Problems with my VHS/8mm/MiniDV to DVD project

[compgl]

I am hoping people with expertise on here can guide me on what I did wrong, so that i can correct it.


My boss gave me a bunch of his VHS/8mm/miniDV tapes, and I hooked up the device that plays those (like a VCR, 8mm camcorder, miniDV Camcorder) directly to my computer using a USB-friendly device called Dazzle DVD Converter. Not know anything at the time about this stuff, I used the first tool available to me that I saw for free already on my computer - Window Movie Maker - to relay the film from my camcorders/VCR/etc directly laying the output onto my hard-drive using the default .wmv coding.

At this point, viewing the material on my computer was fine (using Windows Media Player, VLC, etc). Everything was detail-rich and 100% faithful to the original, and it streamed perfectly normal. However, my boss want to watch these from any generic DVD player in his house. soo........

Then, I used cucusoft conversion software to convert the .wmv files to .vob files. After that, i used Nero Vision Express to author and burn each 1-2 hour segments onto disks for him.


The problem now is, he is telling me that watching them from the .vob files on these DVD-player-friendly DVD's is painful, as there is alot of jaggedness, it seems like the frames freeze for split moments every 3rd second, etc.

When I talked to someone that is doing my reel-to-reel conversions about my problem, he said that most likely, my mistake was at Step #1, where i caputured the material in .wmv using Windows Movie Maker. He said if I used a more sophisticated capturing tool, or at least captured it into a better format, like mpeg-2, I would not have had the jaggedness/freezing problem that we are having several steps later when viewing the final cuts in .vob on DVD's.

Do you agree? if so, what Capturing method should I re-attempt this project in? any software ir formatting tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

[filmboss80]

Your analog-to-digital interface should go to a firewire port on your computer (USB 2 doesn't cut it), creating DV-AVI files that have the same digital data that is on the miniDV tape. Canopus ADVC 110 and ADS Pyro would be go choices for interfaces for digitizing your video footage. Instead of capturing with Windows Movie Maker, better software would be WinDV (free in the Tools section of this site). If you do stick with Windows Movie Maker, you must save the video as DV-AVI, never allowing it to be converted to WMV.

There are a number of tools that will allow you to turn your DV-AVI footage into DVD compliant files. DVD Flick is free and worth a try, but if you need to have more encoding and authoring flexibility, look for other options under the Video Encoders (MPEG/DVD) and DVD Authoring categories in the Tools section of this site.

Always burn to DVD using the free burning utility ImgBurn. It will give you fewer headaches than Nero. And use a good brand of blank DVDs, like Verbatim.

Have fun.

[compgl]

Hi there,

Fimboss80, thanks for your reply to my post, however I am only doing all of this as a hobby, and you sound like pro. I do not have DV connections on any of my computers and do not plan on upgrading to ones that do. Also, I really do not want to go out and buy expensive software. I just need to know if and where I made the mistake initially. One person says that my first error was initially capturing it all from the original source straight into .wmv files. He says if I had originally captured them into mpeg-2 files, that would have solved most of my problem. Do you at least agree on that?

[lowellriggsiam]

This is where having the right equpiment comes in handy. I agree that having the firewire port on your pc would have been ideal, or one on a standalone dvd recorder to record straight to dvd. If you were happy with the results when it was an *.wmv file try converting/burning using another program like ImgBurn, convertx2dvd, or even windows dvd maker.

[2Bdecided]

Firewire card = $15. WinDV = free. At least take the time to research the excellent advice you're given before you discount it.


But thanks for saying that the WMV files captured via the "Dazzle DVD Converter" were "100% faithful to the original" - that gave me a really good laugh! Sorry, I know I shouldn't, but I could see this going badly wrong as soon as I read that statement.


Now, to be helpful: If you don't want to re-capture everything, I agree with lowellriggsiam: the answer is to do the best conversion from WMV to DVD.

What exact format is the WMV file? If you play it in Window Media Player, go to properties, and see what's listed for frame size, frame rate, and (if listed) exact codec version for the media file you're playing.

If you're lucky, it'll be something that'll go onto DVD without serious problems (though at lower quality than if you'd captured it properly). If you're unlucky, it'll be something that means the conversion to DVD will be a complete mess however you do it.

So, what exactly have you got?

Cheers,
David.

[filmboss80]

Firewire card = $15. WinDV = free.

YEAH! Is $15 too expensive for a hobby? On the VHS and 8mm analog tapes, you could plug the RCA video and audio cables into the minidv camcorder, then use the camcorder's firewire cable out to the computer to do your captures. That way, you won't have to by a capture interface for the analog video units.

Until you get away from that cheesy Dazzle box, you're not going to get satisfactory results.

[compgl]

Ok, what you say now sounds plausible. I did not realize I could plug my old VCR's and old 8mm camcorder into my newer MiniDV Sony Handycam DCR-PC109, and have the output realized onto the cpu. I think I will go that route - all I need is then to buy a Firewire Card that fits my cpu and a firewire cable I am missing from my HandyCam.

So in your opinion, THAT's the problem? (The Dazzle USB Converter tool and not the fact that I burned into .wmv using Windows Movie Maker?, or is it a combination of both?). I looked again at the .wmv files on my cpu using VLC last night, and in reality, it looks indeed "digitized" and slightly jagged, (with small, but recognizable pauses in frame-to-frame flow), meaning it does not have that super crisp, super smooth richness you get even when watching it on a late 80's early 90's VCR. I just want to at least match that VCR quality with my conversion project, and I thank you and all the others for taking the time to drop me bits of advice.