Ripping 8mm/Digital 8/DV camcorder tapes to DVD HOW !!

Dr_Pentium · Rated R Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 58 Location: Toronto

I've just about had it. I need some serious help, i didnt think it would be this hard to get my home videos on to a DVD

So heres the story. I went out and bought the NED 3500A DVD RW lyesterday.

Hooked up my Sony Digital 8 camera via firewire to the pc. I used Nero Vision Express/ Roxio Easy Media Creator to try and rip the 120min tape to my hd.

Computer sees the cam, it starts ripping to the HD, only problem is it is taking MASSIVE SPACE. both those programs allows me 2 encoding formats, one is MPEG 2 and the other is DV

MPEG 2 is taking about 8 gb space for my 120min video
DV format takes a whopping 200 mb per minute Sad

I just want a way to fit my 2 hour tape on to a regular DVD-R so i may watch my home videos on my TV !!!

note: also tried using windows movie maker, very easy, unfortuanty it rips in WMV. which i may add is a wicked format 2 hours only took 1.4 gb. but my dvd player (set top) wont read WMV Sad

ANY IDEAS GUYS PLEASE I AM DESPARATE.

now off i go to my exam Sad

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 12:47:40 Post Subject:

Unfortunately, that is about right.

You can try to edit it and to cut down the video size, shave off a few FPS (I belive the moives at the theater are 24 fps). Also maybe try a better video editing package.

Also don't forget that the 2 hour movies you rent/buy at the store are on 8.5GB dual layer disk.

Dr_Pentium · Rated R Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 58 Location: Toronto

doh

there's gotta be a way to get this on 1 cd. Doc you know any good video editing programs for my situation?

its strange sometimes you actaully want MS to have a monopoly in certain areas.. case in point WMV !! if only my dvd player would support it Sad

Spire · Posted: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 13:15:37 Post Subject:

I'm not up on what format a DV camera stores, but would DVD Shrink be able to open the files?

If so, seems you could use that to compress. Image quality might suffer a touch, but at least they would fit.

DVD shrink looks for .VOB and such.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 13:33:37 Post Subject:

What kind of TV are you going to be watching it on?

If it's a normal TV make sure your move is 640x480, which is the largest picture it can display. VHS is only 320x240.

Your just going to have to cut down the res, and go to 24fps to try and get it smaller.

Here's a piece of software you can try too: http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm they have a free trial copy

Dud3! · Posted: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 22:33:06 Post Subject:

I have no idea what you would use with windows, but i can get 5GBs of video down to 700MB with no big quality loss. The raw video (DV) is going to take massive amounts of space, but then you encode it (I use the ffmpeg codec for my stuff) and get it down to your target size.

Dr_Pentium · Rated R Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 58 Location: Toronto

thanks for the replies guys. i'm actaully going to be watching it on my big screen tv :S eek i guess i will see some horrible quality.

i just used nero vision express the mpeg 2 file came out to around 7.1 gb for a 2 hour film i used some LPCM audip format instead of the mp2 format as it said it would help save some space.

i'm gonna try out that ulead program thanks.