Hi folks,
I am using pinnacle studio 7 to edit my video footage which I would like to burn onto DVD, when I use the create DVD function the end result is some hours later I have an mpeg2 file, which nero will not allow me to burn onto DVD, it's instead looking for a vob file, so I burnt an image of the mpeg, but nero still will not burn it onto a dvd, instead is saying I am using the wrong medium ie DVDr instead of cdr/cdrw i presume becouse it's treating it as a SVCD or VCD rather than a DVD, can anyone help me with this, it's my first time using the pinnacle software and I'm a newbie to video editing altogether so I hope i've explained this properly, are there any other dv editing suits which have DVD burning capabilities ? I tried Ulead but didn't like it much although it does do the DVD authoring for you which is great! does anyone have any experience of adobe premier 6 in this regard
I am using:
pinnacle 7
nero 5.5.8
winxp pro
xp1900 chip with 512 meg
and a pioneer a01 dvd writer
thanks for your help
Fats

[JefUK]

You need to "author" the dvd and create the DVD files, one of which is a VOB file before you can burn it with Nero.

You need an authoring program, a good (and cheap) one is Ulead DVD Movie Factory. This will take the MPEG2 fom Studio 7 and write the DVD files to DVD-R/-RW. As an alternative it will also write the DVD files to HDD, or create an ISO disc image which can (I think) also be burned by Nero. The best solution is to let Ulead DMF do the whole job, including the burn.

There is a downloadable 30 day trial version of DMF on http://www.ulead.com/runme.htm. Also download the relevant patches.

For the best quality do not use the MPEG2 encoder in Studio 7. Write it to a DV-AVI and use TMPGEnc to encode to MPEG2. Again a trial version is available at http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html

This will give superb quality DVD's.


Studio 8 is a slightly more advanced editing application that has DVD authoring and burning, and it supports your Pioneer.

Thanks a lot Jeff,
that makes sense to me and sounds like some good advice re software in particular the vob files situ with nero, which I have never used before except to copy DVD's I am as I type this downloading movie factory and media studio and dvd workshop !
so with a bit of luck I should have my first homemovie on DVD by the end of the night !

Fats

[JefUK]

Great, downloading the whole lot!

DVD Workshop is more advanced than DMF but is more difficult to use. Try DMF first, I think it will do all you want.

Don't forget about TMPGEnc - it will preserve the quailty of the DV files and give the best possible quality. I only use the MPEG encoder in Studio 7 to give a fast MPEG to check the edit. When the video edit is complete then I convert the DV-AVI with TMPGEnc. I have just re-edited some 15 year old analogue video and strangly encoding with TMPGEnc and burning a DVD gives a better picture than replaying the original video tapes directly into the TV!

Good luck.

Thanks Jeff,
I'm having a good browse around both workshop and movie factory now as it happens, I forgot about tmpenc so cheers ... maybe i'll suspend the burning of the final product for a few nights while I suss out the new software ! I'm not sure I understand how to save as a dv-avi but it sounds obvious and I'll have a look at the formats available for saving files i guess it'll be there
cheers again m8

some hours later .................. Ive had a look through the various software and had a fidget with ulead studio again and I have to say I still prefer pinnacle 7's editing facilities to ulead studio as i said earlier, although ulead studio has some nice gimmicks ! can I do my editing ( cutting splicing and audio )in pinnacle and transfer to ulead studio for titles etc then to TMPenc ? and then to moviefactory for burning ? that would work for me I think if it's possible ? jeff, anyone ??
Fats

[JefUK]

I am not sure about transferring from Pinnacle to Ulead Studio. I know you cannot transfer DV-AVI's from SAtudio 7 to DMF. I think it is because Ulead uses type 1 DV and not type 2, so I suspect Ulead Studio is the same. I don't think there is anything you can do in Ulead Studio that you can't in Pinnacle Studio 7/HFX, especially if you have the Plus or Pro versions of HFX.

To render from Studio 7 to DV-AVI:

Make Movie

AVI

Select the DV codec from the dropdown list.

TMPGEnc is a bit daunting at first but the use of templates simplifies the matter. If you let me have your e-mail address I will send you a template that produces high quaility compatible MPEG2's for Ulead DMF.

Hi jeff
Thanks for your thoughts there, well I took the plunge and edited off a half hours worth and burnt it , just to see a result ! I'm pleased with the outcome and not so pleased with my camera work lol
So now I'm gonna investigate the pinnacle TMPenc and workshop option as you suggested ( you got my email correct although there was no TMPenc attachment if there was supposed to be ) I think your right about the bits n bobs available in ulead, I think perhaps at first glance it just seeems a little more sparkling and attractive rather than actually having anything that pinnacle doesnt offer, again cheers your thoughts on the matter are proving true !
what extras are available for pinnacle do you know ? Pinnacle seems to me to be more intuative and easier to work with creativley, on the other hand ive had a look at TMPenc and it looks as you say daunting....so I know what I'm doing this weekend !!
cheers and good luck
Fats

[JefUK]

Good progress so quickly, on what is still a rather complex process.

The main extra for Pinnacle Studio 7 is Hollywood HFX. HFX basic is included as standard but Plus and Pro versions are available as an upgrade. With Pro you can make your own transitions and effects for title sequences. On the Web there are many effects offfered free by users and you can buy a tutorial CD. With it you can make an amazing range of effects, very professional. Of course there is also a whole range of music, and sound effects available, at a price, from 3rd party vendors.

You will find TMPGEnc will give you much better quality, especially where you have motion and a good quality TV. Although it looks daunting the templates set up the vast majority of paramters. I could not attach the TMPGEnc templates because the forum does not alllow attachments, if you just reply to the e-mail I will send those I have developed to get the best out of TMPGEnc for Ulead DMF. AT least they will start you off.

Happy burning.

Hi Jeff
Thanks for your comments re progress and speed, I must admit to having done a music and audio technology HND and using the likes of Cubase a lot which has some similaritys( although that was a few years ago and I'm not in the biz now so am out of practice, the whole drag and drop cut n splice thing is second nature to me though, the only thing I dont like about pinnacle is I can find no way to view my edits on a larger screen, the small one being ok, but i'd like to see more clearly ( the old eyes must be going lol ) and to sync audio to my satisfaction is a little annoying at times too, I will investigate taking the sound out and editing in cubase along with some appropriate music and then adding it back in as a cd track or something, which I think would be easy enough to do on the project I'm working on now as there are no areas where words needs married to lip movement!
It seems 1 of the problems as a new camera man is what to shoot when to move and what to say, as in my cam the mic is always on I often get tempted to just keep talking and give a kind of blow by blow account, sometimes it's funny ( by accident ) mostly it's just annoying to listen to myself rabble on ! lol so as you can imagine editing is something I'll want to do a lot off.
I have sent you an email, last night in fact so you should have it, any problem there let me know and I'll send again. Thanks a lot Jeff as I said you've been an invaluable source of help as I get this interest of the ground .... beers on me !
Fats

Some time later..............
i'm now encoding to mpeg with tmpgenc at cbr8000kbps, I have no idea what this means ! but it seemed a good setting lol It'saying this process will take 1hr 19mins, the AVI is 5.02 gig and the finished mpeg will be app 1.8gig that seems fast ! so far so good !

Houston we have a problem !
ok tmpgenc is finished but when try to load the mpeg into moviefactory's "author menu" section it doesnt recognise the mpeg, it just doesnt load it up and with no explanation given, so now I'm not sure how to proceed, did I do something wrong in tmpgenc ? I can load it into capture video/make movie section in movie factory but it wants to convert it, it says to mpeg2....now I am confused
Fats- not - Fast !

[JefUK]

Hi Fats

The problem first. I suspect you have used the TMPGEnc wizard, this gives an audio bitrate of 384k whereas DMF wants 224k. If it does not comply with the MPEG2 spec it will reject and re-encode.

I have not received yor e-mail, if you try again I will send the templates. They will solve your DMF problem. They took a lot of trial and error to get parameters that worked and give the best quality.

In terms of encoding time, I run it overnight, you can get it to shut down the machine when it has finished.

Thanks again Jeff, email is on it's way, and I have sent you a private message also with my email addy

cheers
Fats

Hi folks

Ok so the combination you suggested Jeff has turned out great, and thanks very much for emailing me those templates, but curiosity has gotten hold, and I am wondering about Adobe Premier, Does anyone have any experience of it ? can you burn straight to disc with it ? how does it compare to Ulead and Pinnacle ?
cheers
Fats

Fats,

The most noddy and easy to use program to do basic cut editing (no extras) and write to DVD is Pinnacle Express. I had to upgrade to Pinnacle Studio 8 because Pinnacle Express is a bit old now and doesn't support my DVD drive. I tried Ulead DMF but it doesn't have any editing facilities, or none worth talking of. Pinnacle Studio 8 will write to DVD, something version 7 doesn't do. I didn't want to have to buy two programs, so Studio 8 was by far the better option.

Adobe Premier is a far more expensive and professional program, so I'm told. I paid around £60 for Studio 8 and I believe Adobe is several times more expensive than this. I'd suggest getting Studio 8, especially as you can buy the cheaper 'upgrade' version. Only once you've master this, consider something else. I've yet to find something I want to do, that Studio 8 can't do. I'd quite like to have a few more menus to select from, as they have only 30 or so in the Studio package.

Jeff, I'm glad you posted about how to use TMPEGenc in conjunction with Studio 8. I've been wondering how to do that. Thanks.

Kind Regards,
Shane Cook.

[JefUK]

Although I have Premier I have never installed it! Studio 7 with HFX Pro does all I need with very professional results. The limit is with the imagination and editing ability of the user, not the application. To get anything really much better you need a system with hardware rendering and effects, but these are expensive and strictly professional systems.

Look at HFX Pro - it gives you the ability to make not only transitions but short video sequences the can be used as introductions etc.

Happy editing.

Thanks Scook and Jeff,
Yes you may be right Jeff, and I havnt had HFX long enough yet to make a judgement on it's ability's, but I agree in principle that a good workman doesn't blame his tools, but lets face it that only goes so far as the tool in question is appropriate for the job in the first place!
I think I'm still taking the obvious routes with new software rather than reading the instructions, although my concerns are mostly audio related, 1 of the things that for me personaly is of great importance is the ability to marry audio and video, whether it's the original soundtrack or a mixture of imported and original, I want complete on the beat, on the frame accuracy, as befits the materiel I'm working on. My concern is that in both ulead and pinnacle I seem to be forced ( unless i've missed something ) to editing the audio seperatley, when in fact they are 1, I want to see which frames are being married to which beat on screen in realtime. Am I missing something ? I am new to this I know! I'd like to solo out a particular sequence and be able to see and hear at the same time my edits to audio as well as video, and any changes I make to have no effect on the other sequences, which i'd like to lock, so for example when I'm happy with a section going up to say a chorus on a peice of music I can lock that and move to the next section. So in pinnacle when i drag an audio track to a specific legnth or marry the BPM of some music to my idea of the flow of the visual or to another overlapping audio track, I want to see the effect that is having on the video content as I do it, rather I want to lock it out and treat the next sequence as an independant peice, marrying up the segments on final mix! not having to go through the whole " movie " to see what has impacted on what and then have to adjust the audio track by geuss work ..... MMM I hope this makes sense ! your thoughts please

[JefUK]

If I am understanding you correctly you want precise alignment between audio and video.

Firstly, the camera soundtrack should be in sync with the video. If you want to change this the only way is to lock the video time line and you can then move the audio relative to the video for each scene. Expanding the timeline to the greatest magnification will assist in aligning obvious audio events with the video. To work on small clip lengths split the clips to the length required. You will then get gaps between the sound track clips, these can be closed up by unlocking the video and adjusting the video clip in/out points.

Syncing other audio channels can be done in the same way, except there is no need to lock the video.

Have I answered the right question?

Hi Jeff
Yes, thanks again for your advice ! I havnt had the chance to try out your ideas yet, but it sounds better if for no other reason than I didn't realise that I could expand the time line. But I was hoping I could get into the audio track properties and edit things like the BPM, this is something I would only want to do with perhaps background music, so maybe I would be better doing it in Cubase and exporting as an mp3, which I could then import into pinnacle. It makes sense I was just hoping for an all in 1 software solution, which is maybe a little unrealistic.
Ok well thanks again and happy editing
Regards
Fats

[JefUK]

Fats...

To change things like BPM is really beyond any video editing application. This is firmly in the realm of specialist audio packages - like Cubase (using which you must be an expert - I wish I was!)

I usually like to import audio files as wav files, you can import MP3's but Studio 7 then converts it to a temporay vaw file anyway - so it saves the time and perhaps another conversion.

When editing and changing sync of the camera audio track don't forget to lock the video by using the buttomn at the left end of the timeline.

To expand the timeline right-click on the scale and select the expansion required.

Hi Jeff

Yes, well as i said I have a small home studio, a couple of samplers various effects and keyboards as well as modules, and having been using cubase for about 7 years, since version 1.14 and I did an HND in music and audio tech which is basically about studio setups, midi sequencing and accoustics, so I'm well used to cubase if a little out of practice, so in the end maybe that is my best option ! so we'll see how it goes ! I have got involved in a project with a couple of young folk from my old college and have agreed to film and mix theyre band, so given the limitations of my camera, I'm going to have to find someway of putting the audio component on afterwards and syncing it all up, problem is with the camera and video editing software I am a complete novice ! EEK!!

cheers Jeff
reagrds Fats