Making a DVD from my DV digital camcorder Help (1 Viewer)

[Eric Stuckey]

I am trying to make a DVD from Celebration III( Star Wars),
I am capturing it using Windows Movie Maker and using a fire wire cable.When I start the "Converting file' part it has twice taken me 26 hrs to make the DVD and the picture qty is horrible. I tryed it once at 720X480 and then again at 480X320 ( I think ). The only other way I can think of to pick up the pase is record it using my capture device that feds via s-video from the camera into a USB output to the PC.But doesn't that defeat the purpose of Digital? Any thoughts?

 

[Ken Chan]

You definitely want 720x480. The main variable is the bitrate, i.e. how much compression to apply. A good ballpark figure is 6Mbit/s for the video. With uncompressed audio, on a single-layer DVD, you can fit about 80 minutes. If you're trying to fit (for example) four hours on one disc, the quality will definitely be lousy.

If you compress the audio into Dolby Digital, you will get more time, about 100 minutes.

The quality of the encoder is another variable. From what I can tell, Windows Movie Maker doesn't actually make DVDs. What are you using? MyDVD?

 

[Eric Stuckey]

Right,I'm using Unlead video studio to do the actual burn.I just cant figure out why it takes 26 hrs to "Convert video"?
I also tryed using Nero and only took 12 hrs bun when it begain to burn said "Software error" please try again.:frowning:

 

[Seth--L]

So it takes 26 hours to do the MPEG 2 encoding? Is this a time estimate, or have you let it go for all 26 hours? Are you doing a CBR, VBR, 2 Pass VBR? Are you running any programs in the background/using your computer while encoding?

For $50, consider picking up ProCoder Express. It encodes at about .30x real time, but the quality is excellent. It also can create windows medial files, quick time, real time, etc.

 

[Eric Stuckey]

Yes it takes real time of 26 or so Hrs.I have no clue if its " CBR, VBR, 2 Pass VBR? ". I am not running anything in the back ground,Even tuned of the screen saver.
If I use the fire wire cable to capture,the only program I can use without a video "preview" is WMM.When I use the others that have a preview window ,the video is all choppy.
Eric

 

[Seth--L]

Ok, I'm confused here.

Is it taking 26 hours to capture your footage, or encode to MPEG 2?

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

For capturing from your DV camera, try using WinDV. Even though it is free, it is the best DV capturing program I have used.

TMPEG is good for MPEG encoding, and DVDLab is a good DVD authoring program.

What are the specs of your computer, and how long is the video that takes 26 hours to encode?

 

[Eric Stuckey]

" What are the specs of your computer, and how long is the video that takes 26 hours to encode? " To encode is taking 26 hrs.

I have a Dell Dim 4400 with:
512 Ram
1.3 GH Pross
120GB HD
Ill try the two program's.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Jeff is asking for the duration of the video being encoded, not the encoding time. Is it a 2-hour video, a 1-hour video?

 

[Eric Stuckey]

O Sorry,Its total running time of 1 hr 48 min.

 

[Seth--L]

And you don't know if you're doing a CBR or 2 pass VBR encode?

download the trail version of Craft Cinema Encoder and see how long the encode time is.

 

[Eric Stuckey]

Ok,that download is to advance for me to understand what to do.
I used the WINDV to encode it and it broke it up into 12 WMP files.I tryed to create a disk using old trusty Unlead VS and it says I have no memory left to do it. I have a 120GB HD and last I checked it was only about 40% full.
I tryed using Nero,but it crashes every time I launch the DVD builder app. I'm pulling my hair out!!!!

 

[Seth--L]

If you follow the link, it brings you here:

http://www.visiblelight.com/mall/productview.aspx?pid=7

You'll need to create an account to download the trail version.

 

[Patrick Sun]

If you're going to process video files, you going to need a lot of temp working space, and 120GB will go quick if you work on more an one project at a time.

If you use WinDV just to get the AVI file (using HuffyUV codec for lossless capturing) from the camera's firewire feed, a 2 hour video AVI file could be 27GB and higher.

If I want to crunch up the AVI into a MPEG-2 file for DVD processing, I use TMPGenc 2.5x, and depending on 2-pass high quality VBR or CBR encoding (and filtering), the process can take 3-20 hours.

I don't use the other packages because they don't allow me to flexibility in my current processing to control how the AVI file gets pushed through the encoding process.

 

[Seth--L]

huh? What can TMPG do that other programs cannot?

Why are you even fooling around with AVI files? Export everything out of your editing program as a Quick Time Ref.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I just like the interface, plus I also use VirtualDub to do frameserving if I want to use filters. The other packages try to hide stuff behind the interface to make it "easier" for casual users. No doubt there are plenty of ways to process and crunch video information into a MPEG-2 format, you just have to find the tools that work the way your mind works so you can keep track of the video and audio portions, which then gets used in the authoring process later. Again, some programs do all that stuff in the background in a "1-touch" solution, but I want a little more control over the process.

 

[Seth--L]

CCE is in no ways a "1-touch" program. ProCoder Express does hide settings, but if you just click "advanced," then you get everything.

 

[Ken Chan]

If Nero can do it in 12, maybe Ulead's encoder is just slow, but 26 hours is actually not totally out of range. Anyway, after all that time, you want it to look good. I would suggest quickly chopping down the video to 5 or 10 minutes, with a good representative mix of your scenes. 10 minutes will certainly fit on the disc at maximum bitrate, and take "only" a few hours to encode. If that doesn't look good, then there's clearly something wrong the the encoder or its settings.

Which version are you using? Looking at the version 9 manual, the default (from the screenshots) is Variable bitrate (that VBR Seth mentioned), at 8000Kbit/s. (There's also a checkbox somewhere for two-pass encoding, as seen on page 178.) You definitely can't fit all your video on one disc at that rate, so I wonder what it does in that case.

By the way, are you checking the results of the burn on a regular TV, or the computer? A TV is better; what looks bad on a computer might look perfectly fine on a TV, depending on exactly how it looks bad, and that bad might even be "correct".

 

[Scott Merryfield]

ULead should not be that slow in its encoding process. I have made DVD's using that software, and the mpeg encoding process takes about 2-3 hours for a 1.25 hour MiniDV video. I have a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 w/ 512MB RAM and do all my capturing and editing on a 250GB external USB 2.0 hard drive. As Patrick said, capturing, editing and encoding can take up a lot of disk space, so using a separate drive can be helpful.

 

[Eric Stuckey]

I will try it again today. IS there a update for Unlead somewhere? Why would it take me so long to encode If its not sapost to?
Thanks for all the help guy's.