Camcorder to DVD Problem using NERO

[rhodellf]

Hello to all.
I have my SONY handycam connected to my PC through the USB cable provided with the cam. I am trying to make a DVD using NERO Vision 4. The screen comes up alright I can see my video playing back in Nero Vision and I press "Record" which should be a one step process of capturing, encoding, and finaly burn to DVD.
I tried the thing twice to no luck. Both times I get a DVD which can display ONLY the menu, although the log file from NERO says that the process completed succesfully. I see my movie on the menu in both PC and both DVD players I have at home, I can see the AUDIO and VIDEO folders on the DVD within windows explorer BUT once I press the thing to play EVERYTHING FREEZES in both PC and two standalone DVD players. When I say freeze I mean FREEZE, only ejecting the DVD brings things back to normal, or else nothing works. Reminder I am burning on DVD +RW media which in all my other types of DVD authorings work just fine.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, even if that involves abandoning NERO to use something that actually works.

Thanks.

[mats.hogberg]

What kind of camera? DV?
If so, the video should be transfered to the computer using FireWire, not USB. Most cameras sends a low res version over USB - not the "real thing" your camera is capable of. I've only seen 1 camera doing DV over USB.
Don't use Nero. At all. For anything.
1) Transfer DV to PC
2) Encode to DVD specs mpg using as high bitrate as possible (while still allowing you to fit what you want on disk - with 1 hr tape/disk, this shouldn't be a limitation) preferrably 2 pass VBR, with a dedicated mpeg encoder - HCEnc, CCE - there are many encoders to choose from, both free and commercial.
3) Author with a dedicated authoring app - Again many to choose from, like TDA, DVD-Lab Pro, GuiForDVDAuthor...

/Mats

[rhodellf]

Well I have Sony that DOES have a DV output but for the lack of such a cable I just use the USB one that came with it. If that is also affecting the quality I would DEFINITELY want to know so I go get a DV cable.

[mats.hogberg]

What Sony model? If it does transfer DV over USB, I'm confident it's says so somewhere in the specs/manual. (The one I've seen was a Canon IIRC). Usually, the difference betweeen USB video and DV video from a DV cam is like between a cheap cell phone cam and a high end digital camera. The USB interface is basically there, for at the most transfer stills, shot with the video cam, to the PC.

/Mats

[rhodellf]

My Sony is a bit older model. SONY Digital 8 Digital Handycam which has both the Sony USB output and a DV output (plus an Audio/Video 1/4" and an S-Video in/out).

Anyway thanks for you info. From what I am gathering here I might very well be using the wrong application altogether for the job. That Nero stuff I didn't think highly about at least as far as DVD goes.

Thanks.