Using a dvd recorder to record from a mini dv camcorder.

[mryeaidid]

Hello, I just wanted to know, If I were to buy a dvd recorder, and hook it up to my mini dv camcorder, would this be better over all quality than having to do the multiple conversions listed on this site? Also, to anyone who has tried to records from camcorder straight to the dvd recorder, how long would it tak for a movie thats about....an hour long? What I really need to know will the quality be as top notch as the mini dv tape.

[canadateck]

Recording "One Hour" Of video to a recorder will take "One Hour".

Will it be better quality then transfering to the computer? Not sure,all depends on what recorder you use versus the Software you have,But when transfering to the computer you can filter/Edit and all that kind of stuff and you are not limited to the DVD Recorders bitrate and Quality settings.

I will say the best way to get top quality would be to transfer to the Computer then encode ad filters and do the edits in DV format. Not mpg2.

[donpedro]

Well... Here is my experience...

I used DVD recorder with DV-IN only to make quick backup copies of my MiniDV tapes. I would not use any longer time then 1h mode. Prolem is that MiniDV tapes have usualy home made recording that are shot in "shaky" hands and people are playing with zoom havely. That translates to situations where any mpeg encoder has a lot of problems to convert into "viewable" result. Also... editing home video on DVD Recorder is not that easy as on PC. We are not talking about taking out commercials or spliting episodes here. So my sugestion is that for you REAL DVD, stick to PC. I don't understand one of your statements... "would this be better over all quality than having to do the multiple conversions listed on this site". Why "multiple conversions" ? Only conversion that is made is conversion from DV-AVI to mpeg2. Rest is "copying" and "authoring". Advantage of PC road is that you can tweak MPEG encoder to achieve most from your source materrial and space. As far as I know, non of the DVD Recorders can do 2-Pass VBR encodig.

[handyguy]

I used a panasonic dvd recorder & hooked up a Hi8 camera to it & made a dvd & it looks like the original.

Btw, there are numerous topics on this.

[jtoolman2000]

Any video cam you plug into a DVD recorder so that as it passed through to the TV can be viewed can be recorded to DVD.

I've recorded all my old 8mm tapes to DVD that way. Basically I just wanted to save them before any demise hits them. I can take these DVDs to my PC and edit them by ripping back to PMG2 for basic cuts and other edits. Studio 9.4 Plus will edit PMG2 so it works out well

[hech54]

Any video cam you plug into a DVD recorder so that as it passed through to the TV can be viewed can be recorded to DVD.
Basically I just wanted to save them before any demise hits them.

Exactly....having them on DVD in "good but not pristine" quality is better than not having them at all.

[nirmala]

When you used DVD recorder with your 8mm Camcorder, did you use the regular red/white/yellow connections from camcorder to the front inputs on the recorder?

[mryeaidid]

Looking at what I said I was confused myself Sorry for the bad working. What I ment to say was instead of conversions, was procedure. For example. when you do it on a comp, i read a guide here that says you must:
1)Copy the DV to your HD
2)Convert to DivX or XviD
3) Deinterlace , resize, etc...
4) finally Convert to DivX or XviD....

While I was home this morning, I tried to do this, and after I copied the dv to my HD, I noticed that the lighting got darker, So I automatically assumed, while going throughout the steps, my video quality would continue to get worse. From my orignal mini dv tapes, I really lik ethem the way they are without editing because most of them where used with my tripod so the camera didnt really around and was zoomed in and out much really as someone else suggested. My main question was if I were to pick up a dvd recorder, and transfer video from my camcoder, would the quality be as good as the mini dv tape since it would be a direct copy to the dvd. I know when I hook my camcorder up to my vcr to record a vhs the quality is near perfect to the tape, I just want to know that if i were to get a dvd recorder, it would be just like that.

I don't understand one of your statements... "would this be better over all quality than having to do the multiple conversions listed on this site". Why "multiple conversions" ? Only conversion that is made is conversion from DV-AVI to mpeg2. Rest is "copying" and "authoring". Advantage of PC road is that you can tweak MPEG encoder to achieve most from your source materrial and space. As far as I know, non of the DVD Recorders can do 2-Pass VBR encodig.

[hech54]

When you used DVD recorder with your 8mm Camcorder, did you use the regular red/white/yellow connections from camcorder to the front inputs on the recorder?

Older 8mm videocams (not digital8 or DV) only uses RCA(cinch/yellow white red) outputs so you will need to use those. After all...that is all we had prior to firewire so technically the video quality will degrade some depending apon the quality and lenght of the RCA cables used AND which quality setting you use on your DVD Recorder. One hour would be the best quality But if the tape is over 1 hour....it won't kill you to use two hour mode on the DVD Recorder.

[Keitho]

Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
I've had a minidv camera for over a month now, and I haven't been happy with the DVDs I've made using my computer and firewire.
A friend of mine bought a GoVideo dvd recorder, and I recorded my first tape onto his machine in 1 hour mode. I can't tell any difference between the original dv tape and the DVD from his machine.
I played the DVD in PowerDVD with information mode on, and it looks like his machine converted the video into 9 Mbps, constant bit rate MPG2.
I would be happy using the dvd recorder, but I want menus to go straight to the video I want to see, and I don't think his machine allows for that.
So, I'm still trying out different programs, but it sure is time consuming.

[mryeaidid]

Hello keitho. I feel the exact way about my computer and firewire. All i really care about now is quality and maybe when im off from school a few weeks in july, ill mess around more with the firewire computer method. Later today what I will do is pick one up from sears and if it doesnt produce the quality, I will just give it back.

Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
I've had a minidv camera for over a month now, and I haven't been happy with the DVDs I've made using my computer and firewire.
A friend of mine bought a GoVideo dvd recorder, and I recorded my first tape onto his machine in 1 hour mode. I can't tell any difference between the original dv tape and the DVD from his machine.
I played the DVD in PowerDVD with information mode on, and it looks like his machine converted the video into 9 Mbps, constant bit rate MPG2.
I would be happy using the dvd recorder, but I want menus to go straight to the video I want to see, and I don't think his machine allows for that.
So, I'm still trying out different programs, but it sure is time consuming.

[donpedro]

mryeaidid, editing and creating DVD from MiniDV does not involve any of these steps "2)Convert to DivX or XviD 3) Deinterlace , resize, etc... 4) finally Convert to DivX or XviD" But I see that at this point this is not what you are trying to understand. Just small correction. Step "Copy the MiniDV to your HD" is lossless procedure... almost like copy any file on your computer, so you are not loosing any information what so ever.

Now back to DVD Recorders... Based on info (tripod+zoom) I assume that you will not see any quality decrease (even when there is one) if you record to DVD on DVD Recorder in 1 hour mode.

[mryeaidid]

Hell Donpedro.

From the reading I was doing during the 2 day waiting peroid to post here, I found out that making a dvd out of dvix files was the best thing you can do for quality to make a dvd(please correct me if im wrong). So what I did was follow the guide: "How to convert DV to DivX or XviD using Virtualdub" that is where i got the steps from and after the the first step, and noticed the lighting was off badly, I thought, well it might be because my video card is not the greatest so what i did was take that file, and used TMPGEnc, and played it on my standalone dvd player it was crappy. So thats why i thought about just getting the dvd recorder.

Thanks for the info about my situation (zoom+tripod), like I stated before, Ill "borrow" one from sears and see how it goes.

mryeaidid, editing and creating DVD from MiniDV does not involve any of these steps "2)Convert to DivX or XviD 3) Deinterlace , resize, etc... 4) finally Convert to DivX or XviD" But I see that at this point this is not what you are trying to understand. Just small correction. Step "Copy the MiniDV to your HD" is lossless procedure... almost like copy any file on your computer, so you are not loosing any information what so ever.

Now back to DVD Recorders... Based on info (tripod+zoom) I assume that you will not see any quality decrease (even when there is one) if you record to DVD on DVD Recorder in 1 hour mode.

[donpedro]

Correct steps for editing video from MiniDV are

1. Capture (more like copy) from MiniDV camcorder to DV-AVI file (no loss)

2. Edit (cut, reorder scenes, add transitions and so on..) No loss with exception of transitions and effects.

3. Encode to MPEG2, which is final format used on DVD. Quality of encoder play role here.

4. Author to DVD. This includes adding menu, chapter points and convering to format that DVD Player understand. There is no more loss from MPEG2 file quality that was created in step 3.

If you are interested, check post in my signature. It is about Pinnacle Studio 8 (now 9) that does all that.

[markhamPete]

Before purchasing a dvd recorder with firewire input, I captured my minidv tapes to a panny dvd recorder. With firewire input on the newer Pioneer, I noticed the picture is much sharper/cleaner and each scene is automatically separated with chapter marks.