Converting home movies to DVD - help

[awilki01]

Hello all. I'm new to this forum. I have a question....

I have a Panasonic PV-DV400 with home movies that I'm trying to convert to DVD. I'm using the firewire connection to capture video by using Windows Movie Maker. I'm capturing it in AVI format so as not to lose any quality. I'm also using Windows Movie Maker to edit the video accordingly.

From there, I'm using Nero Vision Express 2 to make DVD menus and converting the AVI to DVD video (MPEG2). I made one DVD already, but the video always skips and pauses, etc. Would this be because I have encoded the MPEG2 in high quality setting in Nero Vision Express 2 (9716kbits/sec)? Should I try encoding at standard mode (5073kbits/sec)?

Also, is there a better program than Nero to convert to MPEG2, etc? Will another program make the picture quality look better? Or, does it really matter? I do not want to spend any money if I don't have to.

Also, any other suggestions on how I can improve my process would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks,
Adam

[Tommyknocker]

It may be better to encode to TMPGEnc Plus (14 day free trial) as an MPEG-2 DVD file before going to Nero. Load the DV file into TMPGEnc, select the DVD template and press start. Burn the resultant file with Nero.

[awilki01]

Would I get better quality with TMPGEnc???

[Tommyknocker]

I would say yes. The problem you have usually comes from using Nero as an encoder and burner, when it is best used as a burner. Remember, you can use TMPGEnc Plus free for fourteen days, so you have nothing to lose.

[bugster]

I made one DVD already, but the video always skips and pauses, etc.
Adam

I agree with TommyKnocker regarding Quality and Tmpgenc, however, with regard to the skips and pauses, the more likley reason is bad media or even good media and a DVD player that that is marginal when it comes to reading recordable media. Take a look at your DVD player in the plaeys section of this site to see if anyone else can reccomed a brand of media that has worked well, or buy a sample pack of multiple brands as sold by several online retailers to determine what works best with your player.

[awilki01]

Its not the media or the DVD player. I have made other DVD backups with Nero and it worked wonderful.....


With TMPGEnc Plus, I cannot seem to make an MPEG file by using the wizard. It always seperates it by a .wav and .m2v file..... What can I do with these? Nero doesn't recognize them...

[Sugar]

Check you did not use a PAL template instead of an NTSC one or vice versa.

[awilki01]

Nope, I used the NTSC template.....

I can make one .mpeg file by NOT using the wizard. But, with the wizard, the box option that indicates to make separate files is unclickable....

[Tommyknocker]

Nope, I used the NTSC template.....

Could you try to burn a PAL DVD and see what happens?

I can make one .mpeg file by NOT using the wizard. But, with the wizard, the box option that indicates to make separate files is unclickable....

What do you mean?

[awilki01]

Go here:
http://www.advantexcom.net/~awilkins/www/Project%20Wizard.jpg

The check box for Output video and audio as individual elementary streams is unclickable. I cannot disable it in the Wizard mode....

[awilki01]

I figured it out.......

There is a setting at the beginning of the Wizard..

[Tommyknocker]

What setting are you referring to?

[awilki01]

On the very first page of the Project Wizard, there is a drop down box in the lower right where you can set the different audio types. I selected CBR MPEG-1 Layer II Audio (MP2). It makes the .mpeg file now instead of the two separate video and audio files...