Capturing from a Sony DCRHC30 Mini DV to PC and DVD burning

[carcf]

I am new to the DVD burning business and I have so many questions regarding video quality when transfering from my Sony DCRHC30 Mini DV cam to pc to be able to burn a DVD.

Here is my experience so far. I trasfer the video from the cam recorder to the pc via the USB port using Windows Movie Maker, saving the files in the "high quality (large video)" format . The edited video with all the fun stuff you can add is then stored in the PC. Then I import this file to the DVD burning software (Sonic DVD maker or so), I add the menus and submenus and then I burn the DVD in the "hight quality" mode (in a DVD+ blank disk)

The result: a low quality, low audio (which by the way, wasn't sync with the video) movie. I hate it so much.

I tried the same process with the Sonic software as the capturing video software and the result was even worse. I am very concern if I have what it is needed to burn a high quality home movie DVD

Is there anybody who can advice or tell me what I am doing wrong?
What else I need to do to get my home movies stored on a DVD with the highest quality (like the one you see when watching a DVD movie)?
Is it possible?
Any piece of additional hardware that I need to have?
What software?
What is i.Link? Does my PC need a i.Link port?

Thank you in advance for your kind replies.

[johnny quest]

You need a firewire cable and firewire card on your PC, if it doesn't already have one. Your problem is the USB cable makes for crappy quality, also you need to make sure you transfer the video to your computer in dv format and not convert on the fly which I believe movie maker does.

[carcf]

Thank you.

Firewire card and Firewire cable is the same as i.link port and i.link cable?

[johnny quest]

yes, Sony was one of the first to utilize firewire, calling it i.link

also I believe SonicMyDvd has the capability of capturing your dv stream without compression

[daamon]

Hi carcf,

Welcome to the forums.

The good news is, it is possible for you to get very good results from a DV cam to DVD. However, it's not a totally straight forward process and you will face challenges along the way.

At a high level, there are two ways:

1) Use an all-in-one application that pretty much does everything for you.

Advantages: It's quick and easy.
Disadvantages: You don't have much control over what's going on and quality can be compromised.

2) Use different tools specific to each step of the process.

Advantages: More control. Hence, if you do it right, better quality.
Disadvantages: More to learn (but fun, if you're like me), may cost a little more (but not horribly expensive).

You have to decide what you want and what's important - your time vs end quality. Do you have the time to learn a few tools (not really difficult), to pay a bit extra (not much more) and to end up with a better DVD?

I went for seperate tools and am really happy with the results I get - to the point where I now do (nearly) professional looking videos for friends (including weddings).

So - Seperate tools based on the steps in the process:

1. "Transfer" from DV cam to PC - Try transfering with WinDV (free) using firewire (also known as i.Link and IEEE 1394). The cards and cables to do this are cheap.

Using USB, as said above, results in really bad quality, as USB is there for the still picture transfer.

Windows Movie Maker (WMM) can do this, but it's not considered to be as good as WinDV.

2) "Edit" - You will have a DV AVI file from WinDV. This can be edited in WMM - because you're used to it. There are a whole heap of other editing tools out there.

Save as DV AVI.

3) "Encode" - You need to encode, or "change", the DV AVI to the MPEG2 format, as this is used as the basis for DVDs.

When encoding, the length of the footage and the bitrate used will determine the end filesize. You don't want it bigger than will fit on a disc. The Videohelp Bitrate Calculator is good to help with this.

The encoder I use is TMPGEnc Plus, there are others. This is a good guide for setting TMPGenc up... Don't forget to rate it if you use it.

Usual recommendations are:

Mainconcept MPEG Encoder.
CinemaCraft Encoder
Canopus Procoder

There are some freeware ones that people say are fairly good, but I don't recall them. Look in the "Tools" section. I think WinAVI is one...

4) "Author" - This is when menus, if you want them, are set up (including chapter points), subtitles (on some authoring tools) and then the creation of the VOB, IFO and BUP files in the VIDEO_TS folder (with an empty AUDIO_TS folder - this is normal) ready to be put to disc.

This is the normal requirement for all DVDs - have a look at a commercial one and you'll see the same.

I found TMPGEnc DVD Author is a good place to start. There are others.

5) "Burn" - Burn the VIDEO_TS folder (and all its files) and the (empty) AUDIO_TS folder to disk.

There are numerous burning tools, but TDA has it's own and I've found that reliable.


Hints and Tips:

1) Read, read and read some more. The above info is a reassonable detailed introduction - there is a lot more for you to find out as you go along...

2) Buy a re-writeable DVD. It saves you wasting blank DVD discs, and it will allow you to see what it looks like on screen before burning to disc.

3) Be patient, hang in there and have fun. A good beer supply is useful too...

I hope that helps. Good luck...

[carcf]

Thank you very much. Now I realized that creating a high quality DVD from my DV cam is more than a simple download and burn.

What about backing up VHS movies?. What is the best way to obtain a high quality DVD movie from a VHS movie?

I have a large collection of VHS original movies, but they are starting to wear out, an investment that I will be lost if I don't do something. I tried to used my DV cam as I thought this should be easy (this is, connecting the VCR to the DV cam, record on the DV tape and then to the PC, but I got the "copyright" warning on the cam and didn't let me do it).

I read on a different forum that THIS IS NOT the way to do it, but I have not successfuly found the info that I need. Some people I now told me that what I need is a "digitalizer", such as the Dazzle Digital Video Creator or similar device to copy the VHS tapes to the PC. Is this the best way?

Thanks again

[johnny quest]

When you tried the pass-through on your camcorder did you have a tape in the camera? If so, take it out and then try. If that doesn't work, try the Canopus or Sima Card. There are several guides and posts on how to go from vhs to dvd, try searching them.

[daamon]

What about backing up VHS movies?. What is the best way to obtain a high quality DVD movie from a VHS movie?

Do a search on this site's forums for "DVD to VHS", and similar. Also, head over to www.digitalfaq.com - there's loads of info there too.

You may need a TBC (Time Base Corrector) to work around the copy protection - macrovision. I'm not really that familiar with VHS to DVD, just repeating what's commonly written.

Once you've got the VHS on to PC, and if it's in AVI (best to have DV AVI) - then everything I stated above on editing, encoding etc. still stands.

The only thing you might want to read up on is using half-D1 resolution (352 x 480 / 576 = 352 x NTSC / PAL) instead of the full resolution during encoding. This half-D1 is much closer to VHS and, with this lower resolution, you'll get away with approximately half the bitrate - meaning you can get around twice as much on (i.e. 3 hours of VHS at half-D1, instead of 1.5 hours of VHS at full-D1).

Also, while we're kinda talking about space on a disc - look into both MP2 and AC3 audio formats (MP2 - PAL only, AC3 - both PAL and NTSC) instead of uncompressed WAV. The compressed audio takes up much less room, meaning more room for the video. This in turn means that you can have a higher bitrate for the video which, in turn, means that it may end up being a better quality. This applies to any source to DVD - not just DV or VHS.

Good luck...

[carcf]

Will the Canopus cards go around the Microvision copywrite filter?

[johnny quest]

yes, canopus will defeat macrovision