MiniDV to DVD - not happy with results

[camster39]

Step 1 - Use DVCapture to capture video from my MiniDV camcorder. This creates my AVI File

Step 2 - Add the timestamp to the AVI file using DVDTimeStamp.

Step 3 - Convert & burn to DVD using Pinnacle Studio v8.

It's been a while since I experimented with other methods to capture, convert etc.....but from what I recall this yielded the best results.

Should I just accept the fact that their will be slight loss of video quality going from MiniDV to DVD -- no matter what. Or does someone have a suggestion that can give results that are almost identical to the original recording.


Thank you.

[lumis]

i think you're going to have to accept the fact that you're going to lose quality going from miniDV to dvd.. while it's not as bad as going from to vcd or svcd, there will still be some minor quality loss..

[wwjd]

I used to use Pinnacle Studio 8 but was not happy with the mpeg encoding, its marginal at best.

If you are not going to do much editing then you may want to check out a stand alone DVD recorder. Many of them do an excellent job of duplicating the source video, better than what most people can do with their PC.

However, if you do want to add custom menus, cut and trim then I recommend using CCE Basic ($60) to convert your DV avi to compliant mpeg2. It is fast, much faster than PS8, and with the right settings much better looking video. And then use TMPGenc DVD Author to author the DVD. TDA will NOT re-encode the compliant mpeg, it is fast, easy to use and relatively inexpensive.

[wwjd]

camster39:

Just realized that you have several posts all revolving around the same basic theme, which is why I am repeating myself.

[camster39]

woops - my mistake. I meant to delete the original post and move it to the other forum which seemed to make more sense at the time.

[lumis]

well if you add up all the suggestions..

you should get a standalone dvd recorder with dv in (pioneer dvr-330, 331, 335, same thing), record you video to it.. extract that video to an mpeg on to your computer, create menu's, set chapters, author, burn to dvd-r..

[daamon]

Hi camster39,

I've recently described, in reasonable detail, a process for miniDV to DVD that, for me, yields excellent results when compared to the DV original.

www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=276230