I need help from tech experts in video editing/dvd authoring.
Ok, what I need to do:
Capture 6 hour VHS tapes with old sitcom x-mas episodes from my VCR. And I need to capture straight to a lossy format since the computer ?I am doing this has limited HD space (and 6 hours of uncompressed video would be way too big!)
Edit out the comercials and do some cleaning up of the video.
Author a DVD with menues backgrounds etc, (that I can design and import).
Burn DVD, BUT I need to have control over compression quality (bit rate) of audio and video. As I understand it, in order for the DVD to play in a DVD player it has to be encoded at a minimum bit/rate but there isn’t a single data rate. You can go higher if you want (or use the lower minimum to save space). If I’m wrong, please let me know
What I have:
A video card with TV in and decent audio card.
So what do I need?
Software.
What software solutions do you recommend in order to do everything I want to do with the most ability to customize?
BTW: some software I’ve tried but did not solve my problem much: Windows XP movie maker 2: Captures to a compressed format fine, but the video playback is jittery. Ulead DVD Movie maker 2 (Not enough ability to custumize DVD menus, and not enough flexibility in DVD burning quality ( a short clip would take up 1/2 a dvd!!).
OK, you are off on a big adventure. One option, of course is to try to somehow procure a Mac. I don’t use them myself, but the video process is well integrated.
You need a capable PC to do this kind of work. If your machine is old, you may have problems. Also, given the very low cost of large hard drives, you might be well advised to buy one. A single hard drive PC is not good for video work since you need to do some functions “real time” and when you need to read the drive for system or program functions at the same time you are reading or writing video data, it can screw up the project.
I would suggest Pinnacle Studio 8. Lots of features, good menu flexibility, etc. There are two versions. The software only (or with a Firewire card) is well under $100. However, the Deluxe version has an analog capture card that is very good and may be worth the additional cost. Some of the video cards with TV in are really pretty lame when it comes to capture. Another good alternative is to buy or borrow a DV camcorder that has analog input and pass through. This will allow you to capture analog input via Firewire from the camcorder.
If possible you should capture in DV format (AVI). If you can’t do this capture as MPEG-2. Don’t use MPEG-1. Quality will be inadequate. Capturing analog as MPEG-2 requires a good quality high powered PC system since you must not only capture but also encode the video signal in real time. Many people find they need to set up a custom configuration for this type of work to keep all other programs from running in background. WinXP is better at prioritizing this than Win98.
In short, suggest you have an over 1GHz class PC (P4 or Athlon), a second hard drive and a high quality analog capture interface.
Oh, by the way, normal DVD recording with Studio 8 will provide you with about 1 hour of video per DVD. Controls in the program let you increase compression to get almost 2 hours but at some loss of quality.
ULead DVD MovieFactory does let you control the compression, but you’re right that its menu support is weak.
You should be able to fit over 4 hours on a DVD-R at the lowest bitrate (2000 kbps) and over 1 hour at the highest (8000 kbps). You may be able to fit an entire 6 hour tape on a DVD-R by going below the minimum bitrate, but many DVD players won’t like it. Of course, 6 hours of sitcoms is only just over 4 hours once you take out the commercials.
VHS is not very high resolution. Best I got with it was vcd quality. I just captured to vcd quality & put on a dvd. I think I got 5 hours on one dvd once with a menu using Nero.
6 hours is too much & I don’t think you can do more than 4 hours with decent quality. I use a dvd recorder for that.
If you capture in non vcd resolution figure about 1gig for each 10 minutes of video.
Check out www.dvdrhelp.com
They have tons of guides and tutorials for importing, converting, burning, etc. - just about everything you should need! They also have links to some free software that can get the job done.
