Crazy idea: DVD Conversion Using Sony DVD-CAM?

[drblue]

I recently watched a movie taken by my friend using the Sony DVD-CAM (the camcorder that records movies directly to 8cm DVD disks). The quality of the movie was quite good -- considerably better than the DVDs I created using MiniDV (I have Sony PC110) and Encoding with either TMPGEnc or Mainconcept. The MPEG-2 encoding from AVI almost always substantially degrades the picture quality even if I use slowest, highest quality encoding settings. So I came up with a strange idea.

Would it be possible for me to encode using the Sony DVD-CAM instead of using software encoders? That is, first edit my AVI clips on a computer using Premiere and output the video to a Sony DVD-CAM and record it. Then the DVD-CAM should produce a MPEG-File, which I can import again to the computer and author.

If this is possible, this will probably produce higher quality pictures. And, more importantly, the encoding time will be MUCH shorter (pretty much the runtime of your video clip).

Does this plan make any sense? I would like to hear from you guys before I drop $1000 to purchase one of those DVD-CAM.

Thanks.

[ZippyP.]

How about a stand alone DVD recorder that has a firewire input? Some have hard drives for recording and they should be less than $1,000. No sense buying another camera. Take your camera and a blank DVD into a shop and try it out.

[jgandara]

I have a miniDV and some video is grany in low light conditions. If I take outdoor video it looks very good.

Just compare the features of both cameras. I think a hardware encoder can have the same quality than a software encoder

[drblue]

ZippyP., Thank you for your suggestion. It is an excellent idea. I was fixated on the DVD-CAM because I was impressed by the picture quality (in comparison with the picture quality that software decoders produce). It is certainly an option. In either case, I will be utilizing a hardware decoder which is likely to be superior than software decoder.

I encoded a good original clip using different software encoders (mainconcept, TMPEnc, Cinema Craft), but none matched the quality of the shot by DVD-CAM. This makes me wondering why people would pay hundreds or even thousands (for Cinema Craft) dolloars for a software decoder. Simple DVD-CAM or DVD-Recorder could be cheaper, faster, and better. If I am missing anything, please educate me here.

I am not sure if I could try it out at a store. I would love to hear from someone who has tried it (with either DVD-CAM or standalone DVD-Recorder).

Best,
J

[jgandara]

Well, if you have a hw decoder, like a DVD-CAm or video capture with built-in mpeg decoder, you are capturing compressed video. If you plant to edit the video, most (or all) programs will reencode the video.

Capturing a video via firewire, using DV avi format, you have a not so compressed video format, so you can edit it to whatever you want.

Software encoding can produce better quality video, but it will be slower. With SW encoding, you can have variable bit rate encoding, wich is high quality video. I think hardware encoding can only do one pass encoding, while SW encoding can do 2 pass, which result in better compression.

makes me wondering why people would pay hundreds or even thousands (for Cinema Craft) dolloars for a software decoder

Because of output quality.

The problem is that you are comparing two different cameras, maybe the DVD cam has better lenses and more lines of resolution, that doesn't mean that the encoding is worse with SW. Compare apple to apples.

Good quality viode = good quality encoded video

[ZippyP.]

I am not sure if I could try it out at a store. I would love to hear from someone who has tried it (with either DVD-CAM or standalone DVD-Recorder).

You could find a store with a good returns policy so you could take it home for trial, and keep it if it's acceptable to you. I've used a Panasonic DVD recorder for converting some VHS camcorder footage and I found the quality to be as good as the source. DV to a DVD recorder should be just as good but make sure the recorder has DV input.

[kitty]

Hey - those DV-CAM minidiscs can be expensive. Better to follow the advice above, you're pocket book will thank you.

Some stores might let you try them in the store also - just a thought.

[ZippyP.]

Some stores might let you try them in the store also....

Do I hear an echo?

[drblue]

Thank you for your great advice, guys. In particular, I thank ZippP. for helpful suggestions. It is good to hear that the DVD recorder produces as good a copy as the VHS source. I've done some software encoding of a few VHS tapes, and never been able to obtain anything close to the source.

A final question for ZippP. - Then can I assume that your experience proved that using a DVD recorder produced superior quality videos then software encoding?

jgandara, I appreciate your comments, but they were rather irrelevant to my question unlike ZippP.'s. I was just curious about how encoding with a DVD-recorder (or DVD-CAM) compares to software encoders, but not the basics about AVI vs. MPEG. Also, you are right in that I was not comparing two exactly same camcorders. However, if you read my post carefully, you would have realized that I was comparing my miniDV cam (Sony PC-110) with Sony DVD-CAMs. PC-110 has better optics and digital resolution. The source material from my PC-110 is, in fact, better than footages done by DVD-CAMS. My point is that the situation changes after I encode video from PC-110 using a software encoder; it becomes inferior to video done by DVD-CAMs. This led me to suspect that DVD-CAM or DVD-Recorders (their hardware encoder) may do a better job in encoding my home videos. So the comparison was not illogical one. Thank you for taking your time to answer my question.

Thank you again, guys.