Hello, I am new to this and have been lurking here for a few days. I have been backing up my DVD's with decrypter and shrink....they work flawlessly! My question is with my new Sony vaio with the click to dvd and dv gate software. I was wondering if anyone here has used these and what they thought of them. If so, I need a guide to use these to make DVD's of my home movies on vhs and digital 8. I want to try these programs before downloading what you guys use to do this. Oh, BTW, great information here and I cannot stop reading it. thanks
I have a Vaio with that software, but I've never used it because I've read a lot of horror stories about it. You could try this forum: http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony They have quite a few people there who use those programs and may be able to help you. I don't convert home movies, just TV captures and the occasional VHS. I use the Sony capture card that came with my Vaio, DVD2AVI, AviSynth, VirtualDubMod, CCE SP, and DVD-Lab.
Vurbal, thanks for the link! I had no idea there was a forum for the vaio. Would you recommend using the software that you use for a newbie? I assume it would work for home movies the same as it would for tv captures. Looks like a long process though. I might try it! Thanks.
It's not as difficult or time consuming as it looks, although it will take a little time to encode, but that's the way MPEG-2 encoding works. Assuming you're going to be capturing through a Sony card I can help you out a lot and save you the hundreds of hours (yes really hundreds) I spent figuring out how to get good results, and you'll end up with a lot better quality (and probably a lot fewer headaches) than you would with the Sony tools. Make no mistake, there's a time commitment required to learn this, but with a little help it's really not that hard. Be warned, it will require you to spend a little money. Most of the tools I use are freeware, but at a minimum you'll have to buy the DVD authoring software and MPEG-2 Encoder. Here are some basic options for software you could use: MPEG-2 Encoder --------------- CCE Basic ($58) - This is a great encoder. I use CCE SP which has the same encoding engine but a lot more options, but I'm guessing you don't want to spend $2000 for it. Downsides: It doesn't come bundled with any other software and the trial version will only encode short clips. It's also not as easy to find people who know it well as it is for TMPGEnc. TMPGEnc Plus ($48) - This encoder is also good, and you can get it bundled with TMPGEnc DVD author for a little less money. A lot more people use it than CCE so it's a easier to find somebody who can help you with specific problems. There's a fully functional 30 day trial. Downsides: It's a little buggy and can give you some headaches. It can also take up to twice as long to encode as CCE. TMPGEnc DVD Source Creator ($39) - It uses the same encoding engine as TMPGEnc Plus. You can save a little money by getting it bundled with DVD-Lab. There's a fully functional 30 day trial. Downsides: It's will only encode for DVD, so if you decide to experiment with SVCD you'll need a different program. I haven't ever tried it out for myself, but I'm sure encoding takes as long as TMPGEnc Plus. DVD Authoring -------------- DVD-Lab ($99) - It's as close as you can get to true professional features without spending thousands of dollars. It has a lot of tools for working with video and audio files. It's really a steal for the price, and you can get it bundled with TMPGEnc DVD Source Creator. Downsides: There's a little bit of a learning curve (but there's a great tutorial) and some people are intimidated by the interface. Let's face it, you can't get a huge featureset without some complexity. TMPGEnc DVD Author ($68) - This is a very simple authoring program that a lot of people like. You can get it bundled with TMPGEnc Plus to save some money. There's a fully functional 30 day trial. Downsides: It's only made for very simple DVDs, which is obviously fine with a lot of people since it's pretty popular. If you're using the Sony capture card should also know that the captured audio leaves a lot to be desired. It's very quiet and has a lot of hiss. You should get a good audio editor, like Goldwave, for noise reduction. I'm just guessing, since I've never used it, but you should be able to boost the gain with it as well (if you can't there's a free tool that will do it). I personally use Steinberg Wavelab, but it's about 10x the price of Goldwave. I think Goldwave is around $40 but don't quote me. Later, you may also want to get an AC3 encoder. There's one you can buy for $29 (no trial version available) as a plugin for TMPGEnc DVD Author, but I've read that it can be used as a standalone application. Depending on how much you want to fit on a DVD, this may or may not matter to you. You shouldn't worry about it until you learn more and have a better idea about the rest of the process. If this information seems a little overwhelming, give it some thought. You can always try the Sony tools and see how you like them. If you're happy with the results and don't really feel like learning more or finding out what else you can do, my approach is not for you. If you want better results, and don't mind putting in a little time and spending a little money, let me know and I'll be happy to help.
Have not played with the sony software. Was already using Pinnacle 8 ($100 if there are no rebate sales) Works fine- not to many bells and whistles- easy to learn- nice forum You want bells and whistles--- learn the adobe priemere 6.0le that came with your vaio-- I think I"m haveing most of my problems withit because I already knew pinn8 Capture your dv, and vhs thru the 1394firewire (patch the vhs thru your dv) into pin8 or adobe . sound is as good as it was on origal tape(at least to my ears) Pinn8 will burn the dvd or save an image file (do not tell pinn8 to burn multiple copies-- the first one works the rest are trash) I don't remember if adobe is ready to burn dvd
