How Can Produce DVD Quality HomeVideo Footage??

[Daniel-Man]

Hi,
I'm interested in transferring some things I have taped from TV to my Sony Handycam camcorder then onto my computer. I've done it before but am wondering how I can convert the video footage to DVD quality whilst on my computer. What size are usual DVD movies?? How many frames per second, resolution and sound quality are the usual retail store DVD movies that you buy?? I know once footage is put straight onto my computer it is made into a very large AVI file and that uses about 80meg per minute. If this is the proper DVD uncompressed quality a DVD is 120 minutes and that would mean there would have to be around 8.8Gigs of room for a 110 minute DVD quality video. I thought the normal DVDs only hold 5Gig? I haven't got a DVD burner yet but may get one if I can find out a way to get this to work. Another problem I've had is when I record normal special event footage on my Sony handycam and put it on my computer it is always in that large AVI format and at 80meg per minute it would take several CDs just for 60 minutes of footage!! How can I overcome this??

[mjc]

Well, first off, you are right in guessing that uncompressed it would be over 8 gigs for a two hour movie, but the final product on the DVD is compressed/encoded so it is smaller.

The other problem, with your equipment (camera) you will get pretty decent footage, but it really won't be "DVD quality".

Since your footage is already an .avi (also I assume you have a soundtrack to go along with it?) you can encode and burn VCD or SVCD which will end up being video tape (on highest record speed) or better (near DVD).

Some links to get you started....

http://www.marcpeters.co.uk/index.html

http://www3.telus.net/dvd/mpeg/svcd/tmpg_guide.htm

[Budfred]

Also, if you are talking about recording TV signals, unless you have digital TV signals they are no where near DVD quality to begin with....

[Daniel-Man]

Ok, how are the DVDs encoded or compressed? Also, doesn't SVCD and VCD make the video quality all kind of JPEGy?? I'm trying to rip 10 mins of UFO Hard evidence 3 which I took from a video tape, and I want to compress it so that the UFOs aren't all "blocky". Will SVCD and VCD do this??

[mjc]

Think of VCD as low speed (6 hrs/tape) recording on a VCR and SVCD as high speed (2hr/tape...with very high quality tapes).

On a stand alone player that supports the format SVCD will play on your TV like a video tape......but look better.

Both formats will not require a DVD burner.

DVDs us a file extension of vob (not quite sure of the compression algorithm) and to burn one you will need a DVD burner.

SVCD uses mpeg2 compression....pretty high quality.

A ten minute clip will be between 150 and 225+MB depending on how hig a quality you go for.

(/me thinks.....where is Hiredgoonz, he is better at explaining this video stuff than I am}

[Daniel-Man]

Thanks, I'm wondering if SVCD 10 minutes is 150 - 255MB, how do people fit entire 2 hour + movies, onto 2 SVCDs??

[mjc]

Using an 800MB CD at 150MB for 10 mins you can fit about 50 mins on a CD....if you go with a the lowest quality it will be a little less (like 100MB/10mins).