Easiest way to convert tapes to DVD

eheh wrote on 3/15/2003, 9:39 PM
I want to convert all my tapes, 8mm and DV to DVDs as a lifetime backup.
I have a few dozens of tapes so I want to be able to automate the procedure. The ultimate automation is to insert a tape into the 8mm/DV camera, press the button and get a burned DVD sometimes later.

Here are some related question:
1. What is the easiest way to do this procedure as automatic. Scripts? Other ideas?
2. I want every DVD to hold a whole number of tapes, so I can easily match a DVD to a tape. That will affect the DVD capacity. What are the recommended MPEG2 bitrates for an analog 8mm/For DV, without losing quality?
3. Are DVD chapters so conveniently important I'll be cursing myself down the road of not implementing them? (I see no way to do that automatically, so I'm considering skipping chapters)
4. I understand that wanting to edit, at a later stage, some footage from the DVDs result in quality loss for I shall be working with a lossy MPEG2. How noticeable will that be for an 8mm converted DVD? For a DV converted DVD?

Any insights are greatly welcome

Comments

OctaneGuy wrote on 3/15/2003, 11:44 PM
Well, the easiest way is to have a Pioneer DVR-7000 like I do. Which is a DVD Recorder with IEEE-1394 input. I can copy a mini-DV tape or timeline recording straight from V4 via Firewire onto a DVD in realtime. Chapters are automatically placed. I didn't say this was the "cheapest" solution. I paid about $1,500 for this unit 2 years ago.

Richard
riredale wrote on 3/16/2003, 3:27 PM
That DVD recorder approach is a good idea. If you want to do it in the PC, however, then it will be a lot more work, but you will have lots of flexibility for editing, bitrates, chapters, and so on.

An MPEG2 encoder loves soft images and hates noise. By that I mean that you will be able to use very low bitrates for soft images, and even a high bitrate will produce some artifacts with very noisy images. Also, what is the time length of your videos, since you say you want to quantize on that?

One can get 1 hour of excellent quality and 2 hours of good to very good quality on a single DVD-5 disk, depending on audio compression and the factors mentioned above. As for pulling the DVD data back into an editor in the future, I would assume that you will see a minor degradation with DV material (compared to the source), while the 8mm stuff should look about the same, since the source material is poor to begin with.
Spot|DSE wrote on 3/16/2003, 5:40 PM
The easiest way ain't the best way...
Get an ADS MPEG box, records analog straight to MPEG2, which burns at 2X on any 2x or faster DVD. Takes little time, other than the real time input.
Best way....Encode to MPEG in Vegas, not a hardware encoding tool.