Need advice for burning one hour and two hour shows

[new2va]

I am using MF 3 SE, Win TV and the PVR 150. For ONE hour programs I assume I should set the Win TV to record in VCD format and then burn a VCD to a CD.

What are my choices for burning 2+ hour programs or movies to a DVD? Should I set the WinTV to record DVD MPEG 1 standard play and then what would I set the DVD settings in MF 3 to? I assume I do not want to use VCD as the recording as MF will have to reencode it to DVD and take forever?

I saw here or somewhere else that someone customized their settings to be 1856 bps to get up to six hours on DVD?

CPU is 1.4 GHZ and 512 MB RAM. I don;t want it to take forever to burn a DVD.

Thanks.

[AnimeChick]

Go to Project settings (sprocket icon in lower left corner) and change your mpeg settings for 2hours. Lower your data rate to about 4000 kbps.

[new2va]

Do I RECORD the file (WinTV) as DVD or VCD? Thanks.

[GeorgeW]

I'd go with "DVD" -- if that's your only options for capturing. can you customize your capture bitrates?

[new2va]

I'll have to check on the recording part but i know that Music Factory lets you customize the bit rates before it burns the DVD.

[maddrummer3301]

Your processor isn't that fast.

Write down the properties in MF for the 2 hour mode.
Then using the Win recording program that comes with your recorder
set the recording properties as close as possible to the MF 2 hour setting.

Then when you import the mpeg2 files MF doesn't have to re-encode them.
If you tell MF to re-encode 2 hours of video on a 1.4 gig machine may
take a considerable amount of time.

So it's best if you can record in mpeg2 dvd compliant mode and
import into MF files that are already dvd compliant and create a dvd.

The actual burning of the dvd will be about the same time using a 1.4 or
2.8 gig processor if burning 2X speed.
A faster processor will create the dvd structure faster on the harddisk
in temporary directories before the actual burning of the dvd.

These settings should help for 2 hour mode mpeg2 NTSC analog capture
Dvd mpeg2 file:
Aspect Ratio = 4:3
FrameSize = 720x480 (OR 352x480 if dropping frames).
Video_Bit_Rate = Variable 4000kbs
(interlaced) Ulead "Upper Field First" (may be lower on your capture device "Field B"
Audio = Mpeg 224kbs, 16bit Stereo or Mono (lpcm if mpeg isn't available)


Hope this helps,

MD

[new2va]

Thanks very much for the detailed response. I appreciate all of the answers.

[GeorgeW]

Audio should be sampled at 48khz to be dvd compliant -- and to allow MF to use your audio "asis" (without re-encoding).

[new2va]

Well I got close! I used the settings for DVD Long Play in WinTV and it came out to a 4.8 GB file for two hours! Just a few megabytes too much! I did not burn the DVD but in Music Factory when I tried to match the values it said 4.8 GB and into the red on the status bar. A couple of questions.

The WinTV app lets you customize the bit rate but it has TWO settings: the regular bit rate and the bit rate PEAK value. I put in 4800 kbps but left the peak one alone. I think it was 6000 as the peak. The resulting file specs said it was a 6200 kbps file. What should I put in both bit rate fields? 4000 or 4800 and for both? The reason I used 4800 was that it defaulted to that value. So I would think 4800 for both would be right?

Also on the audio, the default was 384. Should I make it 224 as suggested (keeping the 48 value)?

Thanks.

[heinz-oz]

I think we are treading on thin ice here. George was a bit more to the point in another post. Even though you are recording a public broadcast, this is highly illegal and we should not even be discussing this subject here. Sorry, not my choice, but the law is pretty clear about this.

[cablehead]

lol

i guess 90% of posts will have to be deleted.

s@@ew sony...they cant even print a manual.

[DVDDoug]

Well I got close! I used the settings for DVD Long Play in WinTV and it came out to a 4.8 GB file for two hours!

It's always best to get the "correct" bitrate and only encode once. But, I've had satisfactory results with DVDshrink. Just "burn" you project to your harddrive, and then Use DVDshrink before buring the actual DVD. DVDshrink will automatically shrink the file just-enough to fill-up a DVD.

...this is highly illegal and we should not even be discussing this subject here.

I guess it depends on where you live. Here in the USA, it is OK to tape, TiVo, or otherwise copy a broadcast for non-commercial use. It is also OK to copy VHS tapes (that you own) to DVD for personal use. However, it does seem to be illegal to copy a DVD, by "cracking" CSS... even for personal use.

[new2va]

Doug, thanks for the advice; I may try that program. I was able to set up a config in WinTV for two hour DVD and one in MF 3 that closely matched it. When I go to burn the DVD it takes hardly any time at all! Also found a bitrate calculator where you enter the length of the show and how much of a DVD you want it to occupy (all, half, etc). It calculates the bit rate to record at.