editing and burning with panasonic camcorder

[foton]

Dear all,

I have a panasonic NV-DS25 with my parents (not with me at the moment)
camcorder

Next month, I'm planning to shoot the whole wedding of my bro. I've done this job in the past with the camcorder, but got the vcd format done with someone else. So there is no question of editing at that time.

This time I wud like to do it all by myself (i.e. editing, effects, background score etc.). But I don' think I've a firewire which I think I'll buy it. Here are 2 options I can think of.

Option 1:
I'm planning to install WinDV software and start recording it, after getting a firewire card. Use windows movie maker and start editing. I prefer movie maker to virtualdub as there is no timeline in the latter. Then burn it into dvd.

Option 2:
If option 1 fails for some reason............After I shoot the video, I'll get it written into a vcd format as usual, convert it into .avi format (as movie maker doesn't accept .dat format)...edit in wmm and write a dvd after that. This wud definitely spoil the video quality I believe.

I haven't tried using camcorder with firewire card and connecting it to computer b4. So I'm just imagining that things will come to place, once I get to my parent's house.

So I was wondering if there r any good ways to record the video and burn it. Any petty tips would help.

Many thanks,
foton[/img]

[daamon]

Hi foton,

By far the best way is your Option 1. If you do have problems here, post back and get them sorted. WinDV is widely used and very reliable, as is firewire. There's no reason why you shouldn't get this working.

Also, your alternative (Option 2) will greatly reduce the quality given that you're filming on a digital video.


None of the software you've mentioned will encode to MPEG2 for DVD. So I'll presume you've got that covered.

[foton]

Hey daamon,

That helps. I'll keep that in mind.

"None of the software you've mentioned will encode to MPEG2 for DVD. So I'll presume you've got that covered. "

Could be elaborate more? Many thanks.

[daamon]

"None of the software you've mentioned will encode to MPEG2 for DVD. So I'll presume you've got that covered. "

Could be elaborate more? Many thanks.

Hi...

Here's the high-level steps that need to be gone through...

Transfer - WinDV

Edit - Windows Movie Maker

Encode (not addressed / mentioned) - The edited material needs to be encoded to DVD compliant MPEG2 so it can be used in the next step on the way to making a DVD.

Author (not addressed / mentioned) - Tjis is where you can create a menu and chapters if you want to. The end result is your edited footage bundled up into the VOB files (along with the required IFO and BUP files) all in a VIDEO_TS folder, and an empty (this is correct) AUDIO_TS folder.

Then "burn to DVD".


I prefer to use specific tools designed for each step. Others prefer "all-in-one" tools that take a lot of the work out - each has their merits. Specific tools take more effort to understand and can take longer vs "all-in-ones" being easier but can compromise the final quality.

Investigate the steps I mentioned above, and look into relevan tools and go for what you're comfotable with. There are rlevant categories in the "Tools" section.

Good luck...

[foton]

Hey, thanks for the tips. I'll try and see what happens.

-foton