Writing Homemade Movie to DVD

Forums › Home Theatre (incl HTPC) › Writing Homemade Movie to DVD

mitsii

62 posts

Master Geek

# 14862 24-Jul-2007 12:51

I'm not sure if this is in the right area but I have just figured out how to use Windows Movie Maker (not hard) but cannot figure out how to actually get my movie onto a DVD. The help section tells me how to put it onto a CD which I already know but I want to be able to play it in DVD players.

How can I do this? Do I need additional software, if so does anybody have any free recommendations?

ZollyMonsta

2771 posts

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# 79427 24-Jul-2007 13:21

You will need another programme I believe to actually put this to DVD. Also, your movie would need to meet the dvd spec.
Most (but not all) DVD creating software will convert files to meet this standard. Ulead DVD Moviefactory is one such piece of software (but was a bit simplistic for my needs). I have played with another piece of software called 'DVDLab Pro' which was excellent as it allowed lots of different things, but this programme required the movie to already be in the DVD spec format.

From memory, I don't think Windows Media maker will save to disk in MPEG2 format (DVD Spec).

Cheers,
ZollyMonsta

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Cloud Guru
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Snowflake

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# 79428 24-Jul-2007 13:35

Are you using Windows XP or Windows Vista? If you are using Vista i think you can simply "Publish to DVD".

If you are on Windows XP then make sure you install SP2 as it has the latest version of movie maker included with it.

Depending on what software came with your DVD burner you might have several options. Nero, for example, allows you to generate DVDs quite easily by dragging and dropping. Sonic's MyDVD also works well.

If you want to get really fancy with DVD menus and the like then you'll probably want to spend a few $$ on a software package to do it. There are some free tools around but often the shareware/commercial tools are easier to use and less buggy.

I use a program called MemoriesOnTV to put both still images and movies onto dvd's - i really love it but there are probably better video-only-oriented tools around.

There are a bunch of freeware/shareware/commercial tools, utilities and guides linked from www.videohelp.com or www.doom9.org e.g. http://www.videohelp.com/guides/category/how-to-author-a-basic-dvd-3;6#3;6

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mruane

420 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 79430 24-Jul-2007 13:38

If you have Nero it will also quite happily convert a number of formats and prepare a DVD. Nero will also compress to fit onto a standard 4.7GB single layer DVD-R if your movie is longer than 2 hours. I have just compressed a 6 hour TV program (in MPeg2 from GBPVR) to a single layer DVD using Nero. The quality suffers of course, but its not hard to do.

Cheers Mike

Old Grey Geek

140 posts

Master Geek

# 79439 24-Jul-2007 14:16

Try using DVD Flick
http://www.dvdflick.net/
Free open source software converts .avi files to ts files to burn to dvd

mitsii

62 posts

Master Geek

# 79441 24-Jul-2007 14:36

Hey, thanks for all your replies. I am running XP on my Vaio and probably have Sonic MyDVD software already installed as my laptop came with a lot of pre-installed Sony software so I will have a look for that and give that a go although in the past have not found Sonic software to be very user friendly...

I have a friend that is going to give me his copy of Nero to load on as this seems to be the one most people recommend.

Windows Movie Maker seems quite basic but is easy to use which is good, I may try and find another program which is a bit more advanced and gives me more editing options (and still easy to use because I am not too technical - I like programs that do everything for me) so if anyone has any suggestions in that department...

Old Grey Geek

140 posts

Master Geek

# 79555 25-Jul-2007 10:26

I haven't tried this one myself but it's free, EMovie DVD Editor 1.132.19. It's made by a company in Serbia but I don't think that means it will take over your computer ;)

I'd try it myself if I had the time and inclination. If you do try it let us know what it's like, it looks ok.

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/EMovie_DVD_Editor_48073_p/

mitsii

62 posts

Master Geek

# 79558 25-Jul-2007 10:40

Yeah I will give it a go over the next few days and let you know.

Thanks :)

tallPete

99 posts

Master Geek

# 79582 25-Jul-2007 12:03

I've used Sonic MyDVD for this and it is my preferred DVD writer of choice. I do exactly the same thing that you do - I use Windows Movie Maker to import the video from the camera in the best possible quality (a large HD is needed) and then I use Sonic MyDVD to build a basic animated menu, and write it to DVD. I tend to start the actual write process just before I go to bed, and it is ready in the morning - it can take 3 or 4 hours for the write.

Good Luck.

mitsii

62 posts

Master Geek

# 79592 25-Jul-2007 12:48

I seem to have SonicStage & SonicStage Mastering Studio on my PC but not Sonic MyDVD. I might give that a go if its a fre download instead of waiting for someone to give me their Nero disc.

lchiu7

5150 posts

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# 79604 25-Jul-2007 13:42

I have been doing a fair bit of this lately, with two different video sources.

1. Old Hi8 tapes I want to put onto DVD
2. Stuff recorded on a Digital8 camcorder

For 1. I use a Canopus ADV110 device which takes analogue input (sound and video) and outputs a DV signal over Firewire

For 2. I just connect my camera to the Firewire input on the PC

In both instances I capture the Firewire output using Sony Vegas. In Vegas I clean up the video, add transitions, titles etc. and then output the files as MPEG2 format. As noted in this thread, files can be very large in DV format. I purchased a 300G drive to store my files on (DV ends up about 10G/hour).

From there they can be authored to DVD using any product you like. I like using Adobe Encore but have used DVD Movie Factory (a bit limiting as somebody has noted), have tried DVD Lab Pro but that's not easy to use (harder than Encore IMHO) and also TMPGEN DVD Author

Processor speed is very important here. On my AM2 3600 with 2G (Vista) it takes about 80% of realtime to author to MPEG2.

Authoring and writing to DVD takes about 30 minutes after the final click to start the process

Larry

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