Help with putting home movies on DVD

[BrerVeritas]

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to convert mini-dv to DVD. I've been trying to put my WDW videos on DVD and I can't seem to get it right. I tried using an avi to DVD converter...and the sound was fine but the picture was all screwed up. Then I tried burning the dv-avi file directly to DVD and the picture was fine but the sound was running ten times slower than the video. (Which is very creepy by the way.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Do I need a special conversion software or am I missing something more simple than that?

I am using Nero to burn, Winavi to convert, and Windows movie maker to capture. Thanks.

 

[dolbyman]

How fast is your computer? If it's borderline (under 1 GHz processor speed), or you have less than 512 Meg of Ram, or you are running other programs in the background, that could be a problem.

I would turn off and/or not run any programs I could (Norton, direct CD, etc), disconnect from the internet, etc. and then try it.

I don't think this is the problem .... you could have the slowest computer around .. and still get perfect dvd movies .. cause the encoding in non realtime .. (it will only take ages)


just for info .. the dv avi on your computer ... does it play ok ?

 

[BrerVeritas]

The dv-avi plays fine on my computer...its just the dvd that doesn't work.

As far as burning goes...when I converted it first it took twenty minutes to burn...when I tried to burn the file directly it took almost ten hours...could that be why the sound was all messed up?

 

[dolbyman]

it took ages cause your dvd burn programm did the encoding first


could it be you mixed the tv standarts up ? .. maybe PAL instead of NTSC .. it would result in inconsistend audio and video

 

[BrerVeritas]

I had the PAL/NTSC on automatic detection...I guess that could have screwed it up. How can you tell which one you want?

 

[dolbyman]

well .. I guess you need NTSC .. cause is the north american TV system

did you cut your meterial .. or just burn the plain tape content to the dvd ?

if you did cut it .. be sure that your project setting is also set to ntsc

 

[BrerVeritas]

No, I didn't cut it at all. I just tried to burn a copy of the tape to DVD.

 

[dolbyman]

when you view the pre encoded *.mpeg's .. are they ok ?

 

[Robfasto]

The fastest way I have found is with a stand alone DVD Recorder which you can find for about $150.00. I was going to by a video capture device for my computer and most anything good was costing as much as the DVD Recorder. Plus you have the added bonus of be able to burn on-air broadcast like the Travel Channel Disney shows.

I personally found it much easier to do than to put on computer then burn to DVD. Once on DVD you can rip it to your computer then do anything you want to edit wise. I generally will burn to a DVD+RW, rip to the computer and edit, make a final edit DVD then erase the DVD+RW and start over.

 

[dolbyman]

quality wise a standalone wouldn't be an option for me .. (my cam got svideo out that is not nearly as good as output via firewire)

but he already has fine working avi's .. so capturing is not the problem ..

 

[Robfasto]

quality wise a standalone wouldn't be an option for me .. (my cam got svideo out that is not nearly as good as output via firewire)

but he already has fine working avi's .. so capturing is not the problem ..

Not a problem with me, my DVD Recorder has a USB port for read and copying flash cards and a firewire port for direct video connections...

 

[BrerVeritas]

Thanks for all of the help!

As of right now...I don't have the means to go buy another DVD recorder...so I have to stick with what I got.

Looking back I noticed that the captured files have no sound...on my computer. then they have the really slow sound on the dvd...or the fine sound on the converted version. But the sound must still be there since it shows up again on the DVD.

I was gonna try extracting the audio with VirtualDUb and then putting back together with TMPGen...but virtual dub won't allow me to open the file because I'm missing a decompressor...it says my codecs for WMP arent valid...and that I need VFW codecs. I don't kno where to find those...but then again I'm not even sure if this would work anyway.

 

[dolbyman]

the videos should use the mini dv codec .. or .. wait .. with what proram are you capturing ? .. cause when you are using MM they could be precompressed with wmv :dazzle: (you should capture in avi container with dv codec )

 

[BrerVeritas]

I've been capturing with movie maker...because it prompts me to automatically when i plug the camera in. I use the higher quality dv-avi capturing...are you saying I should get different capturing software?