Private Messages and Emails to Forum Moderators
steve2007 wrote:Hello Steve J,
I am reading through your tutorial on "Camcorder to DVD" and really want to thank you. I came here to the forums out of desperation, the manuals for Visual Studio 9 SE is sorely lacking as well as the virtually non-existent manual for the Capwiz that came with my device, the DVDXpressDX2 from ADSTech. I am hoping to convert home movies to DVD. I have hours of film including 16mm BW, regular 8, and super 8 sound, plus many hours of Betamax, VHS, VHS-C, and regular 8mm video tape. Every bit of research I do shows me that this task is more daunting than expected. Starting with what I thought would be the easiest task, I managed to capture 1 hour of analogue video from 8mm camcorder to several clips and edit, title, and burn to DVD, using VS9se.
The DX2 seems to be setup to capture directly to MPEG2.
My first question has to do with the mpeg2 vs AVI file types. I was under the impression that the only DVD quality file format I could capture to hardisk was MPEG2, which your tutorials make clear are not the best for editing. There is no other option in the provided Capwiz except MPEG2 and a few others like DivX and MPEG4. So I tried to see if I could capture to AVI using Visual Studio, however, after making sure that VS recognized the DX2 converter, the default setting for capture format was "DVD" which showed "MPG" as the file extension to be used, when I selected the capture format AVI, there was a pause and it was reset to something like "DivX Home Theater", which I noted at bottom of the screen it had an "AVI" file extension and the resolution was the same as the MPG format that was shown for the "DVD" setting.
I did not know there were so many types of AVI file formats and I wonder if this DivX Home Theater AVI format is something I should use or not? I plan to do a little editing and then burn to DVD. I'd like to also have archive copies of the un-edited video files on DVD's (or possibly an external hardrive, but I don't trust hardrives not to crash, though I have not had one crash on me for over 10 years). It sounds like I should NOT archive video files in MPEG2, I hope I don't have to buy another capture card or device?? So if you don't mind, what do you recommend for me in my position? Also, is there any reason I shouldn't use a USB external hardrive for capturing video to? Have not bought one yet, but soon.
I will go back and try to complete my hardware profile in my user profile right after I send this. Sorry for the long message, please let me know if I am out of bounds writing to you directly in this manner.
Many thanks in advance! Aloha, Steve C
Username: steve2007
The DivX format is even more compressed than MPEG2 and is the ideal format for sharing videos over the internet. There are some standalone DVD players that now accept DivX format but they are in the minority.
Your standard DVD disc is made up from VOB files which are MPEG2 files with a litle extra information included in them for the DVD system to work such as chapter points.
Please view my recent post:
Workflow
Here I have tried to tidy up some of the mystery by stating that where possible capture to DV which is an 'avi' format - but that it isn't always possible due to the equipment that you may be using.
You can edit MPEG2 but you have to be more careful to avoid out of synch issues with the audio/video. My experience has shown that these mainly occur at transitions and so I suggest that users stick to straight cuts when dealing with MPEG2 files.
Personally I use Womble MPEG Editor to edit my MPEG stuff captured with my Hauppauge TV cards (I now have 2 in separate computers) and then use one of my Ulead Programs to author the DVD.
Regarding external USB Drives.
I tried using external Drives connected by USB and also Firewire.
Although many others users seem to get by with them O.K. I am only able to give you the results of my experience. I found that any heavy transfer of DATA to an external USB tended to cause the external hard drive to lose it's connection with the computer.
What I use are removable hard drives that sit inside hard drive caddies.
These are standard IDE hard drives that fit inside your computer and connect to the motherboard by way of an IDE cable.
They slide in and slide out of a slot at the front of your computer - the same slots used to fit your DVD burner.
They are standard internal hard drives and behave as such, its just that you can quickly remove them from the computer and place another on in its place.