Perfect conversion Sony mmv to DVD - AT LAST!

[kameeee]

After weeks of wasted efforts, I have finally found a way to make reliable, globally compatible DVDs from Sony MMV files (using IP55 camera). I thought I should share this as I spent weeks searching the web and finally eeked this out. I have tried ALL the other methods suggested, but none worked fro me, for the (common) reasons I have given in brackets below):

STEP 1:
Capture Micro MV footage using MovieShaker 3.1. (Do not export to MPEG as this gives choppy audio - Sony CODEC fault - insoluable by end user) (Do not use Pinnacle or Ulead to capture either - AV Sync is very bad and hard to correct)
Put all captured MMV files into one directory
takes 60 mins for a 60 min tape

STEP 2:
Install and run MMV2MPG.exe - batch convert MMV files to MPG
takes 20 mins for a 60 min tape of MMV files

(This converts MMV which are MPEG2-TS format to MPEG2-PS format)

STEP 3:
Transcode all resulting MPG files down to 7996KBPS: I use Canopus ProCoder, but TMPGEnc also works well.
(Although DVD authoring APPS like DVD Workshop will import these MPG files, they crash at the final stages as the bitrate is too high - 12KBPS - You need to transcode down to ~8KBPS so they can handle the files)
Be sure to set Procoder / TMPGEnc to output a MPEG2-PS single file, not separate video & audio files, to avoid sync probs)

takes ~4 hours for 60 mins worth of footage

STEP 4:
Now import these finished MPEG files into any DVD authoring APP - DVD WS, Pinnacle, Premiere - All work flawlessly and reliably.

Good Luck.
I have wasted 3 weeks of my life to figure this out - Sony are hopeless for not doing this for us in advance

Kamy

[rosie2515]

I have a Sony DCR-IP55E camera and I have used MovieShaker 3.1 to capture 600 mmv files (20 GB). Why is it nessasary to transcode down to 7996KBPS? I have tried that using Canopus ProCoder 2, but I am not sure that I did it the right way - is there a post describing the right steps?

I was wondering if the steps described in your post still is the best way to get new video into the pc from the MicroMV camera? Are you familliar with the MainConcept MPEG Pro plug-in to Premiere Pro 1.5? I have tried it and to me it seems like I get a perfect capture directly into Premiere this way.