Home movies - This sucks - What's wrong!

[pwygant]

Hello,

I have recently bought all the components needed to edit and make home videos:

Goal: I want to make SVCD home movies from DV footage

Background: I have tried the following programs and have access to them... Pinnacle studio SE, Adobe Premiere, & Ulead video studio. Pinnacle studio & Ulead videostudio is so simple and you just drag and drop. Adobe premiere might take while but it looks simple aswell.

Problem: I edited the footage in Pinnacle studio and then exported movie to create MPEG2 video. I then bruned an SVCD. The footage was horrible! I thought to myself, why the hell did I buy all this when I could have done this quality with my little canon G1 camera that takes little MPEG. (I didn't try to save in AVI)

I then tried in Premiere and it saves the DV in AVI. I then used TMPGE to convert the AVI to MPEG 2. Much better result.

Question: Is this the best way to do it (save in avi with pinnacle studio or premiere) and then convert to MPEG2 w/ TMPGE?

Thanks...

P.S It looked like the camera was shaking a little more than the original footage. Should I turn off stabilizer?

[Malcom]

Yes, going to intermediate AVI and then using a good encoder (CCE, TMPEGENC) is preferrable.

Or... try SonicFoundry's VegasVideo instead of those second-rate NLEs you're using. It is a much better editor, has tons of effects for video AND audio, has built-in powerful capture, and ....

a respectable built-in MPEG1/2 export that is at least as good as TMPEGENC, possibly better.

I use Vegas, but I use CCE for MPEG encoding because it is the best, better than TMPEG and better than Vegas'

[dgsmith]

Starting with raw .avi works best for me.

I have a Sony Digital 8 TRV230 and an Adaptec firewire card. I used the MGI videowave app that came with the camcorder to capture from the camcorder but it sucks and only does 44100Khz which caused audio sync issues.

I use sclive now to capture ro .avi and it does great.

Then I either encode with tmpgenc and burn with Nero to do VCD (excellent results), or I encode with tmpgenc, author with Spruceup (slower than my consipated grandmother), and burn with Nero to DVD -r/rw.

I am looking for one app to do it all. I think Ulead sucks, looking around for some "shareware" :roll: .

I never had any luck with svcd, it always looked like crap on my apex, so i bought a dvr-a04 and just got it over with. best money i ever spent, messing with all the CDs takes time, and dvd-r prices are dropping like a rock.

**** added bonus. I run anything connected to the camcorder via svideo thru the camera and capture it on the pc. No Macrovision that way, get really good caps off of satellite or dvd player.

I capture the dvd into the computer and just encode to the max 4.7 gig size and burn. That way I dont have to mess with dvd rips and all that crap. great quality.

[You_Are_Alive]

dgsmith,

Have you used any double sided media (9.4gig) to WRITE with the AO4? Its never talked about, every place I found so far just says it reads double sided, but no one says it can write. Since you have it, have you tested to see if it can indeed write to double sided, single layered media (9.4 gig)? Or are you limited to only 4.7 gig? And what software bundle did you get with it?