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Editing video into DVD's - how best to do it.


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Hello

 

One thing I need to do when I retire (soon) is to edit my videos into viewable dvd's.

 

I have five formats  and cameras to play them on - Video 8, Video 8 Plus (?), Digital 8, Mini cassette and now chip.

 

Things move fast with technology and so my question is - what is the best way to edit my footage nowadays?

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I use Sony Vegas Studio v11.0 which is a bit long in the tooth now - I think they're currently up to v16.   Most modern video editing tools will import pretty much anything, and some will allow you to include HD and earlier formats in the same timeline.  For starters I'd say avoid this and import footage from one type at a time and edit until you're confident.

 

My original material is on Video 8, Hi8, Digital 8, mini-DV and now HD on cards.  There are some pitfalls with earlier formats.  From Digital 8 onwards, when you capture video you will get a little icon for each scene - eg if you capture 5 mins straight from the camera and there are 20 different scenes you get 20 icons.  Video8 and Hi8 won't do this.  They hadn't thought about it, so you get a 5 min capture with no detail.

 

For Video8, Hi8 and D8 the cassettes are the same but make sure you have a camera with a miniDV socket to connect to your computer.  Since the 1990's I used a 'Firewire' IEEE1394 cable which was the bee's knees back then.  You won't get a new computer these days that has a Firewire card in it, but you can buy them.  I've no idea what happens if you get a miniDV to USB cable what it'll do.  I suspect USB2 might struggle at times but USB3 should be ok with the data volumes.  However as I still use the Firewire for V8, Hi8, D8 and miniDV I've no need to change.

 

For modern all-digital cards it's just the same as a stills camera.  Either connect a USB/miniDV cable to your camera, or take the card out and put it into a card-reader to copy files across.

 

If you're wanting to save everything digitally, it depends on just how much fliming you have but will need sizable external drive/s.  I've a couple of 2TB drives but they were becoming full.  Am now using an 8TB external drive.  I haven't backed that up as I still have the original films going back 1989 and cameras that can still connect to the PC (I always use a desktop for archiving work not a laptop).

 

 

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Whilst it's not exactly an entry level program, Davinci Resolve is now free and has swept the industry as being about equal to the (expensive, subscription based) Adobe Premiere Pro.

 

4TB USB 3.0 hard drives are between £60-80 on Amazon and I would recommend getting 2 and doing daily backups as a failed hard drive is a very sad thing.

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Save the video at the highest quality possible, then you only have to do it once.

 

I would buy (at least) two drives (each time) so you have two copies of each in case of failure.

 

 

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If you have a DVD player with a record facility and an S-video input socket, then you ought to be able to plug a camcorder into the recorder and record directly onto a blank DVD. 

 

I did this with most of my camcorder video collection, and then just ripped the DVD contents onto my laptop using available software (in my case Handbrake). The DVD becomes the default backup to the hard drive version. 

 

I found it quite straightforward once I had bought a supply of blank DVDs.  

Edited by jonny777
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I have a Mac which comes with iMovie, a video editing programme which is fairly easy to use.  I then burn them onto DVD using an old version of Roxio Toast (I bought the new version too, but it is awful and crashed my Mac to such an extent it had to go back to Apple for repair).  I really need a new DVD burning programme.

 

As said above, make sure you keep at least two copies of the video files, even better if you give a friend a copy to keep safe for you.

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DVD Studio Pro on Mac used to be awesome but unsure if it's still supported (I actually did a university module in DVD production - I made one for a fictional action movie with animated titles, menus etc. Given the way technology went seems like it was a waste of time now! Ah well)

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I am also using Pinnacle Studio for all the big jobs, but for "quick and dirty" video editing I use Microsoft's free Movie Maker. The Pinnacle software isn't exactly cheap, but it is quite powerful and user-friendly (a lot more so than Adobe Premier Pro, which, to me, is expensive overkill but is used in the school I work in).

 

Movie Maker costs nothing but is not currently available directly from Microsoft, so has to be downloaded from external websites. Microsoft say it isn't compatible with Windows 10, but I use it at work and at home on Windows 10 with no problems.

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Not checked to see if it does the DVD bits but I use the free Microsoft Moviemaker to patch together video and stills into films which have been uploaded onto YouTube.

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On 16/06/2019 at 07:54, TEAMYAKIMA said:

Hello

 

One thing I need to do when I retire (soon) is to edit my videos into viewable dvd's.

 

I have five formats  and cameras to play them on - Video 8, Video 8 Plus (?), Digital 8, Mini cassette and now chip.

 

Things move fast with technology and so my question is - what is the best way to edit my footage nowadays?

I hate to disappoint you but from my experience the idea of retirement bringing the opportunity to do all those things you've wanted to do, but haven't had time for, soon becomes fantasy.

You thought you were busy when you're working;retirement soon shows what real busy is :)

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