[Roman Melekh]

…Or hi8 camera -> ADVC or miniDV cameria with analog inputs

[Roman Melekh]

plus, on your HDCAM you have full range colors – from 0 to 255 (RGB), but MPEG2-DVD must be 16..235 (RGB)

[Roman Melekh]

..or you can try “GV Edius” (PC) or Canopus ProCOder (PC) to transcode your video

[Roman Melekh]

“lot of trial and error” – this is MAC+Compressor ?

I think PC + Procoder = Snell&Wilcox 🙂

[Roman Melekh]

1st – you MUST re-author you DVD (you can try DVDReauthor+Scenarist), or you can to try Premiere+IfoEdit to “split” your VOBs + original IFOs

But….if you need 100% working dvd you need to reauthor whole disk

[Roman Melekh]

there is no difference between m2v, mpeg, mpg or mpv…
You can “rename” file extensions

[Roman Melekh]

You need miniDV or DV camera with SVideo/RCA inputs,
and you can just…capture DV video to your computer

[Roman Melekh]

you need program like ImgBurn (PC) to record DVD+R DL disk like DVD-ROM (with book-type change)

[Roman Melekh]

Try to use Sonic Scenarist
You can use your video 10000 times in one project

[Roman Melekh]

…a recommendation…
ufff….the best way is re-render in AE, but not convert “from-to”