Basics

[Pechin]

Where can I find a VISUAL FLOW chart of the dv to dvd (or hard drive) process. Like many others I have stacks of analog material, VHS, SVHS, Hi-8 to transfer. I use a Mac Pro, and have a LaCie external burner. That middle bridge, the capture card and software are my next decision. I want to both archive the material and cut it (same dv target?) The forum comments are formidable....which settings are best, etc. Get me going you Pros!

Chris Pechin, former NFL cameraman, DP, now TV Director

[redwudz]

The simple route for your analog files might be to use a DVR and record directly to DVD disc. Since it's then in a digital format, it's easy enough to extract the MPEGs from the DVDs or edit them the way you want. You shouldn't have any quality losses unless you need to re-encode. The DV is a different matter, as it's already digital. I would do your editing in that format, then encode to MPEG for DVD.

But for your questions, I think you would get better responses to Mac specific questions in our Mac Forum. Moving you.

And welcome to our forums.

EDIT: You might also take a look to the upper left on this page for 'WHAT IS' DVD. It will tell you quite a bit about the DVD format, structure and specifications.

[Frobozz]

I don't know about a visual flow chart. But here is an attempt at a text one.

1. Get a Canopus ADVC device or a DV camcorder that has analog-to-digital passthrough and connect that to your Mac's Firewire input.

2. Use iMovie, Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro to capture the video for editing. Make your edits.

3. Use iDVD, DVD Studio Pro, Toast 9 or CaptyDVD 2 to make video DVDs from the edited videos.

You ask about what settings are best. There are no settings to make with a DV capture. As for MPEG encoding that's part of making the video DVD it's best to keep the total length under 2-1/2 hours if using Dolby Digital AC-3 audio or under 2 hours if using PCM audio (an iDVD limitation) if you will be burning to a single-layer disc.

If your editing is merely cutting out unwanted parts then I suggest getting an EyeTV 250 instead of the Canopus unit and capture directly to MPEG 2. EyeTV includes software for easily cutting out what you don't want. Toast works nice with EyeTV to create the video DVDs. This is way faster than going the DV route and doesn't require anywhere near as much hard drive space. But your editing flexibility is greatly reduced.