Questions... I have so many

[dobbin_uk]

Hi there, complete newbie here. I have so many questions but will try to separate them between threads. My situation is this: I bought a Sony DCR-PC105e about 1.5 years ago to record the life of our baby daughter. I have many films and have migrated them from camcorder tape to pc via Windows Movie Maker, always at the highest bitrate and in AVI format. Unfortunately I have not kept the source so if I've made a mistake by using Movie Maker then I can't undo it. I have the full, latest version of Nero and a brand new Pioneer DVR-108 to burn DVD's.
I have two questions for now:

• What is the best method and product/s to burn my avi movies to DVD, as a DVD movie? I am more interested in quality than anything else but price is always a consideration.
• What is the best method and product to transport my camcorder films to my pc and what format is best to save them as (bearing in mind that I will burn them to dvd)?

Although I'd like to think of myself as technically minded, please bear in mind that I'm completely new to anything on this subject. Any help much appreciated. Thanks in advance,
Lee.

[thecoalman]

• What is the best method and product/s to burn my avi movies to DVD, as a DVD movie? I am more interested in quality than anything else but price is always a consideration.

• This question gets asked a lot and you can get many responses, depends on who's answering. If your looking fo an all in one solution give Video Studio 8 a try for about $100..... From there it's a big leap to the next tier in software as ther is little in the middle ground. Media Studio Pro has an excellent package called Quartet that can hardly be beat if your looking for higher end software and want to get the best bang for your buck. There's also many freeware apps available, look in the tools section.
  
  

• What is the best method and product to transport my camcorder films to my pc and what format is best to save them as (bearing in mind that I will burn them to dvd)?

[dobbin_uk]

Thanks for the response Coalman. I've seen a WinAVI 6 on this site so I may give that a go. I'm transferring digital and, rather than doing heavy editing, I just want to get the movies onto DVD. Partly for backup purposes and partly so that other family members can have a copy.

Thanks again,
Lee.

[thecoalman]

If your transferring digital to AVI it makes no difference what you use, it's a lossless transfer. It's almost like copying it from your cam to HD, the reason I say almost is because there's the possibility of data loss if your computer can't keep up with it, otherise it's just like copying. There's just different options in some of the "capture" programs such as splitting them by size, scene, etc.

For backing up I suggest you split the captured AVI into adout 4.2 GB files and transfer directly to Data DVD. That will give you an exact copy of what is on your cam. Use them as source files to create DVD compliant video for viewing on a standalone DVD player. You can't play AVI's on nearly all DVD players and they can't be authored to DVD with menus etc,

[makntraks]

[list][*]What is the best method and product/s to burn my avi movies to DVD, as a DVD movie? I am more interested in quality than anything else but price is always a consideration.

This question gets asked a lot and you can get many responses, depends on who's answering.

And fortunately I am still in a festive mood...... 8)

makntraks

[offline]

If your transferring digital to AVI it makes no difference what you use, it's a lossless transfer

DV is a lossy compressed codec. If you
were transfering to Hufffy or raw then it would be
lossless.

[Capmaster]

Hi there, complete newbie here. I have so many questions but will try to separate them between threads. My situation is this: I bought a Sony DCR-PC105e about 1.5 years ago to record the life of our baby daughter. I have many films and have migrated them from camcorder tape to pc via Windows Movie Maker, always at the highest bitrate and in AVI format. Unfortunately I have not kept the source so if I've made a mistake by using Movie Maker then I can't undo it. I have the full, latest version of Nero and a brand new Pioneer DVR-108 to burn DVD's.
I have two questions for now:

• What is the best method and product/s to burn my avi movies to DVD, as a DVD movie? I am more interested in quality than anything else but price is always a consideration.
• What is the best method and product to transport my camcorder films to my pc and what format is best to save them as (bearing in mind that I will burn them to dvd)?

Although I'd like to think of myself as technically minded, please bear in mind that I'm completely new to anything on this subject. Any help much appreciated. Thanks in advance,
Lee.

Lee, Your best bet is to start reading. It'll save you a lot of aggravation trying to get all your answers via posting. And it's also a condition you agreed to when you joined ..."do some basic research before posting".

It's a complicated and involved hobby, and members who fully understand it are few and far between.

Spend some time doing research. Chances are it'll be faster than the post/wait process, and you can go at your own pace. Only post when you have specific wuestions that the guides don't seem to be answering for you.

Start here, and ...good luck:

[ZippyP.]

If your transferring digital to AVI it makes no difference what you use, it's a lossless transfer

DV is a lossy compressed codec. If you
were transfering to Hufffy or raw then it would be
lossless.

Yes, but in this case it is a transfer from DV camera to PC...no conversion and no loss (if done properly).

@dobbinuk: Just make sure to use a program that is not converting it during transfer, like Winavi (previously mentioned) or DVIO.

[thecoalman]

If your transferring digital to AVI it makes no difference what you use, it's a lossless transfer

DV is a lossy compressed codec. If you
were transfering to Hufffy or raw then it would be
lossless.

It's my understanding when transfering DV from cam to computer it's lossless as far as it's an exact copy. There's no conversion hence lossless transfer. Is that incorrect?

That was always my understanding that you were copying the video from tape to computer, providing there's no data lost in the transfer it's an exact copy??????????

[dobbin_uk]

Lee, Your best bet is to start reading. It'll save you a lot of aggravation trying to get all your answers via posting. And it's also a condition you agreed to when you joined ..."do some basic research before posting".

It's a complicated and involved hobby, and members who fully understand it are few and far between.

Spend some time doing research. Chances are it'll be faster than the post/wait process, and you can go at your own pace. Only post when you have specific wuestions that the guides don't seem to be answering for you.

Start here, and ...good luck:

Thanks Capmaster. Having browsed many forums before, I will indeed be doing a lot of digging around this fantastic forum. But at the same time I still appreciate the help and advice of people, who understand that one post, which specifically answers your questions, is worth an awful lot of digging time and furthermore appreciate the time that they take to reply. No offence intended but I will post as and when I like until a moderator decides I am in serious breach of the forum CoC. Btw, regarding your post about your sons ATI folder problem: If you do a google search on 'ATI folder startup' one of the returned results will help you out. Basic research right?

Regards,
Lee.

[Capmaster]

Lee, Your best bet is to start reading. It'll save you a lot of aggravation trying to get all your answers via posting. And it's also a condition you agreed to when you joined ..."do some basic research before posting".

It's a complicated and involved hobby, and members who fully understand it are few and far between.

Spend some time doing research. Chances are it'll be faster than the post/wait process, and you can go at your own pace. Only post when you have specific wuestions that the guides don't seem to be answering for you.

Start here, and ...good luck:

Thanks Capmaster. Having browsed many forums before, I will indeed be doing a lot of digging around this fantastic forum. But at the same time I still appreciate the help and advice of people, who understand that one post, which specifically answers your questions, is worth an awful lot of digging time and furthermore appreciate the time that they take to reply. No offence intended but I will post as and when I like until a moderator decides I am in serious breach of the forum CoC. Btw, regarding your post about your sons ATI folder problem: If you do a google search on 'ATI folder startup' one of the returned results will help you out. Basic research right?

Regards,
Lee.

Thanks for the tip on the startup folder. I had already done a forum search here for the answer, including the keywords you suggested, and only posted after I didn't find what I needed. Your suggestion yielded:

No topics or posts met your search criteria, try use less keywords and be sure to use search terms with at least 3 characters(searching for example for DV wont work).

Your original post:

What is the best method and product/s to burn my avi movies to DVD, as a DVD movie? I am more interested in quality than anything else but price is always a consideration.

What is the best method and product to transport my camcorder films to my pc and what format is best to save them as (bearing in mind that I will burn them to dvd)?

asks questions that could have been answered by a perusal of the guides.

No offence intended but I will post as and when I like until a moderator decides I am in serious breach of the forum CoC

Since I am a moderator here (member status text is blue for moderators), I guess that qualifies me to advise you to read the guides, wouldn't you say?

[richdvd]

No offence intended but I will post as and when I like until a moderator decides I am in serious breach of the forum CoC.

Isn't that what they call a "cheeky bugger" in the UK?

[Capmaster]

No offence intended but I will post as and when I like until a moderator decides I am in serious breach of the forum CoC.

Isn't that what they call a "cheeky bugger" in the UK?

Yes. It's clearly someone who needs to familiarize himself with the forum, the moderators here, and the effect "copping an attitude" has on the other members. I still expect him to get some flaming for that comment.

But I was laughing as I read that because he clearly didn't know I was a mod here, and you gotta respect his gall. "Cheeky" indeed

However, that's not to say my finger didn't twitch a few times over the yellow button ....just out of reflex

[northcat_8]

I use TMPGenc Plus 2.5 to convert AVI to MPEG-2 (DVD compliant video), then use TMPGenc DVD Author to author the DVD.

I capture usiing pinnacle studio 8 (it sucks but it came with the capture card and it does what I need it to do), but I capture to DV-AVI, 720x480 29.97 fps.

[dobbin_uk]

hehe I gathered you were a Mod from other threads that you've moved. I was just being what richdvd said but, as I said, no offence intended. Now stop disturbing me. I have a lot of forum reading to do

Regards,
Lee.

[Capmaster]

hehe I gathered you were a Mod from other threads that you've moved. I was just being what richdvd said but, as I said, no offence intended. Now stop disturbing me. I have a lot of forum reading to do

Regards,
Lee.

I like you, Lee

Now go read some more!

[richdvd]

The British in OT have taught me well.
That's the first time I have used that. 8)

Cheers Mate!

Now stop disturbing me. I have a lot of forum reading to do

Good Lad.

[offline]

Isn't that what they call a "cheeky bugger" in the UK?

And elsewhere...

Cheeky bugger, Cheeky Sod, Cheeky So & So, Cheeky Monkey,
Cheeky bastard, Giving Cheek, Giving Lip, Not Watching
their Lip, Trying it On.

[Garibaldi]

Lee, Your best bet is to start reading. It'll save you a lot of aggravation trying to get all your answers via posting. And it's also a condition you agreed to when you joined ..."do some basic research before posting".

It's a complicated and involved hobby, and members who fully understand it are few and far between.

Spend some time doing research. Chances are it'll be faster than the post/wait process, and you can go at your own pace. Only post when you have specific wuestions that the guides don't seem to be answering for you.

Well put Cap. I started doing video-editing in May of this last year, and once you get started it really only gets easier. If you have any questions I'm glad to help, you can pm me too if you want!