Newbie Questions

[pete1336]

Hi all,
Few questions if I may.
1. Using my canon mv630 mini dv camcorder I can only just about record 60mins of full quality footage onto a DVD-r. I thought I'd be able to get at leat a couple of hours on a DVD...but no 60 mins is about it. How come a two hour film can fit onto a 4.38g dvdr when I can only get 60mins? I presume it's all a question of compression is it?

2. My second question relates to system ram. My sys spec is:
Operating System: Windows XP Professional with sp1
CPU: Athlon XP 1700 Thoroughbred core JIUHB+ @ 11.5 x 200FSB @1.675v giving 2300 mhz
M/board: Abit NF7-S v2.0 with ver.1.9 bios
Memory: 2 x 256DDR TwinMOS PC3200 in dual mode (512mb total)
Graphics Card:GF4 4400 Ti 128 mb

I use Pinnacle Studio 8 as my all in one software to capture edit and burn..I notice that often the rendering process seems to take forever. Would doubling the ram to 1gig be advisable to help speed things up in that area?
Many Thanks,
Peter

[daamon]

Hi Peter,

I'll have a stab at helping you, as I'm a newbie myself but have (finally) achieved acceptable results (well, to me anyway...) with similar objectives as you.

1. Yes, it is to do with compression - The bitrate in TMPGEnc is a factor in dictating the filesize, but so is the audio format. I know that when I capture from my DV cam the audio is in PCM (uncompressed).

Re: the audio, mp2 is commonly acceptable on PAL DVD's though the standard is PCM and AC3 (more compresses than mp2 I believe). NTSC is more fussy I believe. You'll need a tool to do the PCM(WAV) conversion - I've got BeSweet, but haven't really had a good crack at it yet.

I found this guide excellent for setting up AVI -> DVD MPEG2 in TMPGEnc:

http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html

There's a lot there, but I'd strongly recommend reading it all (thoroughly) as there's useful stuff hidden (i.e. at the end of paragraphs).

This link may also be useful, it describes how I achieved my first successful AVI -> DVD:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=190482&highlight=

The useful info is towards the end. Make sure you note bugster's fine-tuning comments.

2. Not massively familiar with PC builds, but more memory wouldn't hurt. It may also be that the encoding algorithm is inefficient. TMPGEnc, though not the fastest, seems to be generally accepted as one of the best.

General: You'll see from my guide that I use different tools for different jobs - I've commonly read that it's best to use the best tool (affordable) for each job. Your call on that one... Some are free.

Hope that helps... Good luck.

[pete1336]

Thanks, I'll take a look at the guide. I appreciate your help.
Peter

[daamon]

Pleasure. No probs.

I learnt what I know with loads of help and research - it's only fair to do the same. I know how frustrating it is, thinking "it must be possible, but how?".

Good luck...

[Turtle49]

I use Pinnacle Studio 8 as my all in one software to capture edit and burn..

I use Pinnacle 8 to capture and transcode the video from my Sony TRV27 DV camcorder into Mpeg2. Unfortunately I do not use it to Author my DVD's, but I may still have some valueable input.

The reason you can only fit 60 min. or so of video on one disk is that the default bitrate for DVD compatable is 6000. To get to 2 hrs or even 3 hrs you would have to reduce this to between 3000 and 5000. You will have to find the setting and experiment to see if the results are acceptable. I usually run 2 hr videos at around 4500 or 5000.

1. Yes, it is to do with compression - The bitrate in TMPGEnc is a factor in dictating the filesize, but so is the audio format. I know that when I capture from my DV cam the audio is in PCM (uncompressed).

Re: the audio, mp2 is commonly acceptable on PAL DVD's though the standard is PCM and AC3 (more compresses than mp2 I believe). NTSC is more fussy I believe. You'll need a tool to do the PCM(WAV) conversion - I've got BeSweet, but haven't really had a good crack at it yet.

Pinnacle transcodes Audio (in my experience) into MP2 which is a compressed format so you shouldn't have to mess with Besweet unless you want it as AC3 for compatibility reasons. Keep in mind when you start talking about MP2 to AC3 conversions you may be looking at downloading new tools and jumping back and forth. I personally have never had a DVD that I created using this process give me any trouble on my standalone DVD players.

My typical process is this:
-Connect my Camcorder to my PC via Firewire.
-Capture the video using the DV selection in Pinnacle 8 on to my hard drive. (huge .avi file)
-Edit and "tune" my video as required within Pinnacle.
-Output it to an MPEG2 by using the "Create MPG" selection and either using the preset "DVD Compatible" or "Custom" with a lower bitrate as explained above.
-Then I Author using TMPGEnc DVD Author or Ulead Movie Factory 2.

I hope this helps and good luck!

[buttsy00]

If you drop the bitrate roughly how much quality do you lose?

If i was to drop it to around 3000 would the quality still be better than any other format?

[daamon]

Hi buttsy00,

If you drop the bitrate roughly how much quality do you lose?

I'm not experienced enough to comment on that one - I'd guess it partly depends on the quality of the source material. I believe that it's possible to knock out SVCD's at nearly DVD quality as long as the source is of a sufficiently high quality (not sure what defines "high").

You could always get a re-writeable DVD and check it out for yourself... it'll also come in handy for future test burns and will be inexpensive. All it'll really cost you is your time in experimenting.

If i was to drop it to around 3000 would the quality still be better than any other format?

When you say "it", there is the max, min and average to choose from. As a guide, the max for SVCD is 2,600 for video only (2,778 including audio) which, by default, is better than VCD at 1,150.

Not sure about CVD, XVCD etc. but I'd be surprised if they're not detailed on this site somewhere.

Hope that helps.