Making DVDs from my content

[hoagtim]

I am trying to figure out why I only get an hour from a DVD when I record to it. The sourve is a DV cam that Pinnacle will only capture at 720x480. I've tried saving it as AVI, MPEG, etc. I've tried Pinnacle and SonicMyDVD. Is there a resource that can explain this and tell me what format I need as a source to get 2 to 4 hours of record time? I am using the Sony DVD-RW that is only about a month old, drivers have been updated, etc. My guess is that I am missing something about compression or frame size that would tell teh program to compromise quality for recording time as I write to the DVD... but I can't figure it out. I get the same quality and record tie for VCDs as I do DVDs, but for a much lower cost. Where do I go to learn more? Thanks!

[Comberman]

DVD Digest and DVDR Digest (reached via the tabs above) have a number of very useful articles on the finer points of DVD writing (burning). Sounds like your problem may be compression related; but check out the articles anyway. Your problem may be something very simple which you may have overlooked.
Regards

[rsquirell]

What are you copying that requires more than an hour of 720X480? Home Videos? DVD's? or VHS tapes? If it's home videos maybe they need to be edited and rendered in Pinnacle. If it's DVD's there are programs that can efficiently shrink them down to size. But if it's VHS tapes...they are only in 352X240 resolution, and I have a way to capture them with an MPEG device and get as much as 4 hours on a DVD disc without degrading quality.

[hoagtim]

Content source is home movies

The movies are home movies on Hi8 and DV tape. They are captured into Pinnacle via firewire, and the AVI format it uses for capture appears to be 720x480. I tried to save it in MPEG at other frame sizes, but it still seemed to only give me 1 hour when transfering from MPEG to the DVD. Clearly I am missing something. What do you suggest I try?

[rsquirell]

If it's just home video I'd suggest staying in DV format to maintain the 720X480 resolution. I've been told that ULead VS7 will will accept your DV input and convert it to MPEG on the fly. This might give you the compression you desire. They give you a 30 trial...might be worth a shot.

[rsquirell]

It dawned on me...I have a way to shrink video to about 1/3 the capture size when that capture is from an analog source in MPEG form. I haven't tried it with DV because I don't have a digital camcorder...but it should work for the MPEG you created. I can't duplicate the process with you...but if you want to experiment and don't already have TMPGenc, go download the free version and reply to this post and I'll walk you thru the proceedure. I'm curious if it'll work with DV, too.

[hoagtim]

Where is the download?

That could be just the ticket. Most of my video is actually Hi8 (analog) that I capture via a firewire device from Dazzle. I could easily play the tape into an analog capture card (I have an All-In-Wonder and an Osprey 210), Pinnacle doesn't recognize the Osprey (I use it with Helix Producer) but Pinnacle does see the ATI card. Let me know were to find the download and I'll give it a try! Thanks!

[rsquirell]

So you're using the Hollywood DV Bridge? If you want to see the proceedure go to the Dazzle DVC-150 General Forum and look for my post "render/shrink VHS capture using TMPGenc". The complete proceedure is on the first page of that post ...works great with DVXCEL capture...but I think it should also work with DV, too...might need a little modification, though. If you're willing to try, download the free version of TMPGenc from the digital digest download area...and when you open it go to File>>MPEG Tools>>Demultiplex and load your MPEG made from the DV in source and double click and save the AUDIO stream (it'll say private stream.) I just want to see what extension it's saved as so abort the download after a minute and take a look and tell me if it's .wav or .ac3. That'll tell me what other tools we'll need to get.