Burning home movies to DVD? What quality? (1 Viewer)

[CRyan]

At what quality should I render my home video when I am done before burning?

I am currently using Windows Movie Maker 2 (not a bad prog) and decided to use the bes it can do. 720x480 NTSC 2.1Mbps. I both copied and rendered at that quality. Is this too much?

I will be using MYDVD by Sonic to burn to DVD which I assum will take the WMV file and transfer it to MPEG-2 for burning?

The questions...

Is this quality higher than the DVD will use and thus I am wasting my time rendering such a huge file when it will not even be utilized for DVD.


Thanks for any help,

C. Ryan

 

[Ken Chan]

2.1 Mbps (megabits) is way too low for full-res 720x480 MPEG-2. Typical bitrate might be about 6Mbps. Movie Maker might be using the WM9 codec -- dunno what the typical bitrates are for that, except that they would be lower.

 

[CRyan]

Yeah, that is what I was actually wondering. I have no idea either, but this is the highest qaulity Movie Maker can copy and render at.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

I'm pretty sure movie maker is WMV, but I could be wrong.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

What format was your home movie in originally? If it was shot with a DV camera, you should use a program such as WinDV to make an exact copy of the video to your hard drive.

 

[CRyan]

Yeah, I am trying what was to me the easiest solution - this is for my sister. She needs quick and easy. If I start pointing out 6 different programs with 10 different steps, she will never do it.

It is from DV tape btw,

Thanks,

C. Ryan

 

[CRyan]

Yeah, I am trying what was to me the easiest solution - this is for my sister. She needs quick and easy. If I start pointing out 6 different programs with 10 different steps, she will never do it.

It is from DV tape btw,

Thanks,

C. Ryan

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Then WinDV would be the best way to transfer the video from the camera to the hard drive. (They will be saved as AVI files.) If she doesn't need to add titles or effects or anything, then the AVI files can be encoded to MPEG-2 without using Windows Movie Maker at all.

For basic editing (such as trimming out boreing parts), I would recommend VirtualDub.

(Both VirtualDub and WinDV are free, BTW.)

If she needs to use Windows Movie Maker to add titles or anything, then I think Movie Maker can also save files in DV AVI format.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Then WinDV would be the best way to transfer the video from the camera to the hard drive. (They will be saved as AVI files.) If she doesn't need to add titles or effects or anything, then the AVI files can be encoded to MPEG-2 without using Windows Movie Maker at all.

For basic editing (such as trimming out boreing parts), I would recommend VirtualDub.

(Both VirtualDub and WinDV are free, BTW.)

If she needs to use Windows Movie Maker to add titles or anything, then I think Movie Maker can also save files in DV AVI format.

 

[Ken Chan]

There are programs that will do the entire process: capture from DV, do a little authoring, transcode, and burn the DVD. You just need a FireWire port and a DVD burner. I don't use any of them, so I can't make any recommendations, but for example: MyDVD, Ulead DVD Movie Factory, Roxio Easy Media Creator, Nero 6.

 

[Ken Chan]

There are programs that will do the entire process: capture from DV, do a little authoring, transcode, and burn the DVD. You just need a FireWire port and a DVD burner. I don't use any of them, so I can't make any recommendations, but for example: MyDVD, Ulead DVD Movie Factory, Roxio Easy Media Creator, Nero 6.

 

[Ted Lee]

i like pinnacle studio. i'm using v8, but there's a newer one. it's totally simple to use and works quite well.

for making dvd's, there's some setting called "best video" -- which i assume is the best i can get for dvd.

 

[Ted Lee]

i like pinnacle studio. i'm using v8, but there's a newer one. it's totally simple to use and works quite well.

for making dvd's, there's some setting called "best video" -- which i assume is the best i can get for dvd.

 

[CRyan]

Thank you for the responses. I am actually using MyDVD for the DVD burning part. I guess now I am looking at streamlining this.

Right now I am going through three VERY long rendering processes. One to capture; One to save as .wmv; One to convert to Mpeg2 during the burning process.

I mean this is a dedicated machine running at 2.5ghz with 1g ram and a dedicated SATA hard drive for video. This is all just taking much longer than I estimated.

Any help on cutting the number of renderings down?


Thanks again,

C. Ryan

 

[CRyan]

Thank you for the responses. I am actually using MyDVD for the DVD burning part. I guess now I am looking at streamlining this.

Right now I am going through three VERY long rendering processes. One to capture; One to save as .wmv; One to convert to Mpeg2 during the burning process.

I mean this is a dedicated machine running at 2.5ghz with 1g ram and a dedicated SATA hard drive for video. This is all just taking much longer than I estimated.

Any help on cutting the number of renderings down?


Thanks again,

C. Ryan

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Don't go from DV to WMV. GO straight to mpeg2

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Don't go from DV to WMV. GO straight to mpeg2

 

[CRyan]

Sounds good. What program do you suggest for this? Also, what program can edit add transition etc to MPEG2 files without having to rencode to another file format?


Thanks...

 

[CRyan]

Sounds good. What program do you suggest for this? Also, what program can edit add transition etc to MPEG2 files without having to rencode to another file format?


Thanks...

 

[Stephen Orr]

I capture DV in Windows Movie Maker ALL the time for video production for my church and some school productions. It will let you save in DV/AVI format. After editing, I just pull the .avi file into Ulead or Nero or Roxio, and create my DVDs and VCDs from there.