I am looking to convert home made movies onto DVD's. I am looking for some experinced person to suggest Software(s) that will allow me to do the following: Capture, Edit, Encode and Burn to DVD's. I would like to play these DVD's on my Home Player. I know there are some free softwares available, please suggest good softwares that will do the needful. Thanks in advance.
Capture: virtualdub, virtualVCR, FreeVCR, and about 500 others. Edit: Cuttermaran for simple cuts, other stuff cost's money. Encode: FreeEnc, QueEnc, VSO. Author: GuiForDVDAuthor or DVDAuthorGUI. Everything above is free.
Thanks, the ones that cost money, which ones are they, I dont mind buying something good (NOT TOO Expensive, so I have features in editing.) Is TMPGEnc a good software for encoding? I have Nero to burn with.
Tmpgenc is antique and very slow. For Encoding, Canopus Procoder Express is very quick, and $59 last I looked. For editing, Sony Vegas 5, Pinnacle Studio, Mainconcept EVE, and others. Look at Sony Vegas Movie Studio 4 as a great way to get started. For Authoring, the only thing I use is DVDLab (Pro).
Yes. MS4 is much easier to learn, but uses almost exactly the same interface as Vegas 5, so once you've gotten a handle on MS4, you can move up to 5 with ease. MS4 is also quite a bit cheaper.
Thanks rebootjim, I started off by using Movie Maker2, it of course is preety good but limited. Also I noticed that in one of my home movies I captured it in DV-AVI format, then I edited it and when I saved it again as AVI its video and audio were out of sync. Do you have any suggestions. It was in sync on the initial capture. Sorry for the questions, but I am sure that Sony MS4 is more sophisticated with more features, is that so rebootjim? Thanks for all your help so far.
There's no comparison between MS4 and wmm. Sync is something that WMM is just not good at, especially with DV and LPCM audio. If you just need to cut bits of the video out, use virtualdub. If you really want to EDIT it...that is add transitions, text, fades, substitued audio in certain portions, or whatever, then get MS4.
Thank you so much rebootjim, I truly appreciate your input, it has taken the guesswork out for me. There are too many choices and I did not want to make a mistake, I already bought Nero and I feel I did not get what I was looking for. Burning or copying DVD's is not my scene. I want to take home movies and help my community in converting their old VHS tapes and Digital 8 Tapes onto DVD's and place them into our libraries so people can watch and learn. (Sorry to ramble on). I am currently using Nero for the final burn of my DVD's, and I could have done that with cheaper software. Ah well live and learn. But thanks so much for all your help. Telp me please I want to learn, why is my video out of sync with my audio.
Video files have a framerate. That is, so many frames per second, and this is standardized. Audio does not. It can be many different file types, and many different bitrates, as well as many different frequencies, but only a select few are DVD compliant. When converting a video, the framerate is made to a standard for DVD. When converting audio, it MUST be 48khz for dvd standard. When encoding an avi, DV, or just about any other file, the encoder can do the video portion with no trouble, that's what encoders are designed to do. What they do NOT do well, is audio conversions. If you are serious about doing this stuff for your community, for money or not, you should learn a lot more about the process, so you can at least output a proper DVD. You need a few basic tools to do the job properly. An encoder for VIDEO. An audio transcoder. An GOOD editor. An authoring app. A burning app. Optionally, you should also have an audio editor. Which ones you choose to use, will determine the quality and professionalism of the finished DVD.
I must agree with you in that one should try and do the very best you can. I do not do it for the money, its a charitable organization, so my services are free for them. You have now opened a new can of worms for me, I like to learn and understand in greater detail about this process. Are you telling me that when I save the AVI file its a hit and miss thing with the synchronization of audio and video. Some of the DVD's I have made are in sync, but this particular one is not. As per your previous suggestions, I am willing to invest a little bit of money and more of my time to learn (please guide me how). I am looking at Sony Vegas 5, Canopus Procoder, Perhaps DVDlab not pro (a itte expensive), what else di I need. I have some of the freeware that is available here. Again thanks for your help, and I look forward to reading your next e-mail.
There are good tools, and there are bad. Some are free, some are not. Here's MY list of what works, is relatively cheap, and produces a professional result. Avi's: these come in so many different audio and video formats, there's no way anyone can say, "Use this and all your troubles are over". It's not going to happen. First thing you need to do is understand that audio is just a simple stream, nothing complicated, and easy to work with. Video is complicated, and can be screwed up much easier than it can be fixed. Learn how to use virtualdub to rip the audio from the source. Set it aside and forget it for now. Encode the VIDEO portion only, in a good encoder. Canopus Procoder is my choice. The Express version is $59 or less. This will produce a video stream, with no audio, and depending on quality of the source, will produce a pretty good quality video. Better than most, with a lot less fussing with settings. If you want cheap, get VSO DivX to DVD. It will also encode nicely, and is fast. Once you have either the m2v from Canopus (or tmpgenc/cce/whatever), or the .vob's from VSO, you're ready to do the audio. Take the ripped .wav, transcode to AC3 in ffmpeggui at 224kbps, 48khz. Now you're ready to author. DVDLab is less than $100, and you probably won't need the Pro version just yet. Load the m2v and AC3 and author it. If you're working with the .vob's from VSO, then load the .vob into DVDLab and let it join and demux when prompted. Discard the audio. Load the AC3 from the previous step. Author and test. Use a good software player to test, such as WinDVD, PowerDVD, but NOT windows media player!!! If all is well, burn it.
I understood all upto transcoding the Audio. What do I use to transcode it, which software? Do I use VirtualDub again? So here it is in breif. I capture using SMS4, from the resulting AVI file use VirualDub to extract (Rip) the audio portion out of it (.wav file). Using Canopus I encode the video which gives me m2v file (no audio). Transcode the audio into an AC3 file. Take the 2 files (m2v & AC3) and author using DVDlab to generate the VOB files to eventually burn onto DVD. Thanking you truly for your efoorts. First things first, I need to upgrade my system with a HD (I only have 80GB, just now installing 250GB) then onto the softwares. So rebootjim, how do I continue to strive and get better and more educated in this area. This should be my hobby, I really enjoy this (keeps me out of trouble)
To transcode audio, I use ffmpeggui. It's free, and does a good job. I assume you've figured out how to get the uncompressed audio from your avi's? One thing you either learn fast, or give up, is that this hobby takes a ton of patience to do well. If you don't have the patience, then just buy a standalone dvd recorder, pipe the cam into it, and make copies. There's a note I just wanted to stick in here. VSO divx to dvd does a very quick job on video encoding. It's output is surprisingly good quality. It's downfall, like every other VIDEO encoder is it's audio capabilities. I find myself using it for quick projects, where the source material is in good shape (not downloaded junk). If you don't want to purchase Canopus or other encoder, just use VSO. DVDLab will easily take the .vob's it outputs, combine that with the transcoded AC3 audio, and you should get a very nice dvd out of dvdlab.
Well I only know theory so far, I have never used VirtualDub to extract audio, for that matter never used VirtualDub period. I noticed that one does need a lot of patience for this hobby. I have so much info, I will have to digest it all, and start to put it to practice as soon as I have ordered some of the software. Any further advice will be much appreciated. The Dig 8 Tape that is giving me sync problems is the first one I will work on and lets see what happens. I will keep you informed.
Hi rebootjim, I downloaded Vegas MS4 on trial and the video that was givin me sync problem got resolved instantly. So out goes WMM2 from now. A couple of things to run by you for feedback. I am waiting for Canopus Encoder, my TMPGEnc expired a couple of days ago, anyway I captured my home movie using MS4 as an AVI file, edited it saved it again as an AVI file, then I used VSO DivxToDVD to convert the AVI file to DVD files (VOBS), then using Nero burnt the DVD, seems to work fine. So tell me what is the purpose of using TMPGEnc encoding and TMPGEnc Authoring? Why break it into 2 files then use INFO to join the 2 files together and then output Vobs, then burn, Ehrn my mrthod does the same thing? What does encoding do? Thanks for all your hekp. I seem to be headed in the right direction (I Hope)
capturing vhs to dvd requires a capture card like a happauge pvr 250 Note: the dont expect the dvd version of the vhs tape to be any better in quality). if it is nero 6 ultra edition or if you have nero vision express you you can use that to convert your vhs capture to dvd using the make your own dvd option . for audio/video synch issues - video redo is the perfect and easy solution . just run your saved project through it before you burn - you can also use it to edit out scenes. those are the only 2 apps that i use . cost 160 bucks - canadian-
Hi rebootjim, I hope you can help me with the above request and also have you used Adobe Premier Elements? In comparison to Sony Movie Studio 4, which one do you think is the better, considering the prices are almost the same. Thanks
They do different things. I have never had any luck with Adobe stuff, whereas Sony has always been tops. VSO has no bitrate or aspect settings. It does a quick job, but has no advanced options for anything. Canopus will output a better quality mpg, and something like DVDLab will really let you author it, menus and stuff, which VSO just doesn't do. If you ever want to get 2 movies on one disk, or multiple TV capture episodes, you'll give up on VSO in a big hurry.
