Best Way to Capture DV to MPG

[canon10d]

I have a DV camcorder, and in the past have used Scenanlyzer to capture the files as AVI via Firewire. In order to burn them to DVD using DVD Lab, the files had to be converted to MPG format. This is both time comsuming (capturing and converting) and takes up lots of space. I haven't done this for a year or so now so am out of touch.

Is there any software out there that will allow me to capture the files and convert them straight to MPG format, so that they can go straight into DVD Lab? Or is there an alternative to DVD Lab that I should consider? I'm not doing anything fancy other than a simple thumbnail menu at the start with a Play All option as well. That and being able to edit the individual clips by chopping off the start or end bits (you know the sort of ones where you have footage of your feet as you walk along).

I've done the usual Google search, but peoples experiences are better than downloading dozens of software apps to try them. Any help would be appreciated.

[thecoalman]

Any Ulead product.

[tmh]

look in the "tools" section here, lots of answers.

many say HCenc (sp??) is a good, free encoder, you may give that one a try. DVD Flick is an all-in-one encoder and authoring program - free also, gets quite good reviews here. It can also use the HCenc encoder, I think. Simple menus, good quality according to users - sounds like a good one for you to try.

[canon10d]

thecoalman - I'll check their site out, thanks.

tmh - Thanks but HCenc is beyond me I think. 2 pass VBR encoding and GOP files! From the comments of both, neither seems to convert straight from DV to MPEG2. Is this not possible? Free is nice, but I don't mind paying if the software does the job properly, but then again not to the extremes of Adobe Premiere. This is just to create DVDs of the kids to send to the grandparents.

To give an idea, I have this week captured 5 DV tapes using Scenalyzer, and it takes up approx. 95GB. To burn these to DVD, I have to convert them to MPEG2 format first, which will take up more space. I'll keep Googling in the meantime.

[Jim44]

Yes, it's possible. To expand on tmh's suggestion, if you look at the "Video Encoders (MPG/DVD)" section in the Tools section, you'll see a whole list of choices. Some freeware, some payware. Have a look, download & try a few out and see which of the choices is easy for you to use.

[tmh]

well, with DVD Flick I think you have a pretty easy solution. It takes youDv input and does the rest. you'll need to learn a few settings no matter what program you use. There are some that will convert to mpeg2 as you capture, i think, but i'm not sure about the quality.

Not being a pain, but if an all-in-one like flick is too complicated for you to learn, then I'm not sure what the answer is. I'm sure there are step-by-step guides for DVD Flick that others have posted if you need help. Take a DV clip and just go through the process and see what questions you have.

[redwudz]

I'm not sure if there are any encoders that will take a DV stream, on-the-fly, and encode it to MPEG-2. I have done that in the past with MainConcept encoder, but I don't know if it still has those cababilities. It wouuld only do single pass encoding and had to use a lot of buffer space because the encoder couldn't keep up in real time. And the quality was not as good as what I could do with a encode of a DV file from my hard drive.

I would just do the normal DV transfer to the computer with a program like WinDV and go from there.

If you really want to do DV on-the-fly, you might look into a DVD recorder that has a DV input.

[thecoalman]

I'm not sure if there are any encoders that will take a DV stream, on-the-fly, and encode it to MPEG-2..

Any Ulead product.

Coincidenatlly it uses Mainconcept. I've seen some screenshots and frankly they look quite good but of course that's no comparison to watching actual video. Certainly get better results using 2 pass etc. I believe Ulead recommends a min of 2.6ghz but you can certainly do it with a 2.8, EdDV mentioned using a 2.8 . Haven't seen this myself but I think you can achieve this with very slow machine as per their recommendations as I seen it mentioned on the Ulead forum that it sets up buffer, if the buffer becomes full it will pause the cam mid capture to clear the buffer out then continue converting.

Not sure what the results are and wouldn't do it even if I could but whatever floats your boat.

[redwudz]

Never used Ulead.

I seem to remember using a 1.8Ghz single core CPU with MC and after the DV finished transferring, the encoding went on another 5 -6 minutes. That's why I mentioned the buffer. When I turned it off, the encoder would just crash. But with newer and faster multiple core CPUs, it might be a bit more useful.

I was wondering if that's still a feature on the standalone MainConcept encoder? I couldn't find it mentioned.

[tmh]

I don't know, unless you are doing tons of this stuff, how hard is it to transfer the DV ,set the encoder to encode then walk away and leave it to encode for a while? You can go back and delete your DV files if you want, no problem.

Also, the time to encode issue i see all the time here, again, if you need to do three videos per day, yeah it's important. i just set it to encode when i know I'll be doing something else for a few hours (or overnight) and the computer does the job.

[new_dist]

Hi
Oldtimer Newbie here !
Here is my solution to your problem ! Purchase an ADS InstantDVD+mp3 converter !
It has a DV/firewire in port for converting DV to Mpeg on the fly !
I have used this converter for a year now and it works great !
Dave

[pepegot1]

I dump my DV to my JVC recorder. Then rip to mpg and Edit with VideoRedo. Author with TDA or VS 11 Plus, if extras are to be added.

[lordsmurf]

WinDV to computer.

Afterwards, whatever you want (though some are better than others). I use Premiere 6.5/CS3 (one of the best) and encode in Adobe Media Encoder, then author in authorware (have a few choices here).

[JohnnyMalaria]

If you really want to do DV on-the-fly, you might look into a DVD recorder that has a DV input.

That's my preferred way.

[canon10d]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I've give the WinDV and DVD Flick ones a go first. My DVD recorder has a DV input, so I'll have to look at that as an option based on what pepegot1 has said.