I have to admit I thought I knew a little bit about video stuff until I came on this forum. I feel like I am trying to read hieroglyphics with all the stuff you guys are talking about here. I have been using Roxio DVD creator for awhile to author files onto a menu DVD. The thing is I have just been putting them on there with regular quality (I think). Like , I will burn a few porns or ripped movies that are m-peg onto DVD, but it doenst' look like it improves the quality any. But anyway, I just bought a JVC mini DV. I think I know how to capture, but what is the easiest and best quality to software to 1. capture the stuff off the Mini-DV in AVI format 2. allow me to edit onto a timeline or something 3. convert to mpeg2 (or whatever it needs to be to be converted to the DVD file) 4. I think after that point I can just author using my Roxio. Am I correct in saying that all the movie editing programs that convert from AVI to Mpeg are not usually the "authoring" programs? Wow, this is tough stuff. I'm not really looking for an all in one deal that you just throw in the tape and it converts it straight to DVD, because I would like to do some editing with it before converting, encoding and then burning. But trying to use Microsoft Movie Maker is a major beeeoootch!! Thanks for all help in advance.
Ohh...how many questions to answer to. I'll start, but I'm afraid I'm not able to cover all topics. You've just learned the most fundamental rule, in movie's encoding: [bold] garbage in = garbage out [/bold]. Exactly. Converting is not authoring. Converting = a PAL movie into a NTSC movie. Authoring = from a MPEG-1 mpg file make a VCD, from a 480x480/576 MPEG-2 mpg file make a NTSC/PAL SVCD, from a 720x480/576 M2V + some audio trace make a NTSC/PAL DVD... ...Tough suff: on http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/ we have a couple of guides about capturing. I'm unable to add anything more, sorry.