Beginner Burning a DVD

[ricardov]

My wife and I are trying to create DVD birthday invitations for our twins to send out. So, instead of sending cards, we would like to send a DVD with pictures and of course some audio/video.

However, today we bought adobe premiere elements to try to test out our editing skills. But it seems that we cant import DVD into the editing software. (haven't opened anything yet)

I have a Sony DVD Camcorder, DCR-DVD300, which use the small DVD-Rs. I also bought a Iomega Super DVDWriter 16X External Drive to connect to my wife's laptop, so we can burn the DVDs. My PC is too old. And we also bought a 50 pack of DVD+R discs.

The Sony DVDCam has a USB port. I thought that, I would connect the USB to the laptop and use the editing software to import the 30 min clips of the twins from the miniDVDs. But when I read DVD export only in premiere elements, I knew it was harder then we thought.

I was reading some comments in the forum in VideoHelp.com. And it seems that (if I am correct), would have to rip the DVD to the laptop has MPEG2 and then import that into adobe premiere elements. Is that correct? Then I started to read about VOBs. Then I was thinking great, I only need a few seconds or minutes in each miniDVD and now I have to rip 20+ discs. And then use premiere to select the clips I want and then create the final clip in premiere.

Is it a straight process to rip the miniDVDs to AVI? And is AVIthe best quality and easier to use in premiere? I was reading that the audio and video have to be in two different streams, which I guess it will help with the editing software. But is it really easier?

What the end product should be is a short 30 min clip with audio, still pictures and video on a DVD that can be view on any DVD player/PC.

Thanks for your help,

Ricardo

[reboot]

Rip the dvd's to your laptop as mpeg2, not avi.
Premiere elements will allow you to then edit the portions you want.
Once edited, you should be able to import them all to elements, and create the dvd structure (vobs and such), then burn to dvdr directly with elements as well.
The burner should also have come with some sort of authoring software, Nero, Sonic, etc, which you may find easier to use than elements for the compiling and burning stages.
Be prepared to add a lot more than 30 min. You can fit one hour of very high quality video on one cdr, or 2 hours of HQ.