neoDVD comments requested - please

[ktnwin]

Anyone has tried or used neoDVD ?
Please share your findings so others can learn from you (especially me, I am really interested).
I heard the encoding speed is awsome (really fast). Any word on quality of the video after this supersonic conversion ?
Thanks for all the infos.

[Bob W]

I use it to capture from VHS and convert to DVD. Yes it's fast and the quality is as good as any of the several programs I have tried including MovieFactory2 and Studio8. The best part of NeoDVD plus is it works and is bug free.

[ktnwin]

Bob W,
thanks for your quick response.
I will go buy it. I have quite a bit of VHS tapes (2 hour each) to convert to DVD.

[Bob W]

If you're in the states CompUSA has the program for $50 I bought NeoDVD Plus online. Also CompUSA has onsale AverDVD EZMaker for like $15 or so after rebates which includes not only an AVer PCI capture card but NeoDVD basic. This is what I started out with and the AVer capture works very good for me never dropping a single frame in the 50 or so VHS movie captures I have done.

[ktnwin]

Bob W,
I already put an order online for 50$ (plus shipping) yesterday.
I also checked CompUSA and they have what you described for 9.99$ (after rebate). I will go buy it today and cancel my online order. This way, I will have an extra analog capture card as well. Currently I use by digital camcorder as a pass thru to capture from VCR.
Thanks for the info.

[housepig]

I have done some work with the NeoDVD / AVer DVD EZmaker card combo.

So far, nothing seriously wrong. The card installed pretty easily, a few of the drivers it asked for had to be dug for on the install disk, but once it was in, it worked like a champ.

The capture using NeoDVD went well, the movies I've captured so far are a silent film with score and a documentary with narration, so I haven't been able to judge any audio synch issues.

Quality is decent - I was capturing off some old VHS tapes, so it's as good as I expected.

The authoring process was very fast.

The only negatives I can offer are that the templates in NeoDVD are kinda junky looking, and the software itself is very basic - it may offer you lots of options, but they are buried in non-intuitive places, and I haven't dug them out yet. For example, it took me a bit of playing around to figure out how to add chapter points, then it wouldn't let me add more than 6 without adding a new menu page, but I still am not sure how to add a new menu page!

But for straight ahead capture work, it's very quick and easy.

I still have to swap my burner from another machine, so I don't know how the final quality stands up once burned - I'll post more when I've made the swap.

The other nice thing about this combo is that, using VirtualVCR, you can capture to .avi with this card, and capture in custom frame sizes, with various codecs, etc. Works pretty well.

(machine details - Biostar M7VIP / 768Mb Ram / WinXP Pro / 80Gb HD)

- housepig

[ktnwin]

I bought the AverDVD EZmaker card + neoDVD software combo yesterday. After rebate, it should be 13.xx$ (9.994 + tax).
I installed the software and it requires to install WMP rev 7.1 (which is on the same CD). I do not need to install the card yet since I already have a Firewire capture card.
I gave the software a try by loading a DV file (80 min long) that I already captured to hard drive using PS8. I created a menu, add 6 chapters to it. Try to add more chapters but it say each menu can only have 6 chapters. I added a second menu but don't know how to add chapter to it yet. For now, stay with 1 menu and 6 chapter points.
I went ahead to define the start / end points of my video and tell it to make DVD (VIDEO_TS on hard drive).
As I watched, the encoding speed is AWSOME. The entire video encoding took 80 min (1X), I have never seen anything that fast.
Now comes the trouble: after encoding the menu (with 6 thumbnails) , it encode the main menu and the software stuck there for more than one hour. I saw the hard disk activities still going on but don't know what it is doing. So I shut down neoDVD. The VIDEO_TS folder contains all the .VOB but there is no .BUP, no INFO.txt
Just to verify the quality of the video, I played the VOB using PowerDVD and the quality is AWSOME on the PC monitor.
It's night time so I stop and have to go to sleep !!!
I don't know why neoDVD seemed to hang up and not completely create the VIDEO_TS folder. I will try a short video clip today.

So far, here are my opinions on neoDVD:
the good:
1) superfast encoding speed (1X on my T-bird 1.2 GHz)
2) excellent quality (I used high quality mode)

the bad:
1) user interface not intuitive, kind of hard to figure out how to do thing. The on screen tutorial does not tell a whole lot. It will take me a while to become proficient with neoDVD.
2) kind of hard to define chapter points using the scrubber (video slider), this is due to the resolution of the slider bar (half screen width for the whole videoI have to use a different software to determine the time of the chapter points and manually enter in neoDVD.
3) there is no user manual for this software.
4) there are only 3 bitrates to choose for encoding: high quality, medium and low. I believe this correspond to 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours on one DVD-R. There is nothing in between. So if you have 80 mins, you must choose the 2 hours mode (medium quality) and waste space on your DVD-R. It's not like PS8 software which automatically computes the bit rate to fit the entire video in 4.7G DVD-R, resulting in better video quality.

In summary, the good points are worth to buy this package (~13$ after rebate).

I wish Pinnacle Studio 8 implements the same software encoding in their software. PS8 is extremely user friendly but it's very slow in encoding (same as TMPGEnc).

[housepig]

I'm pretty sure there is a .pdf manual available at the NeoDVD website.

made my first test disc from vhs capture last night - again, the interface leaves a lot to be desired, but the compiling speed is amazing (I captured using NeoDVD into dvd-mpeg format, and a 65 minute movie with a simple menu and chapters compiled in about 6 minutes!).

I'm going to give it another try with another capture, and see if I can get what I want out of the menus & chapters, but I might just see if the files can be used by another authoring program like DVDLab or DVD Workshop without re-encoding....

one thing I noticed - when I did the capture and played back the file, the audio and video would stutter at random points. This worried me quite a bit, but once they were burned, everything was fine.

- housepig

[Bob W]

There is an update or patch for NeoDVD standard so make sure you install that if you're haveing problems.

I really never used the standard version as all I wanted was the capture card. Later on after I discovered that programs like VideoWave, MyDVD and Studio8 are junk I went ahead and bought NeoDVD Plus online and it turns out to be one program I use for almost all of my authoring these days.


Yes the selection of menu's and frames with NeoDVD is rather poor but you can of course import some fancy ones if you don't like the selection with the "add" button within the frame and menu selection.

[ktnwin]

Bob W and housepig,

thanks for the info. I just downloaded and print a hard copy of the user manual. Hope that will help.
Regarding the menu, the manual confirms what I suspect: there are two levels. One to select the video clips and the second level to select the chapter within each clip. I still have yet to learn how to create a second menu.

I have not tried to edit the video (add transitions, audio overlay, title, etc..) using neoDVD. For this I used PS8 which is great and very user friendly at that.
I bought this package mainly for the DVD encoding speed.

housepig , congrats on your first success. I still cannot make one yet. I will try again tonight with a short video clip.

[Bob W]

"Regarding the menu, the manual confirms what I suspect: there are two levels. One to select the video clips and the second level to select the chapter within each clip. I still have yet to learn how to create a second menu."

I remember making a DVD with four menus. What I did was capture a VHS tape with Roxio Video wave5 and had it split the mpeg2 files up in 1GB chunks. I then imported the four files into NeoDVD and was able then to make a menu and sub menus for each file. The problem with doing this is that there is a very slight pause on playback when going from one clip to the next so I don't do that antmore. Don't know if it's possible to create a second menu for a single file.

[ktnwin]

Bob W,
thanks for your quick response. I read the manual very carefully and it confirms what you said.
You can have one menu per video clip and in that menu you can only add 6 chapter points !!!
Since I only had a single 80 min video clip, I cannot create a second menu.
neoDVD is better than PS8 at supporting two menu level (PS8 only support one) but PS8 does not have limit on number of chapter points (actually the limit is 99).

[housepig]

Bob W -

Have you used files captured with NeoDVD in other authoring programs?

And if so, did the other programs re-encode the files, or did they accept them as valid?

thanks for any info - I like the capturing directly to dvd-mpeg, but I'm not sold yet on the authoring sections... hoping that I don't have to waste time reencoding.

- housepig

[Monty...!!!]

Tried converting some AVI to DVD using Neo was veryquick but getting audio out of sink problems done all the updates its doin my head....AAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any Help Guys....???

Monty...!!!

[ktnwin]

OK, I captured about 80 mins of DV video using PS8, then author a DVD. This DVD looks great since this is how I have been doing DV
Then I use neoDVD to author a DVD from the same captured AVI file (about 70 mins of video, to get neoDVD to encode with high quality mode). Yesterday I said neoDVD hung up at the end, it turned out I have to wait about 60 mins starting from the time neoDVD displays the message "encoding main menu". neoDVD encodes very fast but takas about 60 mins to finish the authoring. Total time is 2X.
Burn a DVD and watch on my 50" TV. The quality looks very comparable to the one authored by PS8 but I did not have time to watch the entire disc yet (got to go to work).
I will check to see if I got audio sync tonight. I hope not since my source is DV. I never had audio sync problem.

[ktnwin]

I check my 70min DVD disc made with neoDVD, and there is no audio sync.
I went ahead to make another 80 mins disc. I still use HIGH QUALITY setting so the VIDEO_TS folder is greater than 4.7GB. I use DVD2ONE to recompress it a little bit, then burn my second DVD. It looks great, no audio problem at all.

The only strong points of neoDVD that I like are:
1) superfast encoding speed (with quality comparable to PS8)
2) two level menus so I can have multiple movies on one disc, each with their own menu to select different chapters. I can't do this with PS8.

neoDVD is way far behind PS8 in term of video editing, trimming, add transitions, video and audio overlays. neoDVD only had basic functions and is very hard to do editing with it. With PS8, it's a breeze.

[VideoMann]

So given the purchase of a single program, do you choose neoDVD or Pinnacle Studio 8 ?

[Bob W]

Bob W -

Have you used files captured with NeoDVD in other authoring programs?

And if so, did the other programs re-encode the files, or did they accept them as valid?

thanks for any info - I like the capturing directly to dvd-mpeg, but I'm not sold yet on the authoring sections... hoping that I don't have to waste time reencoding.

- housepig

Yes I have done that going from NeoDVD to MovieFactory2 and it worked also I have used Neo files in VideoWave5.

[jpconard]

NeoDVD Standard accepts high bitrate MPEG2s much better than MyDVD. Upgrade with latest updates to add a few features.

A few neat features of it are -
1) Ability to capture direct to DVD Vobs, can set time to stop capture but not time to start (not scheduled).
2) Can open a VOB title set from the hard drive and do some simple editing.
3) Only costs $9.99 after rebates with AVerDVD package at Compusa (through 4/12)

Unknowns / bad points -
1) Not sure how good MPEG2 capture quality is, WinDVR2 has a scheduler so you can capture while away from PC.
2) Menus / chapters seem cheesy, up to 6 chapter points. I prefer no menus / chapters just video. If you like menus you can import customs from a bitmap file. Chapters seem to do strange things when played back in WinDVD.
3) Has capability to set endpoints but not start points, not sure if sync remains after using the trimming feature.
4) Has capability to burn to DVD, but when testing it told me that the files would fit when they were over 4.5GB, Nero of course (as well as DVDShrink) showed the file set was too large for DVD-R.
5) PCM audio on standard version (better audio on PLUS version)

I think it is good tool, but not a do-it-all tool. A procedure I am trying to go from VHS to DVD which seems pretty good and fairly fast is -
1) NEODVD capture direct to DVD VOB title set (high quality setting), set time to finish 1 hr. 30 min. for VHS-C tape in VCR, press play, then capture. - realtime 1hr 30 min.

2) Take DVD VOB Title set (probably too large for 1 DVD) and use DVDSHRINK to trim start point and end point just the way that you want (remove blue screen), re-author without menus. - 15 min. approx.

3) Take new title set from step 2 and if too large for DVD (probably is if the VHS-C tape was full), use DVD2ONE to create 3rd title set, which should come out around 4.36-4.38GB - 30 min. approx.

4) Burn 3rd DVD title set to DVD-R using NERO - 50 min. for 1X DVD-R.

A few steps but still beats 3-9 hour TMPGENC encode, which still has many steps. You could use DVDSHRINK for step 3, but my video size was 4.5GB, and level 1 compression took it to 3.99GB, where DVD2ONE went to 4.36GB. DVD2ONE may have better quality but takes longer than DVDSHRINK. I haven't used DVDShrink enough to determine its quality. It has some nice features though like the trimming of start and endpoints.

[Bob W]

NeoDVD plus has a timer so you can stop the capture after a preset time. The capture quality is excellent for me with the Aver capture card. As good as any other program I have tried and I have tried most out there with the exception of the freeware stuff.

If the files were over 4.5GB they wouldn't fit on a disc, they need to be 4.38GB or less. Also I trim all my VHS captures before making a DVD with zero problems. I capture always at the highest settings and if the resulting DVD files are too much for a DVD I use DVD2one to adjust that.

[ktnwin]

Videoman,
here is my answer to your question:
"So given the purchase of a single program, do you choose neoDVD or
Pinnacle Studio 8 ?"
I still buy both. neoDVD only cost 9.99$ (bundled with the Aver capture card) after rebate.
PS8 is great for capturing, editing. It can also encode/author/burn DVD but the encoding/authoring took TOO LONG. neoDVD spend only 1X to do the encoding/authoring. I can also tell neoDVD to burn the DVD-R on the fly as it is encoding. Therefore for one hour movie, it will take about 1 hour and 15 mins and my DVD-R is ready to play. NEVER SEEN ANYTHING that fast. Quality: comparable with PS8. Actually, the upgrade version of neoDVD encode using variable bit rate. As I watch my DVD-R, I can see the bit rate changing (5.0 to 7.x or 8.x) using my DVD player "DISPLAY" function.

[ktnwin]

Bob W,
you said that:
"5) PCM audio on standard version (better audio on PLUS version"
Do you mean the neoDVDPlus compress audio when authoring to DVD ??? (AC3 ? or ???)
Could you elaborate a little.
The Web site say neoDVDPlus support AC3 but this could mean it supports importing AC3 audio (as the maual clearly said) and not necessarily encoding audio to AC3 format.

My real question is: which software actually encode audio to AC3 during encoding/authoring. My real goal is to free up more space on the DVD-R for video (95 mins at best quality)

[Bob W]

Bob W,
you said that:
"5) PCM audio on standard version (better audio on PLUS version"
Do you mean the neoDVDPlus compress audio when authoring to DVD ??? (AC3 ? or ???)
Could you elaborate a little.
The Web site say neoDVDPlus support AC3 but this could mean it supports importing AC3 audio (as the maual clearly said) and not necessarily encoding audio to AC3 format.

My real question is: which software actually encode audio to AC3 during encoding/authoring. My real goal is to free up more space on the DVD-R for video (95 mins at best quality)

Not sure if it's AC3 but in the program it is listed as Dolby Digital and it does free up a ton of space. Yes it does compress the audio. I upgraded to NeoDVD plus for two reasons as I recall one was for improved audio and the other was that it will import VOB files.

[ktnwin]

Bob W,
thanks again. This answers my concerns. As long as neoDVD Plus compress audio and free up space for video, I am happy.
Is there an upgrade from standard version to the Plus version ?

Never mind that question, I contact mediostream and they say YES, if I bougth neoDVD standard, there is a special upgrade price to the Plus version.

I also tried to capture from DV directly to MPEG-2 (best quality), and it worked, burn a DVD and result is no different than capture to AVI, then convert and author DVD after that. neoDVD capture and convert on the fly, after capture is completed, there are a few minutes delay then the MPEG-2 file is ready.

[akrasna]

Hi All,

I agree with lots of what is written here, I had used ads instant DVD and ati AIW. The AverDVD card seems to be the easiest, the Video quality seems better (at least than ADS). And the NEO software is FAST ... (if a little weak in the features)

I too have the darn audio sync problem.
An interesting point is it seems to be worse with older tapes.

I installed the neoDVD upgrade - and maybe it helped a little but not much

Some questions?
I had tried,as listed, the "IU" driver but it just got me messed up cause it installed a tuner - which I don't have.
Is there a driver .. that is better than the one on the cd that comes with it?

Also I am using an embedded sound card .. will swapping to a SB 5.1 help?

My hardware is fast (2.4mhz etc.) and bios is updated.

I want to be able to do a single pass - so all these break down split and buil ups don't seem like a great solution for me.

Another ? a bit different.
Are you able using the latest neoDVD standard to create automatic chapters WHILE doing the direct one step to DVD process?

Thanks
Allen

[ktnwin]

akrasna,
the audio sync problem seems to come from the fact that capturing is done via the AverDVD card for video and audio via another sound device.
Other people have solved this by getting the correct sound driver (to capture at the correct frequency, 44.1KHz for example).

Since I capture via Firewire, I do not have audio sync issue.
I have not tried to capture from DV directly to DVD with automatic chapter every xx minutes, but I will try and post the results here.
I am still wondering about the limit of 6 chapters. Let say my video is 60 min long, and I specify chapter every 5 mins, will I get 12 chapter points or just the first 6. We will see.

[Vejita-sama]

Ktnwin - I also have audio sync problems. I have the aver card and a SB Live card. VCDEasy says that the audio is encoded at 256kbit/s @ 48khz. I've got the newest (from creativelabs url) driver for my system (winXP). But the audio is still out of sync (lags by about 0.8-1.3secs).

All I want to do is capture my VHS tapes directly to MPEG2 (demux and then author with Maestro). This looked like the perfect solution but I can't seem to get the audio in sync.

You say I should get the sounds card to capture at 44.1khz, but there's no option (that I can find) in neoDVD to set this. Any one have any ideas what I might be missing here???

[knitsafghans]

Strange situation; capturing using Avermedia and Neo. MPEG looks fine - no sync problems; edit - adding chapters etc. to create the DVD. Here's where my audio sync problems happen big time. Any advice? (Note that I do the actual burns with Nero but the problem is there before the burn).