Now What?

[jimbo62]

I used my PC's capture card to "capture" a VHS movie. I now have a 3.7 GB MPEG file on my hard drive. The file plays back in Windows Media Player just like the VHS tape plays, everything looks just fine.

Now what? How do I make a DVD from this file? I don't want to edit or make any changes, just get the movie onto a DVD.

Thanks, jimbo

[DungBeetle]

Download TMPGenc to convert your video into suitable files (can be quite a long process) and then IFOEdit to author the DVD (pretty fast). Afterwards you'll only need to use Nero or a similar program to burn the DVD.

Now a question for you : which program did you use to capture your movie? Whichever one I use, the audio always eventually gets out of sync with the video, and I haven't found a solution to that.

[ormonde]

"Now what? How do I make a DVD from this file?"

Follow this procedure:

1. Convert the AVI (DivX or Xvid)/mpeg file(s) to a DVD compliant mpeg-2 file(s) using "TMPGEnc" or "TMPGEnc Plus". Use the DVD template (NTSC or PAL) form the "Project Wizard" to help you accomplish the task. If you have an mpeg file that is already DVD-compliant, then skip directly to step 2.

2. Then use "TMPGEnc DVD Author" (different than "TMPGEnc") to author the newly created mpeg-2 into a DVD-related file structure (.IFO, .BUP, .VOB). As an alternative, you can use "DVDLab" to author as well.

3. If the combined filesize of the project exceeds 4.37 Gig, use "DVD Shrink" or similar transcoding program to compress.

4. Use "Nero" or similar burning program to burn onto a DVD (r, rw) disk.

[jimbo62]

Thanks for the replies, best explanation I have been able get anywhere.

I have a WinTV-PVR-250 TV Tuner/Capture card that captures TV or VHS as an MPEG2 file. The card has connections for coax, composite audio/video and S-Video. So far I have just used the coax, cable TV coax to my VCR input and the VCR coax output to the card.

If I had an MPEG file captured from a TV movie, could I edit that file to get rid of commercials?

One other question. I have seen several references to using Nero to do the DVD burn, but I have also seen many references to Nero problems. Is there an alternative to Nero? Or is Nero the bst there is?

Thanks, jimbo

[ormonde]

"If I had an MPEG file captured from a TV movie, could I edit that file to get rid of commercials?"

Yes

"Is there an alternative to Nero?"

There is Veritas "RecordNow", Roxio "Easy Media Creator" to name a couple. Also, if you use "TMPGEnc DVD Author" to author the mpeg file(s) into a DVD-related file structure, and your OS is either Windows XP, or 2000, you can use the program's burning engine and burn directly to disk.

[jimbo62]

Many thanks once again. You folks are making things more clear than any other site I have visited.

Question: What is the difference between an "authoring program" and an "editing program"?

Are there any strong preferences for a DVD burning program? Nero, Veritas, Roxio, TMPGEnc, etc, etc?

My capture card captures an MPEG-2 file from any TV program or VHS playback. So, what would you folks recommend for getting from there to a burned DVD?

Many thanks, jimbo

[ormonde]

"So, what would you folks recommend for getting from there to a burned DVD?"

Just "Carefully" follow the procedure that I outlined in my initial posting to this thread.

[jimbo62]

Just an update on my learning process. I finally got the new DVD burner, Pioneer DVR-108, installed on my main computer and can now fully explore the options.

My capture card, WinTV-PVR-250, came with three programs that I have now used. First, the TV/Capture program will capture TV or VHS playback to an MPEG-2 file. This seems to work very well. I can schedule a recording for time of day and length, or just start a recording and specify a length, or just start and stop manually. It would be nice if the program could sense the end of a tape and stop recording.

Second, there is a program that lets me select an MPEG-2 file, and then extract "intervals" from that file to a list for later processing. An interval might be from the beginning of the movie to the first commercial, etc. Then all of the intervals are combined into one new MPEG-2 file. The intervals can be selected from more than one MPEG-2 file, so I guess, I could get clips from several movies and combine them into one new movie.

Third, there is a program named Ulead Movie Factory that can be used to take the MPEG-2 file, add a menu, background, titles, etc. and do some sort of file manipulation and then burn it to a DVD.

I just went throught the procedure and I have a DVD that works perfectly in a stand alone DVD player.

Thanks for all of the good, clear advice.

jimbo

[ormonde]

"Thanks for all of the good, clear advice."

Glad (We) could be of help

[kpetti11]

i have a problem. i have a rip of a movie, but the audio and video tracks arn't seperate, so i can't convert the file from avi to mpeg 2. what do you suggest i do? can i split the two?

[setarip]

To kpetti11

Your posting has nothing to do with this thread. You should re-post it as a "New Thread"...