Too much information...

[glawster]

I have quite a few questions regarding digital video, I would welcome your opinions as experts in the various fields I am confused by!

I have a DV camera and use Premier to edit my AVIs, I usually store the completed footage back to the camera as this saves the work in real time. If I try to store the completed footage as a new AVI it takes too long to save the resultant file (24minute video ~ 10 hours). Why can it dump to the camera much quicker than to the file?

What I want to do is save to MPG and then use DVDs as the storage medium. The Premier mpeg encoder is quick enough. I have then been using MyDVD to do the DVD part but due to various bugs in that software have not got far. Technical support have been next to useless!! I am still looking for a solution for the DVD burning, any advice?

Last point, I have Hauppage and Snazzi capture cards, I want to take VHS and store it to disk. Premier is so slow editing mpeg files and all I want to do is cut out the commercials, is there anything that can split and join mpegs files without the overhead of creating new files as most do?

[rsquirell]

There are thousands of ways to do the thousand of things you want to do. You've already spent $500 on that Premier software...they do have a forum where someone might be able to tutor you on it's use. A cheaper way would be to capture using ULead Video Studio7 in MPEG2 format and you wouldn't need to store the AVI off computer ( 1 hour MPEG=1-3GB, 1 hour AVI=12GB+). VS7 is supposed to cut the commercials out, but I haven't been successful trying it...so I use TMPGenc DVD Author which cuts commercials out of the middle of a video with ease. There are lots of MPEG2 cutters and joiners...I like MPEG2CUT to split and HJSplit to join (both Freeware...VS7 gives you a 30 day trial and costs $90)

[Livewire]

I may not be good advice in this area, but when you save to AVI files, sometimes there are ways of saving (Or converting or Compressing) in a way to either save time or space. I thought that you would use a "Codec" to save your audio or video with. If you use a codec, the time to save is a while depending on the speed of any given machine. If you use direct stream, the size will be imense.

My take on the DVD stuff is when you convert your avi to Mpg, sometimes can take a long long time to convert. (Depending on or if the codec used in the avi.)

There are free tools for working on video files. Nandub, Virtualdub, GordianKnot, just to mention a few. Same goes for audio (More than I would care to mention.)

Would it be helpfull to look at www.doom9.org? They host freeware software and commercial links to other solutions as well.

Good luck!