Video encoding, burning video to media, some info needed please

[Myhre]

Okay so I'm a noob when it comes to video, but just recently I've had someone ask me to do some work for them. Lol, I know at least some of you guys have been in the same situation. Someone comes up to you and says hey I need such and such done and you know the most about computers out of anyone I know. And well you kinda say, um....sure, okay....I can do that, and start going crazy researching everything on it. Well the cold hard truth is I can't do that, not yet at least. So here's the fix I don't know jack about video encoding and editing. All I know is that someone wants me to transfer Hi8 and DV video inot mpg format for them, as well as burn about 50 DVD's with the same media on it. I wasn't exactly sure what section to put this in but I decided on this one because it will involve burning some of this stuff to DVD's. If anyone could clue me in on video encoding, video editing I would be humbly greatful. And if someone could define what it is generally used for along the way as well that would be grand. Links would also be excellent. I'll post more questions as I have them, and if this is in the wrong section would a mod move it to a more appropriate one? Thanks a ton guys.

Myhre

[ClarkKent]

1) He is going to have to get the footage to a computer. For this he is going to plug his DV cam (usually via Firewire) into the computer and capture it using appropriate software (I use Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, but Windows Movie Maker will just fine if he doesn't have the cash for better software).
Getting the Hi8 media onto a computer is going to be harder. He'll have to plug it into a capture card (like any of the All-In-Wonders, or a seperate PCI capture card). I guess it's not harder but could cost more if he doesn't have one.

2) After getting the media onto the computer he will need to be able to edit the footage how he likes (Adobe Premiere is great for this, but again Windows Movie Maker will do it for free).

3) The next step is Authoring. You can bypass this step and just burn the footage as is. But a menu is always a great thing to have. Which really sets DVD's apart from VHS and other previous formats. I use Adobe Encore DVD for this.

Here is the product info for Adobe Video Collection a great product and worth every penny.

http://www.adobe.com/products/dvcoll/main.html

If the price is too much Adobe offers download trials of their products so you can try them before you buy. You can also get to those from the link above.

[Myhre]

1) He is going to have to get the footage to a computer. For this he is going to plug his DV cam (usually via Firewire) into the computer and capture it using appropriate software (I use Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, but Windows Movie Maker will just fine if he doesn't have the cash for better software).
Getting the Hi8 media onto a computer is going to be harder. He'll have to plug it into a capture card (like any of the All-In-Wonders, or a seperate PCI capture card). I guess it's not harder but could cost more if he doesn't have one.

2) After getting the media onto the computer he will need to be able to edit the footage how he likes (Adobe Premiere is great for this, but again Windows Movie Maker will do it for free).

3) The next step is Authoring. You can bypass this step and just burn the footage as is. But a menu is always a great thing to have. Which really sets DVD's apart from VHS and other previous formats. I use Adobe Encore DVD for this.

Here is the product info for Adobe Video Collection a great product and worth every penny.

http://www.adobe.com/products/dvcoll/main.html

If the price is too much Adobe offers download trials of their products so you can try them before you buy. You can also get to those from the link above.

Thanks a ton for the info, your knocking my problems out one at a time tonight :attn: By the way, is this considering video encoding? what exactly is video encoding?

[ClarkKent]

Encoding video is the task of copressing raw video footage into the format you need. You would have to use the proper CODEC (compression-decompression) to encode the footage so that it would work on a DVD. DVD's use a very specific mpeg2 compression. When outputting the footage from the video editing software you pick which codec you want to use. Adobe premiere will actually allow you to burn directly to DVD and will encode on the fly. If he plans on Authoring the DVD himself with menus and such, then typically the authoring prog will encode the video itself. So truthfully, with good enough software you wont really have to concern yourself much with encoding the video.

[Myhre]

Encoding video is the task of copressing raw video footage into the format you need. You would have to use the proper CODEC (compression-decompression) to encode the footage so that it would work on a DVD. DVD's use a very specific mpeg2 compression. When outputting the footage from the video editing software you pick which codec you want to use. Adobe premiere will actually allow you to burn directly to DVD and will encode on the fly. If he plans on Authoring the DVD himself with menus and such, then typically the authoring prog will encode the video itself. So truthfully, with good enough software you wont really have to concern yourself much with encoding the video.

Cool, Thankyou again. I always hear people saying that they are encoding this and encoding that, and that they need HT for encoding video. Lol, I guess I've just never thought about all these things that people are encoding, and it always sounds like a ton of work goes into it.

[dark_15]

And don't forget about storage. Video takes up a TON of space... you will need a large hard drive to store all that video...

[ClarkKent]

Yeah you will need a lot of storage. The DV cam stuff is going to be killer cause it comes off the cam as raw footage. The footage off of the Hi8 tapes will be different though, you will be able to pick which format you are capturing in so it doesn't need to take up that much space. But you will be sacrificing quality for hard disk space.

Something to look into would be getting a second drive for video it will help a lot or even a Raid 0 array. Will help out with the huge file sizes and it will be able to handle the huge file sizes quickly.

[ocicide]

www.doom9.org has quite a few guides on many different aspects of vid editing. Its worth a look.

[Andyman902042]

For the capture card I would definatly go for something with an onboard MPEG encoder. I love my Hauppague PVR-250. It sells for less than $100 on ebay. I can choose to capture it for the DVD standard and when it's done, there's the MPEG that's going on to the DVD, No reencoding or anything as long as you only do cut-editing, and no fancy stuff like transitions. www.videohelp.com will help a ton.

Good luck,
Andy

[Myhre]

Yeah you will need a lot of storage. The DV cam stuff is going to be killer cause it comes off the cam as raw footage. The footage off of the Hi8 tapes will be different though, you will be able to pick which format you are capturing in so it doesn't need to take up that much space. But you will be sacrificing quality for hard disk space.

Something to look into would be getting a second drive for video it will help a lot or even a Raid 0 array. Will help out with the huge file sizes and it will be able to handle the huge file sizes quickly.

I just bought two new 80g hdd's and besides that I have 2 other 80g storage drives and about 5 40g hdd's. Hopefully the 2 80's in 0 will be enough.

[Mr.Radar]

If you can borrow a Digital8 video camera you can use it's firewire output to capture the Hi8 tapes.

[ClarkKent]

That is a great idea. It will make it a lot easier to do it that way. And more cost effective.