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As mentioned before I bought the Panasonic GS35. It came with a USB cable which I use to transfer from the miniDV to my PC to edit. But to get the edited files back onto miniDV I have to use a DV cable which is an optional extra. I wonder why the manufacturers always seem to leave a vital piece of equipment as "optional extra"? Once back on miniDV I can copy to normal video.

Like arks, I must also figure out how to get the edited movie onto a DVD. At this stage I have an edited movie of just over 1 hour and in AVI format it is 14.6Gig. Does one just write the AVI onto DVD or what??

[EDIT]I use the software package included with the camera called MotionDV Studio v5. Basic but does allow me to add different soundtracks, photos, titles, effects etc.[/EDIT]

Hi Francois,



I have been struggling with the same problem in the past, but found it extremely helpful to scan the web for useful information. One source of information that I can highly recommend is http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html, and take it from there. I have in the past used Tsunami TMPG encoder (http://www.tmpg-inc.com/), but when I acquired Adobe Premiere Pro that was more convenient. Transferring miniDV to DVD was not a problem with this software, I will soon try my hand at HDV (Sony HDR/FX1). Do NOT transfer AVI to DVD, it will not work, one needs to export as MPEG file, but dvddemystified will explain that to you.

Good luck.

Just to elaborate on what PhilQ is saying here.

Transferring AVI to DVD will not work in a DVD player, it will work just fine on your PC though.

Francois, your AVI file is about 10 Gig too big for a DVD anyway. Get a decent Mpeg encoder that will shring it to 700MB with virtually no loss, and then you can fit it on a CD .

I can rip an entire DVD (1 hour 30 min) movie to 700MB MPEG and nobody will be able to tell me it's not DVD.

Thanks Loams and PhilQ. I've bookmarked your link PhilQ and will have a look at it later.

As far as I can see the booklet that came with the camera only mention camera tot DVD recorder dubbing.

If I understand Loams correctly I will have edit my movie and create the AVI, then I must download a Mpeg encoder and install that on my PC. The next step will be to convert the AVI file to Mpeg and then write the Mpeg file with a DVD writer to DVD. Following this I must then proceed to insert the DVD into my DVD player to view my trip on a TV screen

Under the output options in my editing program I have the following formats to choose from:
1. AVI format (DV compression) (avi)
2. MPEG1 format (VideoCD compatible) (mpg)
3. ASF format (WindowsMedia compatible) (asf)
4. ASF format (SD-Video compatible) (asf)

I will no proceed to use no 2 as an option and will report on files size much later

Thanks, Phil. Awhile back, DQ advised that you were the video guru we video newbies needed

I'll have a go using the Dell software that came with my PC once I've bought the neccessary firewire . So far, only mastered copying the MiniDV to a VHS tape, but that had obstacles given how my cable TV service inputs are set up. Fortunately, I can turn to the pros at my camera store for help with such problems. They also recommended both Adobe Premiere Elements and two Pinnacle packages: Pinnacle Studio 9 (which I believe has been recommended elsewhere in the forum) and Pinnacle Dazzle Digital Video Creator DVC150. So lots of options.

Hi again,

I am definitely not the video guru that you are looking for. However, I have struggled with similar problems and found that there is no substitute to doing my homework first. One cannot start to run if one cannot stand, and one should not try to stand if one cannot crawl yet. So I bought a book "DVD demystified" and learnt
1. the difference between PAL and NTSC,
2. how compression is done, as well as the differences between video on CD-ROM (MPEG-1, 352x240 pixels x 12 frames per second x 24 bits, you can display it on computer but not on a TV screen) or DVD (MPEG-2, 720x576 pixels x 12 bits x 24 frames/s, you can show it both on computer and TV screen), using algorithms which will typically compress to one thirtieth of the original size,
3. the various audio compression algorithms,
4. how bit rate relates to both quality on screen and size on DVD,
5. why variable bitrate (VBR) is generally better than constant bit rate (CBR) but requires more depth of insight on how to do VBR optimally than I can muster.
6. It is also worth the while to understand the difference between true wide screen on TV and widescreen that is simulated by a letterbox process (squeeze vertically by 25%), and the image distortion that results from displaying a 4:3 format video on widescreen (16:9) TV. I strongly believe that it is of the essence to first come to grips with some of these basics before burning your CD or DVD.
I believe that you will find very much basic information on www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html but much more information is available on the web, such as Adobe's excellent DV primer, a 50 page pdf file available from http://www.adobe.com/motion/events/pdfs/dvprimer.pdf . And then, there are books.
Briefly, there is no free lunch, get acquainted with the basics first and then stumble forward, as I am still doing.

Agreed with PhilQ here.

I missed the 1 at "Mpeg1" otherwise my comment would have been similar. 'Cois, it seems you need a better encoder for your video than what you have at the moment.

Thanks PhilQ,

Once again some good information on this Forum and also answering some doubts I had about the output options listed in my editing program. I did the MPEG1 output yesterday and the quality was not that good and now I know why. So I will have to convert the AVI files to MPEG2.

I have just found this thread and if you are still interested I can offer some advice in this regard. I am using an editor called Pinnicle Studio version 9 which writes it's outputs to a variety of formats such as DVD, VHS Tape, AVI file, MPG2 or 1, etc. It is very easy to use and not too expensive.

Once connected to a video camera with a firewire connection all the camera controls are available on the PC, the only reason to touch the camera is to switch it on and off and to change the tape. Experience has shown that it is best to save the video to the PC in 10 minute pieces (about 2.5GB) and join them again with the editor. This allows you to copy a section directly to a DVD as an AVI file (the native format of my Sony PC3650E DV camcorder) should you need drive space for an urgent project.

If you keep the edited file to about 58 minutes total time there is 2 minutes left to add all the DVD type titles and chapter marks and still get it to fit uncompressed on a standard DVD (4,7GB). If the file ends up longer than 60 minutes it will be automatically compressed to fit. The compression used is very good and little effect can be seen at 80% which is the most that I have used.

Please pm me if you have further questions as I do not always browse the forum due to being away from home too much.

I also use Pinnacle Studio 9 {have been using it since version 7, and will never chance to something else}. It is great software and it makes the whole process very simple – even a blond can make professional looking DVD’s

I saw that there is now a new version released, Studio 10. Have a look at the website: Studio 10

You can also download a trial version of Studio 9 here {scroll down to right at the bottom of the page}: Studio 9 Trial

I would agree with Jumbo that Pinnacle Studio is a good option although I've heard ver 10 has a serious bug problem. Don't know if it's true though. Ver 9 is apparently very stable. If it has USB2/firewire capture capability and DVD authoring built in then it has all the basics to produce DVD's to play either on a PC or a Desktop Player.

If you want to go the extra mile then Studio's big brother, Avid Liquid Edition 7 (formerly Pinnacle Liquid Edition) is the real thing. It's semi-professional and can do just about everything. Takes a bit of learning though.

I have to credit my SO with this info - I am pretty clueless when it comes to this sort of thing.