Ok, I am kinda new here, some of y’all helped me with trying to get my 1633s to work, but it just won’t and now it’s a cupholder 10 feet away from my toshiba sd-r5372, which i personally think is a pretty sweet recorder. anyway, i am wondering: for what purpose does your average cdfreak acquire all this vast knowledge and ability with our friendly neighborhood optical recording devices? apologies if anyone has conducted such a poll before…
Mainly make my own DVDs from a DV Camcorder
I burn DVD’s for my own videos (I have a Movie Company), for data storage/personal backups and to backup other dvd’s.
and just a bit about why i posted the poll… i’m trying to develop the ultimate media management tool. audio collections, movie collections, comics, ebooks, porn, recipes, sounds of cats meowing (an essential component of any cat-owner’s multimedia system)… essentially any form of media that some industry group might oppose being in one’s possession. ability to create mixed-media playlists, playlists of playlists, add custom tags and grouping mechanisms to media files, export of collection info, launch and play files or playlists with pre-specified parameters, rip from cd/dvd source directly into specified collection-defined format, establish template for and allow manipulation of your filesystem insofar as your archives are concerned (for example, press one button and you can reorganize your audio archive from one folder containing many to, say, 26 (one for each letter of the alphabet) and maybe 1 (or 10) for ‘0-9’, etc.), ability to burn directly from collection, collection search, or playlist to media or image file, web tag lookup (freedb, imdb, etc.), deal with album and movie covers, etc… essentially, this app is what you would get if you threw nero, eac, lame, alcohol, mpeg audio collection, nbs divx catalog, clonedvd, irfanview, acrobat, cd-dvd speed, and quite a few other useful apps into a big blender, and then poured the resulting mess into a champagne glass… it’s also not as hard as it sounds - but the most difficult part is assessing user needs. since joining this forum, i’ve gotten the impression that people doing things other than dvd movie burning/backup/copying are in the minority… whereas i have never and may never in the future burn an actual dvd movie for use in a player. so i guess i’m trying to gauge how much emphasis i’m going to need to put on the programs different functionalities. of course it already has a SWEET SUITE (get it? hahahaaha i so funny) of mp3-related tools because that is MY primary objective, as no current software suits my needs. however, i’m beginning to think the program will need more support for dealing with pressed and burnt dvd movies, moreso than any audio-related components. anyway, sorry for being long-winded, but thanks in advance for all your input, and i hope soon (by the end of the year) i will be able to release a beta of this software (it will be GPL freeware, of course!).
DVD backups
File backups (rare)
Media test for fun 
ah - there should also be an option for people who actually PRODUCE dvds with these drives. how quickly i forgot their actual ‘real’ function! but i can’t edit the poll? hmph!
what software path do you use for that conversion?
Capture and edit using Pinnacle studio 9 or Adobe Premiere Pro (depends on if I need a quick conversion). Once edited export back to hard disc as a DV file. Once exported, encode to DVD compliant MPEG file using Cinema Craft Encoder (usually do 2 or 3 passes). Once encoded use Adobe Encore to author the disc. Final movie is PAL compliant with 192K 2 channel AC3 audio.
Interesting methods…
You mean export back to HD as .AVI file?
Once exported, encode to DVD compliant MPEG file using Cinema Craft Encoder (usually do 2 or 3 passes).
How long does it takes to process 1 hr of movie?
Once encoded use Adobe Encore to author the disc. Final movie is PAL compliant with 192K 2 channel AC3 audio.
Can Adobe Encore insert 5 channel AC3 audio?
oops out of topic…
z) all of the above
Yes. Obviously I could just use the editing software to encode the video as MPEG compliant files but in my experience the built in encoders are not very good. Especially the Pinnacle Studio encoding which is just rubbish in quality. Instead I just export back to DV AVI file on to the hard drive (need a big hard drive). This usually takes about 10 minutes depending on the amount of effects and transitions you have in your video.
For a 1 hour movie it takes me about 40 minutes to do one pass. This on an Athlon XP1800. It would take much less time on faster systems. If your only making a 1 hour movie it only needs one pass. With longer movies its better to do 2 or 3 passes as this improves quality at lower bitrates.
Yes.If you have a DVD compliant 5.1 ac3 file you can insert this into Encore. Only if the audio file is not DVD compliant it converts it into 2 channel AC3
maybe i will need to add full dvd authoring functions…
Mainly for file and my media library backup. I am also doing research into optical systems as a managed storage solution, just for fun - I work in data storage so it’s in line with my work.