Greetings pendleton,
With DVD players now starting to outsell VHS players, it's no doubt
that more and more customers will come to expect their videos to be
placed on DVD instead of the aging VHS format. In order to get your
videos on to DVD, you're first going to need a couple of hardware
components, namely a DVD-burner and a video card that supports
video-in. You'll also need a sound card with audio-in, but most basic
sound cards support that function with no problem. Depending on how
you plan to transfer the video over to the PC, you may also need a
firewire port (IEEE 1394). A firewire port is included on some of the
newer sound cards available.
DVD-burners have dropped in price significantly over the last year.
Starting at around $1000 and up, prices have now come down as low as
$200 and even cheaper if you shop around on the Internet. Let me start
by giving you a little breakdown on the different DVD writeable
formats:
You have DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. Each of the different
formats have good and bad points. They are best broken down and
explained on this page:
http://www.pioneeraus.com.au/multimedia/dvd/dvd_recording_formats.htm
The bottom line is that companies are still fighting over what will be
the "standard" in DVD recordable formats. Eventually one will win out
over the other, but until then it's hard to know which one to put your
money behind. The best way to go is to try and find a drive that
supports as many of the formats as possible. Whichever way you decide
to go, you'll still get around the same recording capacity - 4.7GB.
You asked how many hours of video you can put on a DVD, which is hard
to answer as it depends on the quality of the video. Just like on a
VCR tape, you can record at SP, EP, etc and get varying amounts of
time on a single tape. DVD is not much different - record at higher
quality (or bit rates) and you'll get less on a disc. You'll end up
having to experiment a bit to see where your threshold for quality vs.
quantity lies.
When it comes to selecting a DVD recorder, there are tons of drives on
the market. What I seriously recommend, instead of letting me rattle
off one or two that I like, is to go to a site like CNET.com and read
through their reviews and comparisons of several different DVD-burner
drives on the market. They also offer up-to-date price comparisons as
well. A recent drive they reviewed is the Philips DVDRW228 DVD+RW.
This drive scored an 8 out of 10 as it supports both DVD+RW and the
DVD-R (less expensive) discs. It also includes several pieces of good
authoring software (which is something else you'll need to create the
DVDs). Unlike some other DVD burners out there, this drive will also
write to standard CDR and CDRW discs. Current prices show this drive
at around $276. You might can find a better deal on Pricewatch.com.
Another they liked was the Pioneer DVR-A04 and also the HP DVD-Writer
DVD200i. The Pioneer is a pre DVD+RW technology drive, but still
scored a good review and the HP is a new-generation DVD+RW drive that
also scored well.
Again, I urge you to visit CNET and/or other hardware review sites to
find a DVD drive that you feel will work best for your needs. Also,
read user-submitted reviews as they are also very informative.
Once you have the drive, you'll need some DVD authoring software. Some
drives will come with all the software you'll need, but you might want
to go with something more robust depending on your needs. Sonic makes
excellent DVD authoring software - dubbed MyDVD. A version of MyDVD
actually comes included with the Philips drive mentioned above. A
company called ULead also makes good authoring software called DVD
Movie Factory. A software package such as these are required to
transfer the video from VHS/Digital Tape to the DVD format - they also
help to create the DVD menus and such you see with professional DVD
releases. You should read the FAQs and information on their websites
to determine the best way to get the video from existing tapes to your
PC for authoring. Make sure they support all of the different ways you
might want to input the data.
The last thing you need to realize is that when it comes to DVD
recording, not ALL standard DVD players can read all types of
recordable DVD media. I believe that the DVD-R are the most compatible
with most standard players, but you might want to do your homework a
bit when choosing DVD recordable media -- especially if you're going
to be making discs for several different customers all with different
players.
I hope this helps to answer your question about DVD authoring. I've
included all of the links I mentioned above at the end of this answer.
Please don't hesitate to ask for clarification should you need further
assistance on this question -- I'll be happy to do additional research
if necessary.
Sincerely,
PWizard
CNET.com
http://www.cnet.com
CNET.com Storage Reviews
http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1091.html?tag=dir
Philips DVDRW228 DVD+RW Review @ CNET
http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1095-404-20090211.html?tag=pdtl-list
Pioneer DVR-A04 DVD-RW Review @ CNET
http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1095-404-9816702.html?tag=pdtl-list
HP DVD-Writer DVD200i Review @ CNET
http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1095-404-9782643.html?tag=pdtl-list
Sonic MyDVD Authoring Software
http://www.mydvd.com/default.asp
Ulead DVD Movie Factory
http://www.ulead.com/dmf/runme.htm |
