Hi,
I have just got myself a Canon MV750I Mini DV cam and have filled up a 60 min tape with some video, but i need to know how i can get it onto DVD via my PC.

Which is the best/easiest software to do this.
If i capture the whole 60 mins it equates to a 15GB file, i know DV is better quality than DVD so that is why u have to compress it to MPEG-2.

Which software will do this on the fly, so i dont end up with the 15 GB file just the MPEG so i can then author it onto DVD later.

Im guessing the resultant MPEG-2 file wont be of the same quality as the raw DV (.avi) file, is there much noticable difference in the picture quality when it is played back on a tv.

Any help/advice is much appreciated
Thanx

try tmpegen 2.5 or higher to encode DV => DVD
if u wanna a better quality, try canopus pro encoder

You do not want to do it on the fly.
For the best quality, pull the video off of your camera and edit to your liking, then compress to MPEG2 with your choice of encoder. There will be very little lose of quality. miniDV is not that great to begin with.
My process is DV to computer via Premiere, edit in Premiere, then frameserve from Premiere to Canopus Procoder. Expect several hours waiting for the MPEG2 video.... but that is why you do not want to encode on the fly.

Ah ok thanx, so i dont wanna be doing it on the fly then. I thought it would be better if the DV was first put on to the HDD. I have Premiere so that sounds like a good place to start.
Where can i get Canopus Procoder from ?? and is it much better than TMPEGenc ?
Will i get the whole 60mins onto one 4.7GB DVD ? after encoding

Thanx

For what you are doing, TMPGEnc will do just as well as ProCoder. (www.canopus.com). Procoder is a little faster and has more options, but for the avg. user TMPGEnc will do.
You can fit 60 minutes on a DVD if you are using AC3 or MPG audio and have your video bitrate set around 7200. Most DVD players expect at least a AC3 track, so if you author your DVD with wav or MPG audio, your player may not play the audio track.

A good option about that is recompressing the PCM or MP2 track to AC3 2.0 using any program to do that. A good choice is Sonic Foundry SoftEncode 5.1, nice, quick, easy to use software to generate AC3 audio tracks. I don't know anything else... try DVDBox [ http://dvd.box.sk ] in Audio Tools section for AC3 encoders. Then you'll have to multiplex the AC3 with the Mpeg2 M2V file... that's a little bit more complicated... but I think (i don't really know if) last version of TMPGEnc does it... correct me if i'm wrong...

Bye Everyone

Mech

Sorry about my awful english... it's not my mother tongue... i'm from Argentina

The Answer is NO. Althoug MPEG is a lossy format, just like DV (find out if you don't believe me ), the results of the Compressed DVD-Quality MPEG video will only be noticeable if you watch the movie in your PC, or in a High-Definition TFT or Plasma TV Set (and I have to say i'm not quite sure it happens).
This is because ol' CRT TV Sets have much less final screen resolution. Dot Pitch in CRT TV's is much higher than in CRT PC Monitors, and even higher comparing it with TFT or Plasma TV's or PC Monitors.

Try with a DVD-RW or +RW before recording the video in a DVD-R or +R so you can notice the "differences" (if they exist) between RAW DV from your camera and Compressed DVD format from your Consumer DVD Player.

Greetingz from Argentina

MechBear

Thx man, some really usefull information there. I was hoping the DVD (MPEG2) would be of watchable quality and not really bad. It sounds like i will be ok.

I just have to work out the best method of going about it

OK...Got a similar issue. When taking my 60 mins worth of DV video and compressing (MPEG2) to a DVD....The image quality is lacking. I'm using Dell Movie Studio for the capture/compression/burning. Can it be that the software is to blame for the poor quality?

However, when playing directly from the camera to the TV...the image is great.

To recap: I see a degradation when burn the .avi directly to the dvd...and even more degradation when burning the .mpg to the dvd. I bought the digital video for higher quality....and here I am watching crappy quality on the dvd...

You think its software(quality) related?

Mike.

If maximum quality is what your after, capture the DV avi to your harddrive, then use DVD2SVCD using CCE as the encoder. It will automatically adjust the bitrate to the max to fit to a dvdr and convert the audio to mp2 format. Do 2 or 3 pass or best option is to use the D2SRoBa pluggin. Check out the tutorial section (the DVD to DVDR Tute) on how to set it up.

Playing with Mickey Mouse programs like Dell Movie Studio will always give you average results. Okay for the capturing but dont let it do any conversions.

Rather than start a new topic, I thought I would continue this one.

I have been fighting with getting my MinDV Video tapes to DVD. NO SUCCESS!

I have spent literally HOURS and HOURS and Days and the last two weeks trying different methods and nothing works or gives me the quality that is expected.

I am sick of reading tutorials that lead you down a long winding never ending road and I'm tired of downloading this codec or that codec or this software or that software and they never work as expected or they are too compicated to understand.

So after all that, I have searched and found this forum.
I'm hoping there is SOMEONE that has had an experience with taking MinDV to DVD and had success and gotten good results.

Plese, for the love of all that is holy..will someone PLEASE explain to me the best method of taking MiniDV video from your Camocorder to DVD's?
I'm about ready to trash my friggin camcorder now that I have over 20 tapes that are virtually useless to view...

If there is no "easy" way to do this that produces quality results, then I may be forced to take my piece of crap MiniDV camcorder back to Best Buy and shove it up their butts. I'm going crazy here and I am very frustrated...I think my wife is about to leave me and my dog keeps biting me!

OMG I need help!

all the best,
mike

i just hooked my sony camcorder upto my tvcard Wintv2000 (i know its old) but works excellent, and just hit the record button, thats all i do, all thats connected is the video & audio leads, i goto windows movie maker and after a bit of selecting start/finnish times (sometimes i untick this and let it run until end of tape, then just save it as an mpg and burn it to dvd, thats my way, crap i know but i aint lost no quality yet doin it

The method I use is:
Sony HC1000 MiniDV to Philips DVD Recorder (DV in connection) onto a DVD+RW.
DVD+RW into PC, MPeg Video Wizard (Editing & Overdubbing).
Then import edited Mpeg into ULead Workshop 2 for Menu & Chapter construction.
Quality is very satisfactory.

Quick Question:
I'm copying by MiniDv to PC for the first time, and the directions say to place the camcorder in play mode. Then the software *plays* the tape and records it.
Is this the only way to get the video onto the PC? i.e. Real Time?


Thanks,

Tom C.

It will take an hour for you tape to transfer to computer.

NBK