What Digital Camcorder Software to Use?

[whoster69]

I've got a Sony DCR-TRV38 digital Camcorder. I made a copy of our school play using mini-DV tapes. It lasted about 41 minutes. I want to get the files off of the tape and onto my computer and then burn the movie onto ONE CD that can be played on ANY DVD player (hooked up to a standard TV). I want to give each of my students a CD copy of the play that they can play at home on their various DVD players.

What software do people recommend to do this?

Is there something out there that will allow me to get good quality (what I mean by this is that it will look good on a standard TV) video that will fit on one CD for 40 minutes of video or am I trying to do the impossible? I'm an old hand at computers, but I'm completely new to digital video stuff.

Any help is greatly appreciated. If you'd got links to useful web sites please post those as well.

My students and I thank you for your help!

[victor010170]

Get windv free. Check out forum DV in this site. It has many info. Burn with Nero, also free program. This assume you do not edit the movie. If you do edit it, get virtualdub (free as well). I presume your camcorder has DV output with firewire to connect with your pc. Then you do not need capture card at all. All you have to do is connect from camcorder to pc with firewire cable. Again, presume you have firewire adaptor on the back of pc.

I am not familiar with burn on cd to play on DVD. However, if you want to burn on dvd to play on any DVD old and new, I suggest to burn on DVD-R. This format almost play on any DVD at any ages. Good luck.

[FOO]

It is not possible to guarantee that a CD video will play in all
players. They usually will with newer players however.

You have essentially 2 choices VCD or SVCD
SVCD is much better , but VCD will probably play in more players.
40 min will fit on a SVCD with good quality just barely .

Look up VCD or SVCD to the left in HowTo

This is not a trivial process.

[whoster69]

It is not possible to guarantee that a CD video will play in all
players. They usually will with newer players however.

You have essentially 2 choices VCD or SVCD
SVCD is much better , but VCD will probably play in more players.
40 min will fit on a SVCD with good quality just barely .

Look up VCD or SVCD to the left in HowTo

This is not a trivial process.

I can't burn in a format that is compatible with all players? What format do DVDs come in? Why can't I use that?

Thanks for the help/info everyone!

[choirislife923]

I can't burn in a format that is compatible with all players? What format do DVDs come in? Why can't I use that?

Thanks for the help/info everyone!

DVDs come in mpeg2 with 8megabits per second. if you really want to do that, it would come out to be about 2 discs (avg is about 20 mins of DVD video on a CD). also with the DVD format video on CD, expect about 1% of the DVD players to be able to play it (see miniDVD). this is because this format tries exploit the dvd's hardware but most DVD players simply get confused and refuse to load (loading dvd media, but the media is not dvd but rather cd).

[FOO]

What format do DVDs come in? Why can't I use that?

Because you SAID you wanted to put it on a CD not a DVD.
You wanted to play them in a DVD PLAYER

[whoster69]

So my only options are to go with VCD or SVCD (or DiVX or XVID)? I know there are a lot of mainstream players that don't support these. I was hoping there would be a better option.

Thanks for the help.

[Perro Grande]

If you want to put your work on CD, VCD and SVCD are the most commonly supported options. DivX and many other flavors are not universal at all, and are virtually non-existant in older DVD players.

Of course, authoring a DVD would give you the best quality and reasonably high compatibility -- although some DVD players do NOT like various forms of "home-made" DVD's... Some DVD players are fussier than others. I have some that would darn near play the DVD case if it would fit, and others that seem reluctant to play anything except commercial DVDs... it just depends.

If you choose the VCD route, you'll have decent DVD-player compatibility. You can use Windv or DVIO to capture the video as a raw AVI. From there, you can use TMPGEnc to create the MPEG1 VCD file. You'll need burning software that can burn a video CD. Nero is one, but there are many others. Search the TOOLS section for various VCD tools. You may be able to do the entire thing with freeware.

If you choose to go the DVD route, you can use TMPGEnc to make the dvd-compliant MPEG2 file (you'll need the registered version to make mpeg2), and then any of a number of software packages to author the DVD. TMPG DVD Author is a fine application, reasonably priced, and worthy of consideration. It will burn your DVD for you, too.

Within the DVD world you have your choice of two formats -- DVD-R and DVD+R. There is a raging debate about which one to choose. A dual-format drive can read/write both, which is a good thing. You can search through the site and read the various articles about the two. DVD-R is arguably more compatible with set-top players, while DVD+R offers arguably higher speed, given the appropriate media. I've honestly had excellent results with both...

The good news is that at only 41 minutes, you can probably author your DVD with the highest bitrates (e.g. highest quality). I'm not a VCD expert, but perhaps someone else who is more experienced can comment on the results you could expect from VCD/SVCD.

For my two cents, you'd be better off going with the DVD option. There are more up-sides than going the VCD route.

[choirislife923]

Within the DVD world you have your choice of two formats -- DVD-R and DVD+R. There is a raging debate about which one to choose. A dual-format drive can read/write both, which is a good thing. You can search through the site and read the various articles about the two. DVD-R is arguably more compatible with set-top players, while DVD+R offers arguably higher speed, given the appropriate media. I've honestly had excellent results with both...

*dvd-r rant*

dont trust dvd+r. those things are not compatible with most of the old DVD players and game systems (ps2 and xbox). also, DVD-R is made by the DVD Forum, which originally made the specifications for DVD (as in the hollywood DVDs, not the recordable consumer ones). DVD+R was developed by companies who were pretty much ticked off at the forum and wanted the piece of the action *cough*hp*cough*

[Bstansbury]

Boy, I bet you're totally confused by now. You started this thread with a simple question about software and there have been several posts that will work,.... but,.... I can see that from your limited understanding of CD's and DVD, you would be spending months trying to get these suggestions to every work. These posts make it sound like using WinDV, VirtualDub, and TMPGen is simple, all you have to do is plug in the data and away you go. Ha Ha Ha.

Getting back to your question,... and what you want to do,.. if you don't want to make a career out of this project lets see if there is a simpler way.

I assume you don't have a CD-RW drive in you computer. They are easy to buy and not that expensive anymore. They will burn CD's for you. What you need to do is to look for one that is packaged with some software that will burn the CD, and do it all at once so you don't need anything else. I feel the easist way to get to the end product you want, Which is going to be an SVCD (and possibly a VCD) is to look for a CD-RW unit that comes with Ulead VideoStudio (Ver 6 or 7). This is a totally complete package that will allow you to transfer the DV from your camcorder to your PC in DV .avi format directly into the program. There you can edit down your 41 minutes to something like 30+ minutes. I'm sure there are some scenes you need to cut out. The software then can help you add any backgound music, insert special effects such as fade in/out from scene to scene, add voiceover, titles, etc. When your happy with your results, select the Finish mode and select "Create SVCD Disk", put a blank CD in your new CD-RW and hit go.

If some of your students have a DVD player that won't take a SVCD, you can use the same program and the same source you've already created and Burn a "VCD" the same way. If that doesn't work for them,... They you can buy them a new DVD player....

While this software is a "One Stop Shop" for making VCD, SVCD, and DVD's, it takes some leaning. Right now you don't know a thing about editing, where to cut, how to fade, and 100 other things,... I mean it sound like you've not burned a lot of CD's, and that is a leaning process to begin with.

I've done everything you need to do and I've done it with all the other software you've seen posted to your question. I've also done it with VideoStudio and it will do it all in one spot and the quality is great. If you already have a CD-RW unit, watch for adds at CompUSA, they had a sale on VideoStudio for $49 a couple of weeks ago, and that was a good bargain. I'm not aware of another program that has all that function in one place. There are others that can produce the video, but you also then have to have an MPEG encoder, and you won't get an MPEG-2 encoder for "Free". AFter that you will still need a program to "Burn" the SVCD, but you might have that if you already have a CD-RW unit. I'm sure there are many other ways to do what you want to do,... I just know that this way is works.

I hope I have helped,... and I do think you would like to get this project done before you retire and without spending big $$$.