TV to DVD

[Cyber Hunter]

Hi I don't know if this thread has been posted before but can someone please tell me how I can convert a Video to a DVD.

Thanks your post would be greatly appreciated.

[andw]

You need to give more informaton really, do you mean Video as in a VHS type video, or a video file?
Is it a commercial video or a home video, as commercial videos use macrovision to prevent copying.
If converting files, you might want to look here http://www.videohelp.com/ as there are tonnes of tools and guides on how to do it.

[Cyber Hunter]

Sorry I wasn't more clear. I ment VHS as in Home Videos. How can I put them on a DVD.

[andw]

If they are home videos, then there are a few ways, as there is no macrovision to worry about.
You can use a DVD recorder, or a PC with a capture card to capture the video as mpeg and then use a program to convert to DVD.
That's a couple of options, there are probably some others with more suggestions.

[Cyber Hunter]

PC with a capture card to capture the video as mpeg and then use a program to convert to DVD.


I am very interested in the capture card option. What is a good brand to buy. Is a External or Internal on best. Where do I buy one from. Also is there any FREE Program to convert to DVD.

Thank you andw for your post.

[andw]

I don't have a lot of experience with this to be honest.
I have a Compro DVB-T 300 digital TV (and analog) tuner card that also has capture abilities (svideo and composite as well as audio).
I've done only a couple, but they worked well enough.
Have a look at the videohelp website mentioned above, there are a bunch of utilities in there for converting.

[Cyber Hunter]

OK Thanks for your posts and I'll check the links out and if I have any problems then I'll post them, Thank you again.

[freddyfartbox]

Leadtek Winfast TV200 XP Expert is a great capture card/tv tuner. I use one for capturing tv programs and converting to divx, so it'll do what you want.

http://www.shopferret.com.au/buy/tv_tuner~p-181199.html

http://www.leadtek.com/eng/tv_tuner/overview.asp?pronameid=93&lineid=6&act=1

[Cyber Hunter]

Okay thanks again for your posts.

[Hermit]

I have a Compro DVB-T 300 digital TV (and analog) tuner card that also has capture abilities (svideo and composite as well as audio).
That's the same hardware I have just begun to use to convert home movies to DVD - or rather trying to - and I need help. The videohelp site you provided a link for wasn't of any use to me, perhaps because I am such a noob at this sort of thing.

I connected the VCR to the tuner via the antenna socket and the card duly found it on channel 52. Then I recorded the tape (PAL, 720 x 576, 25fps) onto the hard drive. That resulted in a 3.64GB mpeg-2 file. So far, so good.

On inserting a blank 4.7GB DVD a window popped up offering to "Burn movie to CD/DVD using PowerProducer" which seems to have come bundled with the LG DVD burner. I took the offer and got stuck because the resulting project promptly blew out to 5.789GB, which of course won't fit on the disc.

Subsequently I simply burnt the mpeg file to a DVD disk, and it worked on the computer and one DVD player, but not on another I tested it on. I'd like to know if the movie can be authored in such a way that it works on every device, but not lose picture or sound quality due to compression.

[andw]

I did this quite a while ago, but I went in through the A/V inputs so as not coverting to RF and back again.
However I used Nero to generate the image.
You can use DVDshrink if the image is too big, but you will loose a bit of quality (maybe not noticeable).
Your DVD player that played the mpeg file must support mpeg files and the other one doesn't.

[Hermit]

Thanks for the advice, Andw. I'll get an svideo cable next week in order to avoid the conversions from and to RF, whatever that is, to see if that reduces the file size.

Meanwhile, I'm still puzzled why the DVD blanks say that they'll hold two hours worth of video, yet 77 minutes of home movie go about 25% beyond their capacity.

Looks like I'm in the process of paying my noobydoos. :D

[andw]

I have a DVD recorder here as well, and you can choose your 'quality'.
Best quality is 1 hour of video on the disc.
worst quality is 6 hours - several options in between.

Don't forget that unlike analog tape (VHS), the disc just holds binary data, the more data they store per frame, the less frames you will get on the disc.