Capturing directly to DVD-ready format?

[mr. hero se]

Hi all,

After spending quite some time on these boards and asking sellers on how to do it, I find it very strange that there is no simple solution to this. It must be!

I have a Panasonic 3CCD MiniDV-cam. I have a pc and a Pioneer HDD/DVD-recorder. Now, what I want to do is the fastest and simplest way of just capturing from My cam directly to my pc. When the film is on the pc I just add menues (With DVD Workshop 2) and then burn it all on DVD. I dont want to add effects, edit the material or anything like that. I want the 1 hour film on tape to be 1 hour film on DVD. I dont want to wait all night for it to render, I just want to capture directly to my pc in the mpeg2 format ready for burning on DVD.

All suggestions are appreciated

[lumis]

it's actually pretty easy.

connect your camera to your pioneer dvd recorder, either by analog or through a dv connection (pref., if one is available)..

set your dvd recorder to record in 1 hour mode (or MN31, not sure if it applies to yours).

once you've finished recording, finalize the disc..

after you've finalized the disc, take it to your computer, and use dvd decrypter to extract to an ac3 & m2v file, or some other program (tmpgenc mpeg editor) to extract to a muxed mpeg file..

it will already be in dvd spec, ready to have chapters & menus added to it.. the only real "rendering" will be that of your menu's and such.. the video wont need any adjustment.

[mr. hero se]

Aha, many thanks!

If I could capture directly to the pc it would be even better. Do you or anyone else have any suggestion on a good capture card that captures and directly places mpeg2 file on my pc?

A very strange experience I got the other day in a store was discovering the software video2dvd from Xoom for a VERY low price. On the back this software says it will capture from any videodevice and store in "a dvd-ready" format in REAL TIME!??

Is this plain bs or is it true but results in a useless quality?

I figured I could buy a simple "capture-card" that would do the trick. Considering the price on a HDD/DVD-recorder it would be a very affordably solution.

Finally I have to say that the quality that the Pioneer 433 gives even in SP-mode is completely superior to anything I have been able to get on the PC.

[edDV]

My first advice: If this is serious 3CCD original material, save the DV master.

video2dvd might be realtime with a sufficiently powerful computer but I'd dismiss this as hype.

If you want realtime encoding to the PC you have two choices, hardware or software.

Hardware encoding does it all but at a $ price. Most cost effective consumer solution has been the Hauppauge PVR-250 which has been the standard for the consumer level but other contenders are emerging. There is a quality compromise vs. the "hard way" or by using expensive hardware encoders. It depends what you want and how much you want to spend.

On the software realtime encoding side you either need a cutting edge (expensive) computer or are willing to severely compromise qulity.

In recent times, the Mainconcept MPeg2 encoder v1.4 or later was able to get a good realtime MPeg2 encode from a 2.4GHz or better P4 or Celeron.

I use this for TV capture with success but would never consider going this way for 3CCD camcoder captures except as a quick preview.

The quality is night and day vs. DV capture. If you want semi-pro quality, you still capture DV and non-realtime encode to MPeg2 and DVD.

[I_am_stealth]

In recent times, the Mainconcept MPeg2 encoder v1.4 or later was able to get a good realtime MPeg2 encode from a 2.4GHz or better P4 or Celeron.

Do you know where I could find some comparisons between various software that manage real time MPEG2 encoding from DV ? Is the Mainconcept the best in your opinion? Are there other options ( does Moonlight encoder do it)?

As far as I know it is only possible to do a single pass encoding when you software encode to MPEG2 in real time, which means the quality is never great.

[harley2ride]

Take a look at the ADS PYRO AV/LINK. And, go to http://www.videoguys.com/Shootout2005.html to see reviews of semi-professional NLE solutions. I got myself set up with an ADS PYRO AV/LINK, and Adobe Premiere, for $120.00. Current prices for an ADS PYRO with Adobe Premiere Elements are around $150.00. The hauppage cards are close to that, and can't do what the AV/Link can.