Thanks to Gordon, Diane, Mark, Brenda ,Shelley and Dan for their wise words
about this subject. If I get more replies in the next couple of days, I will
post a Part 2 to the Hit.
Ada G. Kent, Librarian
Ohio School for the Deaf
500 Morse Road
Columbus, Oh 43214
agkent@columbus.rr.com
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Burn video footage to DVD without all the fuss
<Javascript:scriptsearch('By%20Ric%20Manning','phrase','','','3')> By Ric
Manning / The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
Ric ManningSony DVDirect
Pros: Easily turns videotapes into DVDs.
Cons: Minimal editing features.
Price: About $280.
Score: 4.5 stars (out of 5).
www.sonystyle.com.
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DVD burners have become standard equipment on many new computers. They're
especially handy for transferring home video productions to disc for
playback on home DVD players.
But what if you don't have a DVD burner in your computer? Or, what if you
don't want to learn to be a video editor and producer? A lot of people would
be happy just to have an easy way to turn old VHS tapes or digital camcorder
videos into DVDs that they can watch or share.
Those are the people Sony hopes to attract with a new recorder it calls
DVDirect.
The box serves as both a video-capture device and a recording device. That
puts it a step ahead of some PC-based systems that require a separate
recorder and video input components - and sometimes a lot of patience to get
them to talk to each other.
If you've ever used a PC to capture and edit video and, then, burn it to a
DVD, you know that in many cases this can be an all-day job.
DVDirect makes it easier. Here's how:
- Connect the input jack on the DVDirect to the output jack on the VCR using
a standard RCA-type audio and video cable. You also can use an S-Video
cable, which provides slightly better video quality.
- Next, load the video you want to copy into the VCR and put a blank DVD in
the DVDirect. Push the play button on the VCR and the record button the
DVDirect.
- A small display window on the Sony will tell you that it's reading the
video signal from the VCR and how long the process will take. Usually the
amount of time is about the same as the program you want to record.
- When the tape is finished running, you can hit the eject button on the
VCR, and the DVDirect will ask you if you want to finalize the DVD.
- Five minutes later, the Sony burner will spit out a finished DVD that
should work in practically any DVD player. It worked in all those we tested
it in.
The DVDirect doesn't deliver all the features that you get with editing
software. You can't create title slides or put fancy transitions between
scenes. The recorder creates a chapter each time you add new material to a
disc, and there's an option that automatically will add chapter breaks every
5, 10 or 15 minutes.
A lack of editing options also means you can't watch and monitor your
recording while it's in progress.
The DVDirect also works with digital camcorders and, to a limited degree,
with PCs. There's a Firewire connection for linking the burner to a
camcorder. And you can link it to a PC using a USB cable - not the Firewire
cable.
With the Nero software that Sony provides, the DVDirect will function as a
good high-speed external DVD burner. And it supports dual-layer DVD+R media,
so you can store up to two hours of video on one disc.
If you want a do-it-all DVD burner for home video production on your PC,
this isn't the gadget to buy. But if you're looking for a simple of way of
transferring video to discs on the fly, the DVDirect should fit the bill
nicely.
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At the end of the school year, I got a GoVideo unit that transfers from VHS
to + or - DVD. It also copies from DVD to VHS. I got it to transfer
archives of sports videos (championship games) to DVD. So far, I have not
had a chance to use it. But I liked the reviews, etc. that I read about it.
I will leave the hardware info to others (many variables here, and your
computer may already be equipped to deal with this in any case), but you
need to be aware that typically, editing software that creates dvd's from
home videos will produce dvd''s that ONLY play on computer DVD drives, NOT
standard household DVD players (it has to do with the way the images are
encoded for transfer). This is a function of the software, not the hardware
(there is nothing wrong with your dvd writing drive in your computer).
One way you *can* do this is to buy a DVD recorder (it will look like a dvd
player for your home but will have a 'record' button). The video source
plugs into the input jacks on the recorder. The problem here is that you do
not have any sophisticated editing or special effects available to you...no
fades, no sound on sound, no fingertip stop/start of source material, no
freeze frame, etc. On the other hand, you will be producing a DVD that will
play on most (not all) home dvd players.
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Our school bought a Casablanca Video Editing system (allows digital,vhs to
dvd) for school events, etc.
At home I purchased Pinnacle Studio Deluxe and added a DVD burner (very
inexpensive now days)... to my dismay, the purchase of the Casablanca was a
HUGE waste of money! I'm hoping to get Pinnacle for school...but until the
money situation is better, I've been doing the editing and burning at home
on my computer instead of using the Casablanca. I definately don't like
doing it on my "own time" at home, but Pinnacle offers BETTER QUALITY, and
the rendering speed is so much better!
I highly recommend Pinnacle...it upsets me that I wasted so much valuable
time learning the Casablanca system(it was NOT user friendly). Pinnacle is
VERY USER FRIENDLY, and the Interface is easy to understand --even for kids!
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Yeah, it can be done, easily, I think. My son has done it several times
both with the DVD burner in his computer and with a $500 standalone
Panasonic DVD burner, purchased back in December of 2004.
I'd suggest you do some reading on the Internet of reviews of DVD burners.
If you use your computer DVD burner, you have to figure out how to get the
video into the computer. There are various approaches you can use.
I installed an ATI All-in-Wonder video card (Yup, you read that right....I
installed....) which had inputs for analog audio and video.
You can always go to good-old Best Buy and get an add-on unit that will move
the video into the computer... You might be able to use a digital camcorder
to do the same thing, but I don't own one and haven't tried that approach.
Once you get the video into the computer, it will be a simple matter to burn
it.
Again, there all kinds of aids and tutorials available on the Net, not to
mention the manual that came with your own burner.
There are a zillion articles like this, but here is one example that turned
up at the top of my Google search...
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114300,00.asp
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We use the Pinnacle software. You can buy two versions. One is for
anything that is AV. The other is for digital cameras. We use both at our
school and our students have created highlight tapes of the different sports
seasons and sold them for a fundraiser. It is a very basic video editing
software and is relatively cheap.
If your equipment is PC based, PC World has step by step instructions on
their website. Look under HOW To articles. They've had articles on it in the
past 6 months or so.
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