wildlife.avi to VHS

[Brendan Marnell]

I have an .avi file edited in PPro of a 31 minute video. Amounts to 6.8Gbs.
Some of the footage is good and appears sharper uncompressed (Sorenson squeezed it to 250Mbs but smoothness of windblown plumage etc. was lost).

I want the video transferred/copied to VHS (because the lady who will enjoy it has only got VHS with her telly). I have not got the technology to transfer it to VHS. I have got double-layer DVD-R 8.5Gb capacity and a suitable burner with Windows XP. My memory stick has only 2 Gb capacity.

So what is the better way including format to deliver this video to a copying firm so that best image quality is retained on final VHS?

[Don DesJardin]

Brendan,
I think the only way your going to do this with your limited resources, is to port the finished video from your computer back to your camera via firewire. Then you can connect your camera (in VCR mode) to a VCR using standard RCA audio/video cables and record your video onto VHS tape. The transfer will be good, but not the same quality as what's on your DV tape. If your going to use a copying firm, just give them your DV tape, and they will know what to do.

[Chris Harris]

I think it would be a win-win situation for everyone involved if you just included a cheap DVD player. No dealing with a VCR or a copying service, and better quality for your client. You can pick up a DVD player for $30 USD, although I'm not sure how much they are in Ireland.

[Per Johan Naesje]

Brendan, I'll second much of what Chris say, DVD players are really cheap today.
If you are going to let a video copying firm make the VHS copy I think this will be more expensive than a cheap DVD-player cost at Wall Mart!

If this is not a good solution, I will do the copy job to a VHS tape for free (only P&P) for you Brendan, just send me a PM or mail. But as said by others the quality will not be good, maybe even worser than the compressed Sorenson file!

[Brendan Marnell]

Thank you kindly for your helpful thoughts.

Partly because I was hoping to get good quality finished product I am passing on Don's suggestion and Per Johan's kind offer until I have tried the DVD way.

I selected the .avi file in Premiere Pro 1.5, Exported to DVD changing custom preset to PAL DV 4x3 High Quality 7Mb CBR 1 Pass for MPEG Video 720 x 576 and hit Enter. 16x9 would have been better but I was not offered a high quality option @ 16x9. PC took its time but I found myself with an .mpg file of just 1GB with the suggestion that my first choice of player should be VLC ... I think it was Don introduced me to VLC. Playback quality on VLC was remarkably good as to video ... audio was unimportant.

Next step was to observe that PPro's Export to DVD didn't mean that ... it only meant to prepare the .avi for DVD. So I tried Drag-to-Disc and it copied in 5 mins. Tried out the image quality opening the DVD with VLC player again and it was just as sharp as before, I think. Keener eyes might see better than mine. So I think I have good copy on DVD. Now what sort of DVD player do I need? My file is MPEG 2 ... Here's part of the specs of a DVD player which suggests, on the last line, that it can handle MPEG 2

Description:
Portable 7" Widescreen DVD Player Plays MPEG-4, DVD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, JPEG CD, KODAK Picture CD 7" Widescreen Active-Matrix TFT Screen Enhanced Optical Pickup System for Disc Stability & Compatibility Built-in Decoder for Dolby Digital (AC-3) Progressive Scan Video Output Built-in stereo speakers Anti-Shock Protection Includes DVD Player, Remote control with 3V battery, 12V car cigarette lighter adapter, AC/DC power adapter, Audio cable, Video cable, Rechargeable battery pack, Getting Started, User Manual, Earphones.
Includes DVD Player, Remote control with 3V battery, 12V car cigarette lighter adapter, AC/DC power adapter, Audio cable, Video cable, Rechargeable battery pack, Getting Started, User Manual, Earphones.
LCD DISPLAY- 7" Widescreen Active-Matrix TFT Type
DISK FORMATS - DVD, DVD+/-RW, CD, CD-R, CD-RW
VIDEO DECOMPRESSION- MPGEG-4, MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC-13818), MPEG-1

...... otherwise it gets poor reviews for $90 price tag.
My questions are:
1. Does the above spec mean that it can play my .mpg file (my .mpg is MPEG 2 and not MPEG 4)??
2. Can anyone specify a portable DVD player that will give me good video picture quality from an .MPEG 2 source.

Our PC retailers are not overflowing with expertise on this subject and I don't know the difference.

[Dale Guthormsen]

Brendan,

I was under the impression that mpeg 2 was infact the dvd base compression, I may be worng as it has been awhile sense i worried about these things.
That being the case, once burnt to the dvd, on a + or - disc virtually any dvd player will play your video perfectly.

Is that what you are actually asking??

[Brendan Marnell]

I'm still researching this Dale, but so far I have not found a DVD Player + 7.5inch screen that will read my .mpeg file. Typical list of formats mentioned on players are XviD and .SRT, .SMI, .IDX and .SUB format. One mentions MPEG4 but none seem to know MPEG 2 or perhaps they take MPEG 2 for granted as half-suggested by you.

No problems on pc using every player I have. Also, WMP plays it with good image quality on my laptop, after warning me "Your version of DLA can read files on this disc but will not be able to edit or add to them." What is DLA ??

I may have to bring my DVD or memory stick to a copying firm to transfer it to VHS as suggested by Don, after all.

Unless someone knows a better way of doing this .........

[Chris Harris]

You need to author your DVD. It sounds like you're burning the mpeg file to the DVD as data, but you need to use an authoring program such as Adobe Encore or TMPGENC DVD Author in order for it to play in a standard DVD player. If you don't have a program for this, I think Premiere can even do a basic DVD authoring, but it's been a while since I've used Premiere, so I can't really get into details about that.

[Per Johan Naesje]

Brendan, Chris is absolute right!
You must use a DVD-authoring tool to do this and the good news is that this is included in Adobe Premiere!

In the file meny choose Export, then Export to DVD, in the dialog box you have to specify some settings:
- disk name
- encoding
- burner
in this points you can often choose the default settings, this is a try and error situations!

You should end up with a DVD containing two folders:
- AUDIO_TS
- VIDEO_TS
in the video_ts folder you should at least see some files named *.vob, *.ifo
the *.vob file is you film encoded to a suitable DVD format.

Good luck Brendan!

[Brendan Marnell]

Chris, you're spot on ... when I was using Drag-to-Disc I dragged using the Data option.

I have Adobe Encore but the User Guide is so full of what I call junk info posing as sophistication that they manage to avoid spelling out what is meant by "authoring" and carefully exclude helpful tips like "Skip to Page 13 if you just want to burn a DVD". If you were as impatient as I am you would not have bothered to think my problem through. Thanks for nailing it down.

Per Johan

I am using PPro at this stage and thinking "trial and error" as you suggest ... I've chosen the Dolby high quality option and it's half-an-hour slowly transcoding one-third of the .avi file within Burning Disc in the Recording Process. I may have chosen an option too high ... it said the task will amount to 2Gbs but, as you say, it's all apart of "trial & error". Thanks for the tips. I'll need the luck ...