From Analog video to DVD in real time ??

[Pat De Marco]

Hi Folks,

Nice to meet you all. This seems to be a great Board.

I author DVDs using a Canopus converter, iMovie and iDVD.
I am happy with the result but it is time consuming -
perhaps 4.5 hours for a 2 hr video.

I convert video from Analog to DV into iMovie - 2 hrs.
I set-up iDVD which compresses and burns - 2.5 hrs.

Is it possible to digitize and compress (MPEG-4) in one step
with a result that is at least as good as what I'm doing
now ?

Thanks in advance.

Pat De Marco

[Video Dude]

Welcome to the forum.

DVD uses MPEG-2 compression. I think that the Ulead software is able to capture real time MPEG-2 from a DV stream and you can author a DVD in the same program. It is pay software but there is a trial. I have used it and was not satisfied with the real time quality.

There are also capture boards that do real time hardware encoding.

But I would recommend a stand alone DVD recorder to do real time DVD. It should be the fastest and easier way, and perhaps higher quality.

[Pat De Marco]

Thanks !

Can I infer from what you've said that real-time transfers will likely/definitely be of lower quality than multi-step transfers ?

Pat De Marco

[smok3]

eal-time transfers will likely/definitely be of lower quality than multi-step transfers
not a lot, if you don't care about final bitrate and you have fast enough machine, using some sort of quality based compression (instead of 2pass to hit the size).

[Inventive Software]

What you may find is that a stand-alone DVD player does what you're after - real-time encoding of analogue pictures. I certainly plan to use mine for recording some VHS material.

[Dave Briggs]

I've been wanting to transfer some of my video camera tapes over to DVD. I did a bit of searching and found a few products that are supposed to capture VHS/Hi8 and store it in various file formats that could then be converted and burned to DVD. One product was a USB Video Capture Adaptor by a company called CoolGear. It was their model number DC-90X. Basically it's a unit with a USB 2 plug out one end and video/audio/S-video inputs out the other end. Are these things any good and do they really work? What is the best way to transfer video tapes to DVD? Is it better to just have a professional do it? I would like to do it myself so I could author it myself. I'm fairly experienced using DVDdecriptor, DVDshrink and ImgBurn, I'm just not familiar with capturing analog material.

[mike20021969]

One product was a USB Video Capture Adaptor by a company called CoolGear. It was their model number DC-90X. Basically it's a unit with a USB 2 plug out one end and video/audio/S-video inputs out the other end. Are these things any good and do they really work? What is the best way to transfer video tapes to DVD?
i have a similar device (terratec grabster av400) which is usb2 connection and audio/video rca sockets+s-video sockets on the unit.
mine records mpeg2 at 7000kbps (you can also manually adjust the recording bitrate) which when used to copy vhs,digital 8 or hi8 recordings to computer is more than adequate for quality dvd.

some of these devices,particularly the supplied software that come with them,also support direct-to-dvd recording so that instead of copying videotape to pc then transferring the file to dvd,you can pop a blank dvd into suitable pc drive and then (or should if the program software you're using supports it) transfer video direct to your blank dvd disc.