Posted by Badger on 02/09/07 23:10

"youarehappyhey" <youarehappyhey@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1171003042.975849.210460@k78g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hey all,
>
> Just gotta vent here and ask for help with DVD burning from all of you
> experts in these newsgroups. All I've wanted to do is transfer some
> old home movies on VHS and 8mm video camcorder tape. I've been
> running the outputs from the VCR or camcorder to a Dazzle Digital
> Video Creator 150. In order to hopefully enhance the video quality, I
> run the video output through a GoDVD video enhancer between the VCR/
> camcorder output and the Dazzle input. The Dazzle then inputs into my
> computer which is a:
>
> Dell Dimension Desktop 4700
> 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor
> 16X DVD+/-R/RW (Phillips DVD burner)
> 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM at 400 MHz
> 250 GB hard drive
> Operating System is Windows XP Media Center
>
> My computer came with Sonic MyDVD software for burning video and data
> DVDs. The Dazzle video digitizer also came with Pinnacle Studio 9
> Quickstart, which allows video clips to be edited and output as
> various types of files. My media of choice is Delkin eFilm Archival
> Gold DVD-R. I have given up trying to make video DVDs because they
> were riddled with various problems. Instead, I've decided to make DVD-
> compatible MPEG files and store them on data DVDs. At least I can
> reliably make data DVDs which I can verify as being exact copies of
> the MPEG files burned.
>
> Unfortunately, I have a series of problems in the created MPEG files,
> pre-burning. First of all, Studio 9 Quickstart seems to force me to
> double-encode my MPEG files. The reason this happens is as follows:
> The capture step only allows me to save my initially captured video
> from the Dazzle video digitizer as MPEG files. These initial MPEG
> files look better than the finished ones, but I don't want to burn
> these initial MPEGs onto DVD because they need to be edited and
> trimmed such that blank tape captured at the beginning and end of the
> tape can be edited out. Well, after I drag the initial MPEG file to
> the storyboard in edit mode and trim the ends, I then have to use the
> Make MPEG function in the Make Movie step to make a new MPEG with the
> edits. The Make MPEG settings allows me to set a quality level of the
> output edited MPEG, such as DVD-compatible, which leads me to believe
> the program is re-encoding the edited MPEG, which seems rather
> pointless as it is already an MPEG file. The re-encoding seems to
> make the picture jerkier in the edited MPEGS, especially when the
> camera moves. Isn't there a way I can just trim the beginning and end
> of an MPEG file, without re-encoding the middle of it and altering the
> resulting video quality? I can't seem to find a way of doing so on
> Pinnacle Studio 9 Quickstart.
>
> In addition, even some of my initially captured video MPEG files have
> problems. The frames seem to be flickery and jerky at times. My
> Pinnacle capture settings are MPEG (high-quality DVD) (6000 Kbits/
> sec). I was wondering if maybe this is too high of a quality setting
> for my computer to keep up with? If so, what would be a better
> quality-level, in terms of bit rate, in light of my processing power.
>
> I have tried everything I can think of to try to fix the above
> problems, including updating Studio 9 Quickstart, Sonic MyDVD, and my
> DVD burner driver, turning off my screensaver, emptying my recycle bin
> and temporary files before burning, turning off my power saving
> settings, checking my system for viruses, running my disk
> defragmenter, not running any other applications while using my video
> software, and restarting my computer right before using my video
> software. Nothing seems to work.
>
> I can't understand why I can't get this stuff to make simple MPEG
> files for burning on data DVDs which are quality representations of
> their respective videos. Is this technology not perfected or what?
> All I have read indicates that my system should be perfectly capable
> of doing all that. I've looked at other software video digitizing
> equipment, but if you go on amazon.com, it seems like every such
> product has highly mixed reviews, even Nero software, which seemed to
> be the most highly respected video software on these newsgroups. If I
> just knew what hardware and software and settings that could reliably
> do what I want, I would happily try to purchase and use them.
>
> I tried technical support from Dell, Sonic, and Pinnacle, but am still
> having problems.
>
> I'm so frustrated, I'm just about ready to give up on my whole
> archiving project, which I was really looking forward to. What is
> going wrong here, and how can I fix it? I tried to provide as much
> information as I could for anyone willing to give an opinion or
> advice.
>
> Thank you very much in advance.
>
> Please reply to this message on the newsgroup.

As others have told you, Pinnacle software is not good. I spent many
frustrating hours with Pinnacle Studio 9 before I gave up in despair.
My only attempt at using VideoReDo also ended badly as a bad synch problem
arose between the video and audio streams on my output.
The only software that consistently works for me is Ulead Video Studio. It
will co-exist happily with other software, runs happily while I'm doing
other work and has never failed to produce exactly what I wanted - trimmed,
edited, effects, titles and menus added.
Badger

[Back to original message]