Yes, a burner that can handle all of common recordable DVD disc formats (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, and DVD+RW) is a must. Most newer players will handle all of these as well. (see below)
Depending on what other equipment you have, you may also want to get DVD-RAM compatibility. (Some cameras and standalone DVD decks record to DVD-RAM.)
More important though are the current capabilities of your computer.
Storage…
You will need 40 GB of free space on your hard drive as a bare minimum for experimenting with a typical short home video.
Digital video uses about 15-20 GB per hour, but when editing you need at least double that for scratch space during editing. If you want to keep video or audio clips on hand for furure editing, or are creating video in animation programs, or want to keep your final disk images in the computer for easy burning of copies, you’ll need more space.
Is Your Computer Powerful Enough?
The average new computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux) is powerful enough to do video. Be careful if you have anything slower than a gigahertz; my friend’s Celeron 800 MHz was dropping frames when capturing video.
Memory… the more the better, but not less than 256 MB.
The Editing Process
To put video onto DVD you need to do the following things:
* Import the video into your computer.
* Edit the video while it is in your computer.
* Add menus and artwork to the DVD.
* Create the final disk image.
* Copy the disk image to a blank disk.
Some details…
Import the video into your computer.
What you need to get video into your computer depends on what other equipment you have.
If you have digital video, such as is recorded on a DV camcorder, you may be able to connect your recorder directly to your computer. Suitable software on the computer can instruct your recorder to play back its digital tape, and the video file is transferred directly to your computer.
Digital camcorders (MiniDV, Digital8, and I think MicroMV) can usually be connected directly to the computer. Importing video then becomes more like a file transfer from the camera. Most digital camcorders use a “Firewire” interface; these are often found on newer computers, and are easily addable as accessories.
Some other digtal sources such as standalone DVD players can also be connected this way.
If you have analogue video, such as is recorded on VHS tape, you will need to play it back into a “video capture device” that is connected to your computer. This device digitises the video, converting it to a video file which your computer can store. Video capture devices are available separately or as part of some video cards.
Analogue VCRs, analogue TV tuners, and analogue camcorders (VHS, Beta, VHS-C, 8mm, S-VHS, S-VHS-C), need to be connected through a video capture device.
Some digital camcorders can also be connected to capture analogue video from line in; if you have one, chack your manual. It may not be obvious.
Special software and connections are needed for capturing video. They are normally supplied as part of a video editing package, although you can use standalone software and hardware as well.
The imported video files will take up a LOT of space. Typically I require 15-20 gigabytes to store 1 hour of video. It also speeds things up to have multiple hard drives, with files on one and working space on another.
Many computers these days come with the high-speed serial connectors required for digital video input. (Thanks to competing groups of manufacturers, this connector has three different names, depending on who you ask: “IEEE1394”, “Firewire”, and “iLink”.)
Analogue video inputs, resembling those on the back of a VCR, are less common. You generally have to buy a video-editing package to get them.
Video-editing software will often communicate with the software that handles the importing, hiding some of the complexity.
Edit the video while it is in your computer.
When you edit the video, you indicate in the video-editing softwere which pieces of video you want to copy from your source files and place in your final output file. Various snippets can be cut, rearranged, modified. Sound and music can be added or removed.
At the end of the editing, you tell the video-editing software to generate an output video file. This is very time- and space-consuming.
Simple editing software comes with many computers. Complex editing software costs bucks, but is far more flexible.
This final output file can be recorded to tape. If our final goal was to make a VHS tape, that would be the end of the process. But a DVD is more complex, and requires more steps…
Add menus and artwork to the DVD.
During this step, you convert and compress the output video files to fit on the DVD. This is another time-consuming step.
Then you edit and add the menus and other artwork to help you navigate around the DVD. You can also add subtitles and additional audio tracks.
This is where different DVD software has dramatically-different capabilities.
The simple software looks at the video files presented to it and automatically creates basic menus. Complex software lets you design your own menus, import pictures, define what happens when you push the arrow buttons on the DVD remote, and specify all kinds of other behaviour.
I believe that the VCR-style DVD recorders automatically create simple menus. I’ve never used one; I really don’t know what the discs they create are like.
Create the final disk image.
Once the menus and everything are in place, you create a disk image of the final DVD. The authoring software combines all the elements–menus, video, audio, subtitles–and builds a disk image according to the DVD standard.
Copy the disk image to a blank disk.
You then burn the disk image to a blank DVD. It’s like copying a CD, but takes longer.
Different types of recordable DVDs.
There are three competing camps of manufacturers of recordable DVDs:
One camp makes the discs known as DVD-R and DVD-RW (“dash” discs).
One camp makes the discs known as DVD+R and DVD+RW (“plus” discs).
A third camp makes the discs known as DVD-RAM.
-R and +R discs are recordable once only, like CD-R.
-RW, +RW, and -RAM discs are recordable and erasible, like CD-RW.
The problem arises because many older recorders and standalone DVD players will handle “plus” discs but not “dash” discs, or vice versa. Newer devices can handle all the disc formats.
You can check machines’ compatibility with different recordable-disc formats through the database search at VideoHelp.com (see below).
This format difference has nothing to do with the movie studios’ DVD “Region Codes”. Recordable DVDs available to the consumer are not encumbered by region coding or the encryption that goes along with it. The DVD you make on your computer will play on any machine that can handle your television standard.
The DVD FAQ:
http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
All kinds of questions about DVD, its features, and its history, on one long web page. Jim Taylor, author of the definitive reference book “DVD Demystified”, keeps this page up to date.
VideoHelp.com:
http://www.videohelp.com/
Also known as dvdrhelp.com, vcdhelp.com, and svcdhelp.com, this site contains a vast collection of DVD tips, tricks, and software and hardware ratings.
Volunteers maintain a database of DVD players, recorders, and computer drives, searchable by model, make, feature and compaibility. There are how-to guides on such things as how to make your home videos DVD-compliant, and how to make DVD menus. There is also information on authoring VCDs and SVCDs, the discs that preceded DVDs.
The Unofficial DVD Specifications Guide:
http://www.dvd-replica.com/DVD/index.php
When you’ve come to the end of the simple software that came with your DVD burner, and you want to get down to the nitty-gritty of cell/menu commands and the DVD virtual machine, this is the place to start.
The author offers a description of the various elements of the DVD design hierarchy, and explains how the commands work in each elemnt. Calculators are provided that build the hex codes for each command from your desired selections. A more detailed description and guide is available as an for-pay ebook.
