?s on making DVDs from digital camcorder home videos

[GeoPappas]

I am relatively new to this field, and have a few questions on how to make a DVD from a home video that is stored on a DV camcorder tape.

I have read many of the threads and how-tos but I still have some questions.

1. My understanding, is that when capturing from the digital camcorder tape (DV) to computer via a Firewire card, the best way to do this is to create a DV - AVI file. This seems to save the original video onto the computer w/o any compression or conversion. But there seems to be two types of DV - AVI files: Type 1 and Type 2. According to the DVDRhelp Glossary (https://www.videohelp.com/glossary#DV), the difference is basically whether the audio is interlaced or not. Is one better than the other in general? Is one easier to use later on in the process (when converting or authoring)?

2. Most of my DV camcorder tapes are 60 minutes long. Should I record the whole 60 minutes into one AVI file, or should I break it up into smaller segments?

Thanks ahead of time for any and all help.

[Tommyknocker]

When capturing, it may be best to transfer using type 2, as type 1 does not always work in all editors/encoders.

Capture then entire footage as one file if possible, it will make is easy to edit, in my opinion.

[GeoPappas]

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[lechtin]

The type of DV-AVI file you get will depend on the capture software you use. For example, Ulead used to always capture in type 1 and Adobe Premiere captures in type 2. Type 2 is more common and I believe more compatible. When I imported Ulead-captured video into Premiere, the file properties would only report half of the real resolution. In any case, Ulead has a free program to convert type 1 to type 2.

As for capturing one large file vs smaller segments, I like to use a capture program with automatic scene detection (most do it, even ...horror of horror... Microsoft Movie Maker) that breaks up the movie in segments according to when you pressed the PAUSE button during your filming. I find it easier to find where I am in my video and use those segments as chapters.

[Turtle49]

I capture to Pinnacle Studio 8 from my Sony DV camcorder via firewire, it only gives me a "DV" option not 1 or 2 so I can't really help with that.
I always capture the whole movie and then if I feel the need I will break it up as I output it as an mpeg2. Otherwise I just leave it whole and output it. It really comes done to how much or little you want to edit it.

Just an FYI I do not author my DVD's using Pinnacle I use either Ulead Moviefactory or TMPGEnc DVD Author depending how much flexibility I need for menu's.

I hope this helps.
8)

[SenorDogoLoco]

I make my decision on whether to split the AVI file by scene at capture time based upon how much editing I plan to do. If I expect to spend substantial edit time, then I find it easier to work with smaller, split AVI files. If not much editing, then I will just capture to one big AVI. Of course, my capture program automatically splits at the scene level or I wouldn't even consider going down that road.