Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (
More info?)
"Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news
6OdnWIdXaqRDpffRVn-2Q@giganews.com...
>
> <songofruth2002@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1107966343.007427.226820@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>>I like saving stuff off the TV and am looking for a better solution
>> than I currently have.
>>
>> I have TIVO and a DVD recorder. I record with TIVO then copy to the
>> recorder.
>>
>> Labelling the disc and the titles on the disc is a time-consuming
>> process with the recorder.
>>
>> I would like to be able to edit out commercials - which the recorder
>> does not allow.
>>
>> I have Nero Ultra v6 (whatever the latest & greatest is called from
>> Nero).
>>
>> Doing the stuff I would like to do has been problematic or impossible.
>> I accept the possibility that I'm just getting confused by the plethora
>> of options.
>>
>
> Nero is probably the best burning software out there, but it is a
> real pain to use for DVD production, and has some annoying
> shortcomings in that area.
>
>> I'm very open to purchasing new software up to $100 in price.
>>
>> I would like to be able to:
>> 1) Quickly label the disc and the individual titles on the disc.
>>
> You mean in the menus, right? Not a label on the outside of the
> disk itself.
>
>> 2) Quickly cut bits (i.e. commercials) out of the middle of titles but
>> yet the title would still be one continuous video afterwards.
>>
> No problem, but you should break up the title into chapters, as
> this supplies navigation data for play back. If you do an hour TV
> show that will normally give you 5 or 6 clips that begin and end at
> the commercial breaks. These are usually also the best places for
> chapter points. When you play the title it will be one continuos
> show.
>
>
>> 3) Save video titles on my hard drive until I have a few similar titles
>> (such as, several episodes of Dobie Gillis) and then move those titles
>> (labelled & commercials removed) onto a DVD+RW or DVD+R.
>>
>
> That's what I do to save up six episodes for a DVD. I made a
> directory structure on my capture drive for each series; like this:
>
> D:\SG1 S3 D4
> Track1
> Track2
> Track3
> Track4
> Track5
> Track6
>
> The "S3" = Season 3 and the "D4" = Disk 4. Each track will
> contain an episode which will be a title on the DVD. The track
> directories have the 5 or 6 .mpg files that make up the hour
> (~43min) TV show with the commercials, credits and reoccurring
> introduction removed using "VideoReDo", a frame accurate
> MPEG NLE (Non Linear Editor). www.VideoReDo.com
>
>> I am not currently interested in backing up commercial DVDs nor in
>> creating DVDs from camcorders, etc.
>>
>> Thanks & take care,
>> Melody
>>
>
> "Best" is a subjective term here, and depends a lot on what
> you intend, and end up, doing in this area.
>
> I have a DirecTiVo DVR that I use to collect up shows for
> my capture as you do. I also use a standalone DVD recorder,
> but just to convert VHS tapes to DVD. Some of those tapes
> are of TV specials with commercials and for those I use a
> DVD+RW disk to bring them to my PC, for editing.
>
> Most of my captures off the DVR are TV series episodes that
> I build into six episode DVDs. I use a PCI capture card with
> hardware MPEG encoding to do those captures, but it can be
> done using the standalone DVD recorder, it will just require more
> steps.
>
> How you would go about it will depend on if you can set your
> DVD Recorder to record to the parameters that you want for
> the final DVD. If you can then no re-encoding will be necessary.
>
> It will take some trial and error to find the settings on your DVD
> Recorder that produce the results you want. I find that my
> DirecTiVo DVR outputs a very clean S-Video signal that allows
> for excellent MPEG compression. If there is any significant noise
> on your Tivo's output you might need to use a higher bitrate to
> achieve a given picture quality.
>
> Try this: Capture in DVD compliant MPEG2 at 1/2 D1 (352x480)
> use a VBR setting; if you have CQ settings available start at 90% and
> adjust to your liking. If you don't have CQ, try setting your bitrate to
> average 4000k and max 8000, and adjust from there. (If there is a Min
> setting try 800k) This will give you DVD compliant MPEG ready to
> author. ( Assuming you have a compatible audio format also; shouldn't
> be a problem in your case.)
>
> Standalone DVD Recorders seem to want to make this part of
> the setup somewhat difficult, at least mine have. You may have to
> come up with a way to trick it to use these settings. One way that
> might work, is to convince it that it needs to fit an hour of recording
> in ~750megs of space.
>
> Now that you have your episode(s) recorded on a RW disk, you
> can use "TMPGEnc DVD Author" (TDA) www.pegasys-inc.com
> to extract the MPEG data and later make your new DVD with a
> menu labeled as you want. At this time TDA can only make cuts at
> "I-Frames" at a point that occurs every 1/2 sec, they are expected
> to add their frame accurate editing capability to TDA sometime this
> year. Even the "I-Frame" cut is normally good for removing the
> commercials, as they usually have a substantial "fade to black"
> transition, with several "I-frame" cut points in the black.
>
> You can use VideoReDo to do frame accurate cuts now, by
> keeping track of where TDA puts the MPEG data it extracts from
> your RW disk. Then have VideoReDo output to a directory
> structure like I described above.
>
> If not using VideoReDo, after TDA has extracted the episode,
> you would exit TDA, without making any DVD. Then open
> Windows Explorer (or its equivalent) and find the directory that
> TDA put your MPEG data in. Use Control-A to select the .mpg
> files and move them to the "Track#" for that episode. It could be
> that there is only one big .mpg, that's ok and you will only have
> the one in your "Track#" folder for the step below.
>
> When you have all the episodes you need for your DVD, start
> TDA and use the "Add file" button and select your Track1
> folder. Use Control-A to select all 5or6 .mpg files and click
> the "Open" button. Click the "Ok" button for each file to add
> them as chapters to your title/track.
The 5 or 6 mpg files will become chapters. Go figure.
>Then click on the blue "Add
> new track..." text, this will bring up a new source page for your
> second title/track. Now use the "Add file" button, and find your
> Track2 folder, add those .mpg. Click on the blue "Add new track
> ..." text for the next, ect... until all are added.
Then go in an add labels to each and then when authoring labels to the
menus.
>
> If you haven't already edited your clips with VideoReDo; then
> use the "Chapter cut edit" of TDA to remove the commercials and
> add chapter points for your first title/track. If you used VideoReDo
> you are ready to go. You would continue on through the rest of
> your titles/tracks.
>
> Now double-click on the "Untitled track 1" box on the left side of
> the screen. This will give you the "Track settings" window with the
> track name highlighted, just type in whatever text you want to be
> the label for that title/track in your menu. I use the official episode
> titles. Hit enter when you are done. Do the same for your other
> titles/tracks.
Until you get frustrated from this if you have many entries.
>
> Ok, all that's left to do is create a menu and TDA can do the rest.
> So on to "Create menu", now much that I'll describe you only need
> to do once for each series or type of menu theme you'll use.
>
> First don't bother with the premade menu themes, make your own,
> it's easy. Click on the dropdown arrow in the box on the upper left.
> At the bottom of the list there is "New theme...", click on that. I'll
> walkthrough how mine are made, but it should give you some idea
> of the possibilities and how easy it really is. (Much easier to do, than
> to describe.)
>
> For my menus I use a text only "Layout" with six track selections
> (Layout 6 (#3) with my version of TDA); as thumbnails would just
> get in the way. I'll only be using the main menu so the track menu
> layout won't matter, neither will the thumbnail frame or the
> background image. Any button style that will suit your eventual
> background clip, you can reset it later.
>
> [A little preparation can help improve the next step. Sense we are
> making use of text it is real handy to have some neat Fonts to use.
> I recently picked up a "Snap! 4,000 Fonts" CD-ROM for $5 from
> "Best Buy" it was pretty good. You can find some very good fonts
> for free on the net : Check out
>
http://moorstation.org/typoasis/designers/shyfonts/shy_a.htm
> for free fonts
>
> I use the reoccurring introductions that most shows have as "Motion
> menu backgrounds". So I capture and edit that part of the show as
> a separate clip and label it as something like MonkIntro.mpg. ]
>
> Now we have our basic menu theme, we need to customize, and
> name it for a particular series.
>
> ( If things look jumbled now don't worry, we'll fix it later.)
>
> First the Motion Menu : click on the background and then
> the "Open file" button, find and select the Introduction.mpg for this
> series. Find the start point (if you edited it the start would usually be
> 00:00:00;00) slide the "slider" to the right and find a good end point,
> subtract the start point from the end point and that is the length of
> the clip playback you want. Click on the "Menu display settings"
> button and set the "Display menu settings" to "Only Main menu";
> the "Firstplay action:" to "Display Main menu" the next one the
> same. Now click on the "Motion menu" tab and set: "Use motion
> menu"; "Additional pictures for background ect" and "Use audio of
> the background video as the menu BGM." Lastly, set the "Length
> of the motion menu:" to the length you found above.
>
> Now we use the "Edit menu theme" button.
>
> First you might want to right click on the background and select
> the option settings for "Show the TV safe area" and "Show frame".
> (maybe they are on by default, can't remember.) Then you might
> use the "Edit" button on the bottom to set a common font and text
> color "for all pages".
>
> Now save and name your theme, with all your settings and the
> background clip. You might want to tweak your settings and
> resave your theme someday, but for now you won't have to
> bother with most of the above again.
>
> ---- Below is all you normally do with a menu once you theme
> has been made--------------------
>
> So now you have your Custom Menu with your track titles,
> but they may be jumbled a little. No problem, just use the
> "Edit menu theme" button to bring up the "Edit menu theme"
> window. Now when you click on an item you can move it
> around, or grab an edge and change its size, however you
> want. Set things as you want them and click "Ok".
> ( You don't have to save the theme again.)
> ------------------------------------------
>
> Last you go on to "Output" and have TDA make your DVD.
> You can use the built-in burning app or feed TDA's results to
> Nero.
>
> Luck;
> Ken
>
>
>
I'll
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