Best format for transferring old 8mm video to DVD???

[Guest]

I have some 9 year old 8mm video tapes and VHS tapes that I would like to
have a video lab transfer to DVD so I can load the video on to my PC and do
my own editing/DVD burning. In what format should I tell them to save the
video when they transfer the old 8 mm and VHS to DVD? The format has to be
compatible with Windows Movie Maker and I want to be able to burn DVDs that
play on both my PC and TV DVD player. Both the TV and the DVD player are NOT
HD (if that even matters???). I would also like to get at least an hour of
video on each DVD and I want the quality to be as good as the original. I
heard that .AVI is so data intensive that you can only fit about 20 minutes
on a DVD. That would not be acceptable.
Here are the specs on my PC
Dell Dimension 8400
Pentium 4 - 3.2 Ghz
1 GB RAM
250 GB hard drive
Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

TJ

 

[Wojo]

AVI is the format you want to use.
Whoever told you that "AVI is so data intensive that you can only fir about
20 minutes on a DVD" is wrong.
First of all the source file matters little to the DVD authoring program as
long as it is a type that is compatible since it converts the files to a
form of MPEG2 anyway.
Secondly you are going to edit your movies with WMM and AVI is the best
format to use with it as well plus everybody here is going to recommend that
when your done editing your movie that you should save it in DV-AVI. So all
things considered tell them to use the AVI format for your movies.
-Wojo

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Seems like they are talking about 20 minutes of DV-AVI files on a DVD, which
would be about right... at 13 GB per hour, 1/3 of an hour would be a DVD
worth.

What I don't understand is why that wouldn't be acceptable... the goal seems
to be to get the best source files for use as inputs to video editing, not
discs that play on a DVD player.
--
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 website - http://www.papajohn.org

tips and tricks: http://www.simplydv.co.uk/simplyBB/viewtopic.php?t=4693

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[Al Stu]

Why not transfer to DV-AVI yourself? That way you can save precious data
space by transferring only the footage that is 'useable', not all the sky,
ground, sky, ground, and what not, someone shot thinking the camera was off
(grab a few extra seconds on each side of keeper clips for transition
space).

If you currently/still have capability to play the 8mm tapes and VHS tapes,
all you need is a firewire port and DVD burner on your computer with about
20gig free space (can be done with less but takes more effort), a DV camera
with firewire and analog input connections, and of course Movie Maker
('free' with Windows XP). If you don't have these you could probably
purchase them for what you'll be paying the lab for the transfer (depending
on how many tapes and how much of the equipment you already have), and
you'll then have more to show for your money with greater future
capabilities.

I say don't pay someone else for what you can do. But if you do pay
someone else to transfer the tapes, then by all means, as others have
already stated, have them saved as DV-AVI. Yes it's about 20 minutes per
DVD data disk, but you don't want to throw away image quality at the footage
stage because you can never get it back. If you're going to pay, then pay
for quality, otherwise it's a waste of money.

 

[Graham Hughes]

DV-AVI is definately what you want in file type. I'd agree with Al as well,
if you have a fair amount to convert, cosider getting some equipment
yourself. My preference would be a digital camcorder which supports
analogue>digital pass through, then an external A>D converotr, but only one
of the better quality ones, such as canopus and miglia, which will virtually
guarantee video audio sync, which the cheaper ones from dazzle/belkin don't
and many people suffer problems with them (many people probably capture ok
with them as well, just don't tell us!!).

If you are going to send them away to be done, why not get them put on a
hard drive, in dv-avi.

Graham

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com

 

[Wojo]

Yes as a data file.
But once the DVD program converts it to MPEG2 and creates a DVD the filesize
is reduced plus adjusting the authoring program slightly will help. I have
created many DVD's from DV-AVI content that were up to an hour long on a DVD
with excellent quality.

 

[John Inzer]

After putting add slide in timeline Movie maker crash. This problem
is appear after project has apr. 250 kb

=============================
Maybe the following articles will offer some ideas:

Movie Maker 2 Crashes and Hangs
http://www.papajohn.org/MM2-Issues-Acceleration-and-Codecs.html

File type compatibility with Movie Maker
http://tinyurl.com/v8tee

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

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