Help me design an experiment!

[brookelh]

I am planning to convert my 8mm camcorder tapes into DVDs. I have been studying this web site for 2 weeks and realize that there are many, many (infinite?) ways to do this. However, my friends and family will be easily impressed, and I am not trying to win an Oscar, so I am wondering if some of the "lesser" options will suffice for my needs. So I was thinking of doing an experiment, trying 3 or 4 methods for capturing, editing, and encoding, and then burning it to one dvd so that I can assess whether the results are worth the time and $. I am not all that interested in how the authoring applications vary; that is a problem for another day. I am wanting mostly to compare capturing, editing, and encoding.

My plan is to capture and do some simple edits on 10 minutes of video merged from two different tapes, adding perhaps a couple of titles and doing some cutting and pasting.

My resources:

I am capturing with AverMedia DVD EZMaker PCI. (I debated between that and a Canopus ACDV-50 and decided to try the $30 before the $200)

I am using iuVCR to capture. I also installed neoDVD that came with the capture card but haven't tried it, because it only captures to mpeg.

I have downloaded VirtualDub and Sony MovieStudio DVD, and I also have Nero 6. I would be willing to try other trialware.

My proposed trials:

1. Use iuVCR to capture in AVI format; edit with MovieStudio; then convert to mpeg2 using MovieStudio.

2. Use iuVCR to capture in AVI format; edit with MovieStudio, then convert to mpeg2 using TMPGEN

3. Use iuVCR to capture in AVI format; edit with Windows Movie Maker or Nero visionexpress, then convert to mpeg2 using TMPGEN

3. Use iuVCR to capture in mpeg2 format; and edit with something (?).

4. Try using neoDVD for the whole thing.

Is this a reasonable plan? I understand that even each of these has several variables in terms of resolution, etc. I would of course try to keep other variables the same across applications as much as possible. I am just trying to see which general plan works best for my needs before all my trialware expires!

[housepig]

I did the same thing, with the same card. I tried changing capture codecs, encoding to mpeg-2 with different encoders, using different capture resolutions, etc. etc.

this is actually a good idea - my suggestion is use a short piece of source footage with a mix of motion, color and stock types, if possible (I used a 2 minute segment of the Beastie Boys' video "Looking Down The Barrel of a Gun" from Laserdisc for source, since it had footage from film [35, 16 and 8mm] as well as video, and a good balance of high- and medium-motion footage.)

the other suggesiton is, use a short clip - 2 minutes or less. you'll be able to run more tests on a shorter source footage.

[brookelh]

Thanks for the advice. After posting, I thought of several ways to improve the experiment, mainly by using a shorter clip (as you suggested), and by varying only one thing at a time. For instance, focus on capturing first: capture at different settings, convert them all to mpeg2 the same way (if I didn't capture in mpeg2), and then author them to DVD.

Then repeat the process with the mpeg2 conversion: capture them all the same way and try different converters.

Then repeat with the editing process.

By the way, do you think this card will be suitable for my needs?