Good, reasonably priced real-time burning solution?

[cameramonkey]

I was looking into one of the new set-top boxes to dump my DV footage directly to DVD with no loss of quality. But I really dont feel like coughing up an additional $500-700.

I already have an external Firewire DVD+/-R drive on order for another (non video) project, and would like to find a reasonably priced solution to take the video output in real time and burn it directly to a DVD.

I am looking for an external usb2 or firewire solution to plug into a P4M2.6 laptop. Processor speed shouldnt be an issue.

I saw the pinnacle usb solution, but have heard that high motion video doesnt work very well as the encoder cant seem to keep up. I am shooting sports videos, so that wont work, and 90% is high motion.

Anyone know of a solution that works well with high motion video? I dont need titles, menus, etc. I just want to push play, record, and wait for it to dump.

TIA

[jdizzy40]

What ever you decide I would recommend staying away from any USB device. Usually only the software that ships with the device will recognize it. Paints you into a corner if you have problems. Firewire is the way to go, recognized by many of the leading or most talked about authoring programs. As far as your high speed stuff. I like to chase storms and tornadoes (yes I know stupid) at times and shoot video moving at up to 80 miles an hour and have not had any problems dumping it into an authoring program thru firewire. Maybe I'm missing your point, but if you can capture it on your camcorder, you can capture transfer it to your PC with no loss of quality AVI, MPEG-2, WMA etc.

[bugster]

It is NOT possible to convert DV to DVD with no loss of quality. Waht you really mean is with minimal loss of quality.

DV and DVD use different compression systems and DVD has a much lower bitrate. DV is about 25Mbs, DVD is max 9.8Mbs.

Using a set top recorder leaves you at the mercy of its built in encoder and limited settings, even if you get one with a firewire input to avoid the digital to analog to digital conversion you would get otherwise.

Certainly the most flexible approach would be a PC with firewire and a DVD burner. However, this method will be much slower and entail a fair amount of learning about the conversion/authoring/burning process and requires a decent spec PC if you don't want to spend days waiting for things to encode.

I am not aware of a PC solution that will capture firewire DV, encode to mpeg-2 and burn to DVD in realtime. probably the best you could manage is capture/encode in realtime with a seperate author burn process. This still won't give the best quality output or the most flexible either.

Hope this helps

[Rickster]

There is one program I know of that I use from time to time that might work for you, although you still have to capture to your hard drive. The program is called NeoDVD Plus, by Mediostream (www.mediostream.com). If you have a minimum 2Ghz CPU and minimum 500mb RAM, the sofware will convert the .avi file to MPEG2 on-the-fly. The program will then let you create a menu system with their proprietary menu system (that's the one thing I don't like about this program), and let you burn the final production onto DVD with the included DVD burner software. Takes me maybe an hour from the time I start capture till the time when I have a finished DVD. I don't use this program very often, because I like to be creative when it comes to menu design, but it's good for fast runs when the client doesn't care what the menu looks like, and is looking for speed over quality. Might work for you, though.

[jdizzy40]

There are a couple of programs that I use to capture directly to DVD using my sony DV recorder. One is EZ CD Creator 6. If you don't want all those menus and stuff. I know what people say about Roxio but they put out a decent piece of software this time. Also on 18 JUl, Nero will be releasing Nero 6 which is suppose to, if I recall do the same thing. Check them out. There's one other program, but it's too early for me to remember.

[cameramonkey]

Thanks so far for everyone's suggestions.

To make sure I am clear on what I am looking for...

I want a solution more cost effective, yet equally as good as a set-top box for transferring DV directly to DVD in real time with no (other than inherent mpeg2) loss of quality (and $300 or less).

I want to be able todo this in real time, just like a vcr. I want to be able to press play on the cam, record on the software, wait 8 mins (plus finalize,etc) for an 8 minute movie, then hand it to the customer.

Due to the nature of the operation, capturing to the hard drive, then transferring AGAIN to the DVDR isnt an option. It must be real-time direct to the DVDR. We are dealing with customers hopped up on adrenaline from their first tandem skydive, and getting them to sit still for the 45 mins it takes to edit the final product and dump it to VHS is hard enough. We cant add another 45 mins to an hour to the process. Besides, I have more jumps to film.

Who knows, maybe the only option for what I want is a set top box with firewire. That is an acceptable answer. Not the one I want, but sometimes "you just cant get there from here."

[TBoneit]

And in general, Laptop drives are smaller and slower than desktop drives... And of course with only one drive that slows performance too.

If you are thinking of doing this while on battery remember that the CPU is usually slowed down on battery to extend battery life. Unless using a desktop CPU Some clone laptops such as Fosa use not brand name laptops... Then battery life will be low anyway.

Desktop = Versatile & Expandable
Laptop = Not very upgradable or versitile

Cheers

[joepic]

I want to be able todo this in real time, just like a vcr. I want to be able to press play on the cam, record on the software, wait 8 mins (plus finalize,etc) for an 8 minute movie, then hand it to the customer.

Due to the nature of the operation, capturing to the hard drive, then transferring AGAIN to the DVDR isnt an option. It must be real-time direct to the DVDR.

That is an acceptable answer. Not the one I want, but sometimes "you just cant get there from here."

Due to the nature of the DVD structure I don't believe it is possible to record from cam to DVD without first going to the hard drive.

As suggested, neoDVDplus 5.0 with neoDIRECT for $50 looks like a nice 1 step process for anyone wanting a simply approach.

http://www.mediostream.com/neodvd/index.html

[ktnwin]

Here is a very cheap total solution: use the AverDVD card/software combo (neoDVD software included). Cost is about 40$ at CompUSA.
It's fast, near real time capture and burning to DVD-R if you have PC at least as fast as 1.2GHz.

[cameramonkey]

Here is a very cheap total solution: use the AverDVD card/software combo (neoDVD software included). Cost is about 40$ at CompUSA.
It's fast, near real time capture and burning to DVD-R if you have PC at least as fast as 1.2GHz.

thanks for the idea, but read the original posts more carefully. its for a laptop, so its gotta be usb or firewire.

[Specialist]

I am looking for an external usb2 or firewire solution to plug into a P4M2.6 laptop. Processor speed shouldnt be an issue.

Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2...

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/runme.htm

...and Ulead VideoStudio 7...

http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm

...will both capture from an OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 port directly to DVD-ready MPEG-2.

But this type of direct capture to MPEG is processor-intensive because the DV stream is transcoded to MPEG-2 on the fly.

I recommend capturing to DV .avi file format, then editing, then converting to MPEG for burning to disc - in that order.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

[terjeber]

I want to be able todo this in real time, just like a vcr. I want to be able to press play on the cam, record on the software, wait 8 mins (plus finalize,etc) for an 8 minute movie, then hand it to the customer.

I do not think there is a (cheap) solution that will do this. There are a number of problems. Essentially what you are looking for is a real-time Dv-to-MPG2 encoder that will store the file directly to a properly formatted DVD. There is probably no such software out there. Your steps are inevitably going to be:

Shoot the movie.
Capture the movie, using real-time-MPEG2 capture in your case.
Burn movie to DVD.

The capture step is obviously real time, but you will inevitably have to use a different app for burning the DVD, and that is not real time. Even the actual burning of the DVD will most likely not be in real time.

[cameramonkey]

I;m thinking to do what I need to do, I need to just cough up the $600 and do it right with a set top box.

Thanks to all who put in their .02.

[joepic]

I was looking into one of the new set-top boxes to dump my DV footage directly to DVD with no loss of quality. But I really dont feel like coughing up an additional $500-700.

Your request has been answered for only $300

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=168395

The Que! DVD 2i with DDR enables anyone using a digital camera or camcorder to record directly to DVD media in real-time without saving images onto the computer hard disk drive. This innovation in DVD authoring software eliminates the need to transfer video from the camcorder to the hard disk then to the burner.

[jnk76]

cameramonkey,

From what I have read with your labtop and the speed in which you need the job to be done I only see 2 resonable options.

1) set top DVD recorded. You are at mercy of manufactures encoding though. in most cases I think it is very good quality.

2) This may be a future thing.....get a camcorder which records directly to mini DVD-R.

Goodluck.

[cameramonkey]

cameramonkey,

From what I have read with your labtop and the speed in which you need the job to be done I only see 2 resonable options.

1) set top DVD recorded. You are at mercy of manufactures encoding though. in most cases I think it is very good quality.

2) This may be a future thing.....get a camcorder which records directly to mini DVD-R.

Goodluck.

I agree with the first, but unfortunately the camera is used in high vibration, high motion environments, so anything optical wouldnt work.

I'll probably just go with the set top box if the previous poster's product doesnt work.

[jnk76]

I have never used the Qui thing but I would not recommend that. I can't see that working at real time and giving a resonable result for only $300....sorry.

Wouldn't a mini-dv or Hi8 tape...which ever u using have more moving parts than a spinning DVD-mini?

Understandable that there is a lot of vibration.......maybe it won't work? I have no idea......unless it has some kind of stability control for disc.

never looked into that before.