DVD Burning with the Panasonic LF-D311 DMS and Pinnacle...

[wellsi]

An interesting package is the LF-D311 dvd burner from Panasonic;
You get a fantastic editing programme (Pinnacle Studio 7) and yet a real mickey mouse burning programme (Pinnacle Express).
A typical problem is creating a DVD Video compliant MPEG-2 file in Studio 7, only to have Pinnacle Express reject it as it's not an avi file. (A known bug I'm told by Panasonic Support, as it shoudl indeed be accepting MPEG-2 files).

Any offers of advice on a suitable burning programme to make nice dvd-videos from already dvd compliant MPEG-2 files? People have mentioned ULead dvd movie factory, but I'm a bit loathed to spend more money on a software package that duplicates much of what I can already do with the editing features of Pinnacle Studio 7...

Cheers,

[foobarley]

Nonsense. It's not a bug. It is by design. The merits of which are debatable however.

Pinnacle has stated it intends to implement mpeg import in a "future version"

Simply make a DV avi in Studio 7, and import it into Express. The mpeg encoder in Express is as good as the one in Studio 7.

[wellsi]

I don't think it's nonsense...
If the mpeg encoder in Express is as good as Studio 7, why would they design Express to only accept avi files? This means you capture your video (say from a DV camcorder), then you have to convert it once to .avi in Studio 7, then convert it a second time to MPEG-2 in Express. A pointless waste of time.
And Panasonic support were quite frank about Pinnacle's admission that it's a bug they're fixing... Hardly good design...

[foobarley]

It is nonsense. The software currently works this way by design. There are plans to change this though.

Read this: Statement from Pinnacle

DV 'capture' via firewire is simply a transfer of the video to your hard disk as an avi file. Only the Sony microMV cameras store the data in an mpeg format. The file you capture from your camcorder is completely compatible with Express. No need to use Studio 7 at all...

Express is designed for consumers to connect their digital cameras to the firewire port, capture the video friom their camcorder, perhaps do some crude editing and set up a menu. Express then handles the conversion to mpeg and authors and burns the SVCD/VCD/DVD.

btw Studio 7 uses intelligent rendering to produce a DV avi from firewire DV, so recompression loss is something you need not be worried about .

[wellsi]

So, what you're saying is that I should not bother using all the terrific editing features of Studio 7 at all... just capture and burn with Express...?

If I do use Studio 7, I have to render it once as an avi, then again as an MPEG-2 in Express... Hmmm... you do like using your products don't you...

Others have obviously complained of the same problem, and Pinnacle have, by your own link, stated they are fixing this problem in August.
But yes, perhaps as ever, us "consumers" don't know what we're talking about...

(I think your job is safe at Pinnacle mate...! (grin) )

[foobarley]

I'm saying you don't need to create something in Studio 7 to get Express to work. It will work with captured video directly.

If you want to create something in S7 by all means do so. Then simply render to a DV avi. Express will import this. The ONLY drawback here is you need the space to hold the avi file.

You are jumping to conclusions. I'm just a consumer such as yourself. I don't work for Pinnacle. I do own Studio Deluxe though. I have also complained about the "problem". In fact I routinely use a workaround to get Express to burn 3rd party mpegs (TMPGEnc) when producing SVCD.

The statement in the link states that one of the features of version 2.0 (due out in August) will be mpeg import. This by no means implies that this feature is "broken" in version 1.0

Maybe you could speak to the folks at Pinnacle on my behalf, I wouldn't mind a job there...

[wellsi]

I understand your point, but my point was that I like the editing features of Studio 7 and want to use them. In doing so, I'm then forced to save to AVI, then resave to MPEG-2 in Express.
Other authoring packages will accept both AVI and MPEG; I didn't think it nonsense to point this out...!

Still, we've detracted from the point here... I was after recomendations for other authoring programs that do accept MPEG's to burn to dvd.

Any thoughts and preferences?

[foobarley]

I like the editing features of Studio 7 as well. For the money, it is the finest consumer NLE app there is.

I didn't say it was nonsense to point out a shortcoming of Express. I meant the fact that the folks at Panasonic called it a "bug" was nonsense. Express 1.0 wasn't designed to accept mpeg right from the start. IMHO, that doesn't represent a "bug".

I still think Express a good program. I've tried a couple of others and in terms of fuctionality and ease of use Express is clearly better. Sonic's myDVD (shipped with my burner) is gawd awful. Ulead's DVD movie factory is good, but it has shortcomings as well. So I'm still using Express. For me, the extra step (rendering to a DV avi first) is but a small inconvenience, which will hopefully be rectified by summers end and the release of 2.0.

[wellsi]

In that case, I might well see how I go with Express...

Cheers for the input!