DVD Recorder to DVD-Lab

[GordRocks]

My intention is use a DVD standalone recorder to capture VHS tapes and edit them in Premiere, export an AVI from Premiere, use Main Concept to convert this to MPEG files which I can use in DVD-Lab to create menus. Then I want to burn a DVD on my computer burner and end up with a finished product. The reason I wish to use a DVD recorder is that my computer is too slow to capture the video and I end up with a lot of dropped frames. I'd like to know if this is possible. What software to I need to accomplish each step? I'm sure you can tell that I'm a beginner at most of this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.

.....Gord

[mumubunnylips]

DVD-Lab is a terrific authoring application for the price and in my experience, works well with the output from Premiere's MainConcept encoder.

However, you'll be encoding your VHS analog video to MPEG-2 on your DVD recorder, then copying the MPEG-2 files to your hard drive, transcoding them to AVI and then transcoding it back to MPEG-2. This is akin to scanning a photograph, faxing it and then scanning the fax - in other words, there will be quality loss, not to mention the time involved.

If all you need to do is trim the beginning and end of your videos, you won't have to use Premiere at all, as you can trim MPEG-2 files within most authoring applications without re-encoding. That saves a ton of time and quality.

If you absolutely need to edit your video from within Premiere, you might want to check out an MPEG-2 plugin like http://www.heuris.com/MPEGProducts/dvdconnexit/ConnexIT_Premiere.htm or http://www.bmserver.net/index.asp.

Although the resulting file will still need to be rendered, you won't be transcoding the video, which should give you a better looking finished product.

There are other editing applications which offer MPEG-2 editing, but some expect that you will be capturing your video with their hardware.

[mumubunnylips]

DVD-Lab is a terrific authoring application for the price and in my experience, works well with the output from Premiere's MainConcept encoder.

However, you'll be encoding your VHS analog video to MPEG-2 on your DVD recorder, then copying the MPEG-2 files to your hard drive, transcoding them to AVI and then transcoding it back to MPEG-2. This is akin to scanning a photograph, faxing it and then scanning the fax - in other words, there will be quality loss, not to mention the time involved.

If all you need to do is trim the beginning and end of your videos, you won't have to use Premiere at all, as you can trim MPEG-2 files within most authoring applications without re-encoding. That saves a ton of time and quality.

If you absolutely need to edit your video from within Premiere, you might want to check out an MPEG-2 plugin like http://www.heuris.com/MPEGProducts/dvdconnexit/ConnexIT_Premiere.htm or http://www.bmserver.net/index.asp.

Although the resulting file will still need to be rendered, you won't be transcoding the video, which should give you a better looking finished product.

There are other editing applications which offer MPEG-2 editing, but some expect that you will be capturing your video with their hardware.

[GordRocks]

Thanks mumubunnylips,

I'll check these points out. Thanks for the response. By the way, cool name; only another Canuck could come up with something like that.

.....Gord