Correct sequence for burning a standard DVD from an AVCHD fi

[Capricorn12]

The help I have had recently from this forum has been brilliant so I wondered whether someone could run through the process of burning a standard DVD, that will play on any DVD player, from an AVCHD project. Though I have been making films for several years they have always been from a DV camcorder where the files have kept the same throughout the process but now with an HD camcorder things have got complicated for a 70 year old. So now when I open my AVCHD project, do I leave the project properties as AVCHD or change them to 720 x 576 (PAL) to match the properties on the 'share' tab? Most other things seem logical or are explained in the manual but I am confused about this side of the operation. Thanks in advance.

[BrianCee]

No need to change project properties at all - it is something I do quite often and this is my procedure.

Open up your project as normal and go to the "Share" tab and select the top icon (create a video file that you can play on a computer)

then choose "MPEG-2" - being in the UK on PAL I then select 'mpeg-2 (720 x 576) 19:9, 50i, 8Mbps' from the drop down selection just under the format selection boxes.

down at the bottom of the share screen give the file a name and tell VS where you want to store it - click 'Start' to render out a DVD compliant video file.

Close down Videostudio completely - this avoids any possible confusion later - save if you want to

After a few second open Videostudio again but do not open any projects - go straight to the 'Share' tab and select the disc icon and then DVD.

When the create disc window open click on the first of the 'import media' icons in the top left corner - browse to your newly created video and select it - it will import to the create disc module timeline.

continue you to add menus etc as normal until you get to the last 'Burn' screen - here I always deselct 'create to disc' and choose instead 'create disc image' - check where it is being saved to.

BURN a disc image file

I now play that .iso file in the free VLC player - this allows me to check all aspects of the video including quality before I waste a disc.

when you are happy burn the DVD by going to "Tools >> burn from disc image(ISO)" in Videostudio - import the iso to the new dialogue window and burn a perfect standard DVD

[Capricorn12]

Thanks for that Brian I will try your method and see how it goes. I have tried doing a direct conversion by selecting dvd from the share menu but the results were not good. As for downloading vlc, I tried that but got 5 PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) into the bargain so will skip that bit. Surely there must be other ways to see an iso file.

[BrianCee]

Yes there are other programmes that will view an iso file (like Roxio) but VLC is so easy - like all free programmes though you just have to watch what boxes you are ticking (or are already ticked and need unticking) when you are downloading - it is quite possible to download the VLC player without any "extras"

it's just that viewing the iso file lets you see exactly what will be on the DVD before you burn it and maybe waste a disc.

[Capricorn12]

Wow just burnt a DVD using your method and am amazed. I put a post on here about the picture quality on standard dvd being dreadful but obviously I was going about it the wrong way. The results now are better than when I was taking the footage from my dv camcorder whereas before they were much worse. The bride and groom are coming to see the first cut tonight so they can have a hi res and a low res version now. Brilliant
edit for typos