LG GSA-H22L help with creating movies from Sony TR27

[mrajana]

Hi,

I replaced my Sony CD writer with GSA-H22L, still using the original ribbon cable on the
PC, and set the DVD writer's jumper to slave. I could copy some of my still photos, about 2GB
to DVD-R disk. When I try to make a DVD from my MiniDV tape, the software that came
with the LG drive crashed once, but it finished writing the next time I tried it. I am copying
the contents of the tape directly without any editing. The finished DVD does not play on my DVD player which supports DVD-R format. Even on the PC, it only plays for 3.5 minutes instead of the 90 minutes of tape that I used to create the movie.

When I try creating a movie with Windows Movie Maker, it creates a small 350MB file that could fit on a CD in Winamp format and not a DVD movie. Could you please let me know what could be going wrong?

Thanks,
mrajana

[hech54]

I believe 90 minutes in MiniD format means trouble for converting to DVD....60 minute setting is much better and easier to work with.
The audio should also be set at 16bit...not 12bit on the camera.

LG used to give away NeoDVD with their burners....CRAP.
Creating movies from a MiniDV cam to DVD via computer is not all that difficult....with the right software and some reading.

All-In-One softwares like Nero and Roxio can do it very easily if you are a newbie to all of this. That might be the best way to start until you learn the ropes with stuff like WinDV and TmpgEnc.

It's not the burner...it's the software most likely.
Have you ever made a DVD from your MiniDV footage before via a computer?

[mrajana]

Hech54

Thank you for your reply to my post. I have just tried the software that was included with the
H22L and Windows Movie Maker. While H22L software produces an aborted video, Windows
Movie Maker creates a WinAmp file that can only be played using WinAmp on the PC and my DVD player does not recognize the disk.

I have Nero installed on my PC, but I am not sure if I can make DVD movies with it. If it does work, I will try that next.

Thanks
mrajana

[oldandinthe way]

What other device is on the same IDE cable? Is it properly set as master? What is the DMA status of your LG drive?

What is your camera? How is it connected? Is it actually transfering the entire tape? Did it come with software?

[hech54]

Exactly....How is the camera connected?
Firewire or USB?

[mrajana]

Thanks for all the responses.

The LG drive is set as the slave (the jumper is in the middle). I have the camcorder (Sony TRV27) connected using firewire. PC could not recognize the camcorder with a USB connection - so I switched to Firewire.

[oldfart13]

Use the ribbon cable that came with the drive. I used my old cable and the computer didn't want to recognize the drive as a DVD drive. That cable had been used for an LG-4163B so I assumed it would be okay for the newer drive. I couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as I switched the cable, everything went to normal, recognition of it being DVD-RAM, fast ripping speeds, the works. There is a reason they give you that new cable....so use it....

[hech54]

I would do a simple test with a portion of the tape transfered to your computer as uncompressed .avi first to see what it looks like. WinDV can do that for you. Then sample a free mpeg encoder like Super (very simple to use) or TmpgEnc.

[mrajana]

Thanks for all the suggestions from everyone. I think one of the problems could be with the cable. Right now the dropdown speed selector does not show anything other than a 4 when I use LG supplied software. So, this might be a problem as well.

I am not sure that the existing DVD-ROM drive can coexist with the DVD Writer if I replace the original cable with the one that came with H22L. But I will try this.

[oldandinthe way]

If your drive is the only drive on the cable it should be the master, not the slave - hence my question. Exception if the cable is a select cable then it should be cable select - not master or slave.

If you change cables and it is the only drive on the cable - it still won't work.

If there is a older DVD-ROM on the cable, it should be the slave and your writer the master.

If your writer does not have DMA enabled it may crap out partway through the write (when it can't keep up with the increased rotational speed) and give you only a partial movie. Your CPU does not have a lot of horsepower to spare and you do not want to burn in PIO mode.

[oldfart13]

One weird problem I had with the P4 2.6 GHz board that I have is that the DVD-RAM drive has to have that new cable as well as being on the primary IDE channel. It simply doesn't even recognize the drive if I put it on the secondary channel as the master and the only drive on the channel. I've never had that problem before....

[oldandinthe way]

Check the setup in your bios. Is the secondary IDE channel enabled? Are there other parameters in setup that affect the seconday channel?

[oldfart13]

Yes, it's all working great. Bios was the first thing I checked. It's just a quirk of that particular board. Also, that board won't accept more than 768 Meg of RAM which limits much of what I can do with it but it was a gift of sorts when the P3 died some months back so I'm not complaining.....

[hech54]

My drives(both of my LG's) are set to CS - Cable Select...along with my extra internal HDD....all are CS.
The only Master (I believe) is my C drive...that could also be CS as far as I know...but I think I reset from CS to Master when I added the second burner.