Is there an howto on making dvd with menu from vhs?

[pitmaster]

Hi there,
I have a DC10+ and Pinnacle Studio 8, I use Gear DVD 6.05 to burn my dvd's. Now I have 3 VHS tapes with 6 games (soccer) from my son.
I want to produce 1 DVD with a menu. Is there a small howto how to do this?

Thank's, Nico

[rkr1958]

I'm not sure specifically what you're asking. Have you already captured the VHS video? Did you capture it to AVI? Have you encoded your AVI to MPEG-2? If so, then you need an authoring program that allows you to make menus. Check out the tools section to the left there are several that you could download and try free for 30-days or so. I used TMPGEnc DVDAuthor to author my DVDs w/menus. However, you might wish to try DVDLab or some other program. Also, you may wish to check out the guides to the left ... there are lots of guides that cover building DVDs with menus.

[pitmaster]

I didn't capture my video's yet. Because I want to know wich format the best is to use. I can capture to mpg, avi, dv and etc.

Then, do I have to make 1 movie from the 6 parts? Or do I save 6 parts free from each other?

I have downloaded TPMGenc but want to install if I have captured the movies becaus of the 30 day limit.

Does TPMG make a dvd structure in a directory and can I copy that to the dvd or do I have to ask Gear to do someting special?

Nico

[daamon]

Hi pitmaster,

If you plan to do any editing (say removing commercials, half time etc.) then IMO you should capture to AVI and then encode to MPEG2 at 1/2 D1 resolution (352 x 380 / 576 - NTSC / PAL), as editing MPEG is known for leading to problems (like audio sync).

There's been a spate of posts over the last few months that have all sorts of info relating to hardware, bitrates, software etc. Search for something like "VHS DVD"...

If you don't want to edit, or you're not comfortable with converting to MPEG2, then capture straight to MPEG2. As it's from VHS (352 x 240 resolution), it'd be better if you can reduce the resolution when capturing to 1/2 D1 (as above). I don't capture to MPEG, so don't know if this is possible.

If it were me, I'd capture all 6 games into separate files (AVI or MPEG). You could do one big file (if it's all on the same tape), but splitting up AVIs is safer than splitting up MPEGs.

Then I'd import the related 6 MPEG2 files (either encoded from AVI or captured directly) into TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA) as 6 separate tracks, each with their own chapter points (you can set the chapters for things like kick-off, goals, start 2nd half, sending offs etc.)

As it's football matches (soccer elsewhere in the world, even though we invented it!!!), the time per match is gonna be around 95 - 100 mins. If you do capture / encode with 1/2 D1, you can get about 4.5 hours on to a single DVD at decent quality - the equivalent of 3 games (assuming half time chat is removed, and extra time is about 5 - 10 mins). You can get more, but it'll mean a lower bitrate and so a lower quality picture.

Use the DVDRHelp Bitrate Calculator for help with footage length, bitrates and filesizes. For 1/2 D1, a bitrate of around 3,000 - 3,500 seems to be the common recommendation. For full DVD resolution (720 x 480 / 576), you're gonna need around 6,000 - 7,500kbps.

Does TPMG make a dvd structure in a directory and can I copy that to the dvd or do I have to ask Gear to do someting special?

TDA creates the VOBs, IFOs & BUPs. I can't remember if it puts them into a VIDEO_TS folder or not. I don't know Gear, so can't say what to do with that. But, the main thing is that you end up with a VIDEO_TS folder on your DVD disk that contains all the VOBs, IFOs & BUPs. I'd say to burn the (usually empty) AUDIO_TS folder too as some DVD players look for both folders to identify a DVD disk.

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[handyguy]

ALso, left column:
HOW TO
ALL GUIDES
ARTICLES
AUTHOR
CAPTURE
CONVERT
DVD BACKUP
EDIT
PLAY

[daamon]

@ handyguy - You forgot the "Search" option...!!

[pitmaster]

Great help Daamon, I think I will work me a way out of this. Thank's.
Yes I know the Englisch invented football. So your Englisch. But as we will see next summer, the Dutch play the best......

Greetings and thanks again, Nico

P.s. my son is 9 years old now and play's matches of 20 minutes.

[rkr1958]

Then, do I have to make 1 movie from the 6 parts? Or do I save 6 parts free from each other?
Nico

You can save the 6 parts separate and then add them to TMPGEnc DVD Author. It's fairly straight forward from there to create your menus.

Does TPMG make a dvd structure in a directory and can I copy that to the dvd or do I have to ask Gear to do someting special?
Nico

TMPGEnc DVD Author has an option when you create the DVD to create the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders. All you need is to write those two folders and their contents (only the VIDEO_TS contains anything) to your DVD+/-R(W).

[daamon]

Great help Daamon, I think I will work me a way out of this. Thank's.
Yes I know the Englisch invented football. So your Englisch. But as we will see next summer, the Dutch play the best......

Greetings and thanks again, Nico

P.s. my son is 9 years old now and play's matches of 20 minutes.

Ah, 6 games of 20 mins - 120 mins captured from a VHS source will easily fit onto a DVD. Glad to be of help...

As long as we don't get beaten by the French or the Germans, I don't mind... Enjoy!