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I need help to get out of the dark ages (Just plain clueless)
I tape dance recitals which average from 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours. I master on DVCPRO and typically make my DVDs using a stand alone burner. (Since parents don’t want to pay alot of money for DVDs)
But the time has come… I want to author these long shows onto DVDs with chapter points for the beginning of each song. I used DVRack to aquire everything into an AVI file, while at the show. Now I am trying to find out what is the SIMPLEST way to get good quality images (at a 2.5 hr compression for a SL DVD) without getting a second mortgage. I am a KIS (Keep it Simple) person. I want a very simple menu tbat says ‘play’ and if they can hit the next button to skip to the next song… it would be a huge step up from the standalone burner which makes chapters every 5 minutes.
So what do you suggest?
I have (again in dark ages) Premiere 6.0 and I am ready to upgrade to anything. (ie Pinnacle, Adobe video collection w/ premiere pro 1.5, etc…) I hear Procoder (for encoding) is good and Encore DVD is popular (for authoring)
PLEASE NOTE: I am an “Author Virgin” and I am looking for a program with 1) a small learning curve to author (since I am on a time schedule) 2)higher quality that I am use to (4hr setting on the standalone looks like crap) 3)Simple for first time users 4)broad compatibilty, (so I don’t get calls saying their DVD player can’t read it or it ‘skips’.) 5) not so expensive it will take a year to break even… I can always upgrade when my feet get wet enough & I am ready to dive in and buy the real gooood stuff.Thanks to all, in advance, to being kind to this newbie question.
(I did searches to get my questions answered, but everything is so fragmented)Lee
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8 Replies
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What realtime recorder are you using?
reason i ask is, for low budget stuff like this, I would record
to my panasonic recorder with DVD-RAM media, using the flexible
recording mode set to 2hr 30min then de-mux that
content to my hard drive then author that and put in the
chapter points and simple menu’s there.It accomplishes your goal with little effort.
some recorders won’t record to DVD-RAM but usually support
at least +RW or -RW. good to use that instead so you
don’t waste media.If you exceed 2 hours and 12 minutes you usually either have to
lower the bitrate so low that artifacts will be very present or
the resolution will need to go down to half D1 (352×480) which
usually looks better than highly compressed full D1.You do have some options though.
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realtime recorder: I am taking a firewire input into my lap top and saving the DV input as an AVI type 2. (plus DVCPRO as my back up)
I have the panasonic recorder and DVD-RAM disk sitting around. Isn’t the flexible record a VBR?
and what is ‘de-mux’?Most shows are just under 2hr 12 min. I just did a show and it is 2 hr 24 min. and another is 2 hr 10 min.
Here is a better question: I just edited the video in Premiere 6.0; should I export each dance set as an avi and assemble the video in an authoring program? OR should I export the whole 2.5 hr video as one large AVI? (told you I am clueless)
Lee
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well, the player is Hybrid-VBR in any mode.
But flexible recording gets it down to precision to the minute.
de-mux means to de-mutiplex (separate) the audio from the video
so you end up with an .m2v & .ac3 file. you then author your
dvd’s with these elementary streams. Nearly all DVD authoring
apps require elementary, but even if they take them as Program
(audio + video like an .mpg) streams, the app de-mux’s then re-mux’s
during the build process.what I would do is playback your premiere timeline out to
your dvd recorder (on ram disc) either directly into the DV port
if you have one on your recorder, or through your camcorder’s
DV port then out the analog plugs to the input of your dvd recorder.That will be the quickest and easiest way to do it. then put
the ram disc in your system and de-mux the .vro file on the ram
disc.you can find a free de-mux tool in TmpgEnc.
https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=TMPGEnc
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I will try it. Thank you It sounds like a inexpensive way to encode to MPEG2.
What DVD authoring program do you suggest for a simple and easy author?
Thank you again
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Simple…easy…and HIGHLY compatible would be Sonic ReelDVD.
http://www.sonic.com it retails for 250 now which is a sweet deal
considering it has the same build engine as the uber-expensive
and most professionaly (hollywood) used DVD authoring app
of all time–Scenarist.if thats not in the budget though you could just as easily
use tmpgenc author though. But I would highly recommend ReelDVD. -
It was working perfect until I found the audio was wayyyyy out of sync, when I was previewing in ReelDVD. Was that from the demuxing? There were several choices for demuxing… was it possible to pick the wrong one?
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Thats not a problem. Just the way it is for previewing without
a hardware mpeg2 card. You can only do that with scenarist though I think.Build your project then preview it with a software DVD player on your
system. Synch will be perfect unless it was out of synch from premiere.Sounds like your all set. 🙂
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YOU ARE A DVD-AUTHOR GOD. It looks terrific, and the audio is synced perfect.
Everything is perfect. Thank you for all the help.
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