Duh, any way to do this? HD to DVD

[marshallfla]

I just stumbled onto VRD but have a question about HD files and trying to get them onto DVD.

I have read several good articles on this (from the AVS forum, for example) but basically I captured the show by firewire into .ts and then edited out the commercials with HDTV2MPEG (sorry, hadn't heard about VRD yet).

Now, I looked at HDTV2DVD but didn't find it all that user friendly (I'm a noob, afterall). I loaded it into NERO 7 and it set out doing what it needed to do. WOW, is that going to take a LOOONG time!

My question is: a) is there a way VRD can output the file so that it doesn't take so long to convert to DVD (the whole 1080 -> 720 thing) and/or b) is there some way NERO doesn't have to re-encode everything (I realize this isn't the NERO forum, just asking).

Thanks

[Anole]

All good questions.

I take it you want a standard 720x480 format DVD as the end result?
That's the best resolution you can normally record/play on stock DVDs.
It's the commercial standard for DVDs you purchase in the stores.

Since your source material is hi def at 1280x720p or 1920x1080i, you'll have to re-encode down to the 720x480 format.
That is what NERO is taking all the time to do.
In the end, you should get spectacular (near commercial-) quality DVDs, of course.

Something many people are doing, is using DivX conversion (re-encoding) to make a more compressed hi def file that's playable from your computer.
That would then be fed to a hi def TV set for viewing.

There are even a very few DVD players which can read a divx hi def disc and put out hi def to a TV set.
That's the subject of another thread on this forum.


My question is: a) is there a way VRD can output the file so that it doesn't take so long to convert to DVD (the whole 1080 -> 720 thing) and/or b) is there some way NERO doesn't have to re-encode everything


a) VideoReDo doesn't re-encode.
It can output multiplexed mpeg -or- demultiplexed video+audio.
So, the answer is: no
b) well, based on what you seem to be asking...
Unless you use some -other- encoder which is faster,
...that answer would be: no

[laserfan]

I looked at HDTV2DVD but didn't find it all that user friendly...Dunno what you found intimidating about it (unless you don't have .NET framework installed--putting-in *any* new MS stuff can be scary) but HDTV2DVD is just drag/drop, select whether you want to fit a DVD-5 or a DVD-9 (dual layer) and off ya go. Pretty fast, too.

[marshallfla]

a) VideoReDo doesn't re-encode.
It can output multiplexed mpeg -or- demultiplexed video+audio.
So, the answer is: no
b) well, based on what you seem to be asking...
Unless you use some -other- encoder which is faster,
...that answer would be: no


Bummer! A double NO! Thanks for answering. BTW, any recommendation on a 'faster' encoder. I have used TMPEnc in the past but my attempts to contact Pegasys Support have gone unanswered so I gave up on them.

LASERFAN:

I guess I just didn't find it very intuitive but I do admit it is reportedly easy to use (perhaps to most! ;) ). I'll look into it again, thanks.

[Anole]

I'm up to my butt in alligators, but not encoders. :confused:
Just haven't been a priority lately.

I do try to read all of the VRD forum to keep up with current trends...
... and there were recently (last 36 hours) some thread discussions on which encoders were better.
At least you'll get some suggestions and opinions.
If that's not good enough, check out doom9.org - they've always got something to say. :)

[zaphod7501]

I don't know if it's doing a good job or not because I don't have anything to compare it with but I've been using gui4ffmpeg to convert my transport streams to mpeg (I started using it for avi to mpeg). Quality seem excellent but it's encoding compression seems to be at it's discretion and not what you have set it to. It seems to use the bitrate setting as a "suggestion" not a "requirement".

I still archive the pure transport stream for future use but need a standard DVD at times for various reasons. It does the conversion in a little less than real time (44 minute clip in about 35-40 minutes). I use VRD to clean it up and correct any A/V sync issues (I edit it before conversion too). Since I need to transfer files between computers and hard drives, I let VRD process it as part of the file transfer process to minimise total time involved.