Any way to encode to MPEG-2 directly from a DV cam?

[FSU Paintball]

Please give a newb some help

I've got paintball videos I'm trying to import into Premier, edit as MPEGs, and then burn to DVD. I'd like to fit a couple hours per DVD; I've got about 5 hours total, so I'd like to fit everything onto 2 or 3 DVD-Rs. I'm re-recording them from VHS tapes and VHS-C tapes onto miniDV tapes, and capturing the video by hooking the DV camcorder into my firewire port.

My main question: how can I capture directly to MPEG-2? I've got limited hard drive space to work with (about 15 extra gigs), so encoding into an hour-and-a-half long AVI isn't gonna work... from what I've been seeing, AVI is taking up a gig every 5 minutes or so.

Is there a plugin for Premier that can allow me to do this? Or, is there a separate capture program that can do it for me? Are there any problems that I should know about? Should I be doing this a different way?

System:
P4 2.5GHz with 533FSB
1 gig DDR PC2700 RAM
GeForce 4 TI4200 (no video in, just analog out, DVI out, S-video out)
SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum eX (has a firewire port, it's what I'm capturing through)
USB2 external hard drive, 7200RPM with 15 gigs free space

Any advice is appreciated.

[spiderman2k1]

get a mpeg 2 real time card I like dazzle 2 go to www.dazzlegeek.com to real more to see if it works on your mother board. This message board know alot about real time MPEG2 also Dazzle 2 some time's does not work on some AMD mother board's so look into it. I have AMD and no problem's also go there and read my post I have the same user name. Also ATI ALL IN WONDER's are oh ok to but I like Dazzle 2 better for Satellite stuff and old VHS i like the ATI ALL IN WONDER better

[FSU Paintball]

I should have mentioned that I cannot afford any additional hardware right now, that includes dazzle adapters. It's down to a software solution, or working with what I've got.

[racer-x]

You could try WinDVD Recorder. I tried it once with my DV-Cam. It wasn't the greatest quality, but then I doubt you can get great quality with any MPEG capture.

You may also try neoDVD, I think it may capture to MPEG.

[FSU Paintball]

Wait, I thought MPEG-2 was standard DVD quality. Why wouldn't it be very good quality?

[racer-x]

FSU Paintball wrote:

Wait, I thought MPEG-2 was standard DVD quality. Why wouldn't it be very good quality?

Because you have to cmpress the video on the fly. It is very processor intensive.
You are much better off geting a large HDD (at least 80 GIG) for capturing DV, edit the avi, then convert to MPEG-2. There is no easy way if you want quality.

[FSU Paintball]

Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll just have to bite the bullet sometime soon and grab another HDD.

So....


1. Capture to an absolutely frikkin huge AVI file (about 12 gigs/hour)
2. Edit
3. Re-encode to MPEG-2 (about 2 or 3 gigs/hour)
4. Burn to DVD

Correct?

If so... one more quick question, that's probably more complex that it sounds...

Assuming I'll capture in AVI, edit in Premier, and then re-encode to MPEG-2, what would your recommendation be for a good AVI capture proggie that can grab from a DV cam?

[ghosty6]

Ulead DVD Workshop and Ulead Video Studio will capture in Mpeg2 and AVI, The quality is great and you can do all your editing in there as well.

I use these all the time for my home videos.

[racer-x]

FSU Paintball wrote:

Assuming I'll capture in AVI, edit in Premier, and then re-encode to MPEG-2, what would your recommendation be for a good AVI capture proggie that can grab from a DV cam?

You can use premiere to capture to DV-AVI. I use Premiere 6.5 to capture > edit > output the timeline to MPEG-2 with the included Main Concept encoder.
The settings I use are CBR-8000 kbps. This produces excellent quality video.

It is possible to capture directly to MPEG-2, but the quality will not be as good. Try it out, if you can live with picture quality, then great. It's what you like that counts. One more point, It's dificult to edit MPEG-2. AVI is the easiest to edit.