mini DV to DVD

[jorgeo]

I have a sony camcorder I am trying to convert my dv tapes to dvd, I have no problem capturing and editing or burning, the problem is the quality on the dvd is not as good as the dv tape, its not bad quality, but there should'nt be any loss in quality right! I have used windows movie maker 2 which I find very easy to use, I also have tryed using ulead basic, both give the same quality. can someone help please. :confused:

[Video Dude]

The quality depends on your MPEG-2 encoder. MPEG-2 is the compression format for DVD.

You can't expect good professional results with the built in MPEG-2 encoder in your video editor or DVD Authoring programs. The reason is that these are more often optimized for speed, not quality. You didn't say what program your using to compress the DV to MPEG-2.

Affordable MPEG-2 encoders are CCE Basic, Canopus Procoder Express, and TMPGEnc. Use a DVD template to encode. All of these are under $60. TMPGEnc is the only one to offer an unlimited trial for 14 days. So try it out for the free trial to see if it offers better quality.

And yes there will be a loss of quality. This happens every time you encode into another format. But if you use a high bitrate, higher then 6000, it should look much like the original source.

Take a look at bb's DV to DVD guide.

http://www.doom9.org/dv/guide.html

[bb]

Originally posted by Video Dude
[...]The reason is that these are more often optimized for speed, not quality.[...]
No, they are optimized for the price tag :D
There are good integrated encoders, too, e.g. the MainConcept encoder included in Adobe Premiere Pro. But the encoders that come with cheap editing software are usually crap - although they aren't that bad when using high bitrates.

bb

[jorgeo]

I am very new to computers let alone dvd burning, how do I change to a higher bit rate? I am using ulead 6 basic or windows movie maker 2 then I use power producer gold which came with my LG dual burner to put chapters and menues and burn to dvd, I dont think they support mpeg-2 I looked and could only find mpeg-1 and dv avi.is there softwere that does everthing from capturing to editing to burning, if so can someone send me the link to get a free trial please.
can i use windows movie maker 2 which i find very easy too use, and edit and save then use shrink to encode will that change it to mpeg-2? or is that a silly question:o

[bb]

jorgeo,

first of all I kindly request you to take care of your punctuation, so that it's easier for us to read your posts.
Originally posted by jorgeo
I am very new to computers let alone dvd burning, how do I change to a higher bit rate? I am using ulead 6 basic or windows movie maker 2 then I use power producer gold which came with my LG dual burner to put chapters and menues and burn to dvd, I dont think they support mpeg-2 I looked and could only find mpeg-1 and dv avi.is there softwere that does everthing from capturing to editing to burning, if so can someone send me the link to get a free trial please.
Ulead VideoStudio is one of the beginners softwares to support the whole chain of capturing, editing, encoding, and authoring to DVD. Version 6 is pretty old; there's V8 out meanwhile (see http://www.ulead.com ). VideoStudio allows to configure the MPEG settings in the last step "Create Disc" (there are two buttons below in the "Create Disc" dialogue, the right one handles the project settings, where you can set the bitrate amongst others).

Windows Movie Maker does not support MPEG-2 output, so you can either use it for editing only, or you drop it completely.

Regarding Power Producer Gold I must say I don't know the program - sorry.
Originally posted by jorgeo
can i use windows movie maker 2 which i find very easy too use, and edit and save then use shrink to encode will that change it to mpeg-2? or is that a silly question:o
You can use Windows Movie Maker to edit, then save as DV AVI, and continue with an encoder (e.g. CCE, TMPGEnc, Canopus Procoder), then use an authoring software like TMPG DVD Author or DVDlab to create a DVD. DVD Shrink is only useful in this context if your MPEG-2 encoding turned out to be too large to fit on a DVD. In this case you may author an oversized DVD and reduce the size with DVD Shrink, which is probably faster than to encode the whole stuff again with lower bitrate settings.

I'm afraid you have to read up a lot, so that you get an impression of how to perform the basic steps.

bb