.DV-AVI to DVD

[mvtm]

Hi all again!

So i'm back again. I finally digitalized most of my Video 8 collection to .DV and i have some larrge files sitting on my HDD.. waiting to see the light on my new 50" HD 1080p Plasma.As you all know files are really large and i did have to buy an external HD for storage . Currently i have several .DV files (all from the same trip) that i would like to fit in a DVD to watch them on the TV. The thing is each of my trips recordings more or less weight 50GB and i would like to fit them on a DVD, but keeping the best quality as possible.


I don't have a clue how should i process to compress the video nor which software should i use.I've been reading a bit about .h264, .mp4 .. handbrake etc etc. But i am really clueless. Thanks.

PS: I don't have to strictly fit one trip to one DVD disk, i may split them in two DVD disks if you think quality will diminish a lot. But, ideally i want those 50GB (composed by several .dv files) to one DVD disk.As it is more practical, like one disk per trip.

Thanks

[rumplestiltskin]

1. VideoMonkey, MPEG Streamclip, ViddyUp...try some and pick the one you like. Convert the DV to H264/MP4 for AppleTV (2000kbps or a bit higher if you're nitpicky, 160kb audio).

2. Buy either an AppleTV or the WD TV Media Player. They both work great. Store your videos on a big HD and back up that HD to another one!

Forget DVDs unless you need to burn something for Aunt Sally in Des Moines.

[mvtm]

What if i really want to burn something for Aunt Sally in Des Moines?

Please i like to hear more options if possible. Keep them coming!

[lauragal]

I'd also like to burn a 2:10 minute video (.dv) for Aunt Sally onto one disk without losing video quality!! I'd appreciate any help, too!

[rumplestiltskin]

Well, if Aunt Sally doesn't mind getting so many discs in the mail...

DV consumes 15GB/hour so 2:10 (I assume you mean 2 hrs & 10 minutes) of video should just be dropped into Toast and it will take care of it compressing the movie down just a bit so all 2:10 will fit. Don't use any menus as they will consume disc space.

If the video is shorter, iDVD works nicely and you already have it.

Better yet, buy Aunt Sally a Mac mini and FTP your H264 videos over the Internet. (I'm kidding...unless you both have awesome connections.)

[lauragal]

Haha! There's too many Aunt Sally's!! It is a video of a concert that we recorded at our church, and too many people want it!

How short does the video have to be for it to work in iDVD? I don't have Toast - I just have MPEG Streamclip, Handbrake, iMovie 06 and 08, Quicktime. Do you know of any other program besides Toast that will do it? Thanks!

[rumplestiltskin]

iDVD will do 2 hours of video but this includes any menu resources so the 2:10 video is out.

Assuming the 2:10 video is already edited to be as short as you can make it, drop it into iMovie 06, select the clip in the timeline and speed it up slightly so it ends up taking a bit less than 2 hours. Then send it to iDVD.

If that's not acceptable, then you'll need to spend the $$ on Toast. It's a great app for many burning issues :P (no pun intended).

Of course, if this topic stays alive long enough, others may chime in with suggestions.

[lauragal]

Thanks for the suggestions. So if I buy Toast, I'll be able to get it on a DVD without loss of quality?

[rumplestiltskin]

"without loss of quality" is a relative term in this situation. Converting from DV to mpeg2 loses quality (although it's minor and won't be seen on the TV screen in this situation because its 640x480). When Toast compresses the video to a slightly lower bitrate (in order to fit the extra 10 minutes), that's another loss in quality but, again, probably not enough to notice the difference.

[lauragal]

Okay, thanks. BTW, I imported the video from an HDD (hard disk drive, not high definition) camcorder (Sony HDD SR100), which I believe is already in MPEG2 when imported to the computer. If that is so, then it looks like I'm not losing quality from camera to computer - do you know if that's so?

[rumplestiltskin]

You are probably correct. However, I'd recommend taking one or two clips and having Toast convert, author, and make a disc image out of it (so you don't waste any media). Then mount that image file and play it with DVD player just to make sure everything looks okay to you. If so, then do it again but with the entire video.

You're looking at about a 7% shrinkage (that you're asking Toast to do) so it should still look just fine.

[lauragal]

Okay, I'm thinking about this and wondering what I am missing. Can't iDVD, or MPEG Streamclip, do the same thing that Toast does?

[rumplestiltskin]

MPEG Streamclip doesn't shrink MPEG2 video; it converts from MPEG2 to other formats (or exports MPEG2 from VOBs).

iDVD doesn't shrink; it optimizes the DVD based upon the length of your video but this is limited to presets (ie, one hour can be "best quality" on DL while two hours can be "okay quality" which means a lower bitrate, of course).

Don't ever expect to see this feature in iDVD; DVDs are so 20th century (in spite of their popularity up here).

[lauragal]

Thanks! Got it!

So what is 21st century?? BlueRay??

[rumplestiltskin]

The 21st century doesn't use discs (unless you get boat-anchored with BluRay). Non-DRM digital downloads are the future; well, they're actually the present unless you've bought into the idea that you need a 10+GB disc in order to play what could otherwise be a perfectly good sub-1GB file. (I'll let the BR fanboys argue about how they need to feed all their pixels but I can live without the resolution that lets me discern the pimples on some actress's butt.)