|
|
Posted by Gene on 02/16/07 19:32
Here's my initial thoughts ~ the new version 3:
1. I went from a D8 1.5hr LP tape to a finalized DVD-R
with VERY little effort. The program is extremely easy
to use. In this first test, I pretty much went with the options
as downloaded. The quality of the DVD-R was as good as
I have seen so far, and it played without a problem on the PC
and 4 other set-top boxes.
2. I was very disappointed with the speed that it took to get from
AVI to the 19.6GB MPEG2/VOB file. I had hoped for an improvement,
but I suspect that there is only so much low level coding that can
be done ... just a lot of arithmetic to do.
Here's the times:
a. Copy 1.5hr from camcorder to disk ~ 1.5hr :-)
(Tape was 1:37:32 long, it correctly saw EOT & stopped the
capture automatically.)
b. Convert AVI to VOBs = 5 hours, 38 minutes, and 17 seconds,
which is probably not that bad, given my old 2GHz P4.
If there was a way to SKIP this step, my life would be much better:-)
I have not read the help material, because it is non-existent, I can't find
it.
The old version 2 instructions are a clue...
c. It took only 10 minutes to burn the 5 VOB files,etc. to a single
DVD-R - as expected.
3. I did not see a simple & automatic way to generate ~ 5 minute
chapter marks, but it did skip to clip points as it found them on the tape.
Think there was 5 on this tape. This option is a must have for me. The
option
is probably in the program, I just did not see it.
4. The ability to select the MB size of the final DVD-R is really nice &
easy
to use. I randomly chose 4391 , so the final DVD-R was 4391/4490.
(4.3GB for all 9 files on the DVD-R - so the quality was good.)
5. It's REALLY easy to make multiple copies after the 1st is burned,
just click to burn again, and again...
6. It's not bullet proof, and probably has a few bugs - but it's definitely
the best that I have played with so far - for my needs. There must
be an easy way to terminate a DVD-RW burn, without having to power
down the PC:-) I was impressed with the fact that their burn code could
lock it up that tight - means the author understands how to code around
MS.
**** CONCLUSION ***
This pretty much ends my brief catch-up education to find a solution
to copying my thousands of old tapes to DVD-R at this time. I will come
back in a couple of years & do another catch-up. Hopefully we will have
a better solution for the old VHS, 8mm, and HI-8 tapes in our library by
then.
For now, they stay sealed in the house, in 100 quart ice coolers, like
the kind we use on the boat.
As for the filming that I am currently doing, I think I will just keep
shooting
MiniDV & D8, rewind the tapes & use them over & over again, and simply
copy the 1.5hr LP digital tapes onto two DVD-Rs with a set-top DVR at
~ 95%+ full. If there is a VERY special tape, then I will burn the two
DVD-Rs & put said tape in coolers. I have not settled on the specific
DVR to buy next, need to do a little more research. I had a Sony RDR-GX330
that worked for a brief time, then went south on me, so I returned it for a
refund. Not sure what I will buy & try next, probably one with a
hard drive, as that makes a lot of sense to me. Best to KNOW that you
got a good tape to disk copy, and spend an additional 10 minutes, than start
a real-time burn & then crash. With a disk, making the 2nd copy should be
easy.
But for now, I have not looked, and do not have a clue, which DVR with disk
& iLink
(firewire / DV in) that I will end up with. I'm doing that today:-)
I initially thought that all the freeze-ups that I was having was related to
the
DSP/firmware implementation inside my three Sony D8 & MiniDV camcorders.
However, after replacing the VIA chip with the TI chip, all three camcorders
are about as bullet-proof as they can be. That is, I can copy from camcorder
to PC hard drive with ANY cheap firewire cable & have never had a freeze.
With
the VIA chip, it was unlikely you could copy a tape without freezing. ALL of
the capture programs worked without incident, as this application is mostly
hardware talking to each other.
So my challenge will be to find a DVR with DV in & a hard drive that has a
very well implemented firewire specification. Not all DSPs, firmware and
supporting
logic chips are the same:-) I will just have to buy & try until I find a
combination that
works reliably. Guess I'll try another Sony DVR and assume that the
engineers in the
DVR department talk to the engineers in the camcorder department at Sony.
While I'm looking for the new DVR, think I may just buy a new 1080 camcorder
and move on to MPEG4, or whatever. Looks like that's in my future:-)
If anyone has personal experience with a specific Sony DVR that can do the
above, please post the MODEL number.
With respect to TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX - just go
download it & see for yourself - it's completely FREE.
It's probably the BEST all-in-one out there today, providing you want
a simple solution with quite a few basic features. The quality of the
"ONE" DVD-R that I burned & tested was as good or better as any that I
ever burned with NeroVision 4, Roxio 9, Sony, etc.
LOL , and I have kissed a lot of burner frogs.
THANKS,
Gene
"Gene" <genes@wildblue.net> wrote in message
news:RPbBh.85$PO3.44076@news.sisna.com...
> They put the new trial version up for download a short
> time ago.
>
> This is "the" one that I have been waiting to test out.
>
> I just downloaded a trial copy, and will be doing some
> test runs tonight. At the moment, I'm letting it capture
> a Sony D8 1.5hr LP tape to the PC disk in AVI in the
> background. I will use it to render, then burn same
> onto a video DVD-R (VOBs) as a test.
>
> My gut feeling is that this version 3 is about the best
> all-in-one package out there at this time for my needs.
> I'm sure I can break it, but my gut feeling is that it's a
> LOT better than Nero, and probably better than
> Roxio 9 - we'll see :-)
>
>
> FYI:
>
> TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX Authoring Ver. 3.0.5.149 Trial Version
>
> TDA3-trial-3.0.5.149-install_EN.exe
> Size: 34.0 MB (35,665,424 bytes)
> This software is a trial version freely usable for 14 days.
>
> Free 14 day trial download here :
> http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/download/tda3.html
>
>
> Gene
>
>
>
>
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|