[holgmaster]

Hi Guys,

I am currently deciding if i should invest in a DVD recorder or not. I am hunting around online for a simple program that burns my minidv tapes from my Sony PC330 via firewire straight to DVD. Even the cheapest DVD recorder from Liteon etc... have Ilink/firewire inputs and records striaght onto DVD, there must be a way that an even more powerful PC should be able to handle that simple task. I used Pinnacle studio 10 and others but i simply want to transfer just the tootage to DVD without editing it.

Does anyone know a program that allows this?

Any help is appreciated.

[Mr.D]

Well a standard dvd recorder will have a hardware mpeg2 encoder to compress any incoming video signal on the fly. I doubt its just dumping the minidv stream straight to dvd. It wouldn't qualify as a dvd-video for a start.

If you want to dump stuff off to dvd in realtime then i supect that a standalone dvd recorder is your only bet.

[senu]

Programs such as Roxio Media Creator Suite 8 and 9 have a "straight to DVD" mode.
Ulead MovieFactory 4/5 also has that it is called straight to disc ( see below)

What you are asking the is that the PC capture DV AVI, convert it to mpeg2, futher make a DVD structure ( author: turn the mpeg to VOB) and burn.all "on the fly"

This is possible but is processor intensive and requires a "well oiled" system to work very well ,all the time. It is also fraught with the risk of failing should any of these processes not function well. The Settop DVD recorded is a dedicated hardware ( With hardware mpeg encoder and a much more simplififed software than a PC : hence its ability to be better at doing this)

Even with this software it infact doesnt happen real time as a lot of caching is done and background processes are taking place

Pinnacle Studio can import your footage via firewire as mpeg2 ( encoding "on the fly") and you can make movie to DVD disc straight away. It is only if you edit that it will rerender . As a 2 stage MiniDV tape to DVD it isnt IMHO, too bad

PS: As an aside, I can only get this function to work on one of 3 PCs : I really dont use it as such For straight capture, I use my settop DVD recorder ( with HDD). It is great for simple DVD authoring though.

[holgmaster]

Thanks for all your feedback. I have used Uleads factory before but wasn't very happy with the result. I might have a hunt around for a decent DVD recorder then. What recorder do you use if i may ask?

thanks again for your help.

[senu]

Which Ulead did you Use? The VideoStudio software has its friends and foes alike but Moviefactory Vers 3-5 ( and the costlier and fully featured ) Movieworkshop2 have proven good value to me
I have an LG 177 RH which has an 80Gb HDD. It cost £199 and I was drawn to it as it had Scart RGb in, firewire, component out ( for playing) 80Gb HDD ( enough for me) and is multi disc format DVD including dual layer capable.
I had a Panasonic before which cost £800 for a 40Gb HDD and was only cabale of using DVD-R an DVD-RAM. That was in 2002 though . it developed a fault after 14 months and cost to much to fix
The Lg has an internal tuner, will play Divx movies and mp3s on its HDD

Crucially the Image quality at best recording quality is very good.
It doesnt support DVD-RAM ( no great loss) and doesnt have a freeview tuner( I dont mind:it records off Sky digibox)

I would avoid the cheaper models but also try not to pay over the odds for "names" for nonessential extras although some recent Sony models ( I hate to say) seem to be very good for the money. I would also get an HDD model the versatility is amazing.

The DVD recoder forums will no doubt be full of info to help you reach a buying shortilst