Minimum PC Spec?

Hi, I am having trouble authoring dvd's on my computer. The video seems to break up now and again.

I have used a firewire cable to get it onto my pc and it is fine up to that point.

Have then tried Pinnacle 8 and tmpgenc etc to put it on dvds.

I was wondering if my pc spec is the problem...

AMD 1.2, 512mb memory, Geforce 3 ti200 gfx??

I had no probs on my old PC either; with Cel 600, 384MB and some low spec video card. It'd take a year and a half to do it thou

Oops sorry for not giving enough details. I guess half the trouble is I have got myself really confused as to what I have done!

There is not a set point where it goes wrong, the picture just seems to go all blocky and static looking once in a while.

I have tried using so many programs to do the encoding and so on. It all seems very complicated to a noobie like me.

I just want to put the dv video (which came from my dv camcorder) onto a dvd to then give to people in my family.

I dont need some flash production, just chapters and that is about it.

What software is best to use to do this? and I will try again!

Sounds like your problem is occurring sometime after you capture it the pc? Like maybe before burning to DVD just following the encoding process? I only say this in the form of questions, because you stating "once in awhile" is not as specific as we would like.

Do you have the video captured when it gets all blocky? Is this before or after you encode it? Do you have any successes? What are they (if any)? Have you gotten any video burnt to DVD?

It doesn't even sound like you are getting to the burning to DVD step so I'd ignore the whole media issue comment. Then again, your details are so sketchy (at best), you could be referring to a finished product.

WinAVI will convert avi, mpg to dvd. I have used it flawlessly at least 100 times. It will also automatically insert chapters. After that all you need is software to burn the dvd, dvd shrink is free and will do the job..

I am getting the problem after it has been burnt to dvd.

Am going to try winavi and then will report back in more detail. am really sorry to be so vague but I spent literally days trying to sort this out a few weeks ago and have ended up confusing myself so much as to what I did try and what I didnt!

Will be more specific when I get back to you.

Thank you for your help so far. This whole area seems to be so much more complicated than I thought it would be. Just thought I could do a few menus in Pinnacle and then burn it to dvd and then job done.

If only...

Here's my process for DV to DVD:

Transfer from the camera to PC with WinDV as Type 2 DV.

Drop DV file into VirtualDub Mod after installing a DV codec, Panasonic DV Codec is one.

Edit and filter the video with VDM. Save out audio as a WAV and encode audio to AC3 with ffmpeggui. Encode just the edited video with an encoder like TMPGEnc to MPEG-2 specs. (See 'What is' DVD to the upper left.<<<<<<.) You can also frameserve the edited DV directly to TMPGEnc and save hard drive space as you don't need to save the edited file that way.

Take the edited video and AC3 audio and add them into the authoring program, add menus, author and burn. I use TMPGEnc DVD Author, but others will work.

That's about it. You want to examine your MPEG-2 after encoding to see if there are any problems with it. I suspect your problem is during the burning process. Most common is problems with the media. If you haven't tried a different brand, do so, that may be your only real problem.

A quick and easy method of DV to DVD is DivxToDVD. Not the quality of the above method, but very easy. And a freeware version is available. Even the freeware version is better than WinAVI, IMO.

What type of media are you using. Most likely your issue is with crap media.

Well tried the tip about using WinAVI and it worked a treat. Did use different media this time though as well but it was only cheapo ones from Tesco but they worked fine.

Do you see what I mean about all the software you can use. everyone who posts seems to use a different combination! And why can one bit of software not do all the jobs? You have listed 5 bits of software to do the job!

Will give it a try anyway and see.

What media do you folks recommend then anyway in the UK?

Fair enough, yes I do want good quality so am prepared to spend the time doing it, was just really surprised by how seemingly complex it can be. Guess its just what you are used to.

Ok have followed redwudz way of doing it, and have my edited video ready in VirtualDubMod. I am now a bit stuck on the next bit about saving the audio and video seperately.

When I go on save as it only gives me the option of saving as an avi?

Thank you all so much for your help.

Got my dvd now sorted (although it does go pear shaped part way through but I think that is because of the media maybe) as when I watch the video.vdr.m2v file on my pc it seems fine.

Part of the way through the disc, is stops working and if I click on any of the chapters further on in the disc nothing happens either. Before the part where it stops working, the picture starts going all blocky and the dvd player seems to struggle to play it (kind of like when you have a dirty disc)

come on guys. We're not seeing the wood for the trees here. Its nothing to do with his programs or computer. He's a newb and just grabbed the cheapest media he found. Get the best quality media you can get your hands on and you will have no blockines/stalling problems.

While I agree good quality media is the only way to go, you can easily make a bad video with pixelation and blockiness even if you burn it on Taiyo Yuden's best DVD media.

If you leave the DVD folders on your hard drive after you burn, it's a easy fix to buy some better media and then reburn the DVD. It's a lot harder to have to redo the entire video a second time when you didn't do it the right way the first time.

Cheers folks prob was actually the flippin Thomson dvd player!

got the best discs that money can buy and recorded again only to have same problem.

Out of frustration stuck the disc in my £20 dvd player in our bedroom and it worked fine! Also plays fine in my Xbox 360!

got the best discs that money can buy and recorded again only to have same problem

Whats your version of "best discs that money can buy" ?

sorry couldnt remember the name!

it was Taiyo Yuden!!