Can someone please step me through...

[TotallyLost]

Getting a video from my Sony Dcrtrv33 digital video cam...transfering it to my laptop..a sony PCG-FRV35 and then making a DVD that i can play on a standalone dvd player?

I had a try at the how to guides yesterday..and to be honest im having a hard time because i dont know WHAT to look for.

I use Nero 6....Windows Movie Maker 2..

Thanks in advance.

[sacajaweeda]

You will need appropriate hardware/software to transfer the video to your computer. USB devices, firewire ports, pci capture cards, and various software can be used to do this. Some computers come newly equipped to handle this, some you have to take steps to set it up to do so. Too many variables and this alone could be a seperate thread all in itself.

Once the video is transfered the general process for creating a DVD is...

Edit -- trim, join, resize, filter clips to be encoded to mpeg2, using an editor.

Encode -- this is the compression phase, your edited files are compressed with an mpeg2 codec

Author -- your encoded files are compiled into a title set, containing user defined menus, chapter points, subtitles, etc

Burn -- data transfer

[TotallyLost]

Thanks for the reply...

Here's a list of steps i have taken thus far..

1) Take video of two year old son snorting like pig and picking nose.

2) Transfer video from the Sony DVC to the laptop using the miniUBS to USB cable on the machine...using WIndows Movie Maker 2 (Makes an mpg file)...the DV-AVI option is greyed out..not sure if its cause i dont have it connected via I-Link cable or not....

3) Open the video in Windows Movie Maker..edit what i need..add music and some credits...and im left with a Windows MovieMaker 2 Project file..no options to export and only option in "save as" is the project file (.MSWMM file)

and thats as far as I've gotten.

I cant seem to find a way to convert it to AVI or whatever i need to burn it to DVD (i dont just wanna store it there..i want an autoplay DVD that can work in the standalone player)

[nufan292]

Nevermind, put something else down, but re-read your post.

[northcat_8]

Use something other than Microsoft Movie Maker.

[daamon]

Hi TotallyLost,

1) Take video of two year old son snorting like pig and picking nose.

LOL

A few things spring to mind...

Transfer video from the Sony DVC to the laptop using the miniUBS to USB cable on the machine

If it's USB1 (the original) that'll be too slow for the rate of transfer you need for a good quality end product. If it's USB2, it's fast enough but I've read several times of people having problems with it and the quality of the file it produces..

If you've got a firewire (iLink) card in your PC, use that. It's fast enough and I've never seen anyone have problems transferring from a DV cam to PC, and neither have I.

...using WIndows Movie Maker 2 (Makes an mpg file)...

Check out DVIO and WinDV - both freeware for transferring from a DV cam to PC. If you're presented with the option, transfer in DV Type 2 - more tools work with this. There's also VirtualDub for capturing, also freeware (and useful for loads of other stuff too).

And capture to DV AVI for two reasons:
1. AVI is much easier to edit, and is less fraught with post-edit problems (like audio synch issues).
2. When transferring to AVI, there's no encoding so you get good quality video footage. But when capturing to MPEG, encoding is required and so done on the fly. Because of the amount of data that's being presented, the encoding can only do so much before the next lot of info comes over and so you don't as good video footage as AVI.

Read the DVD specs (link in blue, top left of the page) before capturing as you'll need your AVI to conform (i.e. audio must be 48,000Hz is the usual pitfall).

Once you've got your AVI, you can use GSpot or AVICodec to get loads of info on it.

As for editing, I don't know Windows Movie Maker so can't comment on whether you can import AVI, work with it and then "save as" to DV AVI (which is preferable). But there are "Basic" and "Advanced" editors listed in the "Tools" section (one area for each).

As sacajaweeda says, from DV AVI you need to encode to a DVD Compliant MPEG2 file. You'll need an MPEG2 codec. You'll also need software to do the encoding. There are four that seem to be favourites:

TMPGEnc Plus (the "Plus" version does the MPEG2 encoding, on top of the MPEG1 (lower quality) for free) and here's a good guide that I've found:
Configuring TMPGEnc for high-quality, DVD-compliant MPEG-2. Remember to rate it when you're done...)
Canopus ProCoder
Mainconcept MPEG Encoder
Cinema Craft Encoder

I use TMPGEnc and rate it highly. I won't comment on the others as I've not used them.

For authoring tools, a good one to start with is TMPGEnc DVD Author because:
1. It's available on a fully-functional 30 day trial.
2. It's intuitive and hence user-friendly.
3. It's fairly powerful.
4. Cheap if you wanna stick with it (even cheaper if you buy it bundled with TMPGEnc Plus)
5. Has a burning utility that I've always found to be OK.

There seems like a lot there, but it's a fairly detailed answer to your question.

Hope that helps. Good luck...