putting home movies to dvd

[hab138]

Hi there,
Here is my setup
Winxp pro sp2
amd 2400+ on a asus mobo
ati AIW 9000 pro 64MB

I have a bunch of 8mm home movies to burn to dvd.
I have used the ATI version of pinnacle studio to put some of these movies to dvd. and it works ok, but is a bit crippled since i can't do submenus.
the video quallity as i've seen it is acceptable.

My questions are, what is the best way to copy my 8mm to DVD with menus and submenus at the best quality. I understand that coming ffrom 8mm it won't be the absolute best quality of video.

Should I be using ATI MMC (if so what version) I just have 8.1 running right now and i think there is a 9. out there somewhere.
(I've read lordsmurfs guide to converting ati to avi and atitompeg)
and then how would I insert chapter points after that?

or should I just continue to use my pinnacle studio setup?
and upgrade to a version that will allow me to have submenus

or is there another alternative that is preferred over these methods?

supplemental to thsi question is,
what is the best way to encode these so I can get as many videos on a dvd-r? xvid? divx? ???
(I still intend on keeping the original conversions as backup, but my other half doesn't like too many discs to deal with so I am also looking to compress a set for her)

any advice would be appreciated


thanks in advance

[GreenStang511]

I am no expert and have been posting my own newbie post here. So take this for what it's worth. A couple of coworkers here at my job simply went out and bought a stand alone DVD recorder to covert those for like $99 instead of dealing with the whole computer middle man.

[Krispy Kritter]

I am no expert and have been posting my own newbie post here. So take this for what it's worth. A couple of coworkers here at my job simply went out and bought a stand alone DVD recorder to covert those for like $99 instead of dealing with the whole computer middle man.

They most likely bought standalone recorders for VHS transfer, not 8mm.

[Krispy Kritter]

There are 2 basic steps required to complete your project. The first being capturing your 8mm onto your computer. The second being authoring your dvd.

There are many tools available for authoring besides pinnacle studio. You can find a list in the Tools section. I personally have used Ulead DVD Workshop and Adobe Premier. Most of the software has free trials, so you can download and experiment to see if it will do what you want.

[PMorton]

Why can you not do submenus in Pinnacle Studio? All you have to do is define a link to another menu. I do it all the time. Main menu has links for "play all" and "chapter selection". "Play all" links to the beginning of the film, "chapter selection" links to a separate chapter menu, which contains links to the individual chapters.

[jtoolman2000]

They most likely bought standalone recorders for VHS transfer, not 8mm

Well yes and no. Most DVD recorders will accept video from all sort of sources. My unit takes coax, component, composite, S video, optical, and firewire so I can record from just about any source I may have.

[GreenStang511]

They have the Hi-8 camcorders that they did it directly to a stand alone DVD recorder/player by going out the outs of the cam and in the ins of the unit. Didn't have to worry about any of the other stuff in between.

[hab138]

here we go more info.
I already have an AIW so i don't wanna buy a personal dvd recorder, I want to use the PC as a middle man so i can put chapters and menus and all that fun stuff in, I was not aware of any personal vid recorders that performed that functionality.
I am transferring home video to dvd, and am capturing via the AIW
i have the ATI version of Pinnacle studio, which a crippled version of the whole version as such i can't do submenus as one of the crippled features.

Krispy, thanks for the info, I do realize there are two parts to the process.
and that is the question i am attempting to pose,

1) whats the best capture method...
2) whats the best authoring s/w?

thanksagain in advance

[Krispy Kritter]

There are many opinions about what is best. The best answer that I can give you is to experiment and see what works best for you.

I was pointing out the two main steps only because your basic problem isn't with the capturing method. You seem to be able to do that fine. It seemed you were most interested in the menus/chapters which is part of the authoring process. Since Pinnacle studio isn't going to perform what you need to do, you are going to have to find another tool.

The best way is for you to try the different tools and see what works for you. There are some free ones and there are others that will need to be purchased. Most have at least a free trial period. Take a look through the tools section and give a few a try. There is a comments section for each tool so you can see what others think about it.

[byteguy]

Hab,

Not sure what format your card captures in, but if you can catch dvd-ready mpeg2 files than this is the technique I used to convert a bunch of 8mm tapes from my 8-year-old Sony Handicam.

1) Capture directly to dvd mpeg2 files (I have a VideOh card)

2) Use VideoReDo to trim and cut out "bad" sections. This program is super fast because it doesn't re-encode the entire file every time you edit, it just does the frames around the cut. I can cut stuff out of a 2-hour file and have the new one done in under a minute.

3) Don't even TRY to use the cheap underpowered DVD menu programs. I did and it took no time to get frustrated with their limitations. Go ahead and get DVD Lab Studio (it's only $129 and has a free trial period). Yes, it takes a bit to learn it and it ONLY accepts dvd-ready files. But you can setup all sorts of complex menu structures. I created scene indexes that were just lists of the 60 (or so) different scenes so that my wife can jump to "Amelia playing with the cat food" when she wants.