Does TMPGEnc DVD Author do the capture too?

[kbigelow2000]

I'm a Pinnacle 8 user who is considering changing to TMPGEnc DVD Author. Pinnacle has started freezing on me when I click the make movie button and they can't help me so I need to change.

With Pinnacle 8, I had 1 software to do the DV capture, author the video, and (until recently) burn the DVD.

If I change to TMPGEnc DVD Author, what will I use to capture in the right format? Is the format acctepted by TMPGEnd a "full DV" quality format? And how much will this capture software cost me because I'm going to drop $60 on TMPGEnc.

Maybe this needs to be in the Capture Forum, but it is a question about TMPGEnc and that is a Authoring software so I thought you might know.

Thanks in advance for your help.

KB

[bugster]

TmpGenc DVD Author is just that, an authoring program.

To capture DV there are many choices. Free ones include DVIO, WinDV and Microsoft Windows Movie Maker. To edit freely there is virtualdub and gaian MS WMM. Then you need to encode to DVD compliant mpeg. TmpGenc (NOT DVDA) is good for this, or there is CCE or MainConcept etc, all cost money though. Then you author (Add menus and chapters etc and produce DVD compliant vob, bup and ifo files ready to burn).

[kbigelow2000]

Thanks for the info.

I will capture w/ Microsoft Windows Movie Maker. I assume I will save from there as an AVI file?

I will then encode to DVD compliant mpeg (from the AVI file) using TmpGenc.

I will then author and burn w/ TmpGenc.

You did say, however, that "To edit freely there is virtualdub and gaian MS WMM". This is the only editing I do - I capture 2 minutes of video, but only want to use 30 seconds of that, can I do that w/ TmpGenc? If not, maybe I can do it w/ Movie Maker, but I haven't tried it yet.

Kevin

[bugster]

Thanks for the info.

You did say, however, that "To edit freely there is virtualdub and gaian MS WMM". This is the only editing I do - I capture 2 minutes of video, but only want to use 30 seconds of that, can I do that w/ TmpGenc? If not, maybe I can do it w/ Movie Maker, but I haven't tried it yet.

Kevin

Windows MM will probably do basic cuts and splices, but I have never tried it. Make sure you set it up to capture the DV direct and not encode it to wmv as it tends to want to do.

Or you can use virtualdub for the editing (which is free) but it takes a little learning. You would need the free panasonic DV codec for virtualdub to be able to open your DV files.

[DokSoul]

I recently bought DVD author at a reduced price on Ebay. I've also seen TMPGENC plus there at a good price also. Also note that DVD Author is at ver 1.5XX and is scheduled to release 1.6 in mid July. Waiting a week or 2 might save you the upgrade price ($10).

[overloaded_ide]

I never liked any one in one programs I ever tried yet. Maybe there are good ones, but I like a program dedecated to doing one or two jobs very well rather than half ass all of them.

That said I have been very happy with Tmpgenc DVD author for authoring and burning. I never had a problem with it for anything. Recently however my 8X burner has started burning 4x disks at only 2x ???
I only mention that because I have not yet checked to find the problem. I don't know if it's software, hardware, or disks. Basically nothing has changed, even same spindle of disks that were writing at 4x before, but the last 3 or 4 disks in a row have all burned at only 2x.

Anyway, I have not upgraded for awhile so I am probably at least 3 versions behind now, but they did have the fully working demo for 14 or 30 days and I geuss they still do. So download that and use it, it does everything the registered version does so you can actually make the disks. It just totally stops working when the time expires untill you register it, so nothing to loose giving it a try.