dv camcorder to vcd

[dmcg501]

Hi

Im trying to burn vcd's for the first time of my home videos,editing is with windows movie maker but when I burn the cd-r or cd- rw the cd wont play back in my dvd player (sony dav s800) but the machine does support this media. I tried to play the disks on a friends player and they wont play in that either, but, they will play back on my pc (windows xp) is it something to do with the format the pc is using?
This is the first time I've tried to do anything like this so I dont know too much about it

many thanx for any help

David, Scotland

[ZippyP.]

Although moviemaker will burn video to CD I don't believe it will make a VCD, please correct me if I'm wrong. You need to convert your DV video to VCD compliant mpeg-1 then author and burn it to disk.

Click here for a guide.

[dmcg501]

Hi Zippy P

many thanx for your help,I think you are right, I've tried about 3 different ways to change the file to mpeg-1,unfortunately I seem to be hitting some beginers probs.By the way my videos are .wmv files

I've been trawling thro the how to sections till my brain has turned to mush
Maybe if i give the specific probs u may help.

1.Have downloaded TMPGEnl & pdvcodec but windows cant open a.dll file

2.Tried to look on web for program to open dll file but wasnt sure wot to do?

3. Downloaded easyvcd but couldnt open my video file when in the program; it asks for "input from". Now im guessing I should go into my videos folder and pull out the video file but It only lets me open files with .EVT ext ( easy vcd info file)

Now im having conversations with myself in front of the pc at midnight and answering back in a different voice


thanx again

[jimmalenko]

http://members.dodo.net.au/~jimmalenko/TMPGEnc1CD.htm will guide you through creating an XVCD that will fit any length of time you wish (within reason) to 1 CD. All you need to do is set the basics to VCD-compliant settings and you'll be just fine.

[daamon]

Hi dmcg501,

Being a fellow Brit (yes, I know you're a Jock and I'm a bloody Englishman), I'd like to try to help you...

You mention home movies - are these on a DV cam of some description? If so, capture these to your PC via a firewire cable and card (both inexpensive) to DV AVI using WinDV.

Use TMPGEnc (free for VCDs) to encode to MPEG1.

Use VCDEasy with your MPEG1s to get your VCD.

Good luck...

[ZippyP.]

By the way my videos are .wmv files

Mr. Obvious says....That was a mistake to convert to wmv. Every conversion diminishes quality. You should really be converting your original DV footage to VCD, after using an editing program that doesn't convert it of course. Live and learn.

1.Have downloaded TMPGEnl & pdvcodec but windows cant open a.dll file

See my links below, third one down...click on that. Now go to the fourth paragraph and you should see some info to help you.

Don't get discouraged, you'll get it yet!

[dmcg501]

hello gentlemen

many thanx for your help, i can now view my dv movies on my dvd player

My next goal is to edit my movies; I've tried virtualdub but all Ican seem to do is make one cut in a whole movie and then i have to save it, ie i would end up with 20 diff clips saved to a separate file if i made 20 cuts

ive seen one where you edit the movie and simply drag all your cuts to a finished film strip at the bottom of the screen that looked idiot proof enough for me

is there any other editing software you could recommend

also the quality of the vcd seems a bit naff

ta much,david

[daamon]

My next goal is to edit my movies; I've tried virtualdub but all I can seem to do is make one cut in a whole movie and then i have to save it, ie i would end up with 20 diff clips saved to a separate file if i made 20 cuts

ive seen one where you edit the movie and simply drag all your cuts to a finished film strip at the bottom of the screen that looked idiot proof enough for me

is there any other editing software you could recommend

See this post, and the rest of the thread...

also the quality of the vcd seems a bit naff

VCDs aren't the best, but you should get reasonable quality from a DV source. Can you clarify "naff" a bit better? (i.e. describe what you see, what you don't like - even post a screen print if possible).

Look into SVCDs, or better still get a DVD writer - I can recommende the Pioneer DVR-108 from www.blankdiscshop.co.uk - Excellent bit of kit, great price, great customer service.

[ZippyP.]

DV>WMV>VCD is gonna look like crap. You need to skip the WMV part but as pointed out VCD is limited in resolution.

It would be better to edit your DV footage before conversion. Virtualdub (free) can do simple cuts and then save only once when you're all done. Look in the Edit section for a guide.

Glad you're making headway.

[daamon]

DV>WMV>VCD is gonna look like crap. You need to skip the WMV part but as pointed out VCD is limited in resolution.

Well spotted ZippyP. - I forgot to mention that (vital bit of information). Sorry...

[funkguy4]

you might wanna learn just a tad of AVISynth, cuz then it'll
a) speed up conversion to MPEG1 and
b) boost your ego

no but on a serious note, you can look at how y0ou need to make your cuts in Vdub then make a very simple AVISynth script to keep the portions you want.

but VDub works too

and about the 20 different files...i think you can just Delete Selection in VirtualDub (if i'm not mistaken...been using AIVSythn a while now) and then frameserve.

frameserving saves the hassle/space/time of saving off after editting, where you can just pass a pseudo-AVI to TMPGEnc and encode like that.

sorry if i've confused you or over-complicated things, but these after you get used to them can be really useful[/i][/code]

[dmcg501]

ok my latest method is!

*capture with win dv (gives avi)
*convert with TMPGEnc (gives mpeg1)
*burn with easyvcd
*edit with moviemaker

ok I've got there but it can take a hell of a time especially as I have a backlog of about 12hrs of dv footage.

*is there any quicker way to capture or r u limited by the play speed of the camcorder?
*what about these all in one software packages u can get r they worth the money and r they any quicker?

[kirky99]

DV capture is limited to the amount of video that you are capturing. 1 minute of video takes one minute to capture PLUS the overhead of saving, etc.

[daamon]

Hi dmcg501,

Your current method is correct for what you want to do...

As kirky99 says, DV transfer is real-time - i.e. it takes as longs as it takes the footage to play. Get a comfy chair and a few cold beers...

The "all-in-one" packages for DVD can lead to lesser quality than if you use separate tools for each stage. I won't go into the reasons unless you want that explained...

But, as VCD is a fixed bitrate and you can't vary anything, an "all-in-one" will be fine - I don't know off the top of my head one that covers VCD...

Happy New Year!

[Josef K]

Get a comfy chair and a few cold beers...

My, you're well suited to your new(ish) home, 4x anyone...?

The "all-in-one" packages for DVD can lead to lesser quality than if you use separate tools for each stage. I won't go into the reasons unless you want that explained...

I tend to agree but I also feel that certain all-in-one's cover their ground quite well. For example DVD2SVCD. If dmcg501 feels comfortable having a reasonable amount of footage converted to VCD/SVCD then DVD2SVCD is not a bad method at all. At least it'll provide a decent output for now until dmcg501 learns, or wants, to use manual methods. There are benefits in each.

I don't know off the top of my head one that covers VCD...

DVD2SVD (freeware, excluding the cost of the encoder). As long as you transfer/capture your footage as cleanly as you should then you should be ready to go, even with an all-in-one.

[daamon]

Get a comfy chair and a few cold beers...

My, you're well suited to your new(ish) home, 4x anyone...?

Too right!!! Not sure what you mean by the "4x anyone...?" though...

The "all-in-one" packages for DVD can lead to lesser quality than if you use separate tools for each stage. I won't go into the reasons unless you want that explained...

I tend to agree but I also feel that certain all-in-one's cover their ground quite well. For example DVD2SVCD. If dmcg501 feels comfortable having a reasonable amount of footage converted to VCD/SVCD then DVD2SVCD is not a bad method at all. At least it'll provide a decent output for now until dmcg501 learns, or wants, to use manual methods. There are benefits in each.

That's coz DVD2SVCD uses a third-party encoder (like TMPGEnc or CinemaCraft Encoder (I think)) rather than it's own internal (crappy) encoder like some do...

DVD2SVD (freeware, excluding the cost of the encoder). As long as you transfer/capture your footage as cleanly as you should then you should be ready to go, even with an all-in-one.

Oh yeah - I've even got that on my PC. It's my alchohol befuddled brain...

[Josef K]

Not sure what you mean by the "4x anyone...?

Castlemain XXXX. You've seen the adverts! Must have!

That's coz DVD2SVCD uses a third-party encoder

If you want results, most likely you'll have to pay to get them. Windows 'Movie Maker' isn't it. It also doesn't do MPEG2 too well so, forgive me if I'm wrong, utilisation of another piece of software is on the cards.

Oh yeah - I've even got that on my PC. It's my alchohol befuddled brain...

I'm trying to get especially drunk tonight so I can't hear the fireworks. Maybe when I pass out...

[daamon]

Ah - XXXX.... I read it as "4 times". Got ya... You wouldn't catch me drinking that piss. Actually, contrary to the stereotype, they've got a fair amount of decent beers here...

Yes, I agree - it's worth forking out for a decent encoder.

Good luck... Happy hangover!!!

[dmcg501]

Happy New Year to all

Tried to burn to svcd but my dvd wouldnt play it


Also im very puzzled by a single video file ive got the details are:
*duration 60min
*width 720pix
*height 576pix
*bitrate1024kbps
*compression dv codec
BUT THE SIZE OF THE FILE IS 12.6GB surley the file should not b this size my hard drive is only 40GB and its almost full!!

didnt want to complicate things earlier but I do have a dvd writer,suggestions please to utilise this.

P.S. fosters is much better than 4x

[jimmalenko]

Actually, contrary to the stereotype, they've got a fair amount of decent beers here...

Yeah, we keep all the decent beers to ourselves. The stereotype is Fosters and XXXX - the reality is, we export most of them to the Brits & Yanks because they taste like shit. No-one drinks them over here ... bar a few people up pac's way ...


As for the issue at hand. 12.6GB is TOTALLY NORMAL for a DV AVI - in fact, it should probably be around 13.2GB. If you have a DVD burner, convert to DVD-compliant MPEG-2 and burn to DVD!

If you want to do a straight conversion (no editing), I suggest you try this guide. If you wish to do some editing then I'd suggest Fulcilives' excellent guide, which allows you to edit in virtualdub and encode in your favorite encoder, all by way of frameserving, which is very efficient space-wise.

[daamon]

Happy New Year to all

Tried to burn to svcd but my dvd wouldnt play it

And to you!!!

Have you checked your DVD player in the links to the left? In there it tells you whether it should play SVCDs or not...

Yeah, we keep all the decent beers to ourselves. The stereotype is Fosters and XXXX - the reality is, we export most of them to the Brits & Yanks because they taste like shit. No-one drinks them over here ... bar a few people up pac's way ...

Yeah, I soon bloody found that out... Must be something to do with the crafty genes handed down over the years from your fore-fathers who were "expatriated" in 1778...

[dmcg501]

Yep it confirms my player cant play svcd.

2 questions:-

*since my hard drive is only 40gb i will need to increase it, do i simply purchase more memory and add to my pc or are there other options? havnt done this b4.

*I would like to add effects and transitions to clips what is best way 2 do this.


Im now burning to dvd as the quality seems better.

[daamon]

Buy a new, bigger hard drive. Memory is totally different and unrelated to storing files.

You're in Soctland, check out www.ebuyer.co.uk - good prices. Look at my "Computer Details" for the sort of thing you might want to get.

7200rpm spin speed is good for capture.
SATA is that bit faster on it's read / write speed.

Size is up to you - but 120Gb drives aren't that pricey.

Windows Movie Maker (i've got version 2 with my XP) does some fairly decent fades and transitions. I believe it's free to download if you haven't got version 2. I don't know if version 1 does it.

DON'T use it for creating your MPEGs - there are better encoders...

[dmcg501]

I would like to use wmm but i cant seem to get it to work! I dont know how to transfer the effects on the movie to dvd, if i try to open the file TMPEnc says file is invalid ( Ive captured with wmm and saved as dv-avi)

any suggestions?

[tmh]

It may be that TMPGenc can't open type 1 AVI - I'm not at my home computer so I can't check right now. If so, a simple conversion from type 1 (that's what WMM2 uses, btw) to type 2 will solve this minor issue. Several simple programs do this. See tools or ask if you can't find one. Most here have said that the type 1 to 2 is a lossless conversion so it shouldn't cause any quality loss.

[daamon]

tmh is right on the mark... If you look into the difference between the two, you'll find that it's just the way the audio is stored. Conversion is lossles - it's more of a "rearrangement". There was a recent thread on this, I can find it if you like...

Check out (in no particular order):

DV Type 1 to DV Type 2 Converter
DVConverter
Canopus DV File Converter

...there may be others...

[dmcg501]

I dont think that is the prob.

* captured in windv
*transfered to wmm and saved as avi
*then in wmm added transitions/effects
*TEMPGEnc says cant open this file it is "unsupported"
*tried to convert to type 2 in case that was the prob but converter will only allow me to open microsoft avi files.
*Now,the unedited original clip is in this TMPGEnc box,BUT the same clip with the added transitions/effects from wmm is not!
*this implies that when wmm is adding the transitions it is changing the file in some way.

so im still stuck in cant add transitions/effects to my dvds land!!

anyone got any ideas????

[daamon]

*transfered to wmm and saved as avi

No need to do this. WinDV saves to DV AVI - either type 1 or type 2 as per the setting in WinDV.

Then add your transitions and effects. You can save to DV AVI from WMM. Not sure if it defaults to type 1 or 2, or whether you can choose. Either way, you can always convert if needed with the tools I listed.

That DV AVI should then be OK for TMPGEnc.

Are you using WMM 2?

[dmcg501]

Daamon,I know windv saves in avi, I saved in avi again from wmm as I had to use wmm to put in transitions.
wmm saves both the original clip and my clip with transitions, however, the original "unedited" clip can be used by TMPGEnc the clip with the transitions cant!. The converter does not help ?

Thanks your time is much appreciated

[dmcg501]

Sorrry, forgot to say no its wmm1 I will download wmm2 and try that 1st