Capturing DV tape in DVD format?

[Vanna]

Hi all,

I use Arcsoft showbiz dvd to capture from my DV tapes, there is an option to capture in mpeg2 format (for DVD's). But when I choose this option it doesn't work.

All I want to do is basically transfer the dv tape to dvd, no authoring, menus etc.

Is there a (preferably free) program I can use to capture in the dvd format? I find it annoying capturing in AVI format, then encoding to dvd.

Is there an easier way?

[ktnwin]

There are some software out there that can capture DV video and transfer directly to DVD. Once cheap one is neoDVD. And this one is proven to work for many folks in this forum.
Beware that these software always capture in AVI format and in parallel convert them to MPEG-2 then when complete, did a quick authoring then burn. To the user, it seems like DV video go directly to DVD. The conversion and authoring is behind the scene.
Dont' know any free ware that can do that.
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[redwudz]

You can convert DV to MPEG-2 format on the fly with Mainconcept encoder, though you would still have to author and burn.

A lot of people here will probably tell you to get a standalone DVD recorder. You can easily go from DV to finished DVD with one of those without any software problems. Can't get much easier.

EDIT: There is another way I have used with success. VSO DivxToDVD can accept DV and convert to DVD. It's $30US to buy it, but the old freeware version is probably still around. And it has a trial period so you can try it out.

[thecoalman]

Conversion to MPEG on the fly requires a lot of CPU, without it the quality will suffer. From the sparse computer specs you have listed, specifically 256MB of ram I'm guessing you don't have it.

Having said that it's my understanding (I've only read a few posts on the Ulead forum about this) that Ulead Video Studio 9 which uses a version of the mainconcept encoder will do this with just about any setup. It will pause the cam mid transfer if the computer becomes overwhelmed which it will if you have a slow CPU. Apparently it will take the data in chunks as it can accomodate it. There's a free trial avaialble so it's definitely worth a try.

One thing I would do is comapre a clip converted to 8000kbps using conversion on the fly and one captured from AVI then converted to 8000kbps to see if there is a significant difference in the quality.

[Richard_G]

Ulead DVD Moviefactory can capture from Firewire and burn direct to DVD on the fly. No menus or anything, just a straight dump of what is on your tape to a disc. It isn't free but isn't expensive either (£20 in the UK) and a 30 day free trial can be downloaded from www.ulead.com. As it uses an optimised version of the Mainconcept encoder, the quality is pretty good too.

[gshelley61]

You can buy a used Lite-On or ilo standalone DVD recorder on eBay for less than $100... sometimes for as little as $50-60. They all have DV firewire input. They use LSI hardware encoding chips and do a very good job of DV to DVD conversion. For hand held camcorder footage, use the highest quality 1 hour per disc recording mode to avoid compression artifacts (macroblocks, etc.) due to the constant motion inherent in that type of shooting. IMHO there isn't an easier or faster way to do high quality DV to DVD conversion.

Another nice thing about the Lite-On (and ilo) units is that they all can easily and safely be hacked Region-Free and Macrovision-Free, and will play PAL format DVD's (converting to NTSC output for your TV).

[edDV]

Conversion to MPEG on the fly requires a lot of CPU, without it the quality will suffer. From the sparse computer specs you have listed, specifically 256MB of ram I'm guessing you don't have it.

Having said that it's my understanding (I've only read a few posts on the Ulead forum about this) that Ulead Video Studio 9 which uses a version of the mainconcept encoder will do this with just about any setup. It will pause the cam mid transfer if the computer becomes overwhelmed which it will if you have a slow CPU. Apparently it will take the data in chunks as it can accomodate it. There's a free trial avaialble so it's definitely worth a try.

One thing I would do is comapre a clip converted to 8000kbps using conversion on the fly and one captured from AVI then converted to 8000kbps to see if there is a significant difference in the quality.

I've been using the ULead Video Studio 8/9 realtime version of the Mainconcept encoder for over a year now for direct to DVD MPeg2 captures from my HDTV cable box (via S-Video and Canopus ADVC). The Canopus hadware converts the S-Video (and audio) to DV format (at correct levels)* and the encoder realtime converts the DV stream to DVD MPeg2 which still needs to be authored as a final step.

The whole process is CPU and compression setting sensitive but has worked well for me since I like to edit out commercials and sometimes levels correct before authoring the DVD.

My reference computer has been a very cheap and average Celeron 2.4 GHz, 512MB RAM and Via P4PB motherboard with IEEE-1394 that I built for under $300 (not including existing HDDs).

Since the cable box runs continously, I can't rely on the pause camcorder method. I had to find the settings sweet spot that would allow true realtime MPeg2 encoding for extensive periods.

That sweetspot turned out to be ULead's "default" DVD MPeg2 setting of 720x480 70% quality, single pass VBR (8Mbps top, 7Mbps ave) LPCM audio at 48KHz, 16 bit stereo). MPeg compressesd audio at 224Kbps audio can be used as well.

At those settings, the computer will encode all day using about 70-80% CPU. If the OS or antivirus program kick in, the encoder maintains an input frames buffer to HDD that is worked down at 100% CPU when the competing application finishes. I rarely get a glitch.

Higher MPeg2 compression (more minutes per DVD) requires more CPU power. I've had good results authoring the DVD to any length movie, then using DVD Shrink or Nero Recode to force a fit to a single side DVD.

ULead seems to be better realtime optimized than all others including Mainconcept's own version of their encoder. The Mainconcept version has the fatal flaw of forcing machine control on the ADVC. If the ADVC doesen't respond like a camcorder, which it won't, the capture times out.

ULead and others offer a machine control (aka "device control") off mode.

The quallity at 7Mbps ave is quite good from a HDTV source. All in all this works well, although a DVD recorder with a hard drive would be similar in performance and could get better first pass compression.


* The ADVC-100 in 7.5IRE setup mode will correctly capture 7.5 IRE black from the cable box to level 16 in DV format. This saves hours of levels processing later. The realtime encoded MPeg2 is at correct DVD levels and just needs to be directly authored.