Getting started with video editing and DVD burning

[furry_beans]

Just got myself a DVD writer the other day. A LiteOn 811S.

The software supplied with it leaves a lot to be desired - including stability

I'm able to burn data DVDs using Nero 6, but would like to transfer some videos to DVD, so I can play them in a DVD player.

So can someone recommend some decent software for editing video, and creating menus and chapter points?

At the moment I'm toying around with Adobe Premiere, which takes forever to export into an AVI file (and I don't seem to have an MPEG encoder) and can create a very basic DVD with a menu containing a couple of titles (but *not* with individual chapters in them.)

What software can you recommend?

[awlchu]

Suggestion:

For editing try editstudio www.puremotion.com

For DVD authoring try dvd-lab www.mediachance.com/dvdlab


You can buy a mpeg encoder with both packages ($32US with Editstudio) or $29US with the dvd-lab package.

Both companies have partnered to offer a nice price for both packages.

Best of luck, awlchu

[erayboul]

What version of Adobe Premiere are you using? I use 6.5 and it includes a MPEG-2 encoder (by Main Concept). I'm guessing that Premiere Pro also includes one. You shouldn't need to export to an AVI first. I'm not sitting in front on my own computer now so I can't tell you exactly where to find the encoder, but I think that it is somewhere under the Export menu. Then I think that the Main Concept encoder will generate either elementary streams (separate video and audio) or a program stream (combined video and audio). I would recommend trying TMPGenc DVD Author. I know for a fact that it accepts elementary streams, and it probably accepts a program stream as well. With TMPGenc DVD Author you can generate your menus, set up chapter points and so on. I believe that the latest version also accepts a $29 Dolby Digital plug-in. Of course, Dolby Digital (2.0 in this case) is highly recommended as it leaves much more room for the video (higher quality or more time).

If you can't find the Main Concept encoder, there is the option of frameserving to an encoder such as TMPGenc Plus. Visit http://dvd-hq.info and then look for the Frameserving guide under Guides.

[funkguy4]

i think there's a bunch of freeware that can do a pretty dandy job for you!

[furry_beans]

I think my version of Adobe Premiere is just version 5. The only options for exporting are to RealMedia or Windows Media formats, along with bog-standard Windows codecs. And my DivX and XviD codecs are both pretty messed up (when encoding, anyway.)

I'll take a look at that TMPGenc DVD Author software... Played around with just TMPGenc (I think?) the other day, but it only seems to be useful for compressing video into MPEG, and that's all. It wouldn't accept DV format AVI files either

I left Premiere running overnight, to encode a 30 minute video into a WMV file. The result was a few hundred MB - I'd rather have a couple of GB at least, or more, to fill up a DVD-R disc. Sure, it looks great still, but I'd rather make full use of what I have, so I've upped the resolution and am encoding again.

Thanx for the help

[bugster]

furry_beans, I don't know what Premiere 5 can do for you, but if your source is DV, you want to keep the resolution the same when you export (720 * 480/576). Also, keep the output encoder bitrate high.

TmpGenc Will accept DV video, just install the panasonic DV codec, that should do the trick. Yes, it is just an encoder.