How do I create DVDs from a mini DV?

Question

I connect my camcorder to the PC via the USB cable. I have used Windows Movie Maker, Nero, and Ulead 9.0 (the software bundled with the camera, whose tech support is absolutely horrible), and have used AVI format to capture, then MPeg-2 to burn to disc, but the results are the same! They always come out either fuzzy, pixelated, choppy, or just plain bad... Help!!!!!

Turns out I needed more memory to make a decent-looking final product without spending $1000 on a professional program!

Answer 1

Does the video look the same on your TV from DVD playback as it does on your computer monitor? The "look" could simply be caused by your video card if it's chipset is not powerful enough or doesn't have enough RAM. Upgrading the video driver might help, or the video card itself, if that's the problem.

It would not make sense that Ulead would be destructive to the video since it works with AVI natively, and gives you output to DVD in a single environment/application. If the playback of your video looks bad on a TV from a DVD player, have you made sure that the MPEG output quality settings of the Ulead program (resolution, bitrate, size, etc.) are set to high, or "DVD", and not for VCD, sharing or streaming? I have not used Ulead, but have seen some applications that require you "save" your settings once you've made changes, otherwise it will revert back to it's default settings and leave the user wondering why the quality didn't change.

Also realize that bundled software (depending on what you paid for the product) usually comes in a limited version and therefore has features, sometimes very important ones, missing. Have you noticed if the app gives you higher quality settings on mpeg2 output? If it doesn't give you at least 720x480 resolution with a bitrate of 6000Kbits/sec, then that could also be the problem.

Not knowing your hardware and software configuration makes troubleshooting pretty difficult beyond that.

Answer 2

OK. Evil Genius is sort of on the right track. But let's be very clear. There are 5 different digital video recording media on the market: 1. MiniDV Tape 2. DVD 3. Mini DVD 4. Hard disk 5. Memory There are camcorders on the market for each of the media. Most of htese media have some problems: 1. Memory - is very expenisve and you can only record a fixed amount. 2. Hard disk - is less expensive, but still has limited recording time capabilities. Also the hard disk camcorders are not suitable for rugged environments 3. DVD and MiniDVD - are the most returned of electronics due to poor reliability and the difficulty to use. That leaves one format that outperforms all the rest - MiniDV tape. If it's good enough for TV news and other video journalism tasks, its plenty good enough for me. MiniDV is: 1. rugged 2. cheap 3. easiest to use 4. reusuable 5 and best of all, its available on a full range of camcorders from the cheapest to the most expensive

Answer 3

Have you tried letting Nero work with the navtive AVI. I have no problems with this myself.

I use a slightly more advanced copy of Movie Maker (STudio 7) to do my enditing and make my AVI files.

Then I just call them into nero and it does a nice job.

The DVD will NOT look quite as good as the original AVI, but it's about 85% of it, which is to be expected from MPEG.

I'm assuming your AVI file plays nice in Movie Maker. No choppy or fuzzy images.

USB can cause some drop frames becuase it is at the threshold of video needs (4 MBPS) and FireWire is faster.

Answer 4

your burning technique sounds fine.
I had this happen to me also. First, if you are using USB 1, the older and slower, to transfer from Dv camera to computer, this is not a fast enough way to transfer the video. If you have a firewire port on your computer, you should use this and buy a firewire cable from your electronics retailer. Then plug it in on the camera and computer to transfer. This is much faster than USB 1. I hope this helps, and goodluck!

Answer 5

Firewire is the best way to transfer DV video to your computer. If you don't have a port, you can buy an adapter card for $50 or less at any major electronics stores near you or online. Hope this helps!