DV capturing and converting to DVD

[ione]

Need your help. I am familiar with burning VCDs using virtualdubmod and tmpenc, but this is my first time to burn a DVD; much less, capture a DVI. Sorry if I am going to have a lot of question... I copied the DV (saved footages) into the computer using Roxio 8 and captured directly to MPEG 2 instead of AVI (since I would like to make DVD copies).

1. I need to cut the last 3 minutes of the scene. How do I edit the captured MPEG without losing its quality?

2. While taking the footage, some noises made by handling of the tripod were loud enough to be heard, is it possible to remove them?

3. Lastly, since there were two captured DVs (60-minute clip on each DV), how do I merge these two MPEG files and burn them into one DVD?

PS: The programs that are available on my computer right now are Roxio 8 and Windows Movie Maker.

[edDV]

Is your computer still a 1.4GHz?

You will get much better quality capturing (transferring) in DV format to the HDD. You will need 13.5 GB/hr space. You can do this with Roxio or WinDV which works better and is simpler (less memory overhead).

MPeg2 encoding cannot be done with quality on the fly. Better to do it after editing (edit in Roxio or Movie Maker 2.1*) then use your Roxio to encode and author the DVD.

I'd encourgae you to encode at higher datarates (8000 Kb/sec ~1hr) for best quality rather than 2hrs to one DVD.

If you need to do two hours, use the bitrate calculator to determine the average bitrate required. A full 120 minutes needs ~4800 Kb/s with 224 Kb/s audio.

https://www.videohelp.com/calc


* if you use Movie Maker to edit, make sure you stay in DV-AVI format in and out. Do not let it convert to WMV. For export, use "save to my computer" - "other settings" "DV-AVI"

[Jim44]

I made the same progression as you, going from VCDs to DVDs, and as edDV suggested, using WinDV to transfer the DV onto the HDD is the easy way to go. HDD's are cheap these days, so no reason to not get the best quality you can to start with.

And your first question - if you're already familiar with VirtualDubMod, you can use it to easily edit the DV once it's on the HDD. Then it's just a matter of encoding to MPG-2 for the DVD. I use TMPGEnc Plus (and DVDAuthorGUI for authoring and ImgBurn for burning). As you know, there are many other choices for tools - see the Tools section to the left.

Jim

[ione]

thanks to you guys. surely winDV was very easy to use. really appreciate your help.

[ione]

sorry, how do i merge these two files after i captured them with WinDV? each of them contains 13 GB.

[edDV]

Either in an editing program or an encoder if going for MPeg2.

I still reccommend two DVDs for higher quality.