How? TV Movies to DVD

[rckowal]

What are the most popular options to capture movies from live TV, edit out some start/end time buffers (& commercials if present); then burn to DVD? Hardware that is available here includes a DVR; as well as a TV tuner, & plenty of hard drive space in the PC.

So far, I have tried capturing with the DVR (on DVD+RW) then transferring the files to the hard drive. To edit out the extraneous clips, I used Nero 7 - Nero Vision. Although this worked ok to a point, Nero Vision is unacceptably slow when it transcodes & burns to the DVD. It takes about the same amount of time (2 hours 20 mins.) as the movie itself. In contrast, the same movie can be encoded & burned to DVD in about 8 minutes using DVD Shrink.

Regardless, it seems to me that there is probably a better/more preferred way to do this. For the experts on the forum, how would you do it? Your ideas will be very much appreciated.

[Baldrick]

From DVR DVD to DVD:

Edit and reauthor with Tmpgenc dvd author. No video reconversion at all.

Or edit with Videoredo or Mpeg video wizard.

Don't use software that transcode/reconvert dvd video like nerovision.

[mats.hogberg]

I use the Hauppage PVR 250, that captures to authoring ready mpg. Trim and cut commercials with Womble mpeg VCR (could do it with TDA too, but...). Author with TDA. As streamlined as it gets.

/Mats

[rckowal]

Thanks Baldrick & Mats.hogberg for replying.

So it appears that there are two, or possibly three workflow tasks. The first to capture the TV stream & save it to the hard drive. Then edit & reauthor. Then burn???

Is there some reason why you use TDA, Videoredo, Mpeg video wizard or Womble mpeg VCR to edit & reauthor? Can they provide some capabilities/benefits that are not possible with free software, like DVD Shrink; or other software which I already have - including Nero Suite, Cyberlink Power DVD or Windows Movie Maker? If so, please help me to understand what they are.

Forgive me for not knowing more about the software you mentioned, but do any of them also burn the DVD once the files have been edited & reauthored? If not, then what software do you use to burn?

Is there a complete guide which describes the entire process from tv stream to finished DVD? If so, where can I find it?

[Baldrick]

There are 14325 possibly workflow tasks.

You can capture video using dvd recorder, computer capture card, dvcam to dv....

If you are capturing using a dvd recorder and want to edit it is easiest to use a software that can import directly from the dvd and that doesn't reconvert the video(lose video quality and it takes time). tda,videredo,dvdshrink,mpeg video wizard can do that.

nerovision,wmm reencodes video.

mpeg video wizard can do advanced editing, transitions and similar.

videoredo is just a joiner and cutter, you author to a dvd(convert the video to a dvd file structure with optional menus and such) with something else.

tda can edit, author and burn.

dvdshrink can edit but you can't make menus.


and there are no "complete" guides...there are just too many ways.

[rckowal]

Thanks again Baldrick,

14325 possible workflow tasks huh? That's a bunch.

You have cleared up a lot of things in your comments about the various software, especially the compromised video quality resulting from reencoding.

For nearly all of my TV movie projects, a simple cut & joiner will do just fine. I have never yet seen a need for menus or other editing capabilities for such projects. TDA sounds like a good choice for them.

I also do some home movies using captures from my DVD camcorder. However, I usually use Studio 9 since it gives me the ability to do the capture, editing & adding transitions, sound effects, burn, etc. all in one software package. I just thought of some thing - does Studio reencode as well???