Help with Starters

[BWolf]

Can someone guide me with the right DVD burner and software. I have a digital camcorder that uses 8 mm tapes. I have "Show Biz" software to capture the video to my PC. From there I want to burn the file from the PC to DVD and be able to view it on my DVD players. I have 3 DVD players that are not all the same, but are recent players. I dont want to lose the quality when the final DVD is made.
What DVD burner fits these requests and am I missing anything to do this?

BWolf

[Gazorgan]

Statistically speaking you only have a 50%-50% chance of a burned DVDR working on all 3 players.

Software wise, RecordNow MAX and/or Nero(free demo) should work fine.

Recorder wise, well, it's a big stinky controversy over +R or -R. To be absolutely sure of burning whatever you needed, you could get a burner that does +R and -R. Realistically; pick one from a store with a nice return policy and try it out? You DVDBurner has nothing to do with the final quality of the product, that's all in your capture, editing, filtering, and encoding.

[BWolf]

Thnaks for the fast reply! So the way I am reading your reply, if I want to capture a 60 min video from my camcorder and burn it to a DVD to watch on the DVD player, the quality will not be as good as when I watch it from the camcorder to the TV thru RCA cables?

BWolf

[vandakeg]

That is correct, however i'd dare say it's not a 'visible' difference. If you think about it, a DV tape hold 60mins of video in AVI DV codec. That translates to about 15GB of hard drive space. DVDs can only hold 4.7GB (4.3 actual) of space, so you've got to cut the file by 2/3.
That being said, if you encode the video properly, with a high enough bitrate, you won't be able to tell the difference... IMHO

[BWolf]

vandakeg, is there any other way to do what I am trying to do w/o buying a DVD burner?
Seems like this whole process is confussing and very time consuming!

BWolf

[vandakeg]

There is no simple point and click solution yet, although programs like MyDVD do a pretty good job making it a fairly straight forward process.
MyDVD, and similar programs will not give you the best possible quality, but you will get ease of use. On the other hand, it may be good enough for you.
The whole process can be confusing and difficult, but also very rewarding!
As far as any other options, you could do the straigt forward approach of transferring to VHS by just connecting the RCA output from you camera to your VCR and hitting 'record'! That is most certianly easier, yet won't give you the quality of DVD.

[BWolf]

Yes.....I tried that with the VHS and yes it is surly simple, but not the quality. Too bad the next step has to be so difficult. Wonder if there are local business's out there that do this?

BWolf

[vandakeg]

If you're anywhere near a big city, there are most certainly local businesses that will do this for you. I know of a couple of places off-hand right near where I live. They are all privately owned photography places, and they all charge $40 per disc.