Ulead VideoStudio 7

[pnhmrk]

I want to transfer my home videos (all recorded on DV tape) from the tapes and onto VCDs. To this end I've had a firewire card installed into my computer (that was a long time ago! It's taken me a long time to start the editing!). Recently I read a review in a computer magazine about video packages and that reccommended Ulead's VideoStudio. I downloaded their trial version and it seemed to work well, so I bought the full version. Before I install the full version on my computer I want to finish the project I've started on and uninstall the trial version so that there are no remnants of the trial version that could cause problems with the full version. I am finding now that I have two problems with VideoStudio:

1) It is taking over two hours to render a movie that runs for 30 mins. Is that normal? Once I have rendered a movie the programme should allow me to rerender it again much more quickly (SmartRender should mean that it will only rerender the parts of the movie I've changed). When I go onto the "Preview Files Manager" in the files menu there are never any files showing. I assume this means that I'm rerendering the whole movie every time?

2) The trial version let me output videos to CD with no problem. When I had two short videos it created all the menus, etc again with no problem. However when I had finished three projects and have tried to burn them to CD, it renders the video as normal and produces a disk. When I try and play that disk only one or two of the videos on the disc will play and these may fail before the end of the video (I've tried this several times, some fail entirely, some only partly).

I suspect that problem (1) is caused by my missing a step in the rendering process (although I don't know what) and that problem (2) is caused by a wrong setting somewhere in the setup.

Can anyone help this newbie get his programme to work?

[MachineMan]

Have you downloaded the patches from the Support link at Ulead.com.

1) Yep, Rendering takes a long time. And yes if yoiu check smart Render it only Renders the parts you changed. Are you Captureing to VCD format directy from your DV Cam?

2) Are your files already in rendered to VCD format? If so, make sure you chekc off the "Do Not Convert Compliant Video" check box from the options menu.

Is this your process?
1. Capture to Raw AVI or VCD?
2. Render to VCD format and burn? or Render in VCD format to video File?
3. Converting to VCD format at burning step? Or just putting together the created video files and burning, no converting?

[pnhmrk]

Are your files already in rendered to VCD format? If so, make sure you check off the "Do Not Convert Compliant Video" check box from the options menu.

Because the programme won't capture in VCD format (see below) - I haven't tried this.

Are you Capturing to VCD format directly from your DV Cam?

I've always captured as DV format. I've tried changing this to DCD format you can hear the motors in the camera start up, but then I get a message saying VideoStudio has "Performed an Illegal Operation"

Is this your process?
1. Capture to Raw AVI or VCD?

What is AVI? is this the format that the programme captures as DV?

2. Render to VCD format and burn? or Render in VCD format to video File?

I've tried both ways - if I render in VCD format to a file and then go on to create a disk the programme takes as long rerendering the file before it burns it to disk.

3. Converting to VCD format at burning step? Or just putting together the created video files and burning, no converting?

I have tried creating individual movies and then burning them to a disk, however I haven't started working out how to create menus and suchlike. I've normally tried to do the whole thing in one go.

[MachineMan]

Here is what I did for VCD before I got my DVD burner.

1. Capture to DVD format. Field order A, interlaced........
2. Edit and smart render DVD video file. Use same settings as Capture format.
3. Convert DVD file to VCD format. (for highest quality use TMPGenc to convert to VCD)
4. Author and Burn. movie using the created VCD video files. Make sure to chek the "do not convert compliant video" check box.


You could skip 2 and just render to VCD but the quality might not be as good. Not sure though.

If you have enough hardrive space you could save the DVD file for when you get a DVD burner.

Also for smart render to work every thing needs to be the same when you render the DVD file to your DVD video; Bite rate, CBR/VBR, Field order, interlaced, audio..... So make sure you capture to what you want. Im not sure why your previos capture to DVD did not work. Try messing with the settings.

[pnhmrk]

What is "TMPGenc"

[MachineMan]

TMPGenc is one of the best MPEG1 encoders. It also takes a long time but it is freeware that you could download. However VideoStudio will do the same thing.

Ulead VS7 will do what your are trying to do, you just need to get the setting correct and then it will work every time.

[SquirrelDip]

Please don't take this the wrong way but many of your questions can be answered by looking through this site. To the left under "WHAT IS" you will find "GLOSSARY" and under "HOW TO" you will see "GUIDES"

When starting out you will make many attempts and many bad disks (use a few CDRW's to start) - each attempt will open a few more doors and a few more terms will start to make sence. Getting into this video stuff is very trial and error oriented.

Video Studio is a great application to start with, it's the package that came with my first firewire card (although a much earlier version). I made many mistakes but with each screw-up I came back to this site and did a little more research - getting good at this stuff is going to take time...