Could someone help a newbie?

[rbmcgee]

I been searching and reading, but I can't seem to understand the tools, the process or the settings.

I would like to transfer VHS tapes to DVDs. I have borrowed a Sony DV camcorder and have hooked everything up properly (VCR, Sony) and am feeding the A/V via a firewire capture card on a PC.

I believe my process will need to be:
1) Capture from camcorder in avi (2)
2) Edit capture (remove commercials and join files)
3) Encode to mpeg2
4) Author DVD (create DVD structure including chapters)
5) Burn DVD

I understand that certain tools will accomplish multiple tasks.

The problem I'm having is that I'm not a techie and most of the conversation around here assumes a certain level of competence that I do not possess.

Could someone tell me which tools are available for the above 5 steps and which one they would recommend for someone that doesn't understand much? The other option is to simply buy something like Pinnacle Studio8 that apparently does everything although I read bad things about that. Since I'm simply trying to understand this whole thing, I'm really not in the mood to buy stuff right away but would opt for the trial version to see if I like the results before buying. Thanks very much.

[DDogg]

Let us know when you have done step number 1 and have an avi on your HD. There are quite a few excellent guides for doing what you want to do. Have you read them all?

:search:

[rbmcgee]

Thanks for the response, DDogg.

Yes I have read most of what's been written. My questions start with the first step -> capture.

Like I stated above, Im capturing VHS through DV camcorder to firewire capture. I ve tried:

Windows movie maker
Problem: Program wants to capture from tape in camcorder, not VHS via passthrough mode. Says 'no tape' (which is true for camcorder) and refuses to do any capturing.

Ulead Video Studio7 and MovieMaker
Problem: Only will run in 800x600 and up. Unforunately my PC is an HTPC feeding my HDTV and so therefore, I'm limited to running 848x480. Therefore these are out.

Scenalyzer
Seems to work well although trial version has flasher (I understand why). $40 seems like a lot of money for something that I only need to use a few times (to transfer current VHSs) and then won't be used again.

VirtualDub
Problem: I tried to understand how to capture with this program but failed to grasp it and gave up.

iuVCR
Problem: I don't seem to be able to understand how to capture DV-avi.

Pinnacle Sudio8
Problem: I have never seen a piece of software that has gotten this much negative chat. No trial - no thanks.

Any help with step 1 would be appreciated.

[jikchung]

For my own DV captures, I have been using DVIO. It is a freeware capture program for DV type 1 or 2. You can get it at: http://www.carr-engineering.com/dvio.htm

[DDogg]

The problem you run into when you are using passthrough is a lot of the software does not allow you to turn off the transport control. The software insists on trying to run a tape instead of just grabbing what is coming through. I always used the Vegas capture for that as it allows turning it off. I've heard guys talk about taking out the tape and such but I never had to do that myself. Maybe somebody reading this can tell you how to get around this. Or you could download the Vegas demo and use the capture portion, but it is a hefty download unless you are broadband.

[jikchung]

I know on my Sony camera, I have to select the VCR function, then go into the menu and set AV/-->DV out.

[rbmcgee]

jikchung, thanks for the tip on DVIO. I did try that and it seemed to work well although you couldn't see the capture, but that's OK. Also, yes I have basically the same settings on my camcorder and have set them as you described. The problem is that certain capture programs want to control the capture and the camcorder (ie, Movie Maker) and that screws everything up because I don't want to capture from a tape in the camcorder, but rather simply a passthrough. Movie Maker (and others I'm guessing) don't let you do that regardless of the settings on the camcorder. I've tried it both with a tape in the camcorder and without a tape with the same results.

What I've also done is to rearrange things and get a regular computer monitor to the scene that allows me run at increased resolutions and so I'm in the process of giving Ulead VideoStudio7 a try. What I have successfully done is to capture about 5 mins of video (as a test) and have saved it as DV type 2. Now what I want to do is edit out 1 min of that video (as a test pretending it's a commercial) and then leave the rest intact so I would now have about a 4 min video. I have read the user manual and been trying things for about 2 hrs now and can't seem to get it to work.

Could a VideoStudio7 person step me through my editing part.

Thank you very much.

[DDogg]

Easy way to cut commercials is just load into VDub. Using Shift+L or R cursor find the start of your cut and press "home", go to end of cut and press "end", then press delete. Study the edit menu in VDub for more commands. This is a non-destructive delete, that is it does not change anything in the original file you loaded into VDub.

After you have cut your commercials you can do several things.

1> Do a direct stream copy to a new file name (save AVI). This will take up some time and a lot of disk space and create a new copy of the file with your edits.

2> Or you can Frameserve from VDub, probably the best way to go, and it is easy once you get it setup properly. Use the auxsetup.exe in your VDub directory and choose "install handler". You will end up with a yourfile.VDR that is a "signpost" file.

3> You got several ways to go now. CCE will directly read the .VDR signpost from VDub as will TMPG. Also, and something not everybody realizes is that you can open a VDR with avisynth's standard avisource command. If you want to deliver VDub's frameserved output to a program that will not read a VDR signpost you can use Link2 (Donation-ware - well worth it) or VFAPI which is free and the most transparent of the frameservers to create a faux AVI file that fools the program into thinking it loaded a standard AVI.

Anyway, all this should get you started pretty well. Instructions on how to set up VDub frameserving and VFAPI/readavs. (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=271386#post271386)

[rbmcgee]

UPDATE:

Ok, using Ulead VideoStudio7 I have managed to:
1) Capture my VHS tapes through the Sony camcorder as DV-avi
2) Edit the captures which include removing unwanted sections and combining captures.
3) I then rendered the edited video into 8000bps mpeg2 (DVD) and ended up with a 3 1/2 hour, 13 gig file.

All in Ulead VS7.

Additional reminders:
- WinXP SP1
- NTFS partitions

Then comes the time to author (VOBs, etc) and save the DVD image file to the HD.

I start the process. The file does not need to be re-rendered because the mpeg is 8000 bps (DVD default). Audio/video multiplexing gets to 67% and then claims 'cannot create file'. I have repeatedly attempted this with the same results each time.

I called a very unhelpful Ulead tech support (since I'm dealing with the trial version) and they seemed to think that a 13g file could not be authored in their program and somewhere it is hard coded to assume a disc (c 4g) is involved.

Can anybody help with either VideoStudio7 or point me to another cheap/free trial program that can indeed author a DVD file image of this size?

[bb]

What are you going to do with such a huge file? You'd need to split it into three parts of DVD size...

Well, you could try IFOEdit (free), but I don't know if it can deal with files of that size.

bb

[rbmcgee]

bb,

I'm going to play it just like I play all my ripped DVDs - straight off the hard drive.

It will never see a disc. As a matter of fact, I don't even own a DVD burner.

The PC is a HTPC (being fed via a 2 terrabyte media server) and the monitor is a front projector, the screen is about 110" and it's all in a home theater.

[rbmcgee]

It would be a shame if my brick wall is the inability of any DVD authoring software to be able to deal with a very large file.

My workaround (to create a 13gig 'dvd'), to this point, is to create individual DVD files, then combine them with Vobedit and then create the ifo with ifoedit. Unfortunately that's a lot more steps/time and I sure would appreciate some guidence. What about a registry hack for VideoStudio that's restricting the size? Any thoughts?

[DDogg]

? Why the DVD structure when you already have the mpg on your HD? What will a DVD structure accomplish for you that the MPG will not?

[rbmcgee]

DDogg,

I not only need a DVD structure, but I need an ifo as well. My process involves mounting the image via DVDStarter and then playing it through Theatertek DVD player. Unfortunately, a straight mpeg2 file won't work. It has to be a DVD image.

[DDogg]

I suspected it might be something like that. Well, at least now folks know you have a valid reason instead of thinking you are a whacked out noobie :)

[DDogg]

I was thinking of you when I was playing around with this: DVDAuthor (http://www.dvdrhelp.com/tools?tool=450#comments)
There is a real simple GUI at the url along with the program. You may find it would work for you to build your VOBs. Let me know if it does.