[suffolktoon]

Anyone done it and then written the results to a DVD? Is it straightforward? Is there any free editing software available?

[redsox_mark]

Yes many of us here do that regularly....

It is relatively straightforward.... depends on how PC "savy" you are...

What kind of camcorder is it... is it DV? DVD? HDD?

There is free editing software (Windows Movie Maker on XP, iMovie on MAC).
Or this
http://www.avid.com/freedv/

These will edit but not author DVDs.. you need additional software for that. I'm not sure about free DVD authoring options...
a cheap paid one is Ulead Movie Factory.

[Geordie Jester]

Mark can you comment about using Movie Maker to prepare a DVD file ?

I wasn't too sure what the best selection was in order to maintain as much quality as possible for burning onto DVD.


cheers

[redsox_mark]

If it is DV you are editing with Movie Maker, you want to capture DV (.avi) and also render your edits out in that same format. Then you can use various encoding/authoring software to render this to MPEG2 for DVD.

If you edit with software which supports rendering to MPEG2 directly (e.g. Sony Vegas which I use) then you can render out to MPEG2 directly from the editor - and use this to author your DVD. (Saves an additional render step).

[Geordie Jester]

sticking with WMM for now, I would choose from the pull-down DV-AVI(PAL) to do the best I can ?

Then in Nero or something I could potentially author a DVD using this avi file and it would be the best it could be quality wise. ?

[redsox_mark]

Yes, exactly.

The DV-avi file you output will be as good as the input - DV is a format which does not degrade with each generation of editing. And Nero or any authoring software will take the DV-avi and encode it to MPEG for DVD.

[Geordie Jester]

great thanks for your help. we are new owners of the canon mvx450.