dvd to video, any pc wiz to help please.

[frankie23]

The missus wants to bin the video, as its knackered and we have a dvd player, but i have a number of shooting vid's, but she can't see their importance to me, telling me to sell em on , for tuppence probably, is there a way i can convert these onto dvd using my pc, i havent got a dvd recorder, but i do have a dvd writer on my pc, is this any good?????

[machasm]

Hi,
You will need to have some sort of video capture device on your PC. Some graphics cards (Radeon All-In-Wonder, etc) have built in video inputs which would allow you to capture the video into a digital format on your hard drive. Be warned that you will require large amounts of disk space for this capture. If you don't have a video capture device you can always purchase a cheap TV capture card but the results are not great (Hauppage WinTV).If you are not going to edit any of the video then you could capture it directly into mpeg 2 format (this is the format DVD is in). If you wish to edit it then I would suggest you capture in DV format as this makes editing easier. Once you have the video on your hard drive you would then need some DVD authoring software to allow you to create a DVD. I use Adobe premier pro for all my editing and then burn the finished result to DVD using nero burning rom.
Hope this helps.
Mac

[Actaeon]

Hi

Some good advice there.

The final DVD quality will only be as good as the quality of the capture, so you'll need a good quality video player to capture from. If your existing player is cream crackered then it would be a good idea to borrow a good one from a mate.

I find that Pinnacle Studio 9 works very well for capture, editing and DVD authoring all in one easy to use program. I think it's about £50 for a license. If you're going to go to the expense of Adobe Premiere, you might as well pick yourself up a DVD recorder for around £190 and do a straight back to back copy from video.

Good luck
Bri

[Len]

Hi m8, your best bet it to ask a bloke to turn your video into dvd for you. I don't mind doing it for you, as I have a fully equipped setup for doing it. I don't think it would be wise to invest loads of money and time if is only to make a couple of dvds. However, as stated before, the acual dvd will only be as good as your tapes.

Just send me an e-mail, i'll do it for you and you'll only pay postage and the DVD-R disc (or DVD+R disc for that matter).

Len

[foxshooter]

For the costs involved you might as well buy a new cheapo VCR. They can be had for under £30!

Mark