Help to Join, Compress & Burn DV Tapes to DVD

info_addict

I would be most grateful if someone could hold my hand and give me an idiots guide to joining, compressing and then burning DV tape to DVD.

In the past I have been happy to copy my camcorder tapes to VHS and it was easy. Four hours of camcorder tape = 4hours of VHS tape. Plug the camcorder into the machine and copy it over. Total time 4hours!!

However I have decided to join the 21st century and now want to copy my lengthy holiday DV tapes to DVD.

I have recently purchased a second hand wiz bang computer and the seller left me loads of programmes on it. But I haven’t really got a clue how to use them.

I have managed, somehow, to capture the first set of tapes onto my external hard drive via firewire. They have been split into segments which appear to be the length as was recorded by the camcorder. I have simply deleted out any segments that show my feet etc were I have forgotten to stop filming! This has left me with 956 No. DV Type 2 avi files totalling 103GB and 8hours 15 minutes in length!!

Unconverted, this would mean 23No. DVD’s, which is just plain stupid.

I would like to get this onto 4 DVD’s, being about 2 hours and 5 minutes of captured DV onto each DVD, whilst still keeping as much of the quality as I can. My DVD player is capable of playing Divx and Xvid avi’s.

I have calculated how many of these segments total this time and have somehow managed to join them, leaving me with one file of 25.70GB.

It is obvious to me that I now need to compress this DV file down to approx 4.7Gb. But all my attempts are so lengthy, it is ridiculous.

So please please can somebody help me?

Equipment: Sony HC39E Camcorder, Philips DVP 5960

Computer: Windows Vista Home Premium; Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40Ghz; Memory 2GB DDR2

Video Editing Programmes:
Avid Liquid Version 7.2
Corel Video Studio Pro X2
Canopus ProCoder 3
Canopus ProCoder 3 Wizard
Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0a
Sony DVD Architect Pro 5.0
Video Edit Magic 4.45

Video Converter Programmes:
River Past Video Cleaner v7.7.6
E.M. Total Video Converter Standard v3.12
VirtualDub 1.8.8
VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2
Haali Media Splitter
Smart Deinterlacer Filter
Gspot

Codecs installed:
CCCP Codecs
Cedocida DV Codec
Xvid Mpeg-4
All sorts of Divx
Many others too confusing to list

Burning Programme : Roxio Creator 2009 Ultimate

Operator Knowledge Base: Limited!!

If you work on the basis of I haven’t much of a clue, then you will not be far off.

Thanks in advance

Donnie

Forget about the size of the file. It's the length of the video that will be most important if creating DVD Video.

So if it's two hours of playing time, the size of the file is unimportant, as long as the DVD Authoring software can recognise the original file.

If looking to reduce the size of the file then MPEG4 Xvid/DivX are your choices.

So, just convert it. Not sure what it is that you need to know.

info_addict

Thanks for your quick reply.

I suppose I need to know how do I get my first jointed 2 hours of DV tape onto one DVD as it's 25.7Gb in size?

What programme from the list above has the DVD Authoring software I require to do this for me? And step by step how do I do it?

Sorry if I sound a bit thick!

Donnie

Since I don't know the make up of your original, I don't know which program would be suitable.

But the Sony Products and Roxio are three possibilities.

info_addict

I'm a little unsure of what you mean by the make up of the file, but does this help?




If so which programme would you recommend and how do I use it?

Donnie

Which do you have installed?

info_addict

All those programmes listed in the original post

Donnie

I would start with Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0a

info_addict

Thanks Donnie, for replying.

But would it be possible to give me a step by step of what to do in Sony Vegas in order to get this onto a DVD

damo24

I've never used Sony Vegas but Videophelp (http://www.videohelp.com/) have guides for all sorts of programs and circumstances so you might find what you're looking for on there.