DV Video How To: Making DVD Home Videos

[gdulisse]

Introduction
This is a step by step guide for those interested in creating a high quality DVD from their home videos. It is meant as a starting point for myself since much of the information was through experimentation and some information from the Web. I found that there was a lack of how to actually do any of this and more of the information geared to copying DVD’s or conversion for DVD’s to SVCD or another format.

I have left out a lot in the authoring process on purpose since I think that this information is readily available on-line. This part is a little more time consuming if you decide to put menus and a whole lot of other things too.

I would love to acknowledge all of the resources I got the information from at some point since I cannot take credit for all of this only the very specific parts that pertain to what I needed to do.

I hope that this helps anyone out and saves them some time and hassles.

Giancarlo D’Ulisse
gdulisse

My Hardware
Fast P4 2.53Ghz computer
IEEE 1394 Firewire card
i-Link DV Camcorder (or Digital 8 with i-Link)
Lots of disk space 30GB at least to play with.

My Software
Ulead VideoStudio 7.0 (or other capture software)
Cinema Craft Encoder SP 2.66
bbMpeg and AVI2MPG2 encoder 1.24 beta 18
BeSweet 1.4 and BeSweet GUI 0.6 beta 61 (for AC3 encoding)
Ulead DVD Workshop 1.3
DVD Maestro 2.9.2915a (optional)
CineMaster 2000 Player 1.0 (optional)
WinDVD 4 or MediaPlayer 9 with additional codecs.
Nero 5.5.10.0 (optional)

Extras
I have included templates for the menus in DVD WorkShop. I have also included a template for DVD Maestro too for the same thing so you can compare the work you need to do.

You can use Nero’s DVD Cover Designer to create a DVD insert for your movies, but I use QuarkXpress which is higher end and I can control better.


Steps
1. DV Capture
2. Removing Unwanted Video, Cutting AVI
3. MPEG-2 Encoding
3.1 CBR MPEG2
3.2 VBR MPEG2
3.3 Other CEE Settings
4. AC3 (Dolby Digital) Audio Conversion
5. Multiplexing the AC3 or the Mpeg Layer II Audio and the Video
6. Which Way Do I Go?
7. Authoring with DVD Workshop




1. DV Capture

I used ULead Video Studio 7.0 to capture the video. But you can do this with any capture software beware of a couple of things though. First not all AVI is compatible or readable by CCE SP and other programs so set the settings as close to what is below since I know this works.

The other thing is make sure to capture on an NTFS file system and save yourself the annoyance of dealing with crashing video capture software because of the 4GB file limit in Fat32 file systems.

Make sure to set up your capture project settings as follows.




The settings are in the File->Project Properties then click on the edit button.

IMPORTANT:

- When you capture quit all programs so the capture software is the only one running.
- Disable Screen Savers and Anti-Virus software from interrupting the capture
- Do not do anything with the network or disks
- Make sure you have lots of free disk space it takes 13GB per hour of AVI.

WHY: Because you will drop frames and this is not good.

All you need to do is turn on your camera after you plug in the I-Link cable and then go to the Start menu open your save project which I am assuming has the above settings. Then click on the Capture Menu.

Make sure the format is set to DV (top left corner). Also make sure that the Options->DV Type… is set to Type 2.

Then click on the record button. Now walk away and it will stop on its own. You can continue with other tapes.




2. Removing Unwanted Video, Cutting AVI

You should now have one or more AVI files. Sometimes home movies can have problems with transitions where there is interference and noise which you want removed or maybe parts of the video are not to your liking.

Instead of editing it, I chop it up. By chop I mean split off only the pieces I want to re join as the final DVD. I use VirtualDub to do this. You will also need the MainConcept DigitalVideo (DV) Codec in order to view the video with VirtualDub.




To do this all you need to do is open the AVI in VirtualDub, select Video->Direct Stream copy. Now start from the beginning and mark start (HOME key) and end (END key) point and save each section (F7). To find the interference use the Scene forward scan (which is enabled in the screenshot), it will automatically stop at these problem areas, if not you can adjust the option for this to make it more sensitive.

3. MPEG-2 Encoding

Use CCE SP to encode the mpeg video stream. There are 2 methods I recommend. Constant Bit Rate (CBR) or Variable Bit Rate (VBR) mpeg encoding. I use CBR for analog 8mm tapes since I do not like that VBR does too good a job and there is too much data compression for my comfort. Use VBR for digital DV tapes.

3.1 CBR MPEG2

Right click in the table area and you will see an Add menu item. Select it and add the first AVI file in your movie.




Now double click on the line with the movie you just added to display the encode setting window below.




You will need to decide up front if you want to do AC3 audio encoding or mpeg layer II audio. If want AC3 then choose MPEG-2(ES, CBR), ES is for elemental streams. This will produce a mpeg audio file which we will convert to AC3 later and then multiplex into a single MPEG2 movie.

If you do not want AC3 then select MPEG-2(PS: Video + Audio) which will automatically multiplex the video and audio into one file. On thing to note is that this option limits you to use Ulead DVD Workshop to author. If you want to use DVD Maestro then you will have to select the ES mode.

The Bitrate should be set to 7500 for about 1 hour and 20 minutes of video on a DVD. You can drop this lower but I would not go lower than 7000 if you care about the quality as I do. Click on the Video files … button and set the name of the file to something more meaningful than you initial AVI file, like “final_cut” or “movie”.

Next Click on the Setting… button beside the Input files. This will bring up the following dialog. Add the remaining video in the order that you want them joined for a single MPEG file. Just right click on the table area and select Add and browse to add you files. Then click OK when you are done.




See the section 3.3 for the other settings.

If you opted for a single file MPEG-2(PS: Video + Audio) then skip to section 7 for the Ulead DVD Workshop authoring, otherwise go to section 4.

Note: You only have a total of 4.4GB of total space on a DVD+R or DVD-R so make sure to leave some room for the menus and music and other data so the MPEG2 file should be 4.1 to 4.3GB maximum. I always caution on the lower since you have to redo the entire process if you have a trailer like I do.

3.2 VBR MPEG2

This is much the same except for some slightly different settings. The resultant stream will be 2 files, one the mpeg video (mpv) and the other the mpeg audio (mpa). You can convert the mpeg audio to AC3 or multiplex it as is with the video.

Right click in the table area and you will see an Add menu item. Select it and add the first AVI file in your movie.



Next Click on the Setting… button beside the Input files. This will bring up the following dialog. Add the remaining video in the order that you want them joined for a single MPEG file. Just right click on the table area and select Add and browse to add you files. Then click OK when you are done.




Set the Mode to MPEG-2 1-pass VBR. The Q of 60 and min of 2000 and max of 9000 will allow you to encode a movie of up to 1 hr 20 min on a 4.7 GB DVD at very high quality. You will need to play with the Q and Max to fit more. I have not tried it but my first instinct is to lower the max to 8000 since this is also very good. This may give you an extra 10-15 minutes of encoding. I would not go lower than 7000 here. If this is still not enough then try a Q of 70. You should be able to get close to 2 hours but this depends on the video. Click on the output Video files […] button to select the name of the MPV you are creating. You will not need the Video Information or the Audio files.




Then set the Video and Quality settings as specified in the next section.


3.3 Other CEE Settings

Next click on the Video… button in the Encode setting window. All you need to select here is DVD Video Compliant. See the settings below. Select OK.



Next select the Quality… button in the Encode settings window to display the following window. I have found that the best quality home video from the DV AVI setting for MPEG2 is to set the Simple setting to Natural picture and go one setting above Easy. This preserves most of the details. The higher you go from here the more blur you get in the edges and in my opinion you lose quality. Click the OK button.



Now click the Encode Now… button in the Encode settings window. You will get a progress window. It may take some time so go get a beer or two or some coffee or tea. On my 2.5Ghz P4 with 0.5GB RAM a 1 hr and 20 min set of AVI’s took about 50 min to compress.

Click on the Audio… button and set them as follows:




Note: make sure to set the Bitrate to 256kbits since I know that DVD Workshop will try and convert the audio (De-Multiplex and then convert and Re-Multiplex) but fail and you will end up with an MPEG2 with no sound. But if you use 256kbits then for some reason it will not convert it.


4. AC3 (Dolby Digital) Audio Conversion

Now use Besweet GUI to covert the MPA audio to AC3 or use the following command line. This will process the file “final_cut.mpa” to Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256Kbps to the file final_cut.ac3.

"C:\My Downloads\beSweet\BeSweet.exe" -core( -input "e:\My Videos\final_cut.mpa" -output "e:\My Videos\final_cut.ac3" ) -azid( -n1 -s surround -c normal -L -3db --maximize ) -ssrc( --rate 48000 ) -ac3enc( -b 256 )

This is fairly fast. All my files took about 10-15 minutes to convert in total.


5. Multiplexing the AC3 or the Mpeg Layer II Audio and the Video

Now use bbMpeg to multiplex the video and the audio together if you are planning to use Ulead DVD Workshop, otherwise skip this and move to the DVD Maestro with the separate files.

Start it up and then click on the Start Encoding button in the main window to display the following.




Now click on the Settings… button to display the following. In the Input output files tab select the output file destination by clicking on Open PS. Then select the input video stream by clicking on the Open VS. Then select the audio (either the ac3 or mpa file) by clicking the Open AS.




Next click on the General Tab and set it as follows.




Next select the Program Stream Settings tab and select ~DVD and set the Force mux rate to zero and bbMPEG will figure that out for you.

Now click OK.




Then Start encoding.

You should have a complete DVD compliant MPEG2 movie that has the sound synchronized all the way through.


6. Which Way Do I Go?

At this point we can do one of two things. If you are good at using Photoshop and working with layers to create menus from scratch then you can take the audio and video files and use SpruceUp DVD Maestro to finish the authoring of the Video. I would recommend you try it out since it is good and decide for yourself if it is worth the trouble.

I concur with many people’s opinion that DVD Maestro is by far the best authoring program around, too bad Apple bought them out and they no longer sell the product. I was able to make the identical version of my Disney DVD with Maestro so I am impressed since I did need to do a bit of work with Photoshop to grab the menus from DVD Workshop aka a la screen snapshot, but hey it worked. This is not as easy as DVD Workshop there are many things that you have to do extra here and I mean many considering the advanced feature set of Maestro. I recommend you always burn on a DVD+RW to test since I even got a lot of the menu stuff wrong.

Now you decide. If you choose to use Maestro you will need to download the Cinemaster 2000 player to allow you to do simulation mode in Maestro.


The best instructions I found are at the doom9.org site at the following URL:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/maestro.htm

You can also try the following too:

http://www.geocities.com/eaussie01au/maestro.html


If you decide to use DVD Workshop read on.


7. Authoring with DVD Workshop

I love this program since it is the easiest one to use. The only problems I found is that it is a little buggy and crashed when you went into simulation mode and not all of the links are valid so save and save often.

Another major problem is in the edit phase where we create chapter points. This is brutal since it has problems traversing VBR MPEG2 file with the AC3 (don’t remember if it happens with MPEG Layer II audio). Be very patient since it is slow slow slow. Especially to find the exact chapter point and then set the thumbnail. This is not the case with CBR and AC3 or MP2. But I’m telling you it beats using Sonic ReelDVD or DVDMaestro for creating menus. The others are great professional programs but way to complicated for the DVD menus. This is my opinion since I do not edit video or want to spend 10 hours with photoshop to create layered buttons and other images for menus. I just want to transfer my tapes to DVD and have simple menus that look fancy within 30 minutes.


IMPORTANT: The AC3 audio is not played at all in simulation or in the Edit playback since DVD Workshop 1.3 does not support this. To enable the AC3 playback do the following:

Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD Workshop\1.0\DVDWS.ini

In this file, PlayAC3=0, change to PlayAC3=1 and restarted the program. If you have an AC3 decoder codec, you will if you have WinDVD installed, then you can now playback AC3 audio within DVD Workshop.

I won’t go though any of this except for what to select when you are ready to create a disc or image. Click on the Make Disk item in the Finish menu. Use High Quality CBR ( 8000 Kbps). A dialog will warn you that MPEG audio is not a standard audio type, this is ok. Just click Yes to continue. The reason you select 8000 Kbps is that if you happen to select a lower one than the MPEG2 you have then DVD Workshop will transcode it (re-convert it) and you do not want that since this re-MPEG2 encodes everything at the lower bitrate.

Then you will see the following. I create ISO’s and use Nero to burn these instead of DVD Workshop but it works too if you want to do this.

If you use Nero check the DVD with Nero Speed Check and do a suface scan to make sure everything is ok. This is time consuming but tells you if everything is a ok.




Make sure to check the Do not convert compliant file checkbox otherwise DVD Workshop will transcode (re-encode) the MPEG2 movie again. This will save you time since it will chunk up your MPEG2 movie into VOB's along with the menu. The rest is self explanatory now click Start.

It takes me about 25 minutes to create almost a full DVD.

Ok, the obvious question why go through all of this if DVD Workshop does the encoding and there are no audio sync problems? Ok, fair question. It does this well but this version does not do a good enough job in my opinion with the MPEG2 encoding. There is a big difference between my version explained here and DVD Workshop. My version is as close to the original as possible with very minimal loss of quality in the video. DVD Workshop is a very obvious loss of quality. It would be equivalent to CEE SP setting the simple setting to difficult where it too blurs the image edges too much in my opinion causing it to be unsatisfactory (I’m viewing this on a 53” Sony big screen HDTV of course so I see a big difference).

If you want to test your results make sure that you do it on a DVD player since the MPEG decoders there are far superior to your computer software decoders. I can see much better results on my TV than on my computer. In fact it actually does not look that great on the computer. You can test this out by taking your favorite DVD movie and trying it on your computer and then on your TV. I'm sure you will notice a difference if you are using software decoding.

Giancarlo D’Ulisse
gdulisse

[nimco]

It is so completed guide, everything is in one place.
Just a thought, shouldn’t be a Timecode Setting (in the CCE Encode Setting window) set to
00:00:00:00 instead of 01:00:00:00 ?

Thanks for your nice guide.

[gdulisse]

Hi, about your question:

shouldn’t be a Timecode Setting (in the CCE Encode Setting window) set to 00:00:00:00 instead of 01:00:00:00 ?

This is what is in the CCE manual regarding the timecode:

Initially, the first frame (frame number 0) is mapped to timecode
01:00:00:00. Although you can change this setting, avoid using the
timecode 00:00:00:00 since this value has special meaning to Cinema
Craft Encoder SP.

I have never had any problems with the default. I would leave it at the default unless someone else gives you the exact explaination of setting it to zero implies.

Hope everything worked for you.
Giancarlo

[lal]

Thanks for nice guide.

How did you get the date imprint in your video? I saw that screen shot
in section 2 "Removing Unwanted Video, Cutting AVI" of your guide.

I was never able to print date on my home video DVDs. Is there a way
to do it?

I have Sony Mini DV camcorder.

[gdulisse]

Actually that tape was from an anolog Hi8 over ten years ago. That is done by the camcorder and put directly on tape. All the new DV and Digital 8 camcorders separate that information. I could not find any way to put that on the DV stream during capture for my Sony TRV-320. It may be possible for other cameras or newer ones but you may want to talk to the manufacture and share that info when you get it.

Hope this helps.
Giancarlo

[BJ_M]

prettty complicated way to do something , could be done so much easier .. also that is a cracked version of CCE SP, thus warez..

doing a surface scan of the dvd is also a waste of time .. unless you have a lot of time to kill ..

but thanks for the guide -- you put a lot of detail into it ..

[gdulisse]

It's complicated but I think if you want excellent results that's the way to go. If there is an easier way that gets me the same quality please tell me. I would love to shorten the process.

I'm paranoid so it pays to do a surface scan if you want to keep your home videos for many years and only use the DVD versions. They must pass a surface scan if you ever need to copy a master again too. Its like insurance.

Giancarlo

[BJ_M]

a true master dvd is only burned onto an authoring dvd (which must be be burned with a pioneer authoring burner) -- and other must not be called a master ... it has to do with error corection burned in (or not) ...

since dv is really a transfer - not a capture ... you can (if you have a robust system) , do all kinds of things while transfering DV...

you could do all the steps you listed in programs like AVID DV , Premiere Pro , Sony Vegas -- it would take a lot less time and quality would be accually greater becuase you bypass using the nasty MS DV codec .. The Main Concept Encoder is also a lot cheaper @ 150$ vs. 2500$ for CCE SP for about the same quality and speed .. ... though the main concept encoder is built into vegas and premiere already ...

[gdulisse]

Yes, you are correct, but the software and systems you are mentioning are true professional quality systems that cost many thousands of dollars and require quite a powerful system. There are even higher end too but we will not get into that.

This would be overkill for the purpose of this guide and also you have ask if it is all worth it for camcorder quality capture. I think this is probably a good compromise and $69 will get you CCE Basic which is just as good as SP if want the same results.

Thanks for the info, I was wondering about the DVD authoring (masters) disks too since they are quite pricey. Now I know why.
Giancarlo

[BJ_M]

yes -- you are right ...

[tfrazier]

Hi have a rookie question about your guide (great guide by the way!).

Where it leaves off - is that you have a resulting iso file and Video_TS folder. Which (or both?) of these files would you burn to the DVD to have a DVD compliant disc that could be played in most DVD players?

I use MovieFactory2 for authoring which is not "playing nice" with my Sony DVD burner. So I have created output of iso file (and) Video_TS /Audio_TS folders.

I'm not sure which (or both) of these needs to be burned to DVD to give me the best results.

Thanks in advance!
Tim

[tfrazier]

Got my answer in another post - thanks!!

[gdulisse]

Got my answer in another post - thanks!!

Sorry. I missed this but I was away. Just in case. If you have an ISO as I did then you burn with Nero or most authoring software like DVD Workshop or DVD Moviefactory 2. If you have a video folder (ie. TS_VIDEO and TS_AUDIO) then I usually use Nero and all you need to do is create a DVD Video template and drop your TS_VIDEO folder over the TS_VIDEO folder in the template and then burn.

If you are having problems with a particular player check the paramters of the MPEG2 that you created since this could be the problem or it could be a burning issue too.

Cheers
Giancarlo

[LarryBoy]

Great guide. However, all my home movies are analog (Hi-8 mm). What capture card and transfer method would you suggest I use -- I want to preserve the quality as best I can.

You seem to indicate that you have transferred some analog recordings to DVD although the guide only covers digital video. I would like to try your process if I can get suggestions on this last (or really first) step (analog to digital).

Thanks!

Larryboy

[LarryBoy]

LarryBoy wrote:

One more question. I'm thinking I probably need to buy a digital 8 camcorder. If I do this and use the camcorder to transfer my Hi-8 mm video to the computer in digital format through the IEEE adapter, will the resolution of the transferred video be equal to that of the original tape? In other words, will it be Hi-8 mm quality and not regular 8 mm quality?

I'm just trying to make sure I do everything to preserve the quality of the videos.

Thanks,

Larryboy

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The captured video, regardless of whether it is 8mm, hi-8 or digital 8 is always DV quality, meaning 720x480 (if we are talking NTSC). The Digital 8 camera, at least my Sony TRV320 (I think), will do the conversion to DV on the fly. What this means is that whatever the original quality of the recording, it is maintained. So you will get the best possible capture of the media you are using with this method. Even though the resolution is 720x480 it is really a 420x240 but interpolated to 720x480 by the camera so it will appear grainy. One of the pictures I have in the editing or cutting up the AVI of my guide is an actual frame from an old 8mm tape. Digital 8 tapes would give you even better quality than this.

Hope this helps.
Giancarlo

[MrMungus]

It's complicated but I think if you want excellent results that's the way to go. If there is an easier way that gets me the same quality please tell me. I would love to shorten the process.

MPEG-2 hardware capture card > DVD authoring program > Burn.

DVD hardware capture cards/devices can be had for less than $200.

[LarryBoy]

Well, I went out and bought a D8 camcorder (Sony TRV350) with the intention of using it to convert my Hi-8mm videos to digital. However, I first shot some video around the house with the camcorder and found the video quality to be extremely poor. The video was grainy and not even close to the quality of my Hi-8mm videos shot over the years with my Canon camcorder.

I have returned the D8 camcorder and will keep my 6-year old Hi-8 camcorder for the time being. Since I won't have a D8 camcorder to convert my videos from analog to digital, what are my options? Someone mentioned using a MPEG-2 hardware capture card... what is this and how does it work? Is it compatible with S-video? I'd like to preserve the quality of my videos while making the conversion to digital. Any ideas and suggestions on how to do this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Larryboy

[gdulisse]

Well, I went out and bought a D8 camcorder (Sony TRV350) with the intention of using it to convert my Hi-8mm videos to digital. However, I first shot some video around the house with the camcorder and found the video quality to be extremely poor. The video was grainy and not even close to the quality of my Hi-8mm videos shot over the years with my Canon camcorder.

I have returned the D8 camcorder and will keep my 6-year old Hi-8 camcorder for the time being. Since I won't have a D8 camcorder to convert my videos from analog to digital, what are my options? Someone mentioned using a MPEG-2 hardware capture card... what is this and how does it work? Is it compatible with S-video? I'd like to preserve the quality of my videos while making the conversion to digital. Any ideas and suggestions on how to do this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Larryboy

How were you comparing the results of the hi8 to the DVD encoding?

My comparison was as follows: connect the camcorder to the TV with a SVHS connector and play it and then flip to the DVD version to see the close to synched versions were similar or not on a 53" TV. I could just bearly tell there was a difference.

Now you may say that you should be comparing using the original Hi8 camcorder, which I agree but I didn't have it available any longer.

Thanks
Giancarlo

[morron]

Hi, i`m new in this, so what should i do?
I captured from my sony-TRV33 DV camcorder an avi file Type 1, then i tried to edit with virtualdub(just cut and join), but it did wrong(when i watch the edited video without (fwd) or (rev) it looks a sound good, but at the time i use them it loses the audio ),then i use Tmpenc and somehow the audio file is bigger than the video file. the don match. what should i do to fix the video, or maybe capture again using type II and use another edit program?

[CaptainAmazing]

I was reading through this article and would like to try it out, however all the graphics are now missing. Do you know what happened, or how I can view them?

[BJ_M]

they are there -- wait and they will load

[CaptainAmazing]

I actually get the red x, so it doesn't look like they are going to load.

[BJ_M]

I actually get the red x, so it doesn't look like they are going to load.

right click and "show picture"

[CaptainAmazing]

Hmm, unfortunately, still nothing.

[arcorob]

Giancarlo,

It is a great guide, very well layed out and very nice job on the images. I do want to point out however, it is ONE PATH where there are many and it lacks a theme.

By that I mean a theme such as
HOW TO GET THE BEST WITH FREEWARE

or HOW TO GET THE HIGHEST QUALITY

etc

You have picked a mix and match assortment that works for you, your way, but is just one of many.

Let me offer advice, well intentioned. You shoudl set a goal of providing a guide to a certain target audience. For example, someone who may wish to capture can use whatever tool they use to edit generally.

The editting tool can then be used to output to another DV AVI (so it is not lossey) and then given to a high quality MPEG 2 encoder.

Also, it is not always necessary to to SHUT DOWN all items when capturing. Depends on your system. Personally I can capture video, leave all my anti-virus and firewalls running, surf the net and open up spreadsheets without dropping a single frame.

I give you a B+ for effort , a B+ for format and a C for content....This is a good score.


So If I Did a theme for example, shortest , least expensive for medium to high quality I would say get

SCREENBLAST (by sony and formerly video factory ) and a Ulead DVD Movie factory.

Use screenblast to capture, edit and output using Mainconcept encoder.

Then DVD Movie factory to create menus, and burn DVD


If I said MY way ,

Capture Sceneanalyzer
Edit in Vegas
Export (render ) as DV AVI
USe TMPGENC and create VBR 2 pass MPEG 2
DVD movie factory for menu or TMPG DVD Author (excpet getting backgroun music is a pain)

But I could name at least 10 ways .....

Nice job anyway