Firewire and it does make a difference... I have already been down that road.

Thanks,

If the trial's "Burn to DVD" is greyed out (cannot be choosen), then what is your output file format ?
You should try to get it out to MPEG2 DV 720X576 quality before using Nero to burn to a DVD.

How do I get to that???

I have looked in MS and have not seen any way to capture and save to anything but avi.

Captured video is always saved as avi, but what format are you rendering to when you've finished editing?

Ian G.

I am not really wanting to edit the video, just put it on a DVD with the same quality when the camera is directly connected to the TV.

To answer the question, I do not know what the file type is before I burn the DVD.

Well to get the DVD to be the same quality as plugging the DV Camcorder and viewing on TV is IMHO imossible.

A DVD basically is MPEG2 format which is already compressed quality.
There is a drop in quality, though not many people would notice erally notice it compared to say a VCD and DVD disc.

Your DV Camcorder file when you download into a computer using VMS is in AVI format uncompressed which explains the hugh file sizes. 20 minutes of DV video takes about 4GB, So when you put say a 1 1/2 hour video into DVD, you already lost a lot of quality.

VMS typically takes the AVI file you unloaded from the Camcorder and outputs into various file formats MPEG DV being the best quality and is recognised in DVD authoring programs.
The DVD authoring programs then makes the clips into your movies\menus\slideshows etc...

Sorry Clarke,

I want to make some corrections to what you are saying in your post (not that I know everything.... ;-)

1. The DV material you get into your pc by capturing is also a compressed format. Real uncompressed material in the consumer camcorder quality (720*578 for PAL,... for NTSC) is 2 - 3 times bigger than DV material.
2. The main difference to mpeg compression is that DV exists of each frame for the specified frame rate (25 per second for PAL). The compression used, is somewhat similar to jpeg compression, known for digital photos. This compression is stronger when the bit-rate gets lower, resulting in typical artefacts like odd color stains.
3. MPEG compression is not frame-by-frame, but only the third or fourth frames are real frames, all material in between contains only the differences compared to the last frame. The disadvantage is mainly the difficuilties with editing and backwards scrubbing. Higher MPEG compression is presented by less full frames (less smooth movements) in combination with lower bit-rates (like DV compression)

The better quality of production DVD-s is mainly caused by better cameras, better filming conditions (light), capturing and editing in higher resolution, and better compression algorythms. But it is also significantly more expensive.

Bart

I still do not see how to move video from a Sony Digital camera to a DVD.

Editing is not a major concern, as at this point of the game I just want to end up with a DVD that I can put in a player and watch without the images being blurry.

Does the DVD media make a difference???

Thanks,

Ah...

Should not be a big problem:

1. capture your movie with the capture module of MS
2. Make sure that all relevant clips are placed on the timeline within MS
3. this is the moment you can (but not must) do any editing
4. choose 'create movie'
5. either export to avi with standard DV settings OR main concept mpeg2 with standard dvd settings OR create directly a DVD
6. The first two options require a next step in importing the produced file in DVD Architect, where you can (but not must) add more bells and whistles to your DVD.

The advantage of DVDA in combination with exporting to DV-avi, is that you get more control of the compression-rate to the mandatory mpeg2 end-result.

Note 1: rendering to new files (especially to mpeg2) is rather time-consuming. Can be multiple hours...
Note 2: A minimally compressed mpeg2 file can hold a maximum of approx. one hour standard DV material for fitting into a single layer dvd. Quality should be at almost the level of the original (there is always a minimal loss when rendering to new files).
Note 3: make sure your project settings in MS as well as in DVDA should match your camera and tv: a PAL camera should produce PAL files and PAL dvd, same counts for NTSC. Never mix PAL and NTSC, when you can avoid this. Recalculating the different pixel-rates and frame rates will cause significant loss in quality

Good luck!

Is the Main Concepts encoder what MS uses by default? The manual isn't clear on this either since it says "if you use the Main Concepts encoder" as "if" there is a choice of what you use in MS. Or is Main Concepts something you have to get separately? Also saw in another thread Main Concepts Pro. Is that what is referred to in the manual? Or is MS using a non-Pro version behind the scenes?

Also Bart you mention using Main Concepts with standard settings. Do you mean the standard settings that MS forces you into or are there options to change those settings in MS? I only see a radio button that says "Burn it to DVD" and then when I click Next I get a dialog that only gives options to stretch, fast resize, and render loop. I don't see much option to change settings in MS. Is this what you see? Or am I missing some options?

I understand that DVDA gives more options when you render in MS to AVI, but I'm trying to avoid creating additional (large) AVI files and don't want any losses during burn. So I'm trying to meet the requirements mentioned in the DVDA manual for it not require recompression using the Main Concepts encoder.

Bottom line question? If I click the Make Movie button and select the Burn it to DVD radio button, does MS then use a non-pro version of Main Concepts behind the scenes such that recompression will not be required in DVDA?

Thanks,
Rye

MS allows you to output video in a number of different formats - avi, mpeg 2 etc. Each of these formats needs a different encoder, hence "if". MS produces MPEG2 using an encoder written by a company called Main Concept, who produce standalone encoders in addition to the one that's supplied as part of MS.

The MPEG standard allows a lot of flexibility and the pros spend a lot of time and effort fine tuning the various parameters so that they get the best possible quality. A couple or so years ago, there was an option to pay extra and have the ability to do some of this fine tuning in MS - the pro version. Most people found it made little if any difference, so the option was dropped. The key thing here is that the encoders themselves were identical, it was only the user interface that was different.

Whether or not DVDA will need to recompress your MPEG2 depends entirely on how big it is to start with - if it's too big to fit on a DVD then you'll need to give it an extra squeeze!

Ian G.