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I also prefer cross transitions for similar reasons as above. Would support giving the user the option to nominate their preferred default.
Cheers, Con
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Hi Jayhawk1,
I notice you said you are entirely new to entirely new to video transfer and editing, so I assume you are looking for detailed information or a bit more than just a "heads up".
I did a search on Google and came up with a few very informative articles. Here is one of them.
http://www.unterzuber.com/vhstodvd.html
May I suggest you read a few of these first and get familiar with processes, terminology etc. This should also give you a very good idea of options, equipment and your preferred set up.
After you have done this as preparation, then it would be a great idea to look at the video tutorials as suggested by James.
Regards, Con
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Hi Tony,
Like Robert, I am not sure I completely understand either - nor do I have a hang glider to fly over for a couple of cold ones while we go exploring.
I assume the forced "snap" to timeline is the main cause of your grief. A wild guess, but do you think this might get you closer to the holy grail ..... ?
1. Place the 3 videos and PIPS as close as you can in the timeline. Let PD do its own thing by allowing it to "snap" them horizontally.
2. Play the video with PIP1 and PIP2 to the end and take note how many milli seconds each one is out of sync with the other. Lets say PIP1 and PIP2 are out of sync x and y milli seconds each.
3. Trim the start of PIP1 and PIP2 by x and y milli seconds respectively to eliminate the error. This effectively should synchronise their start when you place them in the timeline and PD snaps to grid..
I am hoping that might give you the required result.
You could also try this method in combination with your colour board (option 2) in your original post.
Sorry if this does not quite make sense.
Cheers - Con
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Hi Aaron,
By any test, the technical landscape for videography is totally confusing with a huge array of options, standards and file formats. The terminology isn't too user friendly either.
Tony's explanation is probably one of the best you will find - you certainly can't go wrong if you follow his suggestions.
If you are still a little confused, take heart - you are not alone.
As you complete each project, your knowledge and expertise will improve and eventually your learning curve will flatten out.
Welcome to the crazy (but highly satisfying) world of videography. You seem to have all the latest gear, so you are well prepared.
Good luck!
Cheers - Con
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I completely agree with Jaime's sentiments.
Looking at the cost and maintenance overhead - I rationalise it this way .... at 1Gb for 6 minutes, one could store 6,000 minutes or 100 hours of video on a 1 TB external disk.
These disks are now sold for around AUD $130, which is very reasonable.
As long as your PC can cope with HD / AVCHD files, I think preserving family memories at the highest resolution is highly desirable.
This is especially so when you consider that what we capture today could become a great reference resource for future generations.
Cheers - Con
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Thank you. I just bought the upgrade from PD7 to PD8 last week so I will contact online support as suggested.
Con
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Hi,
I have read a few posts about version 2508. The "Downloads" - "software updates" link points to version 2220c.
Is v 2508 available to the general public at the moment and if so, how can this be accessed? Thank you.
Regards
Con
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Hi,
I use Debut Video Capture and it has been stable, is very efficient for file sizes and extremely good quality.
I mainly use it to capture webinars and it has faithfully captured all types of streams and videos.
There are 2 versions - one is free and there is also a Pro version, available at:
http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/
Cheers
Con
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Hi Becky,
I wrote a post with some ideas but realised there was another page of events which I had missed completely - sorry!
Perhaps you may wish to keep this other option up your sleeve, for future reference ....
Create a "backup" of your DVD using DVD Shrink and then use these files to import to Power Director. This software is free -
http://www.dvdshrink.org/
If all else fails, ask the person who created the DVD for you if they can give you the source files. Then use these in your project instead of the VOB files on the DVD.
Hopefully you will be able to resolve this to your satisfaction.
You deserve 11/10 for persistence and resilience!
Cheers,
Con
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Hi Bevan,
In addition to Adrian's outstanding explanation of video formats and the multitude of options etc. may I share my experience in relation to your second question ...
what is the best value to select as TV format PAL(25fps) or NTSC(30fps)?
I have a Panasonic SD9 which is a high definition NTSC camera and produces AVCHD format files. As I live in Australia, I tried to convert this footage from NTSC to PAL as part of my workflow to create a DVD.
PD could not create a smooth picture and after trying many different software, I gave up. The results were sub-standard - every 6th frame seemed to be dropped (to reduce 30 frames per second to 25 frames) and the video appeared jerky.
Eventually I decided to happily accept NTSC and get the benefit of smoother motion, given the larger number of frames per second. Most modern DVD players can easily display both NTSC and PAL, so there should be no issue there.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Con
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Hi William,
I think something is not right if 90 minutes of video is rendering to around 7.7Gb in MPEG2 format.
Even at the highest quality setting (DVD HQ), in my experience PD can usually fit about 70 minutes of its highest quality video on a 4.7Gb disk.
I just converted a 45+ minute AVCHD file using the DVD HQ setting and ended up with the following specs:
Video:
Type: MPEG-2
Original duration: 00:45:28:23
Bitrate: 7.99 Mbps
Resolution: 720x480
Frame rate: 29.97 fps
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
File size: 2.72 GB
Audio:
Type: Dolby Digital
Sample rate: 48kHz
Bitrate: 448Kbps
Channel: Dolby Digital 5.1
Therefore I would expect that 90 minutes of footage should occupy about 5.4Gb.
To fit 90 minutes on one DVD, I would use a lower bitrate setting. When Producing a file, I would select a "Custom" Profile Type, then create one with about 6.2 Mbps instead of the 8.0 Mbps.
This should allow you to render to a file well under the 4.7Gb limit, leaving you enough room for the title page, music and any other elements you wish to add to your menu.
The quality should be pretty good.
Cheers
Con
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Hi John,
Whilst a lot will depend on how much you value the optimal image (as per Tonys' post) you may find that a bitrate of around 6.2 Mbps might get you the result you want without any discernible loss of quality.
I have burned several videos using a lower bitrate (between 6 and 7 Mbps) with excellent results. If the source video is clean, it is hard to tell the difference sometimes.
Alternatively, if you try to reduce the video footage from 90 to 70 minutes, it could take you hours and hours and this may be a more painful compromise than dropping the bitrate.
Cheers
Con
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Hi Warren,
This has happened to me once or twice. Don't know why, just an unexplained mystery of technology.
The way I got around it was to remove the transition, save the project under a new filename and close PD.
Re-open PD, load the project and insert the transition manually.
This usually did the trick. Hope it works for you too.
Cheers
Con
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Hi Tony,
In relation to your question of Lassek ... " - where are you in this discussion? " ...
I think he probably would be very shocked to realise there have been some 14 posts within 24 hours of him asking his question. 
The timing of Peter and Fred's posts was very rapid fire - I have really enjoyed it.
It would make all of our lives easier if the AVCHD standard were unified and followed by all manufacturers. Then software such as PD could at least have a decent chance, rather than trying to hit a moving target.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Cheers, Con
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Yes, try and bring all your files into the one directory so that they are all together on your local drive eg. in your "documents" folder on Drive C: or similar. PD6 should be better able to access the files from there, rather than hunt for them on some external hard drive.
Cross fingers !!
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I had this problem when I imported large files which were located on an external drive or an SD memory card.
I would suggest you load all your assets (pictures, videos etc) in your PD7 working directory and see if that fixes the problem. Also, defrag your disk and ensure the files are not corrupt.
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Hi pcj,
Thanks for taking the time with the comparison shots etc. and explanatory comments.
You are quite correct, the PD quality should be better.
I think it is also worth mentioning to new videographers that much depends on how one intends to view their DVDs. I view my DVDs on either a CRT TV or via a projector on a 3 metre screen and the resolution difference is not noticeable.
If playing back on a plasma or an LCD, then the difference would of course be apparent.
Hopefully Cyberlink can fix this quality issue so we can streamline our workflow.
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Yes, I use PD7 to edit MPEG2 HQ files and to then generate MPEG DVD quality output.
I also do a lot of slideshows and use PD7 for this purpose.
Con
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Hi James,
I agree that the PD7 authoring process should not touch the .mpg files once they are rendered, but I understand there may be glitches in SVRT. All I know is that PD7 authoring does not give me best results. I don't know why ....
The point I tried to make is that the authoring program which I use does not re-encode, whereas some programs force a re-encode regardless.
The Canon HG20 is an excellent camera - good choice!
Regards
Con
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Hi James,
Yes, I agree Power Director (PD) does not cope very well with AVCHD files. For best results I:
1. Convert the original Panasonic SD9 .mts files into MPEG2 HQ format using the bundled software HD Writer 2.5.
2. Feed these MPEG2 HQ files into PD to edit etc.
3. Output the edited files in MPEG2 SD format, ready for DVD authoring.
I use PD version 7.
If you feed .mts files into PD, you may get mixed results. As I recall when I was using PD6, PD6 would convert the .mts files into its own version of MPEG2 HQ to enable editing, transitions etc.
Whilst this workflow also gave me quite "acceptable" to "good" results, the best quality was achieved following steps 1 to 3 above.
Another factor to consider is whether the authoring process in PD compounds the loss of quality issue. I have not been happy with the PD authoring capabilities (nor Power Producer for that matter) so I decided to use another package which authors the DVD without re-encoding the PD7 .mpg files.
Hope that helps. Please let me know if you need any more information.
Con
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