DV Tape to DVD - How to?

dg1973

hi
I'm guessing this has been asked before and I should really have read a FAQ somewhere.
I own a Handycam which uses miniDV tapes.

I would like to transfer what’s recorded from tape to DVD.
I would also like to edit before finalising.

So far, I can create AVIs (with the Sony software, Picture Package) or WMVs using MS Movie Maker.
Both aren’t great. Can someone suggest some better software that isn’t too difficult to master?

Also, the quality seems to diminish going to AVI / WMV, probably due to compression?
Can the quality of the original be maintained when moving to DVD?

Thanks in advance
Chris

meep

Hi There

While I use FinalCutStudio on a mac for all my editing and DVD creation, there are some egneral principles;

You are on the right track in attempting to use software to edit your material. The general process is;

1. Review your tapes and log the shots you want to keep
2. Ingest these shots from tape to the editing software
3. Edit
4. Output to MPEG format for DVD

In general, you want to copy only the shots you want to use from tape into your computer. You will take a little more than you need to allow for edit decisions. Don't take everything as what's the point in storing video on your hard drive that you will not be using.

Your video material is in DV format. This is a standard format and all editing packages will happily work in this format. You don't want to be transcoding your video to another format (avi etc.) before burning to DVD. DVDs require the video to be converted to MPEG2 format. This conversion requires a degree of compression which removes some information from your vide file to allow it fit on a DVD. You have control over the amount of information removed by setting the data rate and some ofther parameters of final video.

However, if you first transcode your DV format material to something else, you are more than likely to be compressing and therefore removing some information. When you then come to convert to MPEG, you are compressing already compressed material and removing more information. You can see how this can quickly accumulate to seriously degrade your picture!

Really you want to stay in the origination format as much as possible.

Your editing package should really have a way of exporting your DV timeline to DVD ready MPEGs or even burning directly to DVD from within the package.

As stated, I don't use windows for editing and I'm sure there are many options. However, I know a lot of semi-pros seem to use Sony Vegas which is available in a range of strengths: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/vegasfamily.asp

It might be a good idea to start there. I'm sure others will chime in with other recommendations.

I hope that helps somewhat.

Peter

dg1973

Thanks Peter for the detailed response.

Yes, I do want to copy directly to DVD with minimal / no compression.
As mentioned the Sony software that was shipped with the camera is poor and I cannot do what I require.

If anyone out there knows a half decent, and possibly free, editing software app for Windows, let me know.
Ta.

okee

I fell in love with Corel Videostudio myself, it's just so simple to use
yet very powerful, it's a consumer level editor but i've tried a few other
of packages and videostudio beats them all with it's intuitive interface.

Videostudio

dg1973

OK, I have installed Sony Vegas 9 and have made some progress.

I still think there is something that I'm not doing right as the quality from the inital capture is poor and the lip sync with the voice is off.

Heres what I'm doing:
1. I hit play on the Handycam and select Capture in Vegas.
2. Vegas automatically saves it as uncompressed AVI, making a 60min tape 4GB of AVI.
3. I can then select Make Movie option and covert to MPEG which compresses.

In step 2, I cannot seem to change the format from AVI and I get poor results.

Could it be a driver issue?
Does it sound like I'm doing everything correct?

Thanks again in advance.