Creating DVDs

[Guest]

I am ready to enter the world of video editing. I have WMM 2.1 and everything
I ere about it seems great. MY only concern is the ability to save my movies
to a DVD. I am mostly interested in copying my movies from 8mm tape to a DVD
with a little editing and special effetcs so I can send them to friends and
they can just pop it into their home theater DVD player and watch it just
like a movie they rent from a store. Can I do that with WMM 2.1?

 

[Guest]

Yes and no. WMM 2.1 doesn't have an built-in burning feature to burn your
final creation to DVD. It doesn't even have the option to save your creation
(as far as I can tell) to DVD format. But there is 3rd party software that
can help. You need to find software that can burn WMV or AVI to DVD in DVD
format. My DVD burning software won't do that, it will only burn the
already-made DVD-formatted videos... so I had to find another piece of
software to convert AVI to DVD, then burn that using my burning software.

I haven't done it yet, but I plan on using this free software:
http://www.download.com/VSO-DivXtoD...695.html?part=dl-VSODivXto&subj=dl&tag=button
to convert my AVI to DVD, then use my burning software to burn the DVD.

 

[Guest]

It looks like you'll need 1) an analog capture device since you are trying to
capture 8mm not DV and 2) a DVD burner. Most burners come with software that
will handle the WMV or DV-AVI files created by MM and they have gotten
extremely cheap these days. I use MyDVD and it works fine.

Steve

 

[Wojo]

The other two answers are correct.
As far as "free" DVD authoring software goes though I will warn you that you
get what you pay for.
The same goes with the software that is usually bundled with the DVD burner,
it is usually the lite version or a trial version and usually it's MyDVD
(which I personally do not like at all) or something like Studio 8 which is
extremely limited in abilities.
If you truly are planning on "entering" the world of video editing and DVD
creation and it isn't just a one time thing then I recommend a much better
software package.
There is a list of them on my website in the "DVD Programs" section along
with links. Most offer a free trial download so you can check them out
before you decide which to buy.
My two recommendations are:
Ulead Movie Factory - A great program full of features and inexpensive
Ulead DVD Workshop - An outstanding program with any and all the features
you could ever need but expensive.