Digital Video to DVD - How?

I've got some digital video that I want to edit using Adobe Premierand then burn to a DVD that will play in any DVD player. How do I do that?

In the past I've taken the edited video and put it on VHS tape but I want to start using DVD instead.

Thanks
Mark

Geez if everyone owned a Mac we wouldn't be getting these questions!

You need a DVD burner and software to encode your video file to mpeg2 and author your DVD. There are programs that encode, programs that author and some that do both. Maybe someone from PC land can tell us what the cheapest software available is that has a builtin encoder as well as easy to use authoring. iDVD (a free program on the Mac) is so fricken simple to use it's embarrasing.

Poor Rich and his underdeveloped Macs. I just got a G5 at work (dual 2.0), and as i expected, it not much better than the G4. I guess the old cliche "you cant polish a turd" still stands to this day. All the hype about the G5 reminded me of the hype for the MC X-Star. I'm not calling the G5 the X-Star of the computing world either.

With that said.......He is right about Macs coming with iDVD. Its a good program for the Mac but definately not the best. Try Toast Titanium 6.

For the PC users. Look into Roxio CD/DVD Creator 6. Thats the newest one. I have never used it, but i have used an older version and it seemed to be pretty comprehensive. I would think that if you bought a DVD burner, it would come with software for making a movie. I hear Sonic MyDVD is good as well.

i am using dvdit. tried it for the first time today. it worked ok.

well if my experience with roxio and mydvd is any measure - don't get them!!

but admittedly it depends on what you want to do. i want complete flexibility. i was furious with roxio because you're very limited with what you can do design-wise with their templates. even more so with mydvd.

but if you just want some templates with different designs and button placements to pop your clips into, the roxio is perfect. it's easy to use (spend 15 mins with the help and you're golden), will pull in an convert your clips, makes it easy to edit the titles and easy to test run it before you burn it.

but if you have any desire to create your own look for your menu - you'll be very frustated.

i opened mydvd and laughed at it and then closed it. it gave me less options than roxio.

roxio is a well-developed for-the-complete-amateur-i-just-want-to-put-my-home-vids-on-dvd-and-make-it-look-nice consumer. if you want to do anything more than that you need a more flexible editor. i just got adobe's encore yesterday - so far i like it, especially as it integrates seemlessly with photoshop and premiere/ae.

I know you're making money now with that Adrenalin system, which is good because the dual G5 is already doing RT with 10 bit uncompressed via a sub $1000 Decklink card. I know FCP RT not yet at the level of the Avid hardware but the gap is closing fast. So I think you've got it backwards, you should be comparing that Avid to the Xstar!

this reminds me of the good old days . . .
Radius vs Targa
Targa vs Media 100
Media 100 vs Avid
Beta SP vs DV

Am I forgetting any?

We should hook up at NAB! (grin)

I will be the first to admit that Roxio and MyDVD are very rudimentary programs but since "mvbeggs" had to even ask the question in the first place, I assumed (insert joke here) that he needed a very basic program anyway. I MAY BE JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS THOUGH.

Am I the only one that hates elaborate DVD menus? just gimme an option to set the sound up and play. I guess thousands of distributors say to themselves, "hey, im gonna put out a real ••••••• movie and then put a real fancy menu on the front end and try to trick people into thinking that the following movie is worth a damn."

disney movies are the worst. after you manage to navigate to the icon you wish to press, you are greeted by a 90 second animation which you cannot skip over. Kill me already.

Imagine that......an Adobe program working with.........another Adobe program. those guys are really smart.

mvbeggs: dont buy the programs. download them from kazaa and try them. if you like one of the programs. goto to bestbuy and purchase it. or not.
"deepstructure's" contradictory discription of roxio and mydvd (read the 1st and last paragraphs) is oddly enough accurate.

see ya at NAB Rich. which sessions do you plan to attend?

i agree, i also hate elaborate menus with animations you can't skip. all i wanted to do with this dvd was a have a main menu with two buttons that linked directly to video clips. pretty simple. i even deleted the default intro movie that roxio annoying throws in. but i wanted to have my own background pic for the main menu (not the silly pretty animated background in their template).

i was able to replace their background by dragging a pic to it, but you can't move the buttons or change their border color. so i had these buttons right over a main part of my image, and i couldn't just simply move them over to one side or the other. lame! not to mention i was still stuck with the purple border on the button from the theme.

nice sarcasm with the adobe reference, but trust me, i've had programs from the same company have problems working together (especially if the company bought out someone else to get the product, like apple and shake).

i don't see what's contradictory in my first and last paragraphs...?

Chris - Can't you use custom images as buttons?

Has any tried Adobe Encore?

Thanks for the replies.

Toolfan, no conclusions jumped to here. You're absolutely right. I'm just starting to learn about this stuff.

I think I forgot to mention in my initial post that I want to be able to watch the DVD on the television. Will the mpeg2 format play on the TV through a DVD player?

Thanks for the helping a newbie out.

kung - you might be able to, but i don't think the border goes away.

i installed encore instead and was immediately able to do exactly what i wanted to.

mvbeggs:
Most beginner level programs (MyDVD and Roxio DVD Creator) will have some sort of wizard or tutorial that will walk you through making a DVD. I use Nero at home. I have never tried anything fancy with it, but it works. All basic programs work the same more or less. If you just want to make a dvd of you and your buds doing what ever, MyDVD and DVD Creator are for you. And just because it it on DVD doesnt mean it is gonna be DVD quality. If the footage is in MiniDV or DVCAM you will be set. If your camera is a Hi8 or VHS, good luck.

Don't be under the assumption that all you have to do is hook your camera up to your computer, put in a blank DVD, run the program, and then begin watching your GREAT home made movie with your friends.

If you have the movie made, then you are set. If all you have is B-roll (rough footage), then you got some editting to do. Thats another can of worms unless you want to watch hours of uneditted footage with no music or anything.

Some DVD player only read certain disc (DVD-R or DVD+R). The X-Box reads DVD-Rs. Thats what I play my DVDs on. Then, some DVD burner can only write to certain disc (+ or - R).

Dont be intimidated by making your own DVD. Its easy. Actually, I have a worm at my worm farm that is now doing it.

Question???? +++++++ Original Post (mvbeggs) ++++++++
I think I forgot to mention in my initial post that I want to be able to watch the DVD on the television.
------------------------
Do you watch your DVDs on something else besides a TV?

here's the main menu screen i was trying to make - just a simple two-button affair with a title. shown in the encore interface:

toolfan,

I've got the video clips already edited. I do watch them on the computer monitor but it's not very conveinent for a large group. The ultimate goal is to be able to slap the DVD in any DVD player attached to a TV, push play, sit back and enjoy.

Thanks for the help...Mark

Most recent dvd players will read + and - dvds, so you should be set to watch them on your t.v. Toolfan says that the x-box reads dvd-r, and I found that a PS2 will play dvd+r, so the game systems have all of the formats covered.

Do you already have a dvd burner?

you export the video from the timeline.
open in whatever program you have.
then you copy it to a dvd and it works in any dvd player.
make sure you know what type of dvd burner you have; dvd-r or dvd+r

Thanks for the help. My DVD burner is a DVD+RW. I'm not sure of the brand. It came with a Dell Precision 340 workstation.

...Mark

Make sure you buy DVD+R or +RW discs, it doesn't really matter what brand your drive is or what brand of discs you get.

Toolfan: I like to watch DVD's on my cinema HD display (and don't even think about ragging on that!)

CINEMA HD DISPLAY?!?!?!? THEY SUCK!!!!

Just kidding, I'm jealous. Oh well, back to staring at my 15-inch, hi-radiation Sears special. God my eyes hurt.

has anyone tried DVDXCopy? its awesome.

Speaking of DVDs, I just got my copy of Overdue by Obrien from Wakeside. While the price was right at under $20, you would be better off buying a copy of Girls Gone Wild, a jar of chunky peanut butter and smearing the peanut butter on your nuts and let your dog, squirrel, mongoose or whatever furry animal you can find lick it off! I'm not saying that some of the riding wasn't good...it was...but I stopped halfway through to increase the excitement by changing the channel to reruns of Facts of Life to see if I could see some tail under Blair's skirt! Sorry, Obrien, there is a reason you are the forgotten Team, I figure it should be next year or the year after at the latest that Dallas signs with a real team. However, if you are interested in a home-cam, grainy, independant, sundance reject hunk of crap film, call my mom and she will film your next family Christmas party!

you can export to dvd from premiere.. you can set chapters with timeline markers on your timeline. if you do it this way you just pop your dvd into your player and it starts automatically...

so do this...
insert blank dvd, click file/export/export to dvd... then build the dvd or burn it... it will transcode for what seems like forever then finally burn...

or you could just use encore and add menus

OMFG, nitrox and natxbrotha. Do you realize how old this thread is?

eh... i dont pay attention, i just signed up. someone might be able to use the info

Just bustin your balls. Something like that is easy to miss.

Hi,re post on Dec. 30th '04 "cody dulock [natxbrotha]" although old, you may have the information I need - I am very new to all of this, self taught learning as I go - Have inported my video to Premier Pro edited it fine in the timeline - got just how I need it but could not export it to dvd or video - I don't seem to have that option on Premier only "Print to video", "Export to tape", "Adobe MPEG Encoder"[all of which results in a black screen with the audio]and just does not seem to work - I also have Encore but the same thing happens when I import my file as asset it play's in the project window but I dont seem to be able to do anything else with it even in MPEG-2 format [which is what I need to end up with] when I tried to burn it to dvd I got a message saying there was nothing in the project even though I could see it a view it there - also the burn process saved it somehow and I could not open it anywhere again -
sorry for being so long, but as you can see got myself into a pickle - very irratating - add this to the kids, house and husband while I try to learn all of this - wow !!!!!
can you enlighten me as to where I may be going wrong have a dedicated computer running Windows XP Professional with good graphics card, sound card, capture card etc. and lots of GB / MB and everything and everyone telling how simple it all is - ye sure - don't seem to have the answer in the books and tutorials either - done everything exactly and still no result when it comes to Exporting or Burning HELP !!!!!!!!!!
....cody dulock [ natxbroath ] glad you did, no matter how old the thread is, I need all the help I can get, thanks........

Your video needs to be encoded to mpeg2 before it can be used as an asset in Encore so perhaps that's the how you should export. Hopefully someone who knows how this works like Toolfan will step in and help you.

[richd] yep, done the mpeg2 before I use it as an assett in Encore still no luck - thanks anyhow, I hope someone out there can solve this one for me - as I have covered just about everything in the book It's got me !!!! even tried this in two other programmes [installing/uninstalling as I go] - bet its something simple that experienced users do automatically - thanks

if u are having trouble with your mpeg2 file not being accepted in Encore try encoding your edited AVI with this program... http://www.tmpgenc.net/