Putting a VHS onto a DVD

[ultrazero]

Please forgive me if this has been discussed before, I couldn't find it anywhere. I am trying to backup a full length (approx 2 hours) VHS to DVD. I have already captured the VHS in DV Stream format using iMovie and saved as a movie file (not self-contained).

The next step is to convert this to mpeg2. I have cleaner 6 but the setting i'm using says it will take about 25 hours. Does this sound right? Anyone know the fastest way to encode DV to mpeg2? Also, how do I prepare it for Sizzle?

I have a firewire dvd burner that i'm borrowing from a friend so therefore don't have iDVD. Nor do I own dvd studio pro. I suppose i'll be using Sizzle, but i've been unable to have successful results with it. I read that the old version works better. (i'm using 0.5) Does anyone have a link for it? The link on versiontracker doesn't work.

thanks in advance.

[tgpo]

I can't view this page from work, but check here for it.

[SERBIAN]

Try this app...MPEG2 Works...

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20867

or

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12715

[ultrazero]

Thanks and Thanks!

I'll try those out. MPEG2works looks pretty good.

[inspector77]

Great work serbian your applz works!!!!
but have a little problems with the reescale proportions
I selec dvd pal 16:9, source is a divx and the result is a mpeg2
720 x 404 that isnt pal standar. How i can fix it????


regards

[SERBIAN]

Dont pay attantion what the Quick Time says on size...It makes mistakes with MPEG muxed tracks...Its a PAL 720/576 16:9 aspect ratio movie...Make VIDEO_TS with Sizzle and try to burn on DVD-RW and watch it on standalone player and Youll see...

SERBIAN

[ultrazero]

Serbian,

I'm in the middle of encoding my movie. It's been going at it for about a six hours now. The process bar hasn't moved in hours, but I'm assuming its working because the output file is getting bigger.

How long do you guess it would take to encode a 23gb .mov file to mpeg2??

I'm using the DVDNTSC 4:3 preset.

[SERBIAN]

Thet progress bar is not a true progress bar...Thats the trick I made in Apple script to look nice.... until I make real one...It will move 3 times...1. When it finishes encoding audio, 2. when it finishes scaling and encoding video and 3. when it finishes multiplexing and splitting...

Process of converting of 2 hours movie to SVCD/DVD take aprox. 6-8 hours on 900Mhz G4 single proc. machine...Thats slow but mu scripts are optimized for dual processor Macs and they do 2-pass highest quality encoding optimizied for standalone /external/ DVD players...In future vesrions Ill implement "Normal" and "Fast but low" quality scripts and user settings...

Regards,

[SERBIAN]

Dont pay attantion what the Quick Time says on size...It makes mistakes with MPEG muxed tracks...Its a PAL 720/576 16:9 aspect ratio movie...Make VIDEO_TS with Sizzle and try to burn on DVD-RW and watch it on standalone player and Youll see...

SERBIAN

Quick explanantion....During scaling there is an option to put a black bars on 16:9 input movies and then encode it in 4:3 aspect size...If that is used QT will play the output movie in a window proper and it will give 720/576 size...

In my app I dont use that option 'cause players /standalone and comp/ generates black bars if necessery on full screen view /if You watch movie 16:9 monitor or TV screen there will be no black bars/...QT dont count black bars when the movie is opened in window, thus give You the 720/404 size...But when You play it in full screen 4:3 monitor Youll see letterbox..

There is no need to scale down 16:9 movie to 4:3 with black bars for standalone players...They will generate letterbox if needed without problems...

SERBIAN

[galactica]

That! and you can make it so it fits perfectly for 16:9 televisions!!!!

or am I incorrect in this assumption?!?

[SERBIAN]

That! and you can make it so it fits perfectly for 16:9 televisions!!!!

Correct..

[ultrazero]

Great! Mpeg2 Works worked well Serbian.

The longest encode of my life...27 hours. I burned it using Sizzle 0.1. There's no menu, but hey, it got the job done. Thank You.

I have another quick question. It seems I forgot to put a letterbox matte on the file before I encoded it. Is there a way to add the matte to the mpeg2 file? Or do I need to do it and reencode?

[SERBIAN]

Why do You need letterbox?...as I explained, player will generate it if it is a necessary...
and 27 hours?....huh...thats long...How long the input movie is?...and which codec?...

[ultrazero]

I needed a fake letterbox to cover up artifacts that occured during capture. I captured with a Dazzle Hollywood Dv bridge. Its a piece of crap. Mostly the bottom of the picture gets screwy... but I just watched a little of it on a standalone DVD player and you can't see it, so I think i'll pass on the letterboxing. Too time consuming.

What codec? I used the DVDNTSC 4:3 button. Is that what you mean? The input movie is 2 hours long.

[SERBIAN]

Sorry...I reread Your first post on this topic and get the info about movie size and everything...Anyway it took to much time...Usualy it takes 6-8 hours...Maybe DV stream is too hard to chew..

Regarding letterbox...Next time You should prepare Your movie before encoding...I mean You should make fake letterbox in FCP or After Effects or something, save it and then encode it...Maybe Ill implement that feature in future...I shall see about it..

Regards..