"all-in-one" software?

[pittnh]

Hi. Brand new to this very helpful site and had some questions. I am confused with the tools I need to create a VCD to play on my stand-alone DVD player. I have a DV camcoder and a 1394 firewire card in my PC. I have successfully "downloaded" movies from my camera onto my PC using the Windows Movie Maker software and saving in .WMV format. It appears from your site that I need this to be in MPEG-1 format before I can burn to a VCD format CD (i.e I need software to convert a WMV to an MPEG-1 file). Also, it appears I need software to author/burn an MPEG-1 onto a CD to play in VCD format.

My question is this: is there an "all-in-one" software that will capture, save in MPEG-1 format, allow authoring (i.e. create menu's, etc), and burn into VCD format? I thought I saw Intervideo makes WinDVD Creator...will something like this do everything for me? Or do I need separate sofware to capture (Windows Movie maker), convert (TMPGEnc) and Author/Burn (ie. Adaptec Easy CD creator). Thank you.

[Tivo Homer]

Try Ulead's Video Studio 6. They have a trial on their website.

[Thorn]

You don't want to go through WMV at any stage of the process...

You can 'capture' (transfer) the DV material directly to your PC from the camcorder without re-encoding it to anyting else if you have the space. Try the Ulead soft for that or whatever else you please... there are many freeware utilities that do everything needed but if you want an all-in-one program you'll have to buy something.

Then you can edit the film before encoding to mpeg1 (note - you only need to encode once! Re-encoding is best to avoid if possible). All-in-one software isn't always the best for encoding (it all depends on how much you spent...) but once you figure out the basics you can worry about improving the process.

[pittnh]

Thanks for the response....it sounds like I can go directly from my camcorder to the PC and capture directly in MPEG format using the appropriate software? I was confused because one section in the "how-to" guide talks about converting to MPEG from other formats (ie WMV), so I thought this was a necessary step.

[Cornucopia]

As was mentioned before, you don't want to go through another compression stage if you don't have to. And very few "all-in-one" programs will fit all your needs, just as a swiss army knife doesn't take care of all tool situations-or do it the most efficiently.

Here is an example of what you could do (Not the only way by any means):

*Capture (DV/Firewire Transfer) from DV onto your harddrives as DVcodec AVI. You could use Adobe Premiere or Ulead, but DV I/O might also work. Not sure about Virtualdub.
*Edit, composite and title with AP or UL, and export as another DV/AVI.
(Shortcut) Use Adobe Premiere w/ Panasonic or CCE or bbMpeg encoder from timeline.
*Or Use TMPGEnc to encode DV/AVI to MPEG1 (for VCD/XVCD) or MPEG2 (for CVD/SVCD/XSVCD).
*Author using VCDImager/VCDEasy/TSCV or Nero.
*Burn CD using CDRDAO or CDRWin or Nero.

Quality will look TONS better than what you're getting now.

'Course there is no better place on the net to find all that info and try all those tools but right here. Take your time and learn as you go. Use CD-R/W's so you won't make too many coasters.

Happy burnin'

Scott

[The village idiot]

Easiest way ---- Ulead DVD Movie Factory. Capture-> edit-> convert-> author-> burn. Cheap too. May not be the highest quality, but neither is VCD. It is one of the most simple ways to get from source to product on the market. About $50 USD. But note, there are no flashy transitions, no flashy menus, and the encoder is only average. But cheap and easy it is.

[YngwieJM]

I prefer Sonic Foundry's Video Factory myself. It's $59 on their site. If you plan to gey a better package later you can upgrade to Vegas Video for $200. Vegas by itself is $400 but I like my math better! I always use TMPGEnc for the final render to .mpg though.