Hey gang,

I figured before I pull all my hair out I would ask ya for some help. I have a sony dcr-hc40 video camera. I am trying to make my first dvd, and I am finding it a pretty steep learning curve. The software that came with my camera only allows me to make a vcd. I downloaded the windv program but I get an error message stating that it can't find the outpin or something to that effect. Any ideas as to how I can go about this would be appreciated. I would prefer to use free software but will buy if I have to.

bauer

I use Nero VisionExpress to capture the video from my video camera, design the menu, and create all the VOB files etc. I don't know if this is a good program to use (quality wise), but it was pretty easy to do.

Here's a simple, simplified overview of the steps required to make a DVD from your tapes.

My first suggestion, get a Mac; iMovie and iDVD are easy to use, and packed with fun features.
(Wasn't Windows XP supposed to address all of these issues and make it easy for PC users to convert their home movies to DVD? I'm sure I saw a few flashy commercials about this. Perhaps an XP user could chime in with the XP way to do it?)

There are 3 main steps to creating a DVD from your MiniDV recording:

1. Transferring (sometimes called capturing)
2. Editing
3. Authoring/encoding/burning

1. This is where you take the video from your camera to your PC, in most instances via FireWire or USB. Most editing software titles will capture the media as well as provide the necessary editing features. Final Cut, Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas are all popular titles in this category. (I prefer iMovie & Final Cut.)

2. Editing is fairly straight forward, in terms of what this stage entails. The process will be dictated by what software you decide to use.

3. Authoring is the process of creating the menu screens, adding additional features like slideshows, and additional tracks. Encoding is where the raw DV files are compressed into .vob files using MPEG-2 compression. (I use iDVD or DVD Studio Pro.)
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If this is beyond the scope of your project, as srb mentioned, many DVD burning titles can be used to create simple menus and to burn your movies to DVD for viewing. Programs like Roxio Toast can capture the media, and then convert DV files to DVD, and automatically create simple menus and chapter pages.
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The more complex you want your finished product to be, the more complex and powerful the software needs to be. As well, this can be a very time consuming process, especially if you do not have a really fast computer, and lots of hard drive space.

Good Luck!

Thanks Chris, this wasn't ment to help me, but as always you have taught me 2 things, how to get video from that $600 camera to my $1200 computer, and more importantly, I was an idiot not to buy a mac!

You are the Jedi Knight of pc/video!

I agree with Chris...a Mac is very user friendly with their iMovie and iDVD programs. Many hours can be spent fooling around with these programs.

ccollins515

Mac or PC - many, many hours can be spent editing/authoring/etc.

But it's a lot of fun!

Hi Guys,

I have tried several times now and it is getting very frustrating. If it was anything else but hip I would have given up already. I have tried using nero express to capture and author as well as TMPGEnc to try and convert from avi to m2v. The dvd was made alright but when I played it the audio and video were not synchronized. Does anyone have an idea how I can fix this?

bauer

You'll most likely find the info you need in the "guides" section of Afterdawn.com. Everything's broken down by categories like VCD, DVD-R, DivX, capturing, burning, etc.

The forums may also be helpful. These people know PC media like we know The Hip.

~Scott

I capture from my Digital 8 camcorder using Windows Movie Maker 2. It really is a half decent proggy.



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