Time to record BTV3 MPEG2 file to DVD

[RayN]

Newbie question!

I'm 2 days into my evaluation of BTV3. I'm very happy with what I see so far. I'm using it with a Hauppauge 350 card.

My main use for BTV3 is to capture TV programs and record them to DVD for watching later or archiving. I use Ulead Movie Factory 2 or NeroVision Express for processing and burning. The problem is that it is taking almost 2 hours to process and burn a 1 hour MPEG2 file.

When I used the WinTV2000 application that came with the Hauppauge card, I could burn a 2 hour program from the resulting MPEG2 files in about a half hour from start to finish. I also completed an evaluation of SageTV 2.0 and the resulting files behaved the same way.

Is there something different about the BTV3 generated MPEG2 files that causes the processing to take so long? Is there a way around this.

Thanks for your help.

Ray

[merrypig]

try setting your mpeg qualities to something like

720x480 @ 29.97fps
2B 4 P
Bit rate < 9100000 bps (constant or vbr)
audio as 224Kbps 48khz

And see if that helps.

[Bilar Crais]

It sounds like Ulead and Nero are interpreting your mpeg2's as non-compliant and is therefore re-rendering them. Merry Pig's suggestion might make these applications "happy".

[Terminal]

What quality are you recording at? As the others mentioned the files are probably being re-encoded.

[RayN]

Originally Posted by merrypig

try setting your mpeg qualities to something like

720x480 @ 29.97fps
2B 4 P
Bit rate < 9100000 bps (constant or vbr)
audio as 224Kbps 48khz

And see if that helps.

I am recording using BTV3's "Better" quality. The parameters are

480x480 @ 29.97fps
2B 4P
Bitrate 5000000 constant
Audio 224Kbps 48kHz

My recordings are in line with your suggestion.

I think that the observations are correct that Ulead and Nero are re-rendering a "non-compliant" file. What would cause this non-compliance? Is there a DVD authoring program that is more forgiving and will not need to re-render a BTV3 MPEG2 file?

[mcowger]

Your quality setting above isn't a DVD compliant quality. You need to set them to what merrypig suggested.

[Terminal]

You need to record in the DVD quality listed by Merrypig and then you should not have this problem.

[edit]I see mcowger beat me to this one[edit]

[DonK]

Set your recording to one of the DVD spec ones, as long as they're one of the standard dvd resolutions, you'll be ok and it shouldn't have to reencode the video.

[RayN]

I changed the frame dimensions in my default quality definition from 480x480 to 720x480 in accordance with merrypig's recommendation and it made all the difference. I process and burned a 2 hour DVD in 40 minutes instead of 2 hours+.

You guys are great. Thanks for the quick help!

[merrypig]

=) Glad to help

[Rich A]

I've been burning my own DVD's, actual finalized playable DVD's with menus, first play lead in, chapters etc for a very long time. (have well over 1,000) titles. All were from captured shows off my cable tv feed.

For a typical 90 minute movie, to edit out all commercials, add a few special
effects, like a fade into a menu or menu background, capture an appropriate image or two to use in the DVD menus or background, then compile the DVD, make a label and in some cases a DVD keep case insert, then burn the DVD, takes all of about 25 minutes total.

Editing with Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 10 minutes
Creating the DVD with DVD-Lab 10 minutes
Burning the DVD (usually about 4GB) 5 minutes

While the DVD-lab is compiling the Title set, I use Sure Thing label maker to print the DVD label and the DVD Case front and back insert. ( only use the DVD case for "special" shows, most are in special holder that are just a little bigger than a VHS tape box and hold 48 DVDs in each case)

I use a lot of techniques and pre-sets to speed things along. I also use DVD-Profiler to catalog each DVD, which also gives me high res renditions of the actual commercial case front and back inserts. All my DVDs are done with either of two PVR-x50 cards. Prior to that I used ATI AIW cards for capture. All the DVDs captured with the PVR-x50s are of the highest quality you can go without going out of DVD proper specs.

It can be an easy thing to do and relatively quick. Yeah, I have a dedicated 3.2 Plus GHZ highly optimized PC that is only used for NLE and DVD creation. And a DVD burner that runs at 8x (burns at 8x on cheap Princo 4x disc without an error).

Many times, I'll be compiling the printed material while the DVD disc is burning, or scrubbing through the original source for some optional cool single frame captures to use for art work or menu backgrounds.

Playing these dvds in any dvd player is very much like a normal store bought dvd. I have a "first play" video that is like the FBI warning abut duplication but instead has a fade in shot saying basically that this is part of my private collection, captured from, created on .. yadda yadda ... Then I'll pick a few seconds of a scene I deem appropriate that ends at a point where it's last frame is the same as the main dvd background .. at the end of which the written menu selections and buttons etc, fade into place. And yes, this averages around 20 to 30 minutes total per disc.

A little pre-planning, some pre-set parameters and stock footage etc, and the whole process can be pretty quick. Last night I did "North by Northwest", "Psycho", "Vertigo" (There was an Afred Hitchock thing on recently), "Judgment at Nuremberg" (a two disc set), "The Lion in Winter" "The Dirty Dozen" and "The Great Escape". I usually spend a few hours every Friday evening and burn a half dozen or so.

I also edit them directly off the HTPC. I just use the LAN to access the original BTV captures and save the final edited material on the NLE machine where I'm working. All the one hour TV shows generally fit 2 one hour episodes per DVD disc. Sometimes the movies around 90 to 100 minutes might be just a tad over 4.4 GB, so I'll use "Rejig" to shrink them. This adds about 2 to 3 more minutes to the process. Or if very large, I might split the movie and do a double set. This of course also increases the time having to now burn two DVDs and make an extra label.

Hope some of this gives you a few ideas and helps to encourage you. Have fun.

Oh and I DO buy commercial DVDs .. Usually the special editions and mostly only my favorite theme which is SCI-FI. That's for when I want to enjoy the FULL viewing and sound experience .. Have a small 6 seat home theater with surround sound etc., to enjoy that stuff. But even the home-made DVDs look pretty good on the 84 inch screen. Tonight (Saturday Night at the movies here) we are showing the original wide screen theater version of Lawrence of Arabia, captured from the Turner Movie Classic channel a few weeks ago. It's a long one .. 2 discs and each disc is just under 2 hours long.

So you can really get into this stuff and you can do it quickly and economically if you plan ahead and use the right tools. Beyond TV has made the capture part of the process simple and reliable.

[merrypig]

Btw, if anyone uses DVD profiler - I've a program almost finished that will take the exported xml, the images pulled down by dvd profiler - and then let you pick a bunch of dvd titles from the list and print out cd jewel cases (*) for each one in a batch with out having to manually position/size/add text.


(*) the format is totally defined in an xml file so could be used for any report effectively.

It's working but I want to clean it up some more before I publish it. SAved me a ton of time already - so far I've run off about 60 jewel cases with nothing more than a few seconds to select them complete with front and back cover images and title on the spine

</shameless plug>

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by merrypig

Btw, if anyone uses DVD profiler - I've a program almost finished that will take the exported xml, the images pulled down by dvd profiler - and then let you pick a bunch of dvd titles from the list and print out cd jewel cases (*) for each one in a batch with out having to manually position/size/add text.


(*) the format is totally defined in an xml file so could be used for any report effectively.

It's working but I want to clean it up some more before I publish it. SAved me a ton of time already - so far I've run off about 60 jewel cases with nothing more than a few seconds to select them complete with front and back cover images and title on the spine

</shameless plug>

Hey, that's pretty neat. I myself use one of the user submitted profiles that makes a "coffee table book". It's a nice three DVD per page (with cover graphics) and a brief synopsis, title, actors, features, etc) Sits there in the home theater so we can browse through it and pick out the "movie of the day". I have so many of those home made DVDs that I don't have the space to use jewel cases or dvd keep cases for all of them. Most are in these 48-disc holder that are quite unique and very well designed. If I get a chance I'll post a pic of them. One 3 foot wide by 6 inch high shelf holds 1,008 DVDs.

Your jewel case label profile sounds like something that would work perfectly to put on each case detailing the 48 disc contents. At present, they are just laid out in alphabetical order, (again sorted by DVD-Profiler) Isn't that DVD-Profiler program great? I paid for the optional version so I could get the high res renditions of the front and back DVD covers. When I use a "home made" dvd I use the commercial profle graphics and data and edit out the features and such that are missing or changed in my encode.

Are you going to post your Jewel Case insert to their user profile page ??

[merrypig]

Unfortunately because their report mechanism doesn't allow rotated text I couldn't do it within dvd profiler hence why I started to write my own.

I'll post it on my web site when I've finished with it tho.

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by merrypig

Unfortunately because their report mechanism doesn't allow rotated text I couldn't do it within dvd profiler hence why I started to write my own.

I'll post it on my web site when I've finished with it tho.

Thanks .. BTW, here's a couple samples of what I use DVD Profiler for