Videos professionally copied to CD or DVD?

[karenhvb]

I want to have my home videos professionally transferred to CD or DVD, but then I will edit them and re-copy them (I have a CD writer and a DVD writer).
What format should I specify for the capture? I want to be able to easily load and edit (I have Pinnacle Studio 8) and re-write to CD or preferably DVD.
Obviously, I am a newbie and have no clue how to start the project.
Thanks!

[holistic]

Hello karenhvb

What is the video source - VHS , Hi8 ?

VHS is nowhere near 'DVD quality' so please do not get confused when I say transferring VHS to either CD or DVD will make no difference in the quality just the length of material will be greater for the same bitrate.
Hi8 will 'convert' to a respectible mpeg2.

Having said this i suggest getting your tapes put on a DVD with a high video/audio bitrate.

5000 or better for the video / 224 or better for the audio.

DVD (ntsc) is 720*480*29.97 fps .

Video : MPEG2
Audio : PCM audio (uncompressed) , Dolby Digital ,DTS

multi angles and up to 8 audio tracks (from memory)


Mpeg2 is an alogrithm that is comprised of I,P,B frames grouped together to form a GOP (group of pictures)
eg : IBBPBBPBBPBB

The I-frame (Intra coded frame) contains all information to 're-build' a frame of video the P, B frames are best decribed as (P)redicated (B)est guesses.

Soooooo..... I suggest the following : Have your videos converted to mpeg2 I frames only. This will give a higher quality mpeg2 (takes more space "volume on disk") but it will allow you to edit easier later.

To edit use TMPGEnc - the best (valued) mpeg2 encoder for the consumer right now, and reencode you final cut with a high 2 pass VBR.

** I use Premiere and 'frameserve' my edited video to TMPGEnc using 'avisynth'. It may be possible (not sure haven't tried it) to frameserve from other video editors - VirtualDub should ?!

regards ][




an afterthought : I personally make 3000-4500-6000 (low-average-high bitrate) MPEG2 of my home videos and put them on 700Mb CD .This equates to about 20 minutes per disk. If you plan on making compliant DVD you will need authouring software that will convert your Mpeg2 to the proper 'file structure' of DVD.

Read here for DVD spec.
http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/DVD/Book_B/Video.html

[Donovan]

Hi Karenhvb,

If you persist with Studio (and it's a great intuitive package for a newbie like you and I), you don't have too many options as to your capture format (unless you have Version 8). You will capture to AVI for analog input. Being a newbie you may not even want to worry about different codecs just yet (such as YUY2 / Huffyuv, etc), and just stick with the standard DV video codec (a codec is used to compress the video - primarily for spaces reasons). If you have the Pinnacle AVDV 'blue box' you cannot even control the codec.

Studio is also great for editing. HOWEVER, once you have done your editing you have some decisions to make. Since you want to go to CD or DVD you need to consider MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 formats. Studio can do the job - but there are better packages. So you may want to create a set of "final" AVI files and use other packages (such a TMPGENc) to encode to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2. And then you need to author your VCD / SVCD or DVD. If you want a VCD Nero (which you may already have with your CD-writer) does a great job with a menu. For a DVD - you will need something more specific.