Burning to DVD???

[Simo]

I have recently upgraded my computer and it has a DVD burner.

I am trying to put some old home movies for Mum and some laserdiscs that arent on DVD (Guns n roses concert etc) onto Dvds so that ill always have them.

How in the world do they get such high picture and sound quality on a DVD???

I know they are normally dual layered and my burner can only do a single side but i dont mind having a 2 discs for my videos/laserdiscs.

I recorded 1 hour (1 side) of my GNR concert of my laserdisc at the highest quality and it took up 80 gig!!!!

It was an AVI file and i wanted the quality to be the same as what is on the laserdisc/video.

The quality was the same but the file just MASSIVE. To lower it to 4 gig would mean drastic loss of quality.

Can anyone help me get good quality video captures onto a DVD, as it is obviously possible with DVDS we buy having the best quality sound and picture.

Thanks,
Simo

 

[IceBlaZe]

It's a pretty exhausting process.
Rendering a video file for DVD can take hours even on a fast computer.

I am assuming those home movies you meant are Camcorder, though the process is pretty similiar with using a VCR aswell.

What camcorder do you have, Digital or Analog?
If you have an Analog camcorder, you need Analog S-Video input (for best results).
When you have that sorted (you can buy an external analog input that connects to your USB for a few dozen dollars), you need to capture the video from the camcorder to the computer.
Make sure you have enough harddrive space, and a fast harddrive (7200RPM+) would sure help.

When that is sorted, you need some kind of a video editing program that will ease the job for you. The best I know of is Vegas Video 4, though some people preffer Premiere.
You can get a cheaper but good program from ULead. Can't remember it's name though, look at their website.

Use the program to capture all the videos you want from the camcorder, and render them for DVD burning. Usually the format for DVD already exists in the program, I know it does in Vegas Video, but if you have trouble finding it, use the Help feature of the program, and if needed, download a dvd compression utility from the Internet (Lot's of good guides and reference material can be found at www.dvdrhelp.com).
The compression can take literally hours. I compressed digital video to dvd format, and it took 8 hours for 1 hour of video, and I have a moderately fast computer (1.33Ghz Athlon, 512MB Ram).
Notice that you need to use that captured file to compress TWO files - one compressed video DVD file (mpeg), and one compressed audio DVD file (.ac3).
Once those files are ready, it's pretty straightforward - all you need is a dvd editing program (Sonic Foundry DVD Architect is excellent), and preparing a DVD with such a program is pretty easy - that program will convert the files to DVD files (.vob and such) before burning, and burn - and the convertion doesn't take too long.

If you need help, there are excellent guides (much better than the crap I wrote here) at www.dvdrhelp.com and never feel shy to use the help file of the program you are using - usually it contains lots of useful info.

 

[Simo]

Iceblaze,

I really appreciate your help.

I will check out the link and see what i can do.

I have a digital comcorder, the analog stuff is already on VHS cassette and i want to convert those to a DVD.

Thanks again,
Simo

 

[CornMaster]

If you intend to only use it on a computer....I'd chech out Divx or Xvid...or some derivitative there of.

But if you want to use it in a DVD player....then I can't help. But if it take up that much space....I'd consider waiting until double sided or layer disks are more standard.

 

[IceBlaZe]

It'll take time until dual layer discs are avaliable for consumer market.
I think the compression is the problem - when he'll render the file for DVD, I believe the size will be fine for a DVD or two.