DV to DVD

[finir]

Which is the "best and fastest" program for encoding DV avi files at highest bit rates and what to use for encoding audio mpeg2, Dolby digital 2.0 or LPCM for best sound and small size.

[drewson99]

you want to xfer the DV via 1394 to your HD in the form of a DV AVI (about 15GB per hour) use DVIO or whatever came with your FW card.

This AVI can then be taken to TMPGEnc or CCE which you can use to encode it to MPEG2.

Andy

[adobeman]

I use Pinnacle Expression for doing DV to DVD-R.
I will warn you that many people have had trouble with it but then again many people have had trouble with lots of stuff that works fine for me.

+It is cheap $39 USD
+It captures DV just fine (what doesn't though).
+ It has a really fast to use, intuitive (at least to me) interface to cut the captured footage into separate chapters and allows you to easily pick the thumbnail for each.
+ Menu's are basic but very functional and easy to set up

- No Dolby digital (put it does PCM or MPEG audio)

If you want to make fancy home movies then this is not the right package since it doesn't do transitions, titles and other stuff. But, If you want to capture DV footage, cut out what you don't want and then quickly cut it into chapters and burn, then this is a good choice. I use it to take the family videos and put them on DVD. Trust be its much better to pop a DVD in then to have to go messing around with tapes to find a small scene to watch.

I originally used it to do SVCDs of DV and the results were just OK. TMPGEnc definitely looked better but was much more work. Now that I have a DVD burner, the encoding the Expression does (8000k) looks great and holds about an hour depending on how many menu screens and what music each menu has. (one tape for me)

Just one man's opinion. I'm not really a big fan of Pinnacle but this product has made my life pretty easy.

I takes about 4 to 5 hours for my P4 1.8G machine to transcode and burn a full DVD. (an hour of that is probably burning)

Oh...I'm NTSC..just in case you care.

[finir]

Thank You for your help.

[donpedro]

You have couple of options... I use Pinnacle Studio 8 for DV home video to DVD. Same here... some people have trouble with it, I don't. Encoding in PS8 is about x5 (1h video take 5h to encode). Also Ulead VideoStudio 7 dosn't look bad (not sure about speed)... also try look into link in my signature.

Not sure what is Dolby Digital 2.0 but if it is AC-3, than this is expensive to get

[finir]

Thanks for all help, but let's say I have a ready DV avi file on my HDD (this happens since all my DV tapes are already rendered with added transitions, FX and music) and I just want to encode it to mpeg2 for dvd, so I will not have to trancode it in DVD author programs. In other word: What would be best for encoding dv avi file on HDD to mpeg2 (DVD ready) file on HDD. Can you folks help me pick the best soft.

Keep rolling.

[Arky]

Finir, MPEG video image quality is a highly subjective thing. You stated in your original post that you require quality and speed, and had plenty of bitrate to play with. This being the case, I'd personally recommend Cinemacraft (either the Basic, or SP version - www.cinemacraft.com - go to the japanese downloads section of the site to get demos). I suggest you read the following discussion on DV-to-MPEG2 encoding, for a better understanding of the differences between the four main encoders (MainConcept, Canopus ProCoder, Cinemacraft, TMPGEnc). Note that many upper-Consumer/lowerProsumer programs incorporate the MainConcept MPEG2 encoding engine as their default MPEG2 output codec - for example, Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video, Ulead's DVD Workshop, and Adobe Premiere all use MainConcept's technology. Personally, I prefer CCE, but read the following two threads and make up your own mind!: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=adf7f60ee768f3be25919951294a38be&threadid=50390

and:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=439987&highlight=arky#439987 - note - the opinions I expressed in the Doom9.org thread are more up to date than those I expressed in the second thread, here on DVDRhelp.com

For audio, you would need to decide which format you wish to use, because different encoders are better for each type.

Also cast your eyes briefly over this thread, for suggestions on MPEG1-Layer2 audio encoding (only suitable for PAL):

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=523503#523503

Arky ;o)