Recommended Authoring software?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul Westwell
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Paul Westwell

Hi all...

Would be interested to hear comments on what people would recommend as good
authoring software. Looking for something that will take the video from a
miniDVD camcorder and allow me to edit it and save it in a format ready for
burning to a 4.7Gb DVD.

Out of interest what format is the video converted to prior to burning to
DVD?

Regards,

Paul
 
Hello there,

I use MM 2.1 and MovieDV 6 for capture/editing and Dazzle DVD Complete for
everything else......very pleased with the results..I did try Nero and Easy CD
6 and 7 ...did not like either
 
Paul,

Hope this doesn't come across sounding rude because I'm
not trying to be. I believe you asked this before in a
previous post and there were replies. Did you read them?
Or did you just want more?

Also, I previously gave you my opinion on the Sony TRV-
460. I have had absolutely no problems with that camcorder
at all and use I it to reimport old 8mm video. I don't
know about the Canon but was curious what made you choose
that one. I think I've read that some MiniDVs give people
problems but I can't remember which ones.

For authoring software, do you have a DVD burner? If so
what came with it? If not, I recommend one that comes with
MyDVD. I took it on advice from PapaJohn and v4.5 works
fine for me. And although I get a gazillion emails to
upgrade to v6.0, there isn't enough gain to warrant
spending up to $100 on the upgrade. All the better if you
can get good software for free.

Basics for MM2
1. Use firewire and import DV-AVI (about 178 MB per minute)
2. Save movie as DV-AVI, don't use "save as", thats for
the project only.
3. Import DV-avi into software and burn DVD. General rule
is you can get about an hour (13GB) on one DVD (4.7GB).
Make sure you have AT LEAST 2x the size available in your
HD as the size of your movie. If you import an hour thats
13GB. If you edit your video in MM then "Save movie"
you'll create another one of 13GB. Then when you author
you'll need more free space for the burning software to
render to a TEMP space.

Good luck,
Steve
 
Would be interested to hear comments on what people would recommend as good
authoring software. Looking for something that will take the video from a
miniDVD camcorder and allow me to edit it and save it in a format ready for
burning to a 4.7Gb DVD.
Click to expand...

Basic. Sonic MyDVD comes with most burners and works fine for the
very basics. Otherwise, Roxio EZ-CD creator 7 or Nero 6 Ultra with both
do it w/o extra programs.

These will all do the basics w/o much money spent, and do the job fine.

---

Above that?

One program: Ulead DVD Workshop. Simple to use, yet very powerful.
Highly rated by www.dv.com magazine and others, does a lot w/o going
into technical specifics ala Sonic Scenarist (what the movie companies use).
Out of interest what format is the video converted to prior to burning to
DVD?
Click to expand...

MPEG-2
 
Steve,

steve said:
Paul,

Hope this doesn't come across sounding rude because I'm
not trying to be. I believe you asked this before in a
previous post and there were replies. Did you read them?
Or did you just want more?
Click to expand...

No problem, was kust after a little more input before I finally mad e a
decission.
Also, I previously gave you my opinion on the Sony TRV-
460. I have had absolutely no problems with that camcorder
at all and use I it to reimport old 8mm video. I don't
know about the Canon but was curious what made you choose
that one. I think I've read that some MiniDVs give people
problems but I can't remember which ones.
Click to expand...

I had a good look at the Sony and very nearly purchased one but......
I then saw the Canon outlet on ebay and ended up with a Canon MV530i (DV
format) for around £200 in the UK. I also found a frien with a Samsung
Video8 player so I will now use the anologue passthrough on the Canon to
transfer my old tapes to PC/DVD. I'm very pleased with the Canon, although
not this years model it is as "brand new".
For authoring software, do you have a DVD burner? If so
what came with it? If not, I recommend one that comes with
MyDVD. I took it on advice from PapaJohn and v4.5 works
fine for me. And although I get a gazillion emails to
upgrade to v6.0, there isn't enough gain to warrant
spending up to $100 on the upgrade. All the better if you
can get good software for free.
Click to expand...

I have a DVD burner and usually use Nero or Roxio. I was just looking for a
good (not too many frills) editing suite, I notice a number of people use
MM2 and wondered if there were any drawbacks to it?
Basics for MM2
1. Use firewire and import DV-AVI (about 178 MB per minute)
2. Save movie as DV-AVI, don't use "save as", thats for
the project only.
3. Import DV-avi into software and burn DVD. General rule
is you can get about an hour (13GB) on one DVD (4.7GB).
Make sure you have AT LEAST 2x the size available in your
HD as the size of your movie. If you import an hour thats
13GB. If you edit your video in MM then "Save movie"
you'll create another one of 13GB. Then when you author
you'll need more free space for the burning software to
render to a TEMP space.
Click to expand...

The thing I'm still a little unsure of here is the 13Gb to a 4.7Gb DVD. MM2
must be compressing this video and/or changing the format? what file types
are copied to the DVD? Would this be the same file type if I used for
example Adobe Premiere?

Thanks for your help,
Paul
 
I would highly recommend DVDlab from Mediachance.com. Very simple to use
but is capable of doing highend authoring aswell. The chaps website is well
worth a look as he has loads of helpfull programs on there.

Good luck,

Paul.
 
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