Burning to DVD from MovieMaker

[Guest]

Hi,

I am new to Movie Maker. I am trying to burn a DVD of our family videos
(have already done capture, edits, etc.) and don't know how. I have 3
questions:

1. Do I need to buy a separate DVD burning software (such as Sonic MyDVD,
$70), or does Movie Maker allows burning a DVD of your movie project?

2. I read somewhere that in order for a movie/video to fit on a DVD and play
on a DVD player, it must be saved in DV-AVI format and MPEG-2 compressed. Do
I need to worry about this, or does Movie Maker/DVD burning software take
care of this?

3. This is a tricky one: we need to take this DVD of our family videos to
our family in India which uses PAL system. So do I have to specify PAL format
somewhere during the output/DVD burning phase?

Sorry if these questions are covered elsewhere. Any help you folks can
provide will be very much appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Guest]

1) Yes, you need to buy a DVD burning software. Nero and SonicMyDVD are good.
2) To capture best quality, I think you need to capture the video from your
camera to your computer in DV-AVI format. This is a setting you can set when
the window comes up to capture the video. From there, when you finish
editing your movie, save the Movie in DV-AVI format. Then you open your DVD
burning software and import the DV-AVI file and burn to DVD.
3) I *think* the DVD burning software takes care of this format. At least
in Nero, I remember seeing the option to burn it into PAL.

Good luck!

 

[Wojo]

I didn't realize you also created a new post or I would have answered here
instead but I answered in your other post instead.
-Wojo

 

[Guest]

Thanks Wojo and Ayazag!

Since I am using Windows XP SP2 (and not MCE), I believe I'll need to use a
DVD burning software. First, when I captured my videos from the DV tapes into
the computer, I did specify DV-AVI format for the capture. However, WMM shows
them as Windows Movie Maker Clips in the file explorer. Which leads to the
second issue: I have a Panasonic DV camcorder which came with its own DVD
editing and burning software called MotionDV Studio. So before buying Nero or
another software, I thought I would give it a try. It looks for .avi files to
edit and burn on DVD. However, WMM captured my videos as WMM Clips as I
mentioned above and MotionDV doesn't see the WMM captured files. So I figured
I would output the movie I have created as DV-AVI file to my computer and
simply use the MotionDV to burn it on a DVD. However, when I tried to Save to
Computer as DV-AVI file in WMM, it failed twice (for no apparent reason). I
went into Other Options and selected DV-AVI (PAL) format inside Save to
Computer wizard. The Windows Media Player shows that the movie I have created
is about 1 hr 59 minutes long.

So I am kind of stuck -- I can use MotionDV (I believe) to burn a DVD but it
doesn't see the WMM captured files since they are not shown as DV-AVI files
even thought I mentioned that as the format during capture; and I don't seem
to have luck writing the movie to my computer as DV-AVI file through WMM.

Again, any help would be highly appreciated.

Best regards,
Sandeep.

 

[Wojo]

Thanks Wojo and Ayazag!

Since I am using Windows XP SP2 (and not MCE), I believe I'll need to use
a
DVD burning software.
Correct.

First, when I captured my videos from the DV tapes into
the computer, I did specify DV-AVI format for the capture. However, WMM
shows
them as Windows Movie Maker Clips in the file explorer. Which leads to the
second issue: I have a Panasonic DV camcorder which came with its own DVD
editing and burning software called MotionDV Studio.

If MotionDV is any good your best bet may be to use that for everything
since it is all-in-one.
Otherwise maybe capturing with MotionDV and then using WMM to edit the AVI
file from MotionDV may be an option. I believe your captured file will not
be a DV-AVI until you go through the saving to computer process.

So before buying Nero or
another software, I thought I would give it a try. It looks for .avi files
to
edit and burn on DVD. However, WMM captured my videos as WMM Clips as I
mentioned above and MotionDV doesn't see the WMM captured files. So I
figured
I would output the movie I have created as DV-AVI file to my computer and
simply use the MotionDV to burn it on a DVD. However, when I tried to Save
to
Computer as DV-AVI file in WMM, it failed twice (for no apparent reason).
I
went into Other Options and selected DV-AVI (PAL) format inside Save to
Computer wizard. The Windows Media Player shows that the movie I have
created
is about 1 hr 59 minutes long.

Failed twice how? Did it lock up or give you an error message or what
exactly happened?
Saving as DV-AVI (PAL) gave you a clip that was 1 he 59 minutes long, how
long was it supposed to be assuming by the way you say that that it was not
actually that length?

So I am kind of stuck -- I can use MotionDV (I believe) to burn a DVD but
it
doesn't see the WMM captured files since they are not shown as DV-AVI
files
even thought I mentioned that as the format during capture; and I don't
seem
to have luck writing the movie to my computer as DV-AVI file through WMM.

One option may be to split the clip into two and saving each separately to
your computer.
-Wojo