Beta SP to computer to dvd questions

[dbo]

Hi there,

Here's the situation and how I want to solve it. I was wondering if anyone would be able to suggest a better way to solve my problem.

my boss wants me to set up a dubbing lab for him. He has about 30 full length features on Beta SP that he wants digitized, so instead of sending out VHS tapes, he'll be able to send people dvd's.

here's how I plan on doing this. From a BetaSP deck I'll capture the tapes onto minidv with a sony minidv camera (or i might get a matrox card as I've had nothing but pleasent experiences using them). I know I'd need a pretty large hard drive even to capture one feature as it's something like 1 gig for every 4-5 minutes of highest quality video.

I most familiar with macs and have many years experience using final cut pro so i'm thinking on getting my boss a G5 with 250 gig hard drive as well as final cut pro 4 and dvd studio pro 2 to help accomplish this.

After I capture the feature I'd author one dvd and delete all the online footage as with my dvd masters I'd then be able to make as many copies as i need. Then repeat the process for the next feature.

let me state that i know nothing of dvd authoring so I'm sorry if these seem like stupid questions.

1 hour and 30 minute feature = 20 something gigs which won't fit onto a dvd. Is there some sort of standardized compression/encoding technique for authoring dvd's?
What format is encoded onto a dvd that one would rent from a north american video store?
Are PAL or NTSC formats something I have to worry about as well?
Is there a better way I could do this?
I know I'm going to lose some image and sound quality when I do this, how do i get the best possible image on the dvd's?
Are there any security features I can use with dvd authoring programs that prevent people from copying them or putting them online?
Is there a piece of hardware out there that allows one to burn multiple dvds at the same time

any advice or links to pages that would be able to answer my questions would be much appreciated

[shiny#3]

yes you have to:
a north american dvd is likely to have a
resolution of 720X480 @ a framerate
of 29.97 fps

the standart format is MPEG 2
and having this in mind I see that you have overdone the bitrate setting
of your encoder

a bitrate between 4000 and 5000
kbits per second in video is totally enough
for your purposes I belive

furthermore for a dvd try to keep your
videobitrate under 8.5 mbits to ensure that you have plenty "physical" bandwith left for the audio.
The standart audio format is mpeg1
layer2 at 48000 khz this should provide
sufficent audioquality for an adiofile coming from a tape.
the audio quality is mostly affected by
your device , that you use to transfer
the audiostream to you computer
(soundcard) or another maybe digitally capturing device

I understand that you are a mac user
and therefore I recommend the SP version of CCE = cinema craft encoder
for that encoding job as coding engine.

it has already built in default presettings
that are very common for a DVD.

[megamachine]

Just to add to Shiny's already excellent answer, if the tapes were recorded in North America they are likely NTSC, and if you intend only to distribute the DVDs in North America (or Japan, the other NTSC land) then you are fine, but if you are intending to distribute the DVDs in the PAL world, you need to convert. I am not sure about adding anti-copy features on a consumer level product, maybe some one else can help with that, but you should be able to get a multiple DVD burner (I think 7-9 discs at a time is usual) for not too heavy of an expenditure. Hope this is helpful.

[dbo]

thanks a lot folks. I really appreciate it

[dbo]

i found an even better/cheaper way to solve my problem. I purchased a Pioneer dvd burner with hard drive. You can plug analogue sources into the back of it and real time record onto the burners hard drive. You can edit with the remote control and then you can author dvd's. It's quite cool. Something to think of if anyone else wants a cheap solution to an expensive problem

[megamachine]

Thanks for the update. Glad you found something that worked.