6/30/06 Helpful advice for converting camcorder video to DVD

Question:

We have a family reunion coming up, and we will be taping the main get-together. I have been volunteered to get the video duplicated and distributed to the attendees. Rather than sending out tapes of the event, I want to send out DVDs so that people can play them on their TVs. Being new to this whole thing, I am looking for some advice on the type of software and media I should be using to get the task completed quickly and that will allow the family to drop a disc into their DVD player and watch it on their TV rather than their computer. The DVD burner I bought will handle DVD+R and DVD-R (as well as the RW version of both). It comes with a Nero bundle that is supposed to allow copying, editing, burning, and so on. My questions are:

1. Which media should I get that is most compatible with a home-theater DVD player?
2. What authoring/copying/editing software has worked best for you to produce professional DVDs?
3. Is there a major quality or time difference between using the camcorder A/V output to my PC or the FireWire output? (If the latter is preferred, will I need to get a FireWire port and cable for the PC?)

Thanks for the help and advice!

Submitted by: Mark R.

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Answer:

To start with, there's no really easy answer for the format compatibility question. Newer DVD players will play almost anything you put in them, older ones may have trouble with one or the other (+ or - format). I do a lot of the same type of thing you are wanting to do, and I've found that DVD- seems to have the best rate of success. Actually, I've found that so far no one has NOT been able to view a DVD I've created using DVD- media (knock on wood). On the flip side of that coin, I have DVD players in my own house that won't play DVD+ media. I have heard that DVD- is the most supported of the DVD media types, but I really don't know if that's accurate. It's been good for me so far, however. BIG tip here: get good DVDs. Don't skimp on quality. Go for good, name-brand DVDs. The price difference isn't that great, and it will save you potential troubles down the road. Fuji, Memorex, and Sony have all been good brands for me so far.

Software – Nero and many others have rudimentary DVD authoring software included with them. Some work better than others but none of them will give you the results a dedicated authoring software will provide. On smaller TVs, this isn’t really a problem because you may not be able to detect the difference in video quality, but with so many people having large screen TVs these days, it’s not a bad idea to go for the best quality result you can afford to produce. I tried many and the one that I decided to purchase was Pinnacle Studio, which is currently at version 10.5 and can be found in stores for about $60. It’s money well spent. It has a very nice menu creation system and editing system to allow you to basically chop up your movies and recreate them any way you like, add audio commentary, and many other things. Pinnacle produces professional DVD authoring software so many of the same features, and the same powerful rendering engine, is included in their consumer level software as well. It does take some time to get used to the various features and things you can do with it, but out of the box you can produce high quality results with basic effects and menus that look stunning. As you work with it more, the fancier stuff will come from just getting more familiar with the program. Really the same can be said for just about any piece of software you get.

AV vs. FireWire – Easy… if you’ve got the option to use FireWire, use it. A FireWire (or IEEE 1394) card for your PC will run you about $35 at most stores like Best Buy or Circuit City and are very easy to install. If you don’t find one in a store near you, they can be ordered on-line. You can check E-bay for one cheaper and can sometimes come up with some excellent deals. I got one on E-Bay recently for about $10 including shipping. If you do this, just make sure to choose a reputable seller. Look at the feedback carefully. If in doubt, choose a different seller. Don’t forget that you’ll probably need a FireWire cable too. Look at the connector styles on the card, and the camcorder and make sure the cable you get looks the same. E-Bay is definitely the best place to get those. I just got one for my mother-in-law to connect her DV Camcorder to a DVD recorder she bought, and the cable with shipping was less than $5. In the stores you can expect to pay about $30 or more for the same cable.

Oh, why FireWire over the AV input? AV is analog. If you have a modern digital camcorder, and it sounds like you do, you’ll be taking a digital recording, converting it to an analog signal to send it to your PC, which in turn has to convert it back to a digital signal. The transition causes picture degradation, so your final product isn’t going to look as good as the original. FireWire sends everything all digital so there is no conversion. Keep in mind that the final product is only going to be as good as the camcorder is. Really, if you have a modern camcorder that has a FireWire port, then it’s probably going to take pretty good video. Also, authoring software such as Pinnacle will let you control your camcorder’s start, stop, rewind, etc functions via the software so you never even have to touch the camera. Pinnacle I know has a picture of a camcorder with all the buttons (play, pause, rewind, etc) so that you can just click on those to preview what’s on the tape. When you decide to capture the video from the tape, it will automatically start the camcorder for you. It also gives you the ability to automatically chop the video that’s captured into scenes based on the date/time stamp on the video. In other words, when you are recording your family gathering, and you interview one person, stop recording, and move to the next, and then the next about a hundred times, the authoring software will detect that and automatically chop your capture into scenes based on that. This allows you to easily rearrange the scenes into the order you want (just drag and drop), or choose not to include that scene where you had the camera pointed at the ground for 5 minutes while you accidentally had it in record mode.

All total, you should expect to spend about $100 to $150 using these tips, depending on where you purchase everything. To produce a high quality video that others will treasure, and will make you look like a video wizard, that’s pretty cheap.

Good luck, and I hope this has been helpful for you.

Submitted by: Floyd N.