the foot I think you are insane, and if you want me to go further into this I can.

This is also ignoring one big fact -- the free tools are incredibly powerful -- but in the end unless your time is worthless your better off just buying tools geared towards newphytes and moving on if you so desire. We don't even know if the person is question will LIKE doing Digital Editing -- having to deal with 20 free tools just to make a DVD will totally kill the experience.

-Chu

-Chu
 
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