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Tech Tip 120 - Transferring Video to DVD – Part 2

By Chris Capelle - Sunday, April 15, 2007

In part one of this series, we detailed exactly what is required to convert your VHS tapes to DVD. In this part, we’ll go over what you need to learn to be able to watch your creations on television.

To review: To convert VHS to DVD, you need a VCR (or VHS camcorder) to play the tapes, a hardware device that converts the analog signal into digital, and a computer that stores the data, and software that has the ability to edit the material, and burn in onto a DVD. While all of these components are available in multiple flavors, the basic process of getting the data onto the computer remains the same.

Before you start, the best thing to do is pop a commercial DVD into your player, and see what options it has. This will give you an idea of how much time and energy you want to put into the finished product. For example, if you’re putting material from multiple tapes onto one DVD, you might want to put each segment into its own chapter.

Hot tip: A single sided, single layer 4.7GB DVD disc can hold up to 90 minutes of high quality video. Rather than push the limits, it’s better to split longer tapes into two (or more) DVDs.

Chapters: The best analogy to DVD chapters is tracks on a CD. An album might have ten tracks (each track is a song) – and navigating to them is as easy as a button push (or pushes). Chapters on DVD allow viewers to quickly access any part of the DVD easily – another reason why DVDs are an improvement over video tapes!  You can make small image video clips from the appropriate chapters into buttons as teaser previews.

Menu Screen: Look behind the chapters – there is the menu screen. Usually it’s customized, perhaps a still from the movie, or another picture or pictures. Sometimes it’s even a loop or preview of the movie.

Music: Sometimes there is a loop of music (or dialog) that plays when you insert a DVD, but before you press the play button. That can be a nice preview of some of the content of the DVD, or you can add some music for when the DVD ends, but you haven’t gotten around to turning off your TV.

Graphics and animations: You can spice up your DVD with graphics – maybe giving information on the content you’re watching, or perhaps humorous clips. This is advanced stuff, but if you have the time and interest to handle this, go for it.

Auto-Play: You can make your DVD an “autoplay” DVD – you insert it in the player, and it starts playing. The tradeoff, however, is that there can be no chapters.

Remember – the more complex the end result, the more time it will take.

Now that you have sketched out exactly what you have in mind, its time to go to work!

Although there are many options for video editing software (Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Roxio Easy Media Creator and Apple’s iMovie/iDVD are some popular names, but there are many others), the operation is basically the same: Import the video, edit it, prepare it for DVD, burn the DVD. While each software package has its own functions (and limitations), they all compress your movie into MPEG-2, which is the universal DVD format.

Virtually every software package makes this the simplest (and often most fun) part of the project. Once the import is done, you can add or delete scenes, overdub music, insert fade in/fade out, input graphics, voiceovers, and anything else you want. You can import photographs, logos, and sound effects. While each software package has its own methods, a couple of universal rules apply:

• Create any additions (graphics, original music, animations) “outside” the movie editing software, and import in. (For example, perfect your graphics using PhotoShop, and then import them.)
• A few funny touches (e.g., a Batman-esque “POW!”) go a long way.
• Take a break! All of this takes time, and you don’t want to burn out.

Now that you’re 100% happy with the finished product, it’s time to burn it to DVD!

Here comes the confusing part: at some point during the process, you’ll be asked about the Aspect Ratio of your DVD. To keep it simple, this comes down to two choices: Standard 4:3 (which is the traditional TV screen size/shape) and Widescreen 16:9. Think about where you’re going to play the DVD: If you choose widescreen, and play it on a standard TV set, you’ll get the “letterbox” effect (black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, which also results in a smaller picture size), and if you choose standard and play it on a widescreen, you’ll get black bars, but on the left and right of the picture. So plan accordingly.

Now, for the coup de grace: design a nice label and cover for the DVD. Nothing says cheesy like a naked DVD scribbled on with a black Sharpie. You’ve gone this far, so tie a pretty bow on the DVD by giving it a nice presentation.

On a more serious note:

If you go to the website LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card that Xerox will print and send to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't choose who gets it, but it will go to a member of the U.S. armed services. How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!

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