[Tallokas]

I'm trying to burn from a digital video camera to dvd. Heaven help me!

So far I have managed to capture the video to my hd and this is where the confusion begins. A 60 minute video is around 10 gigs so I know I need to compress it somehow. I'm using Nero 6 Ultra and I think this will do everything I need to do but as usual there's a problem.

I click on the DVD tab and then “recode”.......encode, recode, codec.......it's all so confusing! Funny thing is I don't even know what recode means.
It tells me I need the DVD video plugin. I go to the website and it clearly states that you don't need to buy this plugin if you have Nero 6 Ultra (which I have). I checked the plugin folder and the encoder plugins are there. As expected Nero tech support leaves a lot to be desired.

Can anybody recommed another program I should try? I just can't seem to get a grip on the process of how all of this works. Does anyone know of a site that explains the process in simple terms............I have been to so many sites and the more I read the more confused I become.

Thanks so much for your help.

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by Tallokas

I'm trying to burn from a digital video camera to dvd. Heaven help me!

So far I have managed to capture the video to my hd and this is where the confusion begins. A 60 minute video is around 10 gigs so I know I need to compress it somehow. I'm using Nero 6 Ultra and I think this will do everything I need to do but as usual there's a problem.

I click on the DVD tab and then “recode”.......encode, recode, codec.......it's all so confusing! Funny thing is I don't even know what recode means.
It tells me I need the DVD video plugin. I go to the website and it clearly states that you don't need to buy this plugin if you have Nero 6 Ultra (which I have). I checked the plugin folder and the encoder plugins are there. As expected Nero tech support leaves a lot to be desired.

Can anybody recommed another program I should try? I just can't seem to get a grip on the process of how all of this works. Does anyone know of a site that explains the process in simple terms............I have been to so many sites and the more I read the more confused I become.

Thanks so much for your help.

See this thread:

http://forums.techguy.org/t236165.html

[Tallokas]

Thanks so much for your thorough response

I did some trial runs with Windows Movie Maker and the results are acceptable but not great. The files were compressed down to about 400 megs automatically. I still have no idea how or why this works.

I'll download the trial versions of the programs you suggested and give it a whirl. I think this is one of those things that once I learn to do it I'll look back and say........."I can't believe I ever thought it was so complicated"

Anyway thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by Tallokas

Thanks so much for your thorough response

I did some trial runs with Windows Movie Maker and the results are acceptable but not great. The files were compressed down to about 400 megs automatically. I still have no idea how or why this works..

Well, I haven't used Windows Movie Maker, so I don't know what it does specifically, but I do know that if would be similar to the Sony Screenblast program. It may be that by default it encodes the movies to some compressed format and you just used the default. I would think you could at least output in AVI uncompressed, which would not change the movie quality at all from what you imported.

But as I was telling you, I found that the programs that actually render the video (like Movie Maker or Screenblast) do a poor job of encoding the movies to MPEG-1 (used for VCDs) or MPEG 2 (used for DVDs). That's why I recommended getting a separate program to do the encoding such as Cinema Craft.

Originally Posted by Tallokas

I'll download the trial versions of the programs you suggested and give it a whirl. I think this is one of those things that once I learn to do it I'll look back and say........."I can't believe I ever thought it was so complicated"

The only part that will be complicated will be rendering the movie because, like any good product that has lots of features, it will take time to learn to use the features (I still don't know how to that--my 14 year old daughter actually makes our movies and she learned to use the program in a day). You'll learn how to slow movies down, speed them up, add special effects, add text and background music, etc. Now if all you want to do is simply take a video you shot on your camcorder and put it onto DVD, that is very easy--you don't even need the Screenblast program. Just import the video and go right to (Step 2).

[Tallokas]

Well thanks to your great advice I'm making progress I feel like I'm taking baby steps but am learning more all the time. I haven't had much time to work on the movies lately but hopefully with have a finished product soon.

Now for another million dollar question. I have downloaded some movie clips and want to burn them to a dvd to play on a regular type dvd player. Do I have to encode these also? They are currently in avi format. I don't even have a dvd player yet but that's my next project I know I'm getting way ahead of myself but I just want to do it all and know it all right now!!!

Thank you again for all your help.

[Mulderator]

Originally Posted by Tallokas

Well thanks to your great advice I'm making progress I feel like I'm taking baby steps but am learning more all the time. I haven't had much time to work on the movies lately but hopefully with have a finished product soon.

Now for another million dollar question. I have downloaded some movie clips and want to burn them to a dvd to play on a regular type dvd player. Do I have to encode these also? They are currently in avi format. I don't even have a dvd player yet but that's my next project I know I'm getting way ahead of myself but I just want to do it all and know it all right now!!!

Thank you again for all your help.

Yes, you will need to encode them. Any one of the MPEG Encoders I recommended will do. I would actually use TEMPenc 3.0 Express because that's the easiest interface to use by far and does a great job of encoding DVD (MPEG-2). You don't even need a DVD burner yet. You can simply encode to a file on your hard drive then use that to later burn to a DVD. In fact, I recommend that even if you don't have a DVD burner, you encode anything you want to save to DVD format on your hard drive because that's the best qaulity vs. disc space (uncompressed AVI is the best, but it is 10 times bigger than a DVD encoded file, so it is not practical to save files in AVI format unless they are very short).