From TV to DVD

[rogpeter]

Hi. I'm soon purchasing a Hauppauge pvr-150, and I'm looking forward to using GB-PVR to record television. My whole goal is to be able to record shows, then burn them onto dvd. Right now I'm trying to get software issues figured out, so I'm wondering... can someone point me in the right direction for how to go about getting my recorded shows onto dvd (i.e. what software is best, what formats do I need, etc.). I'm very new to this, so I appreciate your help in pointing me in the right direction.

Thanks a lot!

[colin]

its hard to say what software is best, as people have there own opinions. There are numerous options to edit your TV captures (eg, removing commercials) and put them onto DVD.

Best bet is to capture in full resolution 720x480/576, or 704x480/576 as mpeg-II - the 150 is well able to do this for you.

For editing purposes, VideoReDo (commercial product) is getting good reports and so is Womble (again commercial).

I use Cuttermaran (a free editing tool) to do this but this has its cons as it cannot do frame accurate cutting. This maybe important to you.

as for DVD burning, Nero is the common one, but personally I would not use it. There are other options from free to expensive. Dvd-labs pro gets good reports, TmpgEnc DVD Author is pretty good as well. I would recommend you browse videohelp.com or doom9.org for more information on video editing and burning software and figure out what suits your needs,

Colin.

[jorm]

well I use mydvd 4.5 for burning. Came free with my dvd burner. Version 6 does some audio sync problems with VBR encodings. You can also try nero vision express might have come with your dvd burner.

I am also planning on buying videoredo for editing out commercials. Some like womblevcr for the same thing. VideoRedo is cheaper about $49. I looked for a free one could not find it.

For a free dvd burning solution. Search for mplex to make the mpeg compatible and then use a program called dvd author to convert to vob.

[rogpeter]

thanks a lot for your quick reply. you brought up a point i've been wondering about... when it comes to commercial editing, are there any devices that do this automatically, or does it require you to search for the beginnings and ends of commercial breaks in order to do the cutting.

those websites you gave me should keep me pretty busy, so thank you.

[rogpeter]

roxio's dvd burning program is what came w/my dvd burner. i've heard bad things about roxio's programs... are they any good?

[DGK]

I use videoredo for cutting out the commercials ($50 but worth it). Videreodo only takes a few minutes to do its work. Since Videoredo does not re-encode the video it only takes 4 or 5 minutes to get rid of the commercials compared to 30 minutes plus with a re-encode. Link: http://www.drdsystems.com/VideoReDo/

For making the dvd, TMPGenc DVD Author works very well also ($68). If TMPGenc supports your dvd burner then you can use it to make the menues and then burn the dvd.
Link: http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html

Both of these programs have downloadable trial versions that you can try out.

Roxio isnt a bad program, the choice of burning programs is kind of personal preference "AMD vs Intel, Ford vs Chevy etc". I think Roxio had some problems a few versions back but I have not heard anything bad about the recent releases. I use Nero though so I cant be certain.