Thanks for all the tips on how you author DVDs.

I've been trialing TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5.11.37, if you don't have it
download it
for a free 30 day trial. It 'blows the socks off' DVDMF!!

To use it, simply perform the two stages of muxing that Ron suggested, then
load the file into TMPGEnc DVD Author. There you can cut out adverts, add
menus (even animated menus!), chapters, etc.

It renders a one hour file (from UK History) within 7 minutes with no extra
conversions and will burn the DVD too if you have XP.

It costs approx. £40, which is quite good for what it does in the time.

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/e_download.html


"NickM" wrote in message
...
Martin

I use a DEC 2000 and have solved the same problem - additionally with the
particular programme series (The Whistle Test Years - BBC2) I want to
archive, it's transmitted in letterbox mode meaning there are black bars
all
around. I'm no expert in video editing - it's much more complex as a
subject than audio, which is something in which I am pretty adept, but I
have spent a lot of time in getting a very usable method for archiving TV
programmes onto DVD via my PC.

I therefore have 3 problems to overcome: audio-video sync; interlace
flicker, and; zoom or aspect ratio to enable a full 4:3 screen picture.
The A/V sync problem is consistent with real-time audio card latency of
750ms when using a standard WDM driver, and therefore relatively easy to
fix. I read somewhere that these DV3 capture cards don't save in quite a
standard MPEG 2 format which if true, would account for some of the
anomalies experienced.

It takes a bit of time, two programs (because neither fixes all problems),
and two lots of rendering. Here's what I do:

1 Load the original MPEG as captured into Pinnacle Studio 8.5, re-align
audio with video by locking the audio track and moving the video back by
about 16 frames. After checking lip sync through the program's monitor
overlay, I top and tail the clip as necessary and render to an intermedate
file. Studio 8 has no facility to change the aspect ratio, so I actually
end up with a tall tin picture with black side bars.
2 Load the intermediate file into Sonic Foundry Vegas Video 4, set an
option to allow me to freely change the aspect ratio, change the aspect
ratio by hand to provide a properly proportioned picture, set an option to
reduce interlace flicker and save as a PAL DVD compatible file.

Now the file is ready to be burned to DVD using whatever software you got
with your DVD writer.

The reduction of de-interlace flicker is important as you will get some
pretty horrible artefacts creeping in where there's any kind of close-up
rapid movement without doing this.

The resultant quality is good using my method, but I perceive there is a
little picture degradation from the original file as captured because
effectively I am stretching the existing information to fill a full-sized
frame and additionally the reduction of interlace flicker must do
something
to the field structure within the individual picture frames. It's
certainly
better quality than S-VHS though.

I've tried the whole operation in VV4, but there have always been sync
problems with the sound for me. I can make a video where the sound and
vision start in sync, but there is always noticeable drift after about 20
minutes. Although I make all the right adjustments to the format of the
audio track, there is a conversion process from 44.1 kHz to 48kHz which
doesn't seem to quite get it quite right - surprisingly as Sonic Foundry
make one of the best two PC based audio editors around in Sound Forge (the
other being WaveLab IMO). I'm thinking of trying Steinberg Nuendo, but
this needs some more investigation on my part as I'm not sure of it's
compatibility or capabilities as a video editor, given that it's designed
as
a post production tool mainly for the audio side of video and film
production. For now, my existing method works well even though it's
pretty
time consuming.

Nick