.M2TS to DVD

[TunkaFrankie]

OK...I had an older video camera and made home movie dvd's all the time (AVI/MPEG format). Now I have upgraded to a SONY HDR-XR160 video camera, which I love, and at best quality, HD, records video as .M2TS (AVCHD video)...which is new to me. I can still use my Pinnacle Studio 14 HD Ultimate collection to author a DVD, with menus and all (which is what I want), and make a DVD from it. However, when I play my DVD, it freezes after about 62 minutes.

As far as settings go,
- my burner is a DVD RW drive (ATAPI DVD A DH 16AASH SA15)
- in studio 14, I use the disc type "DVD", because of my burner drive and the DVD+R discs that I use
- in studio 14, I use the video quality "automatic", which will put all 105 minutes onto my DVD although it's quality is at 62% because of the original file format .m2ts

It will burn completely with sucess, but again, after about 62 minutes, the DVD freezes, and no further video can be seen on the DVD.

I KNOW THERE IS SOME ISSUES WITH PUTTING HD VIDEO ON A REGULAR DVD+R DISC, BUT...do I need to use a HD DVD? Do I need to convert the original movie files? I would like to keep the HD quality if possible. I don't want to buy a new DVD burning drive. Just took a trip to Disney, Animal Kingdom was great in HD. I am not a beginner when it comes to making DVDs, however I am new to authoring/creating DVDs with the .M2TS file format. The camera does film at a standard definition (STD) quality, but one of the reasons I purchased this camera is for the high definition (HD) format.

Any help (the less complicated, the better) would be appreciated...thanks!

[Ai Haibara]

If you want to create a proper DVD-Video disc, that will play in a normal DVD player, you're limited to SD resolutions (generally up to 720x576 for PAL video, or 720x480 for NTSC video; see What is DVD? - VideoHelp.com for more details), and your authoring software may either not allow anything higher, or automatically(?) convert it to SD resolutions. Even a DivX/Xvid-capable DVD player will usually only allow video up to those resolutions, even if the player upconverts.

It is possible to create a Blu-Ray structure on a DVD disc, or AVCHD, but keep in mind those will not play on a normal DVD player.

[rwmol]

Hi TunkaFrankie.

I purchased the same video camera a while back and have been tinkering with it quite a bit.

First, I would continue recording in HD providing you have a large drive for storage. You can convert the HD videos to Mpeg2 by opening the PMB software, clicking on the Manipulate tab, choose Convert. This will create another file in Mpeg2 to burn to your DVD-R media. In time, you may want to purchase a BluRay player and burner. You will have the HD files to make those DVD's.

I wanted to create more complex DVDs with menus and effects. I broke down and purchased TMPGEnc Authoring Works. Really like it a lot. You can create DVDs in BluRay, Mpeg2 and DivX.

[TunkaFrankie]

Yeah...thanks guys. My main goal is to keep all the video and play it on my DVD player (and make copies for family...all of which may not have BluRay players). My DVD player is not BluRay. I will eventually splurge on it. So, thanks, rwmol, I will convert the video and make a regular DVD from the Mpeg2 files. My Pinnacle Studio 14 HD Ultimate software can make Blu-Ray DVDs...so, I will go there eventually! But for now, I got all the info I needed...thanks guys...I love this forum.

[TunkaFrankie]

by the way, rwmol, I looked at PMB prior to posting here, and I looked at all of the short-cut buttons on the top center, and did not even think to look at the file menus where manipulate was located. I have 91 short, HD files to convert, they range anywhere from 30 seconds to 4 minutes (total of 105 minutes all together); I'll have to let you know how long it took me to convert them to high quality MPEG2.