iv searched and cant find the answers .. so am hoping and would appreciate any assistance
i have some old movies on digital 8 as well as vcr that id like to edit and put onto DVD..
what id like to know is which way would give me the best results..?
i have tried putting them onto my computer via my DVB-T300 capture card in avi format then editing them with movie maker then burning them to DVD via nero.. but im not real happy with the results, as the frame rate wasn't the best ..

what i am wondering - would i get better results if i copied my digital 8 & VCR tapes straight to DVD-RW on my standalone DVD recorder (RH7521W) ..then transfer it to DivX on my computer so that i can edit the movies before converting them back to DVD for burning to disc??

i know there must be an easier way to do all this, but i have no idea how..

i would really appreciate some advice

If you want to edit, saving as avi or dv-avi is best. Use and editing/authoring program that allows you to set frame rate. Figure about 1 1/2 hrs of avi to dvd for good quality.

thanks for your input harley2ride
are you saying to copy the dig8, VCR with my standalone DVD recorder first then put it on my computer and transcode it to avi to edit ..... then back to DVD??

Ultimately, it depends on what you are really trying to do.

If all you want to do is chop bits out for example, I would simply copy to dvd via your recorder, rip the dvd to your PC and then use something like DVD Shrink to cut out the unwanted bits.

With this approach you don't really have to worry about frame rates, picture resolution etc. as you recorder will only have a limited set of recording e.g. 1,2,4 hour modes. For most people 2 hour mode is normally good enough.

What you must undertand is that the files copied from the recorder are in mpg (DVD) format and are in a compressued format.

If you want to do more sophistcated editting e.g. changing colours/hues, adding extra graphics etc. you might want to edit an uncompressed recording (AVI) file. Here recording via a PC could be a better option as you woukld have more control.

Bear in mind that videotapes are generally only at a resolution equivalent to a 4 hr DVD recording. Recording in AVI format is probably pointless. I cannot say for sure re. digital 8 format from a camcorder but I suspect it cannot be better quality than 2 hr DVD mode.

To summarise - there is generally little point in re-recording at a higher resolution than the original source. Thus simply recording to a DVD recorder direct will suffice in most cases.

PS - most dvd recorders will not copy macrovision protected videotapes but many PC cards do not seem to care.

Thanks Oilman
yes i do want to do a little more editing than just cutting out bits, some of the movies are a bit dark and some need some adjustment to colour...
they are all movies recorded with my sony video cam so macrovision wont be a problem.
In my original post i said
i have tried putting them onto my computer via my DVB-T300 capture card in avi format then editing them with movie maker then burning them to DVD via nero.. but im not real happy with the results, as the frame rate wasn't the best.

so thought by recording via my DVD recorder first may be the best way
maybe i just need to adjust me default settings when recording via my capture card to get the best results hey

thanks again for your help its much appreciated

For the type and amount of editing you will be doing, I would capture to pc via dv-avi format, edit, and encode with a good (not NERO), authoring/encoding software. NERO transcodes. You want to encode. TMPGENC, Adobe Premiere Elements, Sony Movie Studio, even Ulead Studio all do better encoding than NERO. Better yet are Adobe Encode, DVD Architect, DVD Lab PRO, DVD Workshop, etc... Also using good quality media can make a difference on you final project. Make sure you adjust your bitrate or quality setting for either GOOD quality, or 8000bits if adjusting manually.