Record on Standalone Drives

[zack371]

I have a friend who has is getting a Panasonic DMR-T2020.

I am curious - is it possible to use it to record compilations that I make in programs such as ReelDVD or Spruce?? IS that possible? I am pretty new to this, but the specs say you can get up to 6 hours on a 4.7 GB disc, so I was wondering if I could export compilations from my PC into that drive for recording?? If so, has anyone tried it?? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: The reason I want to do this is that I am making a birthday present for my mother. I am taking home movies into my PC, and I am going to make menus, etc and give her a DVD with video of all her kids throughout the years. I have about 5 hours worth of video and that Panasonic says it can record up to 6 hours. Hence, my question about exporting to it from a PC.

Thanks so much for your time.

-Zack

[vic102482]

you sure can

it depends what kind of compession technquies that you use to burn the dvd but you sure can do it. a program that you could try is dvd-it or dvd-rep those 2 are pretty good.

but to answer your question you can do it jus make sure that you burn as mpeg 1 or 2 preferrably 2 i have never head of anyone using an mpeg 1 burning scheme to a dvd

[zack371]

thanks

Thanks a lot for the info!!

Will it also record animated menus, etc?? I am working on making an animated menu for the disc. As is probably obvious, I am very new to this. Thanks again so much for any help.

-Zack

[vic102482]

yeah you can do that too

you can do that

[zack371]

Thanks

Thanks so much for the info!!!

What is the easiest way to do that?

Would I just play it out of my computer straight into the recorder or what?? Please forgive my newbie questions. This is all very new to me. I surely appreciate your helping me out like this.

-Zack

[Trilobite]

The answer to your question is yes and no. There are three ways that you could use the DMR-T2020 for this. If the DMR-T2020 has only analogue video inputs and cable TV inputs (and I think it does), then all you can do is pull out of your computer via analogue out or TV out from a video card. This could then be fed into the inputs to the DMR-T2020. A second option is to burn the stuff from your computer onto CDs as SVCDs or MiniDVDs. Then play them on a DVD player and feed the input through the DMR-T2020 for recording. A third possibility , if your friend is willing, is to open up the DMR-T2020. It is possible that the DVD-R/DVD-RAM drive is a Panasonic LF-D311 that is used in that machine. If so, you could disconnect the IDE cable to the drive and connect it to your computer and then use it as an LF-D311 directly connected to your computer (after you install the LF-D311 drivers on your computer... and of course you would need DVD Authoring software). I doubt your friend is going to like this idea, but it does have a possibility of success. Good luck.

[zack371]

Thanks for the suggestions.

You are right in that he will not like the idea of opening up the unit.

A question for you - is there a drive I can get for my PC that will allow around 5 hours of recording to a DVD (on one side)?? I have contacted a video studio in town with that capability, and I know that drives like the T2020 can record up to 6 hours. I do not want to do VCD or SVCD for this project. Is it possible to get a drive for my PC that will allow that recording length?? Thanks for the reply. I apprecaite the help I am getting here.

-Zack

[Trilobite]

Yes, any DVD-R writing drive will write 5 hours of video to a Video DVD, provided the combined video and audio bitrates are low enough. At 5 hours on a 4.7GB DVD, you are nearing SVCD quality. Some will think that SVCD quality is sub-standard, but it truly depends on the video. If source material is good and you use a good encoder, the final quality can be really good. For 5 hours on a DVD, I would recommend 352x480 video (thats what the DMR-E20 (and I suspect DMR-T2020) does for the 2hr, 4hr, and 6hr modes... it only uses 704x480 for the 1hr mode). But in other words, you can record the same 6 hours onto DVD-R in a computer that can be recorded on the DMR-T2020.

[zack371]

Great

Thanks so much for the info!!

So you know, here is what I am trying to do. My mother taped a video of Christmas specials from TV back in 1984. To this day, she watches them every year, I guess for memories. Well, this year, the tape broke. Quality had obviously gotten horrible anyways. Well, I have managed to buy packaged DVD or VHS for each of those specials. I want to make her a DVD with all of them on it and in the same order and give it to her for her birthday in a few months. I also thouhgt it would be a fun project. As I said, I really have very little experience in all this, but tell me what you think - everything that I will be putting on the DVD is an animated made-for-TV special. Original source will be a DVD or VHS that I have purchased. I am going to compile in my PC and burn it. Considering her old tape that broke was horrible quality after all these years, surely the DVD should be of better quality, even at 352x480, right?? Also, what software would be best to encode the video and what is the est way to do it?? What software would you recommend to do that? Please forgive all these questions, but I am trying to learn this.

Thank you again so much for your time. I really do appreciate it!

-Zack

[Trilobite]

Since you have access to the DMR-T2020, I would probably use it. Record each segment onto a separate DVD-RAM cartridge using the 4 hour or 6 hour mode (you may be able to do most in 4 hour since we will squeeze the audio a little and you want the best quality you can get). Then one at a time convert the *.vro files to MPEG2 files. Here is a method to do that:
1) Feed ReMPEG2 version 1.5.2 AC3 conversion tool with the vro file and output MPA file (I used 160 kbit/sec audio output). This worked fine, but was slow. It probably took 2 hours on my 1.5Ghz Athlon, but it yielded a good audio stream.
2) Use TMPGenc version 12H "Merge and Cut" tool to "cut" *.vro file. I use quotes around cut, because there is really no cutting, just conversion. I fed the first frame as the first frame of the cut and the last frame as the last frame of the cut (so nothing
was eliminated). Output the video. It goes through the video, then gets "confused" with the audio, so it just gives MPEG2 file with no audio in it as output.
3) Use TMPGenc 12H Demultiplex tool to remove video stream from the MPG file above.
4) Use TMPGenc 12H Multiplex tool to multiplex the audio from 1) with the video from 3) producing yet another file which is now MPEG2 video and MPEG audio.
5) You must cut with an editor which manages variable bit rate video. The TMPGenc merge and cut tool works great and I think it will be close enough to frame accurate for your needs.

By the way, I think that later versions of TMPGenc also work fine. I just had 12H loaded up and running at the time I did this.
Next you need a copy of SpruceUP to pull in your MPEG2 videos, make the Menu, and burn the DVD. This is widely available on the web. I recommend SpruceUP because some authoring packages will not work with variable bitrate (VBR) MPEG2 files without increasing the size and converting them to Constant bitrate (CBR). You don't want this behavior. You still are going to need to burn the DVD with something. I would recommend you buying a Panasonic LF-D311 DVD-RAM/DVD-R drive. This drive will double for you to be able to read the DVD-RAM discs recorded from the DMR-T2020 and burn DVD-R for playback in a standalone DVD player. They are available for about $300 if you search around for best price. Good Luck.

[zack371]

thanks

WOW!!

Great info!!

OK, I will seriously consider buying the LF-D311!! I might have enough money at the first of the month, and if I can do it myself, then fantastic!! OK, you provided a wonderful walk through for me, which I will attempt (except for the actual burn process) tonight. One question though - I am not clear about .vro files. I know about .vob obviously. I am just a bit confused I guess. I understand your instructions, but why I do I first need to put them on DVD-RAM cartridges?? Can I not take the DVD' sto my PC and then do a conversion and go to the LF-D311?? Also, if you know about this - what card or software would you recommend to input video from a VCR to my PC? Some of my source material is coming on VHS. Also, I hav SpruceUp. Just got it. Can I use ReelDVD to make animated menus, then take those into SpruceUp, because I do not believe SpruceUp will do animated menus. Anyways, thanks so much for your help. You have given me a wealth of information, and I am in debt to you for your help.

Thank you. You are really helping me get this stuff!!

-Zack

[zack371]

sorry

Please forgive my repetition. I am so new to this.

Honestly, if I put the original DVD in my DVDreader in my PC, what do I have to do to get it to where your instructions in your last reply begin??

That would be most helpful for me to know for sure.

Thanks for all your help/

-Zack

[Trilobite]

Zack371 wrote:
"One question though - I am not clear about .vro files. I know about .vob obviously. I am just a bit confused I guess. I understand your instructions, but why I do I first need to put them on DVD-RAM cartridges?? Can I not take the DVD' sto my PC and then do a conversion and go to the LF-D311?? Also, if you know about this - what card or software would you recommend to input video from a VCR to my PC? Some of my source material is coming on VHS. Also, I hav SpruceUp. Just got it. Can I use ReelDVD to make animated menus, then take those into SpruceUp, because I do not believe SpruceUp will do animated menus."
*.vro files are produced by the DMR-E10 and DMR-E20. I am suspecting that the DMR-T2020 will do the same. They are multiplexed VBR MPEG2 video with stereo AC3 audio. Similar to *.vob but different (Panasonic calls it hybrid). I was just thinking that since you had the VHS stuff and you needed to get it all digital, that the Panasonic might be a good move. The DVDs are a problem though, in that the Panasonic will probably not copy them due to copy protection. If you do "Rip" the DVDs to your computer, you are going to have to go through the process of transcoding them to 352x480 and much lower bitrates. I'd recommend www.vcdhelper.com for advice on how to do this. I don't think you are going to get the animated menus from ReelDVD working with SpruceUP. I'd go ahead and try ReelDVD for the whole authoring project. That's probably good software and may do a good job for you. If you don't use the DMR-T2020 for the VHS conversion to digital, then you will need access to a video capture card (ATI, Matrox, etc), or something like a Dazzle DVCII to get the MPEG2 files you will need.

[zack371]

thanks

Once again, my thanks to you.

I will be experimenting with this tonigt some. I am sure I will have some more questions.

BTW, just so you know, my source video will be coming from DVD's and VHS tapes. Once I have all the material in the PC, I will then assemble it and burn it to DVD-R. I did not know that I could burn 5 hours on a DVD without going VCD. Thanks for that info. All the material is simply animated cartoons (such as Charlie Brown) so the resolution you stated in an above post should be fine I would think, right??

Anyways, I will work on this tonight and see what I come up with.

Thanks again!

-Zack

[Trilobite]

With 352x480 MPEG2 and about 2.0Mbit/sec video bitrate, you should get quality that is near SVHS/Hi-8MM from your DVD-Source material. The VHS material is going to look VHS quality, no matter what you do. But the answer to your question is that the resulting DVD should be acceptable quality if you are careful with the encoding to the lower bitrate. MultiPass VBR with high quality settings is the way I would go to cut down the bitrates on the DVD stuff.