DVD Recorder or PC Editing Software

Cablechap · 11-06-2007, 10:08 AM

Hi All,

I'm considering buying the new £250 Sony RDR-HXD870 for both TV recording and camcorder recording, but wondered if I should give my PC one more chance.

I bought a pretty good PC (AMD 3200+, 1GB RAM, 300GB HHD, 6600 GC, and DTV card) about a year ago and have tried only to record tv so far to DVD.
I've used the free Cyberlink director/producer software, plus a trial of the latest, but always get audio sync problems after editing. Tried free Microsoft Moviemaker but it just crashes/hangs.

The question: Is there some cheap software (£30-50) out there that will do the trick, or should I just bite the standalone bullet?

Cablechap

jaymac · 11-06-2007, 11:51 AM

Tv recordings not always the easiest of tasks .For TV I use and reckon Video redo about the best basic editing like removing adverts and more important has a manual control for Sync probs .You can download the free trial but this is really only for your tv recordings which can sometimes be fraught with sync probs regardless of which software

MarkE19 · 11-06-2007, 2:06 PM

As stated already, many TV broadcasts are slightly out of sync to start with. Analogue capture can then add more gap between the audio and video due to many capture devices not combining them both together. IMO the best analogue capture devices are either a digital camcorder with AV-in enabled (most cams don't offer this feature) or the Canopus ADVC converters (but these are expensive, starting at around £80). You just connect the cam/ADVC to the PC via firewire and use any editing software (but disable device control from the capture settings).

A standalone DVD recorder will offer quick & easy conversion to DVD, but offers few editing features. A PC offers far more control and almost certainly better quality final DVDs. You need to decide which option is better suited to you.

Mark.

Cablechap · 11-06-2007, 4:23 PM

Thanks, I'll try Video Redo.

Just to clarify, I have a digital TV card built into my PC, so guess there is not much analogue going on, just transmission MPEG2 with its funnies.

My video camera is a JVC GR-DVP9 and I think it takes Firewire/analogue in/out if needed. Eventually, I will need to transfer the dv tapes to dvd aswell.

Spring in one side of the zoom control switch stopped working but that's another story...

**senu** · 11-06-2007, 10:10 PM

Your Cyberlink software may be the "weakest link"

Cablechap · 14-06-2007, 11:33 AM

Ok, tried VideoRedo, does the job, thanks.

Outputted video in various formats - mpeg, vob, used Nero to write disk but whichever route requires the same amount of time to re-encode the film for DVD, i.e. a 100 min film takes 100 mins to write to dvd.

How do you speed this process up - I thought a vob file would help?

Cablechap · 15-06-2007, 11:11 AM

Anyone?

jaymac · 15-06-2007, 11:45 AM

Not quite with you ! If i run a a recording through redo I then use Gui- dvd author which takes time but end result is a Video_ Ts file which will burn at a lot faster than real time which your setup seems to be doing. Not sure but perhaps you are reencoding evrything again which will take timeI will stick a rcording on later today and post time factors

Cablechap · 15-06-2007, 12:57 PM

Nero is doing both the authoring and the writing and turns the single 3.8gb video mpeg file into 3 1gb and 1 0.8gb vob files plus some additional small ts files.

I thought if I output as a single 3.8gb vob file this would speed up the process.

VideoRedo can output a ts file aswell so maybe this will help.

jaymac · 15-06-2007, 12:58 PM

Result as folllows 30 minute TV recording .Ran through VDR and saved as elementary stream (my choice) .It then took 5 minutes for Gui-dvd author to convert to _TS file then just over 5 minutes to run tht through shrink and Imgburn = say 11minutes fro m finishing with Vdr to a burnt dvd of 30mins. say 650M/bs.I would think then a 90 minute vid would take over 3 times that so the times would be close but still less than yours .I'll run a 100 nut through and see what happens timewise

jaymac · 15-06-2007, 5:10 PM

Meant to clarify you cannot create .vob file longer than the obligatory 0.99 Gb I have done another run through for comparison.Recorded 1hour 43 mins ran it through VDR time taken after vdr to finished disc 27 mins the disc size is 2.88 Gb

Cablechap · 18-06-2007, 9:38 AM

Thanks, tried both VideoRedo and Gui dvdauthor together and it drastically reduced the total time. Tried a side by side visual comparison of both methods (inc Nero) on my Hitachi 42PD5200 plasma and there was no difference that I could see, only occasional dropped frames via the Nero route.

Gui dvdauthor looks a bit daunting..

jaymac · 18-06-2007, 4:34 PM

Glad you are making progress .Yes Gui can look daunting though the help section is very good .Particularly handy is the ease of creating chapters .Only use it on the od occasion these days

Cablechap · 21-06-2007, 10:03 AM

One more thing as my trial ends this week.......

How does free ProjectX compare with $50 VideoRedo, especially for video/audio sync?

jaymac · 21-06-2007, 11:05 AM

Think I tried X in the early days amongst others but preferred VDR.You dont need to rush as you can purchase the key for vdr anytime after the trial period ends ,So try out others and see what you think .Incidentally never had Sync problems using Vdr. I only use it now when I have to reset the aspect ratio on dvd 's made on my dvd recorder