Sony DVD cam converted to DV-AVI... loss?

[Guest]

I have a Sony cam that records to DVD (MPEG-2 I believe?) with AC3 audio...
makes it very hard to edit!! Can not use Movie Maker, and hate the bundled
Pixela!

If I convert to DV-AVI using Pixela and then import into Movie Maker for
editing then save movie back out as DV-AVI, then burn to DVD using Nero... am
I losing a lot of quality?

Any suggestions? I definately want the best quality I can get!

Should I just use Nero for the editing as well? It can read and import
directly from the DVD that the Sony cam creates, edit, and then burn back out
to a DVD with out all the decoding and encoding... would that give me better
quality?

Thanks in advance...

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

check my process on the Importing Source Files > Video > Discs page of
www.papajohn.org

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
..

 

[Bob [MVP]]

You are definitely losing quality, as you are reencoding the
video multiple times. Whether or not it's "a lot of quality"
is subjective. You need to just see what the final movie looks
like, and decide if its quality is acceptable to you or not.

To preserve the original quality, you'd need to use a true
MPEG-2 editor (simple cuts & splicing -- no fancy transitions
or effects), and then use a DVD authoring program that doesn't
reencode the MPEG-2 video.

--
-Bob
_______________________________
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Media Center Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/ehome

 

[Guest]

Bob - Thanks... that makes sense!
I really wish MM supported MPEG2

 

[Bob [MVP]]

There's no reason why Movie Maker shouldn't support
any video format as long as you have the appropriate
DirectShow decoder installed on your PC.

It's a shame that with all the nice features that
Movie Maker offers, it can't even import such a
popular standard video format as MPEG-2.

--
-Bob
_______________________________
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Media Center Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/ehome

 

[Guest]

Tell me about it, I sure hope they roll out an update that will support MPEG2!!

 

[Bob [MVP]]

LOL! It's been a well known problem for years now.
It seems pretty obvious that they have no desire to
fix it (IMHO).

--
-Bob
_______________________________
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Media Center Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/ehome