What format to save in?

[Kenny]

New to video editing. What format should I capture in if I intend to output
to a DVD-R.
A 1hr Mini DV tape saved as DV-AVI takes up 28GB of space.
Tried going with the recommended setting and same tape finishes up at around
300MB.
Why can I not save directly as MPEG2 since that I believe is the DVD
standard format.
Am familiar with analogue capture directly to MPEG but I'm still a bit
baffled by digital.
Any help appreciated.

 

[Rehan]

If quality is not an issue then you cansave in any format... it doesnt
matter as you need to convert the video to MPEG2 for DVD anyway whose
filesize will depend on the length of the video not the filesize of the
original format. Furthermore you need to author the DVD (menus + chapters +
vob structure).

These tools can do these steps:

Ulead Movie Factory (www.ulead.com)
NeroVision Express (www.nero.com)
MyDVD (www.sonic.com)

Obviously for best quality you need to capture in DV AVI and after editing
in Movie Maker render in DV AVI format as well. The above tools can make a
DVD from DV AVI as wll as WMV though.

 

[Kenny]

What I meant was that in the "Save Movie Wizard" it defaults to "Best
quality for playback on my computer (recommended)" then in Other Settings it
gives me a whole list of options none of which is MPEG.
Should I go for "Best quality video (PAL)"?

 

[Wojo]

No we all recommend here that you should go for DV-AVI for your save format.
Yes the filesize is large but, as Rehan said, it is the video length you
should be concerned about not the AVI filesize. WMM does not save to MPEG
since it does not properly support MPEG so WMV and AVI are your only options
there. Your DVD authoring software will convert the file for you before
burning.
-Wojo

 

[Kenny]

Thanks for the replies. I also have Pinnacle Studio 9, patched to V 9.43
but it "sticks" about half way through the encoding stage. Left it on
overnight at one stage and it was still at the same point in the morning.
I have registered with Pinnacle, gone through the steps which are supposed
to fix this but it didn't. Have e-mailed their support but apart from an
automated reply heard nothing.
Am also trying out Canopus' Let's Edit which got a very good review in
Computeractive magazine. Seems like a good program for a novice like me,
only trouble is there are no Help files in the trial version and no
downloadable user manual. How can anyone evaluate a program if there no
directions as to how to use it?

 

[Burgy]

Since you are new to video, you may not know.
When working with video, you have to do disk-cleanup and defragging a lot
more often, on the drive that holds the files.
I've noticed the same problem with Pinnacle when the drive gets fragmented.
Also noticed that mine hangs at the end of rendering
instead of giving you the 'completed' message. But the files were always all
there and worked ok. Like you, I never got a reply form support either, and
that was months ago. Don't think they are big on product support. Just the
bucks you send.
Wish Serif's MoviePlus 4 had came out before I bought Pinnacle Studio.