Easy way to make DV into DVD+R ??

[An10Bill]

What is the easiest way to convert a DV-movie into a working DVD ?? (Playable in standalone players) ??

I've been using Pinnacle Studio 8 to edit the movie of a friends wedding, and It resulted in 2h 10 minute movie that both my friend and I are very satisfied with..... But he wants the film on DVD, and not VHS - and who can blame him....

Pinnacle 8 has built in support for making DVD's, but it wont accept a movie bigger than 114 minutes with ordinary PCM audio (I hate DVD-5).... Adjsting the settings for MPEG audio gives me a 147minute window, which is enough, but the process of making the DVD failes..... or hangs..... After 48Hours it's yet not complete, and there has to be something wrong.... I've tried to make a DVD with pinnacle of a smaller project (45min) without problems, so maybe pinnacle is uanble to handle this large video ??

Anyways, are there any other easy way to do this manually ??

I've tried to make an MPEG2 file from Pinnacle, and fed it to an crappy authoring-program that came with my burner, but I was never happy with that result..... It looked cheap and crappy all over.... And the Pinncale made MPEG2 file vas poor quality.

So now I was thinking of crating a fullsize AVI-file (no divx), and then split the AVI into a seperate audio (WAV) and video track (AVI), and then process them individually. The video-file I would like to run through CCE, and then I would like to turn the WAV-audio into a AC3 2ch track.

In the end I was thinking of authoring the DVD using Scenarist, and maybe build a nice (maybe animated) menu from scracth (or with footage from film). - Maybe even subtitle the film....

But i don't know if this is dooable ?? - Are there any problems I may encounter, or that I should be aware of ??

Or are there any easier way to do this ?? - Should I have Pinnacle Studio make another output than AVI to begin with, or can I somehow manage to avoid going the way around AVI or MPEG2 output from Pinnacle and maybe frameserve the full quality video from pinnacle directly to CCE or some other program ??

BTW: In question of AVI output - which is the best codec to use in order to achieve BEST quality on the AVI (avi-filesize doesn't matter - I've got plenty of gigs to store on (200GB+ free) ??


Thanks for any help or suggestions in advance!



--
An10Bill

[Jazz]

I am not familiar with Pinnacle 8, so this is my $0.02 in general terms. You want it on DVD, so it will have to be MPEG2 and 4.3Gb or smaller. The final size will not so much depend on the length of the material, but more on the bitrate used during the encode (although you'll be able to afford a higher bitrate when the material is shorter, of course). So the key here is to adjust bitrate downwards just enough. Again - don't know Pinnacle but this is the sort of stuff that TMPGEnc and CCE do. Finally you'll have to satisfy yourself that your result at a lower bitrate is still acceptable to your eyes, as quality goes down with bitrate.

Hope this begins to help.

[David Jones]

I have a similar problem to An10Bill if you look at Thread: '10 short dvd movies to one disk'. I am using Pinnacle 8 to create the VOB's. Usualy one or two for each movie as some movies are on;y ten minutes long. I then put all the separate VOB'in one folder(re-numbered). I then run VobEdit to join clips, then run IfoEdit to make the ifo files. When I run the folder through my P.C. DVD player it plays VOB clip as a separate chapter, fine. When I put it on a DVD disk it wont play on my standalone. Why my movies are so short is I am keeping a Video diary of a friends child as he groes up. I take short movies 10-15 minutes 3 times a year. I am know trying to transfer from VHS - DVD. I also don't want to end up with just putting One 10 minutes movie on an expensive DVD.
Any input would be appreciated...............Dave:mad:

[waldok]

DVDLab from www.mediachance.com is one of the easiest ways to go. It seems to be tailor made for users who just want to put their movies on DVD by keeping the process simple and really easy to master.
It's a beta version for now, but definitely a great piece of software/
(And no, I don't work there.:p )

Waldok:cool:

[saber]

Sorry to contradict, waldok, but it seems that DVDLab is just the oposite of what you stated.
It seems to be directed not to first timers, but to pros.
At least, that´s what they say.
By the way, tks for the tip. It looks like a nice piece of soft

[bb]

Sorry saber, but that's plain wrong.

From the DVDlab page:
I decided to write a DVD authoring tool which will combine a modern professional interface with easy to use approach, it wouldn't be hard to learn and it will give the user the freedom to create what they want.

It's really easy-to-use with most functions automated, but it offers much more flexibility than other beginner's DVD authoring tools. You're not forced to use pre-defined templates, but you can if you prefer the easy way.

I have used this software to create more than a dozen DVDs so far, and I can assure you that I'll buy it as soon as it gets released.

bb

[saber]

waldok and bb, a big excuse.
downloaded and tried it. nice and easy.
again, sorry. my fingers were faster than my brains...
didn´t mean to provide wrong info or static.

[BuMpErS]

Sorry to jump in…
I’m also looking to convert a DV (avi) file onto a DVD please could someone give me an idea of the size of avi file that once converted to mpeg will fit on a DVD (using average bitrate)
:confused:

[David Jones]

Where can you download a trial version of DVDLab from? I have looked at the site www.mediachance.com for info on it; but cannot find a way of downloading the trial version............Dave:eek:

[BuMpErS]

David,

You can find it in the forum at http://www.mmbforums.com/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi

Go to the DVDlab forum

Good Luck...

[bb]

Originally posted by BuMpErS
please could someone give me an idea of the size of avi file that once converted to mpeg will fit on a DVD (using average bitrate)
:confused:
No, because it all depends on the bitrate you choose for the MPEG-2 (and the audio). You can put two hours of footage on a single DVD-R, or even more, if you're satisfied with the quality.

bb

[BuMpErS]

bb,

Thanks about two hours sounds good.

[David Jones]

To An10Bill and BuMpErS,

I have started using Pinnacle Studio 8 as well as An10Bill is. You can put a two and a quarter hour edited movie on to one dvd using studio 8. All you have to do is, when you come to 'make movie', choose dvd and select the 'fit on disc' tab. This will probably fit a 6 hour edited film on to one dvd but the quality will be rubbish. If your movie, edited, is 2.25 hrs long then you will get, at a guess, 40% quality. Your other option , which is the best one, in my opinion; split the Wedding Movie into two projects; part 1 and part 2. and box it into a 2 DVD set. End of Problem, with hardly any quality loss. 1 hour of DV fits on one DVD R at 100% quality......Dave

:) :)

[BuMpErS]

David,

Thanks for the information, this will serve as a useful guide to planning my venture into burning my DV films onto DVD’s.