miniDV cam to DVD help please

[jptheripper]

I have my wedding videos on 4 miniDV 1 hour tapes. I want to put them on 1 DVD (after editting time will be around 2 hours). Here is my problems, I really hope you can help:

1. Made the mistake of recording audio in 12bit instead of 16bit, so I think my audio is 32khz instead of 44.1 or 48, no idea how to convert.
2. Seems like there are many ways to capture audio video stream each which will get you a different file. I tried capturing with DVDneoPLus straight to dvd mpeg but got very jerky results. I captured with default settings under windows XP through firewire and got a large .avi (around 12gb per hour if i remember right). I have Adobe premier and have used it somewhat but couldnt get it to capture properly.
3. What i would like to do is capture all the raw footage, merge and clip in premier then export to a number of clips, convert to mpeg before or after export (not sure which one to do). Then import to TMPengc DVD author to make menus with each clip as a title.

I would appreciate any help and guidance.

HArdware
Jvc dvl-510u miniDV camera with firewire
p3 1ghz 1.5gb pc133 ram
0.5 terabytes storage
64mb geforce2 video
pci firewaire card

please let me know if you see any hardware limitations also.

thanx in advance
-jeff

[bb]

Welcome to the forum.

For a quick start you should read the "DV to DVD" guide from the sticky threads in this forum.

Originally posted by jptheripper
[B]1. Made the mistake of recording audio in 12bit instead of 16bit, so I think my audio is 32khz instead of 44.1 or 48, no idea how to convert.
Save the audio as a WAV file from within your video editing application (Adobe Premiere). In the export settings you should be able to set the sampling rate and precision. Alternative: use BeSweet and BeSweetGUI to upsample to 48kHz (which is what you need for DVD).

Originally posted by jptheripper
[B]2. Seems like there are many ways to capture audio video stream each which will get you a different file. I tried capturing with DVDneoPLus straight to dvd mpeg but got very jerky results. I captured with default settings under windows XP through firewire and got a large .avi (around 12gb per hour if i remember right). I have Adobe premier and have used it somewhat but couldnt get it to capture properly.
Don't capture directly to MPEG-2. I don't know why you can't get Premiere to capture properly, but you can try a free capture app like DVIO, too (see "Links" sticky).

Originally posted by jptheripper
[B]3. What i would like to do is capture all the raw footage, merge and clip in premier then export to a number of clips, convert to mpeg before or after export (not sure which one to do). Then import to TMPengc DVD author to make menus with each clip as a title.

You have to try yourself if you like Premiere's MPEG-2 export. I prefer using an external encoder for better quality. The TMPG DVD Author step should be pretty straightforward.

bb

[jptheripper]

i appreciate the replies. I read the sticky but will read it more closely. As for the audio, thanx for the help, I will look into Besweet. Do you know if you have to tell it what the audio format is? or can it autodetect.

Also will premier have trouble importing 60gb worth of avi? or should i try and work in smaller chunks.

thanx

-Jeff