Edit first? Resize first? or just author?

[remulon]

I have recorded a sporting event from my video capture card in the PC. I set the record quality to standard DVD and I have now quite the large mpg file (9 gig ) in total for an hour and a half of content. I would like to make a DVD from this but first...
Do I do my edits first - i.e. remove some commercials - then recode to smaller file? Or does DVD authoring software do this? Where to start...

[Baldrick]

tmpgenc dvd author can edit and author.

or cut with videoredo or mpegvcr.

[remulon]

Thank you,
So then most authoring programs will compress the source mpg's? Like I said, there is around 9 gig of mpg's there and DVD's can hold around 4.7 gigs...

[northcat_8]

I do not advocate editing mpg files but...

If you author the DVD and it's too big you can always use DVDshrink to make it fit.

To crank down the size of your mpg files, you should encode at a lower bitrate...6000 should be approximately 1.5 hours of video and around 4 GB or so.

[remulon]

'I do not advocate editing mpg files but...'

As in edits are better done using avi's?

I want to stick with mpg's cause I have a video cam that I can get mpg's off of too, so I want to find a good method of editing these and authoring DVD's. Right now I just don't have a clear pic of when the shrinking is best done or whether this happens during the authoring process.

[Abond]

Use Cuttermaran

[rclayton17]

Well as far as I know, if you are capturing to mpeg, you are going to have to encode/convert/whatever to mpeg2 right?

If your capture card can't capture to mpeg2 i probably would have just captured as avi, edited, then encoded to mpeg2. But since it is already mpeg, I guess you could just convert to mpeg2 (I'm not sure how the picture quality would turn out though). After you author it, you can use dvd shrink to squeeze it onto a dvd, or you could have used lower quality settings when you are encoding to mpeg2. I'm not sure which method would be better.

I'm not expert but I'm just trying to help.

[northcat_8]

'I do not advocate editing mpg files but...'

As in edits are better done using avi's?

I want to stick with mpg's cause I have a video cam that I can get mpg's off of too, so I want to find a good method of editing these and authoring DVD's. Right now I just don't have a clear pic of when the shrinking is best done or whether this happens during the authoring process.

Not that I know for sure, but it seems as though many people have audio sync issues after editing MPG files. I don't know that for certain but I only work with AVI files and have never had audio sync issues in any program I've ever used.

MPG is a compress video format, AVI is compressed as well, but not nearly as much example: 38 minute video as DV-AVI is 6.7 GB, same video encoded as mpg is 765 MB

Anyway...enough of the mpg/avi debate...

If you are capturing to mpg, odds are you are capturing to MPEG-1. If that is true, you'll need to convert that to a MPEG-2 video file. Now some Authoring applications will do that for you. Ulead's DVD Workshop will take several different file types and create the DVD for you. An authoring app like TMPGenc DVD Author will not. You'll need to feed TDA MPEG-2 files, which can be converted with TMPGenc Plus 2.5.

Using Ulead DVDWS, after you make the DVD like you want it and you go to the finishing tab, you will have an option of bit rates on the output:



video looks fine at 6000. If you ask me I can't tell a difference between 6000 and 8000...you'll just have to see which you like better yourself.

DVDWS will tell you if the DVD you are trying to create is too big for the media <over 4.7 GB>, if it is too big, you can set a lower bit rate or you can go back and make changes to the DVD you've created...maybe drop out a video file or something like that.


If you are using TMPGenc DVD Author, you'll need to convert the video files to MPEG-2. In the apps I use, Adobe Premiere, Pinnacle Studio 8 and TMPGenc Plus 2.5, there is a setting for you to adjust the bit rate. I prefer to use TMPGenc Plus if I am using TDA, both apps are made by Pegasys and work well together.

The shrinking can happen during the author process or can be done before going to the authoring process...it just depends on what applications you use. I will tell you this much, if you convert to MPEG-2 before going to the authoring process, the authoring process will go much much faster, of course you give up that time in the converting but I always like the final process to go as quickly as possible.

[rclayton17]

Not that I know for sure, but it seems as though many people have audio sync issues after editing MPG files.

After editing Mpeg1 or mpeg2? or both?

And are the sync issues apparent in the video editing software or only after you author it on DVD?

[mats.hogberg]

Womble mpeg VCR seems rather good at cutting mpegs without the dreaded sync problem. Actually, never had any issues with this app, in contrast to when cutting with TMPGEnc...
You should have captured at the correct bit rate to begin with to make your recording fit a DVD, but since the deed is already done, I suggest you cut out the parts you don't want, author the resulting mpg to DVD structure on HDD. Then run this thru DVDShrink to make it fit the media and write to disc.

/Mats

[northcat_8]

Not that I know for sure, but it seems as though many people have audio sync issues after editing MPG files.

After editing Mpeg1 or mpeg2? or both?

And are the sync issues apparent in the video editing software or only after you author it on DVD?

Seems to me like it's both. The sync issues seem to be stated as post authoring. This makes me wonder if the sync issue was there after the editing or if it was a Authoring issue.

Like I said, I've never experienced sync issues..ever. I use the same software as everyone else who has had these issues. But I only work with AVI files until I'm completely finished editing and only convert to MPEG2 when I am ready to author.

DVDWS is one that I recall people saying they had sync issues with, and in every case I think I remember they edited MPEG files. I don't know if that's just a coincidense or not...but seems odd.

[pfh]

Do what mats said. Womble mpeg-vcr 30 day free trial. Try it, I think you'll like it. Dvd Shrink- free.

[remulon]

Thank you all for all the info...

Yes the deed is done and I see now I should have recorded originally at a lower bit rate. I did use DVDShrink and that did get it all to one DVD but the quality sucks - you can see it has been thru a lot of compression.

I originally made the mistake of assuming that by recording at a good quality level I could simply make a DVD at a somewhat lower quality easily enough later.

This hobby is certainly a good time waster...

[bugster]

did use DVDShrink and that did get it all to one DVD but the quality sucks -

In that case, better to take your edited mpeg and re-encode at alower bitraet before authoring rather than using DVDshrink. DVDshrink is great up to a point, but go over that and quality suffers greatly. Re-encode with a dedicated mpeg encoder (Tmpgenc, CCE, Mainconcep etc) at the correct bitrate to produce the filesize you need (Use VBR is possible). Then author and burn.

Thats my suggestion anyway