How to send an AVI to TV-out

[stezak]

I'm quite new to such things...

I usually capture videos from my DV camera and edit them using Vegas.
At the end I have a final big avi file coded in DV format.

The question is: which is the BEST way to record this video on VHS???

I have a graphic card with TV-out connected to my VHS recorder. To perform this task, usually:
1. I enable TV-out so that I can see twice my desktop (on monitor and on TV)
2. I start playing my file with the Windows Media Player
3. I set the Full Screen mode so that only the video is visible (and all windows, icons... are hidden under the WMP)
4. I start recording on my my VHS recorder end wait until the video is over.

I find this is somewhat complicated, unstable, and I think quality may also be affected.

Is there any PROGRAM which can DIRECTLY output my video to the TV-out?
My video is even already in television format (PAL in my case) so it would be even easyer...

Thank you all
SteZak

[Kika]

Why not recording it first back on a DV-Tape? Is DV-In not enabled on your Camera?

[jggimi]

Welcome to the forum. I've moved your thread to the DV forum. (It may not be the best place, but the Capturing Video forum is the wrong one.)

[stezak]

Unfortunately, my camera is not DV-in enabled...
However, your idea would introduce a further step, just because i would rec the video from my PC to the camera and then from the camera to the VHS recorder...

What I'm looking for is a program which may "send" a generic AVI file to the TV-out...
Is it utopistic?

[Kika]

The Advantage of using DV-In und record from the Camera to the VCR is the better Quality.

Direct-Output of you Video... I never tried it with DV-Video..., but on NVidia-Cards, maybe TV-Tool will do the Job.

[bb]

The way you describe the procedure sounds ok, but I don't know what you mean by "direct output to tv-out". As far as I know the graphics card output is sent to tv-out, so you have to select full-screen mode.

If you create DVDs, you might be interested in this method, which I used with great success:
1. Create a DVD template with all the menus and such for DVD output (I use DVDlab).
2. Create a second DVD template without menus, all clips playing one after another.
3. Compile and burn the DVDs, the second one on DVD-RW.
4. Record the DVD-RW from the DVD standalone player to VHS.

The result is probably better than using tv-out recording, because most tv-outs give a crappy signal (especially nVidia, ATI is better), although there's the DV -> MPEG-2 recompression in between.

By the way: VHS is crappy quality. Throw it away as soon as you can :) .

bb

[stezak]

Ok, i solved the dilemma!!!
The solution was to enable the full screen overlay in the nView options of my graphic card. In this way, on my monitor I see a "windowed" media player and my desktop, while on TV I see only the "fullscreened" video.
And quality is quite better than manually fullscreening the media player window.

I know that the best solution would have been to pass through my DV camera... I'll try so when I'll have it DV-In enabled!!!