Windows movie maker to DVD

[steve-nh]

I seached for this but I am very confused as to what I need to do.

 

Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary.

I am trying to tranfer my Hi 8mm tapes to DVD so we can watch them on the TV thru a Sony Blueray player. HI 8 recorder is on it's way out but still plays the tapes.

I have tranfered the tapes to Hard drive using Windows movie maker so now I have 1 file for each tape with the extension .WMV.

 

Questions:

1. I have downloaded image burn so do I use "image" to dvd or "file" to DVD?

2. Do these .WMV files need to be converted to something else? If so what file type?

3. Is there a special type of disk to use? Tryed DVD-RW and DVD+R's

4. Single layer DVD or Double layer DVD?

 

Very confused and would appreciate any help you can give me.

[boco]

1. Normally "Build" mode, but with these WMV files alone you'll probably get a data disc only which the player may reject.

2. If you want a true DVD you have to use a DVD authoring program to get them into the correct format. The end result should be a VIDEO_TS folder with IFO, BUP, and VOB files in it. That folder will be recognized by ImageBurn in Build mode as representing a DVD VIDEO disc.

3. and 4. Logically, you must use discs both your burner and the player support. Just be aware that disc types ending with "RW" or "RE" are rewritable/erasable and not meant for long-term storage. You should use high-quality discs of the "R" type which can be recorded only once.

 

A remark to quality: Optical media degrade over time, and cheap dyes degrade faster. To enjoy your DVDs a long time, don't use cheap brands.

 

 

Sorry for the awful English.

[ianymaty]

If you do the transfer through FireWire (IEEE 1394) you could use DVIO http://www.videohelp.com/tools/DVIO to capture and don't lose quality two times (once in wmv than transcoded to DVD video)

 

DV avi through FireWire is the highest quality transfer mode and perfect for capture and edit, wmv is low quality, even DVD is lower than DV avi due to the compression applyed.

 

More, if you want to edit (cut out some unneeded scenes) you can use VirtualDub http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Virtualdub

 

You need to instal Panasonic DV Codec http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Panasonic-DV-Codec to be able to import DV avi in VirtualDub.

 

Last step before burn is to convert the file (after edit) use DVDFlick or DVD Styler (Google them).

 

Than use this guide to burn to disc http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=4632

 

Note that it requires a lot of space to store DV avi ~13GB/h but it is the highest quality possible.

 

All those programs are free.

[steve-nh]

Thanks for the reply's. Some good info here.

 

So I guess I should re-copy the tapes in DV AVI in order to preserve the existing quality. Ugh...I was afraid of that.

Good info on the RW disks. I will buy some High Quality DVD-R disks to burn to.

I do have Windows 7 on my home computer with Moveie maker live and it's DVD maker program. Will these be any use to me?

 

BOCO - your english is quite good. You mention "true" DVD...Please explain. I'm a complete newbie to this. Also what do you mean by DVD authoring program. Can you name one thats inexpensive.

 

Oh yeah and whats the deal with double layer vs single layer and do I need to concern myself with this?

Edited December 13, 2011 by steve-nh

[ianymaty]

Yeah if you want the quality preserved as much as it can be, you need to recapture in DV.

 

If you are familiar with Movie Maker, yeah, you can use it just make sure it will output DVD. I don't use it so don't know what it will be: VIDEO_TS folder or an ISO image.

 

Movie Maker is a DVD authoring program just like those suggested in my previous post. If you want a paid one (why would you if there are free alternatives?) look for ConvertXtoDVD.

 

On a double layer you can store more. Using standard compression a single layer will hold up to 2 hours and a double layer will hold up to 4 hours of footage.

 

If you need more info, please consider visiting VideoHelp.com forum so we can focus on users that have ImgBurn related problems.

[steve-nh]

Thanks Ianymaty;

 

I guess I didn't mention....I have been trying to use Image Burn for this task but no success and ended up with all these questions.

 

Is image burn the right tool for this job or should I stick with Movie maker?

[steve-nh]

Got it. did a test run tonight using WMML and worked great except for the quality of WMV files. Gotta get recopying to DV AVI.

 

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction guys.

[ianymaty]

You can only use ImgBurn for the burn part. ImgBurn is a burning tool and burns the files "as is".

 

So, you need to prepare the files in the correct format for what you want to achieve with other tools. Only than ImgBurn can do its magic.

[boco]

BOCO - your english is quite good. You mention "true" DVD...Please explain.

By true DVD I mean the video and audio data being in a format satisfying the DVD-Video specifications. That format will (read: should) be recognized and played by all players bearing the DVD logo.