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  1. Member
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    I currently have 3 different program choices for turning my DV's into DVD's. Ulead video v5, Microsoft movie maker, and Roxio DVD Builder. I have used the roxio program and have successfully made a video. It turned out pretty good but was a tad pixely on my 56" HD widescreen. I"m shooting with a Panasonic PV-GS70 3ccd camera. The DVD I made contained 20 minutes of footage and took up about 1GB of space on the disk. Does this sound about right? Any help is greatly appreciated!
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  2. Member daamon's Avatar
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    Hi FFK_Pennywise,

    Quite a few people (myself included) will suggest to use different tools for each stage of the process:

    1. Capture / Transfer - Loads, see the "Tools" section. Yours will too, but preferrably save to your PC as DV AVI and not MPEG (it's much easier to edit AVI, and encoding to MPEG later is better than doing it on the fly - more time to give better quality).

    2. Editing (optional step) - Adding fades, background music etc. Making it look and sound how you want it to. I use Adobe Premiere (it captures too), it may be that one of your apps does the editing... See "Tools" section for more.

    3. Encode - TMPGEnc (good guide), Cinema Craft Encoder or Mainconcept MPEG Encoder & others.

    4. Author - TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA), DVDLab, Sonic ReelDVD & others.

    5. Burn - TDA has it's own burning utility. Or there's Nero and any other burning software that does DVD's.

    The reason being that if you use the best tool for the job (depending on budget) then you're more likely to get a better end product.

    The DVD I made contained 20 minutes of footage and took up about 1GB of space on the disk. Does this sound about right?
    DV AVI is about 13Gb per hour of footage. By your numbers, you're looking at about 3Gb for an hour, which is probably MPEG2 at about 5,000kbps with WAV (PCM) audio @ 1,536 kbps (I'm guessing it's WAV).

    At that bitrate, faster motion scenes, quick panning or hand wobble during shooting could well come out pixelated.

    Hope that helps...
    There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England: Telstra Stadium, Sydney, 22/11/2003.

    Carpe diem.

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  3. Member
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    Yeah that does help. Unfortunately for yours truly, my wife will kick my ass if i drop any more cash on this stuff right now. lol. Thanks for the help!
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  4. Member daamon's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by FFK_Pennywise
    ...my wife will kick my ass if i drop any more cash on this stuff right now. lol.
    LOL indeed!

    In that case, stick with what you've got and see if you can do this:

    1. Capture & Edit with existing progs. FREE.
    2. Get TMPGEnc (about US$50 or 70, can't remember) - cheap and well worth it - to encode.
    3. Author the resultant .mpg (DVD compliant MPEG2, or .m2v and audio in AC3 / MP2 or WAV) and burn with existing progs. FREE.

    As I don't know the apps you mention, I don't know if the above is possible, but I'd guess it is...

    Good luck (with the wife as well as the video stuff...).
    There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England: Telstra Stadium, Sydney, 22/11/2003.

    Carpe diem.

    If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room.
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    I just downloaded the demo for TMPGEnc. I'm gonna try it out when I get home tonight on the same footage I burned before and see if I can tell a difference on the finished product.
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  6. Member daamon's Avatar
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    30 days of MPEG2 encoding...

    Refer (and read in depth) the guide I referred you to earlier following the TMPGEnc reference.
    There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England: Telstra Stadium, Sydney, 22/11/2003.

    Carpe diem.

    If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room.
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  7. Member racer-x's Avatar
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    All I can say is don't expect miracles. That 56" HD Widescreen is going to stretch the hell out of your 4:3 DVD. It will be like looking at your video with a magnifying glass. It will show any little imperfection that you'll never see on a standard TV.

    My advise is to use as much bitrate as you can get away with on your video. Maybe 8000kbps CBR or VBR set @ 8000kbps average / 9000 max / 4500 min. Keep your audio to 224 kbps AC3 or Mp2.
    Got my retirement plans all set. Looks like I only have to work another 5 years after I die........
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  8. Member
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    I'll keep that in mind racer-x. The dvd I already made looked pretty good on it, and for all I know it could be the best i'm going to get anyway. I guess theres one way to find out.
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