Anyone here copy their miniDV movies from vidcam to DVD ?

[logopro]

Hi all,

I have a JVC MinDV video camera and shoot a lot of home movies, I wish to know if I can take that video and put it to a DVD disc if I have recorded to the MiniDV tape in LP mode (which equals 90 minutes )

DVD discs say they hold 120 minutes, does this mean 120 minutes of true DVD quality video ? or is this at a lower bitrate ?

Thanks in advance,

Mark.

[racer-x]

I wouldn't recomend recording in LP mode(90min). I only use standard mode (60min), but some tapes will give you 80min. LP will give you less quality right off the bat and tapes are cheep. I got a ten-pack of Sony 60min Mini DV tapes for $31.99 US @ ecost.com.

Yes you can transfer video to DVD. The quality and amount of video you can fit will vary with the bitrate you encode the MPG-2 file.

This is what I do for High Quality DVD:
* Record DV-cam with 16 bit audio mode for best audio @ 4800 MHZ.
* Capture DV and edit as DV-AVI
* Encode to DVD-spec MPG-2 with CBR @ 8000 kbps.
* Author DVD.

If you use these setting with PCM audio, you'll get about an hour of excellent quality video. If you use mpg or ac3 audio, you'll get about 1hr 20min.
If you lower the bitrate or use VBR you can get more video but less quality.

[Jeff Muller]

Also, what's implied by racer-x's post is that one doesn't typically put the ENTIRE tape onto DVD. An hour's worth of tape can usually get edited down to 20-40 minutes. Likewise, your 90 minutes could probably easily get edited down to fit on a single DVD. The point is that when filming you get a lot of junk, like 10 minutes of trying to get all the kids in the frame at once, without any of them (or you) crying

If You haven't done any of the editing before, you just need a program the automatically breaks up the clips into sections (when you started and stopped recording), and then just trim the front and back of each mini-clip to get the "meaty" part. Then, you can optionally add in transitions.

Hope this helps.

[Pejay]

Try Pinnacle Studio 8 for editing & conversion to DVD Mpeg2.
Then use DVD MovieFactory for authoring to DVD as Studio 8 is a bit flaky for authoring.

[logopro]

Hi Guys !

Thanks much for the info, much appreciated.

A friend of mine just bought the newest Sony burner ( model: DRU-510A)

Anyway he also sent me some images of Sony brand DVD discs, and on the box it says "120 minutes"

Are manufactures being a little deceiving when saying this ? .... from what I have learned from you guys is that a single DVD disc CANNOT record 120 minutes ( 2 full hours) of true DVD quality video.

I'm mixed up maybe, but 120 minutes to me means 120 minutes of DVD video hmm.... help

[i_am_dave]

logopro,

Time is relative. With a small amount of work, you can easily fit 120 minutes of DVD quality onto a single disk. I have gone as high as 4.5 hours, but that required a reduction in the quality.

There are many good guides and tutorials on this website. I invite you to read them.

[Xesdeeni]

I wouldn't recomend recording in LP mode(90min). I only use standard mode (60min), but some tapes will give you 80min. LP will give you less quality right off the bat...

That's not exactly true. LP mode merely slows the tape speed down. The data going to the tape is exactly the same. The only quality degradation introduced is the higher probability of bit errors. Each bit takes up less space on the tape, so there is more prabability of a tape drop-out or other problem losing the bit. But with high quality tapes and care, the quality will be the same, especially in the short term.

However, tape degrades over time, and the degradation on LP tapes affects more bits quicker, so this isn't really a good archival format. Also, there are incompatibilities between miniDV devices when using LP mode.

Xesdeeni