DVD authoring with files from digital camcorder

[kasfig]

Dear Forum
Please can someone kindly advise. I have borrowed a digital camcorder but since the software wasnt with I captured the videos from the tapes using video capture and these are called "streaming movie " files , having a suffix of asf.
Although these will play in windows media player the dvd authoring program (dvd lab pro) I tried to import them to will not recognise them as video files.
Please does anyone know if I can convert them perhaps in some way , and if so what tools I should use.
Your kind assistance would be appreciated
ps I used McFun software to capture the videos
Ian

[mats.hogberg]

Look up "wmv to mpg" or "wmv to dvd" under CONVERT left. Only mpg can be authored as DVD.
I'd load them in WMM, export as DV AVI, encode DV to mpg, and author.

/Mats

[kasfig]

Hi
Thank you so much I will look into your solutions more
Best wishes
Ian

[thecoalman]

If you still have access to the camcorder recapture as DV-AVI over firewire, that will be an exact duplicate of what is on tape and gice you the best source to work with.

[kasfig]

Thank you so much for this help. I am a novice. The video was captured from the tape on the digital camcorder using the Mcfun capture facility. Using the only cable I had available (USB)
( I used this software because the software that came with the camcorder wasnt available to me - the camcorder was borrowed)
I expect I made some mistake capturing the video in that format (wmv) and ought to have done some other setting.
I have now tried out capturing the video using the program called "open video capture" which I also downloaded. I notice this produces a AVI file not the other type.
What I am a bit confused about is the options on this program for compression. Please does anyone know what is recommended.
Also, what can I do to get the captured video files smaller to fit on the DVD
Yours with thanks
Ian

[thecoalman]

USB transfer produces a low quality video regardless of what your capture settings are.

I'd suggest using the method I posted above if you want the best results. Once you have it connected via firewire is quite simple. Any software will produce the same results. Windows Movie Maker, WinDV or any other software that allows you to select DV-AVI.

The key is you use firwire and select DV-AVI as the type of file to capture to. This amounts to copying the video from tape to your computer, it's a bit for bit lossless transfer.

[kasfig]

HI
Thank you for this most helpful advice. I am downloading both programs. Please do you know if I have to choose any particular setting eg frame rate etc or does it do it automatically.
Also Please do you know what file size a one hour downloaded video is likely to be if done by firewire.
Your kind thanks
Ian

[guns1inger]

DV avi is 13GB per hour of footage. You don't have to set resolution and framerate if you transfer as DV, as it is all fixed and set for you.

[kasfig]

Hi
Thanks again. My friend has five tapes full of video from a dv and this is about nearly 5 hours total footage .
I was hoping to author a dual layer dvd with them all on each one a different menu item.
Please do you know if it is possible to reduce the size of the dv files without too much quality loss. or would you say what I am hoping to do is not feasible.
Yours with kind wishes
Ian

[mats.hogberg]

5 hours is stretching it some - I use to say no more than 2 hours on a single layer DVD. But it all comes down to what's in the videos. Talking heads, shot with the camera on a tripod? No problem - 5 hours will work nicely.
High action, shot with the cam hand held? It won't look good!

/Mats

[kasfig]

Hi Mats
Thank you for this again. I think the latter is the case. It has much shaking on the part of the camera man some of it taken from in a car. If he did want to get it all on (dL dvd 8.5 gigabyte) would he have to compress the videos and please if so do you know how this would be done.
Yours thanks again
Ian

[guns1inger]

Regardless of content, you have to encode the video as mpeg-2 for DVD. When you do this, you can set a Bitrate, which will determine how much running time you can fit on a single disc. For DV source such as you have described, this should be a two disc job. However it also depends on the editing.

There are several free tools available that can do this for you, however the ones that will preserve the most quality are also the ones that require the most time to process the video, and the most time on your part to learn. Or there are several low cost commercial solutions available.

[kasfig]

Hi again thanks
Ive tried tmpgen author also dvd lab pro and dvdbuilder pro. The latter takes ages to process (many hours) that might be best one to preserve quality.
Ive tried a program called dvdpatcher to change bit rate.
Yours with thanks
ian

[guns1inger]

HCEnc is much faster than Tmpgenc, and easily as good quality wise. Catch is that it needs a short avisynth script to load the video.

[kasfig]

Thank you again so much
I am downloading these two programs - however I am getting out of my depth here I am only a newbie.
I tried DVD authoring with DVD builder pro recently and when doing the file processing it said that 66 hours remaining time to process them so I cancelled.
Yours with thanks
Ian