Hi Group,

I've got bookcases full of old VHS tapes with vintage NFL & MLB
games on them. I also have hundreds of sitcoms, so I finally decided
to build a computer just for the purpose of converting all this
mess to DVD.

My sitcoms are already second generation because
I had to dub them to edit the commercials out of them.
So instead of copying them again, I'm starting out fresh and recording
direct from the satellite to get the ultimate picture quality.

I'm using Pinnacle's PCTV v2.71 to caputre the video:
MPEG2: Size 720 x 480 and a bit rate of 6.00
A half hour sitcom averages about 1G per show unedited.

I'm using the brand new Pinnacle Studio 9 for editing.
First of all, there is no free tech support for this product.
The average wait is 40 minutes before you even speak to anyone,
and this is long distance. I was able to reach someone after only waiting
20 or so minutes early in the morning before heavy traffic...

The editing portion works friggin' great! I can cut the commercials
out of a 30 min sitcom in under 3-4 minutes.
I was told by the Pinnacle tech to save it as an AVI file, not an MPEG2.
That's cool, but now the file is over 4G in size, and thats AFTER editing
9 minutes out from the original 30 minute long file that was only 1G.
WTF???

At this rate, I can only hope to store 60 minutes of video on a DVD.
That means it would take about 3-4 discs to store each NFL game.
That ain't worth a shit! I hear of people able to store over 2 hours
on their DVD's...

I then did some experimenting: After editing, I saved the same session as
an MPEG2 (which was it's original format), and the complete edited file was
only about 700MB. YEAH!...
The only problem now, is that when I go to burn it to disc (drop and drag),
it won't allow it to go to the playlist because it won't open the file...

Oh yeah, another thing...
My software (I've tried Sonic My DVD & Roxio) will let me drop and drag to
the playlist as the original unedited MPEG2, but after editing it and
saving it back to it's original format (MPEG2) it wont let me open the file
when I drop and drag it to the playlist. WTF???
It will write an MPEG2, but not after being edited???

I've been struggling with this for more than a week and I'm at my wit's
end. Can someone please enlighten me to a better way?
Is there another software that will do what I want?

Any and all suggestions are very much appreciated.
__________________________________________________ ______
Peace,
Franke Carlino

"There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands."

In article <0loa40tm147953ekvs35siqn6m4q7to045@4ax.com>,
Belladiva@bellsouth.net says...
That's fine if all you're going to do is cut commercials.

AVI is a format designed to allow editing of individual frames, MPEG
OTOH is designed for streaming and doesn't store each individual frame
(it instead creates "key" or "I" frames and then just calculates what
changed on the following frames until it hits another key frame).

Do some reading on www.dvdrhelp.com

Sounds like it changed the file to a non-DVD-compliant file (DVD can
only be certain resolutions and certain framerates).

"Belladiva" <Belladiva@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:0loa40tm147953ekvs35siqn6m4q7to045@4ax.com...
much the same results (or better) and a smaller file size.
With your source, you'll see more improvement with the higher
effective bitrate than with the higher res.

The Pinnacle Studio series are not really MPEG Editors, they
appear to be for DV-AVIs; any MPEG features/capabilities are an
afterthought.

If you just want to remove commercials, you can do that during
the author process.

Download a free trial of "TMPGEnc DVD Author" and just add
your DVD compliant MPEG file(s). Then do a chapter edit to cut out
the commercials. Select "add a new track" and then add the file(s) for
the next episode. I put 6ea 1hr (~42min without commercials) episodes
per DVD. Next you make menus, you can get creative and make your
own or just use the "themes" provided. Then you simply have it make the
VIDEO_TS & AUDIO_TS folders. Once that finishes (a full DVD takes
about 15min) you can burn the DVD with the built in subroutine or use
your favorite burning software.

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 01:11:03 -0500, Toshi1873 <toshi1873@nowhere.com> wrote:

Thanx for your input, my friend.
__________________________________________________ ______
Peace,
Franke Carlino

"There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands."

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 01:03:49 -0600, "Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:


Excellent, Downloading right now.
I'm ready to try anything...
__________________________________________________ ______
Peace,
Franke Carlino

"There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands."

In message <0loa40tm147953ekvs35siqn6m4q7to045@4ax.com>
Belladiva <Belladiva@bellsouth.net> wrote:

DVD recorder?
In view of the cost of the PC you've built it would be at least as
cheap and in view of the hassle of doing it via the PC it might still
be worth it to buy one.
Cheers!
--
Graham
The Main Control Room - www.thedeathzone.free-online.co.uk
Deathzone Emulation - www.thedeathzone.free-online.co.uk/emulation

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 01:03:49 -0600, "Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

The problem with that is it wont let me cut it where I want.
each frame on the timeline represents about 15 seconds
and it tells you where it will allow you to make your cut.
which was never on the blank frame.

But I'm still workin on it...
__________________________________________________ ______
Peace,
Franke Carlino

"There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands."

"Belladiva" <Belladiva@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:l8sc40pgeoopfv3jpnojfgkp2b9bbvtmkm@4ax.com...
It sounds like your GOP size is too big; you should
have only about 15 frames in each GOP. That well give
you two "I Frames" a second, at 30 fps. There well be
mostly "fade to black" transitions to and from commercials,
these are normally at least a second in length.

But if that is still an issue for you, try any of the MPEG
editing SW that claims "Smart Encoding" capability (like
the Womble products or CyberLink's PP) they can do
frame accurate cuts with little re-encoding.

Luck;
Ken

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 21:22:38 -0600, "Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

Thanx for your time and input, Ken.
I'm still experimenting. Now trying Ulead's Video Studio 7
__________________________________________________ ______
Peace,
Franke Carlino

"There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands."

"Belladiva" <Belladiva@bellsouth.net>
wrote in message
news:0loa40tm147953ekvs35siqn6m4q7to045@4ax.com...
was
file...
________________

In Studio 9 you should be able to save
your file as a DVD and either burn it to
a DVD disk or save to hard drive to
burn later.
Studio 9 does it all.
You can capture from the TV card and let
it auto detect the scenes and then edit
or import your files and edit them
and then burn to DVD.
You can import multiple files and
combine and edit and even add menus.
It will also show you how much space is
being used on the DVD disk and you can
then edit to fit.
Big Easy

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 23:28:28 -0600, "Big Easy" <littleeasy@cox.net> wrote:

I don't have that option.
I can save it to TAPE, AVI, MPEG
STRAM< SHARE or DISC.
And the DISC is VCD, which will only hold
about 60 minutes of video, so that wont work.

Yes, it does. But I'm still having problems.
I tried saving it as an AVI file, it averages over 4.5G
This also takes 20 minutes to render after editing.
when I went to burn it, it took more than an hour
to encode just the first episode of four. At that rate,
it would take over six hours just to create one disc.

Yes, that's not the problem.
I can edit a show in less that 90 seconds.
but after editing, which is the best way to save the file?
AVI doesnt work because it's way too friggin big
MPEG2 takes 40 minutes alone for rendering.

There's gotta be an easier way than having to spend
six hours a disc. (sigh...)

BTW, I sincerely appreciate everone's input.
Any more suggestions?
__________________________________________________ ______
Peace,
Franke Carlino

"There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands."

On Fri, 05 Mar 2004 19:41:44 -0600, Belladiva <Belladiva@bellsouth.net>
wrote:

ok, I went into properties and found that i could
save it as a DVD. Should it take more than 40 minutes
to render? Because it's taking that long.
__________________________________________________ ______
Peace,
Franke Carlino

"There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands."

"Belladiva" <Belladiva@bellsouth.net>
wrote in message
news:endi40157fgch0jlq0fqbdnildh9997mgs@4ax.com...
________________

Thats sound OK to me.
It depends on your system speed and the
size of the file.
Some times it can take longer than that.
I'm glad you found the DVD option.
Studio 9 does a lot - I am still
learning how to use it myself.
Big Easy