Video newbie questions (raring to go!)

[G00k]

I thought I was going to have no problems, until I began reading deeper into help files for the nuts and bolts of "how to...." But now I need some clarifications. Maybe you can help me.

I am using an ATI AIW9600 with the Pinacle 8 that came with it. I have 60 GB to capture to, and a 3Ghz P4 with 512MB, which seems enough horsepower to do what I need (move my VHS home movies to DVD for permanence).

After figuring out that the 60 Gb is good for about 30 minutes (and I agree that 20 minute vinnettes are probably best), now I'm wondering about getting the hour's worth of media onto the DVD.

Where I'm going with the question is: to burn an hour long DVD, how much disk space would I REALLY need? - Can the process be done in chunks that can be assembled with the menu stuff before or as the burning process is imminent?

The reason I ask is that the only CD burning I've done has been data files, and I was under the impression that creating a music disk (for example) I would need to have all the music files arranged just so, before burning to avoid fouling up the target disk. This being a much larger project, I don't want to have to re-do everything several times to get it right.

More questions are inevitable...

Thanks!

 

[JohnWill]

You are correct, you want to do the burning of either video or movies in one step. Pinnacle 8 will allow you to assemble the whole image and test it before you burn.

 

[G00k]

I have lots of videotape. Pinnacle says I have enough (capture?) space for 30 minutes. If I capture 30 minutes worth and edit it down to maybe 15 minutes (being brutally frugal with the subject matter), how much hard disk will that use?

Then, if I capture and edit the next chunk, will I be accumulating large avi files that can't be connected and packaged onto a single dvd with the previously captured and edited stuff?

Also, when the file is encoded, will it fit on the hard drive before burning? Will the original avi edit still be there to re-open and tweak, etc. That would infer massive storage needs (another upgrade).

I'm sorry to sound like a whiner, but I don't want to get too far before I have to abort and regroup.

Thanks again!

 

[JohnWill]

If you have enough capture space for 30 minutes, there's no way you can capture 30 minutes and then do any editing, since you need lots of work space for video editing. I suggest your first purchase be a hard disk.

 

[G00k]

Sorry to be a pest.

To eventually wind up with a DVD full of home movies that have been captured, editted, encoded and burned, would you have a guesstimate of hard disk space?

Also, there was the question: Once it's encoded for burning to disk, is the original "raw" editted file still on the disk (for further editting or disposal)?

And, Must every thing that will be burned to the disk be present and completed before I do the burn? (Or can more be added in several sessions?)

Thanks for your patience, John.

 

[JohnWill]

You must burn them all in one session, figure that's about 4.5gigs. You'll need at least twice that for work space during the video processing I would guess.
I don't know the minimum requirements, since I do my video processing with 60gig free space, and it's never been an issue.

Yes, you can burn a video, then edit some more and burn it again. Obviously, if you erase the source files that are input to the DVD image creation, you are done editing. You really do need a LOT of space to start dealing with video.

 

[G00k]

Well when I'm capturing at best quality, it's using a whole lotta disk (most of my 60GB). I guess you're saying that after editing out useless drek (maybe 80%?), then rendering , the final files to be burned add up to 4.5GB.

Oh...

I tried capturing at a each of the quality modes ~ 2 minutes of the same video. No bells or whistles - all three clips were edited into a single project to run one after the other so I could compare video quality. I go into Make Movie - dvd - make the file only. Hit start - It doesn't give an error; I don't see any disk activity, the system isn't hung, but I don't see any progress (no preview movement like the avi render). I went away for a couple hours, and nothing had changed when I returned. (And this is a ~6 minute prooject!) Should I see changes in the preview display? Should I see disk activity? What should happen?

Thanks again,

G00k

 

[JohnWill]

Even with a slow processor, a 6 minute clip shouldn't take hours. I don't really know what's happening. The 4.5gig figure I was talking about was filling a standard DVD with data.

 

[G00k]

I have been successfully capturing, editing and rendering dvd's for a few months now, so here's how it came about, thanks to your helpful comments:

1. Updated all firmware (MB, graphics cd, sound cd,etc)

2. Upgraded to Wxp sp2 (from W98se - not completely necessary but my burner, while the packaging said it was compatible with W98, the Roxio software included was NOT. So it was a toss up of buying a downgrade of Roxio or upgrade to XP - a $10-20 difference.) Xp is not so bad, I use W98 looks where ever I can.

Now I could and did render short dvds, but my full length projects still bombed out. WHY? - fat32 file length limit. 4GB means 4GB, not 4.7 (the size of my projects).

3. Converted my disks to NTFS - no limit to my file size - I'm a happy boy.

I still have hopes of moving off windows eventually, moving to Linux or maybe Solaris 10. Or maybe OSX will become available for sale separate form Apple hardware!

Thanks again for all your help, ladies and gents!