[Spop]

This card didn't come with anything to plug into my video camera. What is the thing called that I need? I know it has yellow, red, and white ends on one side and a coax end on the other end.

[Deathblow]

Which camera? You could probably use a RCA to Coax cable for the picture, but you'll need something that does the sound as well.

[wolfworx]

Sounds like a composit video to RF converter.

The Yellow RCA plug (or jack, you did not specify gender) is for video while the Red and white are left and right audio. The coax is probably for RF either from incoming cable or to TV's Coax input.

[cliobritt]

Great guide!

Many thanks.

[aimeelou]

Being a newcomer to the site I hope I'm not speaking out of turn but, I was going to mention a site, only Deathblow has beaten me to it.

I can thouroughly recommend www.videohelp.com they cover practically everything you need to know about creating, converting and authoring files to create DVD's. As a complete beginner, I've managed to create DVD's that play in my stand alone player without spending a penny on programmes. You can do the lot using freeware tools which they give you links for.

A firm favourite of mine.

[Ten0000?]

This is a little off the topic, but my issue is this: I have a PAL DVD movie that I want to convert to NTSC. I know that my PC will play the DVD, but is there a way to output the DVD while it's playing to my stand-alone DVD recorder?

Since the recorder is recording in the NTSC format, I wouldn't need a conversion program or whatever to be able to watch it on my TV.(?)

I know there are some cards for PCs that do analog/digital video in/out, but I'm not sure this will solve my problem.

Can this be done or am I just stuck.

thx
ten

[twizzie]

if i have a have a analog camcorder, can i just purchase a tv tuner card??

[W0JT]

I'm an old-time computer geek but rather new to working with computer video technology, so please pardon any obvious ignorance in my posting.

My video sources are:
- analog camcorder, 8mm tape format
- VHS videocassette recorder/player (analog)
- cable TV system tuner box (analog output)

My goals are to convert analog programming into digital format, with the ability to create either high-quality files for archiving purposes, or compact files for posting on web sites, and various steps in between.

Unlike Muldar, I have an inherent distrust of hard drives for long-term storage of anything valuable, so I hoped that backing up large video files to DVD+R -DL media would be a more secure storage method, even if some of the discs were only readable reliably in a PC.

I have reasonably powerful computer hardware -- 3GHz P4, 800 MHz FSB, 3 Gb DDR DRAM, 200 Gb SATA hard drive, dual IDE DVD-DL drives, NVidia video card, etc.

I bought a Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U external box for doing hardware encoding and compression in any of numerous formats, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and DivX, with lots of options from highest quality (96 minutes per 4.3 Gb DVD) to highest compression (11 hours per 4.3 Gb DVD). It connects to the PC via USB2. It included both WinDVD Creator and ULead Video Studio 8 SE software.

First problem came with the software. I installed WinDVD Creator and used it a bit, and it seemed to work OK. Then I figured that the Ulead software should be more powerful, so I installed that. From that point on, the WinDVD Creator software became unable to capture any video from the PX-M402U. I tried uninstalling Ulead, tried uninstalling and re-installing WinDVD Creator, to no avail. Oh well. It looks like it's Ulead or nothing from this point onward. So, on to working with Ulead.

The capture process is pretty painless and seems to work correctly. I can select the desired capture format, click on the capture button, and everything is converted in real-time. A 2-hour VHS tape is captured in the 2 hours it takes to play it. A 2-hour TV program is captured in the 2 hours it takes for the show to air. No real shock there.

However, when I attempt to exit the program, I get a warning box pop up that tells me that my file is not saved, do I really want to quit? Well, the first time this occurred after a 2-hour session converting a VHS video tape, I could see a 2 Gb AVI file on my hard drive, but feared that it would get deleted as soon as I quit, so I told the software to create a disk file in the same encoding format. In this case, it was a DivX Home Theater High (but not Highest) quality format. Twenty-two hours later, I had my mpg file, and it had grown to about 5 Gb (too big for a single-layer DVD disc). Hmmm.... The DivX format I was using should have taken about 977 Mb per hour of source, or less than 2 Gb, which is about where the file started but most certainly not where it ended up.

Last night, I recorded a 2-hour TV show for my own viewing at a later date. The original capture went fine, 2 hours to convert to an AVI file. Then I tried to edit this video with the Ulead video editing software. All I wanted to do was trim out about 15 seconds of junk at the front of the file and about a minute of junk at the end of the file, and keep everything in between. Took me all of about 2 or 3 minutes to make the edits, and then another 6 hours to save the result!!!!! To add insult to injury, I ended up with a 2 Gb AVI file (what was originally captured) and an 800 Mb MPG file (what it saved after the edits). Again, I told the software to use the same output format as the input format, so no re-coding should have been needed, so the file should not have taken so long to save, IMHO. Also, the specs on the DivX format I chose say it uses an average of about 977 Mb per hour, so a 2-hour show that fits into 800 Mb sounds like it was compressed to a lower quality standard than what I originally requested or how I told it to save the result.

Tonight, I tried to record a 2-hour TV show for future home viewing. Once again, the hardware-based encoding went as smooth as silk. But this file has lots of junk that I would like to edit out, like commercials and such, so I again called it into the Ulead editor to work on it. Since this would have lots of snips, I figured I'd use a built-in feature of the software to automatically break up the file into individual clips by the software's best estimate of scene changes (by the changes in the video and audio). It seems like it's making good choices of breaking points, but after 60 minutes of real-time processing, it appears to have processed only 6 minutes of source video, if I am reading the display correctly. At this rate, my 2-hour TV show will need 20 hours just to find the scene breaks, and THEN I can sift through it and throw out the parts I don't want manually. Ugghhhh!!!!! Oh, and there's a very annoying feature (bug) in this scanning component of the software. While it's scanning for scene breaks, if you touch any key on the keyboard, even a SHIFT key, the process stops and all the scene breaks found to that point are discarded. You have to start over at the beginning again.

There seems to be something fundamentally wrong here, or something I simply don't grok. Why on earth would it take 6 hours to trim 1-2 minutes off of a video capture file and re-save it? Is all video editing this slow and tedious?

[bp936]

W0JT, I have a VHSc camcorder, put films on a VHS tape, also wanted to preserve them on DVDs. I found the easiest way is to buy a VHD to DVD recorder combined in one unit, found one in "MAGNAVOX". I fix the problems first on the VHS, it is a lot faster.
The only problem I found, I forget the order, in which the buttons have to be pushed to record, so I screwed up several DVDs. I follow instructions from the book but still seem to do it wrong. But when I do it correct, the family photos turned out beautiful. You just put the VHS in, open the DVD tray, press dubbing on the remote, the tray closes and push -play- on the Vcr section of the unit. At the end it does asks, if I want to "finalize" DVD and that's where I am still not clear, in what order to do what. But until now, most tapes are on DVD and YES, it does take a lot of time to record. I just put a tape for dubbing in and walk away. When I come home from work, I finalize the DVD.
I tested the dvd on a stanalone player, on a 7inch player, on 2 XP computers, and it works.

Maybe this will help you. But you have to search for a VHS - DVD player, it has to say, DVD recoring, not just playing. It took me many weeks to find one in a very large very well known W.. store. But luckily it was only $149,-- Canadian$$.

[W0JT]

Thanks, bp936, for the tip on the VHA/DVR combo unit. That would solve part of the problem , but then there's those 8mm analog camcorder tapes, and the occasional program right off the cable TV tuner...

I apologize for the long, rambling nature of my post, but there were some specific questions way down at the end of the message, for those who persevered to the bitter end of the message.

The essential question was, is it "normal", when using a video editor program to try to trim off a couple of minutes from the ends of a (for example, 2 hour long) capture file, for the whole file to be re-encoded at the save step? I'm not surprised that re-encoding the whole file takes many hours, just that it seems to be impossible to cut out part of a video file without the tedious re-encoding process being required.

[wolfworx]

I've commented on this problem before but a recent incident prompted this message.

I burned two DVDs for a friend and tested them on my $35 DVD player. They ran perfectly, so I sent them on to her.

Both disks were the same brand (Sony DVD+R 4.7 GB). After getting them, she informed me that Disk #1 was not recognized by her machine, Although the second one ran fine.

I told her to try to play disk #1 on the DVD drive in her computer. It was read there without a problem.

Then I told her to copy disk #1 to a new, blank DVD --- She has two DVD drive in her computer, so this process is easy enough (although it takes about 90 minutes).

The resulting copy was read on her DVD player!

BTW, the original DVD still works on my player, but not hers.

Some thoughts on this matter:

1. When you burn a movie DVD of say last months poolside party or the new baby and send them to Aunt Martha, Although you tested them on your DVD player, you cannot be sure it will work on hers.
   
2. Copying a problem DVD may solve the problem.
   
3. Cheaper DVD players are often more forgiving of home made DVDs than more expensive ones. Try out some of your home burned DVDs on a new model DVD player before buying it.

[helpme80]

Hi all,

New to this, In any result a couple of years ago I went out and purchased all of the equipment that I would need to burn dvds from my dv camcorder. Well after money spent and non-use I have recently attempted to complete these projects. In any result. I am using Nero 6. I have captured my video and edited it, finished the entire thing, however for some reason when i attempt to burn it, it says that the setting are wrong or something. I will appreciate any help that I can get. I am attempting to make a memoir video for my grandmother that recently passed. Please help.
Thanks.

[wolfworx]

To HelpMe80:

What is the format of your edited movie? MPG?

I assume the movie is running properly on your computer.

If you are using Nero 6

1. Make sure you are set for DVD burning
2. Select the Star (favorites)
3. Select "Make your own DVD Video"
4. Add your video files to the project
5. Next
6. You can preview your movie at this point
7. If you don't want to make any furthe changes or menuing to your project. Insert a blank
   DVD (if you have not done so) and "Next" to "Burn Options" screen and Burn the DVD.

If you have tried this procedure and failed, where do you get an error?

[helpme80]

Well it is saved under nvc? I believe... it is not under mpeg. Yes the movie was running properly on my computer, it just won't burn, I don't understand why it won't, everytime it just says that there is formatting problems then it won't burn. Is there a different way that I should saving th completed film/file?
Thanks,
Janine

[helpme80]

Ok, well I tried this all again for like the 1000th time. The file is .nvc, I was under the impression that nero 6 automatically converts the files for me. I am confused.When completing the burning process it says the following:

sorry, your compilation cannot be written on this kind of disc. Please insert a disc of the correct type or modify the settings ofyour compilation to make them compatible with the current disc.

Note: You will not need to transcode again if you cancel the recording now, unlessyou change the project data afterwards.

I am using TDX DVD-R 1-16x 4.7gb DVD....

What am I doing wrong? thanks for the help.

Thanks,
Janine