[MacDV] Video project - VHS to DVD to DV to DVD

[Nick Scalise]

 On Wednesday, September 15, 2004, at 11:05PM, Robert L. Vaessen <rvaessen at mac.com> wrote:

[snip]

>The challenge defined
>---------------------
>Here are the steps that define our project. Steps have changed/evolved 
>as the project moved forward. I've spent well over three weeks just 
>getting to step 2, and I've got two coasters already.
>
>+ Step 1: Obtain original footage on VHS.
>Completed: Two VHS tapes were located. One raw footage, one edited 
>production copy. Quality was poor but legible.
>+ Step 2: Convert analog VHS to DVD. We probably should have gone 
>straight to DV, but we didn't...
>Completed: Two DVDs produced using a hardware analog to DVD converter. 
>The conversion process stabilized the tracking, eliminated some video 
>artifacts, and improved the overall quality of the movie. The DVDs 
>contain a VIDEO_TS folder with the following contents (from now on I 
>will only refer to one of the DVDs).
>+ Step 3: Take the DVD and read the data back into the computer. Need 
>to do this in order to perform video and audio editing of the movie 
>using iMovie.
>+ Step 4: Take the DVD data, now that it's back on the computer and 
>convert it into a format that iMovie can read.

All you need to properly convert your DVD to DV are:

MacTheRipper 
(gets the DVD to harddrive)

MPEG StreamClip 
QuickTime Pro
QuickTime MPEG2 component
(converts the DVD to DV)

MPEG StreamCLip does an excellent job at this. You can point it to your VOB files and have it convert them all to dv. It will even cut the dv files to 1.9gb for iMovie, all you then need to do is get them into iMovie and you can edit at will.

http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/

The last time I did this, I just created a new blank iMove project, saved it, quit iMovie and then dragged the new .dv files into the Media folder inside the new iMovie project folder. Start iMovie, it will ask you about some new files, tell iMovie to import them. (I do not know the exact steps, I am not near my home computer, but that is the general direction to take)

>+ Step 5: Edit the movie using iMovie.

>+ Step 6: Save the iMovie output in a format that can be read by iDVD.

If you have iMovie 4, there is an iDVD icon near the transition, titles, etc. icons. Click that when you are done editing your epic in iMovie and you can then create an iDVD project.

>+ Step 7: Use iDVD in order to add menus, and burn the re-mastered data 
>back onto a DVD.

[snip]

>- Step 7: Can iDVD burn data to a DVD so that the DVD will play in a 
>commercial hardware DVD player? (Not a data disc) Should I use Dragon 
>Burn to produce the DVD video disc? Is there any benefit to using 
>Dragon Burn over iDVD?

Yes. That is what iDVD is for, creating DVD's that will play on consumer/commercial DVD player that is connected to your tv set.

That said, some players are better at playing home made DVD's than others. In my limited experience I have found that some players will play 8x DVD's fine while others can only play DVD's that were burned at 1x.

So, burn your first DVD with iDVD. Test your DVD on different players. If it works on all the players you want to use great. If not try burning some more at slower speeds.  Burn later DVD's with Dragon burn so that you can change the speed at which you burn. You will need to use MacTheRipper to get your new DVD back to hard drive though (unless you have two drives available).

That ought to keep you busy for a while.

Good luck,
--
Nick Scalise
nickscalise at mac.com