From start to finish, fastest way? *n00bish*

[MikeMGMVE]

So here's my plan - take a series off my tivo, i encode with a canopus advc300 to uncompressed avi, cut out the commercials... i guess using virtualdub (trying to figure that out in the editing forum), and the I want to author them to dvd's.

What's the best way to do that? I Have adobe encore, and also tmpgenc plus, and nero. I figure encore, as i can create nicer menus, but I know there's all the transcode settings, and i'd like to try and fit 3-4 episodes per dvd (each ep will run probably 35-40 mins, so I may try and fit 4 episodes per dvd with a little bit of compression).

Any help, or tips would be supa appreciated!

[edDV]

So here's my plan - take a series off my tivo, i encode with a canopus advc300 to uncompressed avi, cut out the commercials... i guess using virtualdub (trying to figure that out in the editing forum), and the I want to author them to dvd's.

What's the best way to do that? I Have adobe encore, and also tmpgenc plus, and nero. I figure encore, as i can create nicer menus, but I know there's all the transcode settings, and i'd like to try and fit 3-4 episodes per dvd (each ep will run probably 35-40 mins, so I may try and fit 4 episodes per dvd with a little bit of compression).

Any help, or tips would be supa appreciated!

The ADVC-300 outputs DV format. Best to use a native DV editor to avoid generation loss during cuts editing (e.g. Premiere, Vegas, Video Studio). Then encode MPeg2. One hour episodes (44 min after commercial removal) can look great 2 per disc, fair 3 episodes per disc (352x480) or crap at 4 episodes per disc. Use the bitrate calculator to figure bitrates.
https://www.videohelp.com/calc.

[redwudz]

I use VirtualDub Mod and frameserve the edited file directly to TMPGEnc encoder. Saves hard drive space and speeds up the process if you just do cut and paste editing. Frameserving guide: https://www.videohelp.com/virtualdubframeserve.htm

AVIsynth is probably better for the frameserving, but a little harder to learn.

[edDV]

I use VirtualDub Mod and frameserve the edited file directly to TMPGEnc encoder. Saves hard drive space and speeds up the process if you just do cut and paste editing. Frameserving guide: https://www.videohelp.com/virtualdubframeserve.htm

AVIsynth is probably better for the frameserving, but a little harder to learn.

That works but you do loose a decode generation.

[Soopafresh]

Why not use one of the many Tivo transfer tools to FTP the files off the Tivo box, then use VideoRedo (newer versions have Tivo support), cut out the commercials and you're 80% of the way there.

There are some problems with the above option - depending on your model of Tivo, you'd have to install a network adapter inside your unit - not difficult if you've worked on PCs, but you'd want a friend with experience in the area if you've never done this before.

The next step involves booting the unit off of a premade DVD boot disk that starts the Tivo box up as an FTP server.

Okay, maybe not the easiest way to do it, unless you plan on archiving programs frequently.


Capturing to uncompressed AVI, uh...umm...that's gonna take a room full of drives.

[MikeMGMVE]

Well I have about 300GB of space. My tivo is an older Directv/Tivo model no longer in production. I'm not sure what kind of transfer options I have, it does have a USB port on the back of it tho? I'm pretty clueless about the hardware and what its capable of.

[MikeMGMVE]

The ADVC-300 outputs DV format. Best to use a native DV editor to avoid generation loss during cuts editing (e.g. Premiere, Vegas, Video Studio). Then encode MPeg2. One hour episodes (44 min after commercial removal) can look great 2 per disc, fair 3 episodes per disc (352x480) or crap at 4 episodes per disc. Use the bitrate calculator to figure bitrates.
https://www.videohelp.com/calc.

I have premiere.. I guess I'd just have to teach myself how to use it. I love Adobe products, they just aren't very user friendly in that "i'm gonna teach myself" kinda way.. but once you learn then, then they become second nature.

The show I'm putting to DVD is the American Idol Rewind series (reairing the first season) since it seems unlikely that it'll ever get a real release and it was my favorite seris, and I'm a fan of Nikki McKibbin, and it's about 22 episodes I think in total. It just seems like 11 DVD's to have a whole series is a lot.

[jman98]

The show I'm putting to DVD is the American Idol Rewind series (reairing the first season) since it seems unlikely that it'll ever get a real release and it was my favorite seris, and I'm a fan of Nikki McKibbin, and it's about 22 episodes I think in total. It just seems like 11 DVD's to have a whole series is a lot.

Well, if you're using CCE or some similar high quality video encoder, you could encode the bitrates down to get 3 episodes per DVD after removing the commercials. I think with a proper encoder the quality would certainly be good enough to do this. That would get you down to 8 DVDs, 7 if you don't mind jamming 4 episode at an even lower bit rate to fit them on one disc. Or you could use dual layer media which might get you 4 episodes per dual layer disc without much, if any, re-encoding (depends on the bitrate you recorded them at originally).

[edDV]

Episodes are usually 44min after commercial removal.
Encode as you wish. https://www.videohelp.com/calc

Round numbers
6000Kb/s ~97min = 2 episodes/DVD
3000Kb/s ~4 episodes
1500Kb/s ~8 episodes

Suggest 352x480 below 4500Kb/s