Need help making a DVD- please?

[BostonBK7]

How do I best make a DVD out of a movie I shot with a digital camcorder. The stuff is on a tape and I can hook it up with a USB cord, but I'm having trouble finding a good movie editing program and figuring out how to burn the movie onto a DVD.

Do I need a special kind of CD to burn it on or can I use a regular CD-RW? Also, if I just want to put the video file onto a CD so that someone else can edit it how can I do that?

Any help from some tech savvy people would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[shpuck]

This threads is helpful (it has a great link by the last poster *wink wink*)

http://www.fantasybaseballcafe.com/foru ... =camcorder

or you can cut to the chase and go here:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/

You don't want to use a CD, because all you'll get is a video CD (VCD I think) and they have pretty bad quality, and you can't fit a lot on it. Get yourself an internal DVD burner. If you have a desktop, install it there. If you use a laptop, get yourself an external housing with firewire/USB 2.0 (assuming your laptop has either firewire/USB 2.0 outputs. If not, you'll also need a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card bus). The drive itself shouldn't be more that $80, the housing another $50, and you should be able to get the PCMCIA for bout $20. These prices may be out of date. Then you can go to Cost-co and get hundreds of blank DVDs for something like $20ish.

good luck, and if you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

EDIT: Just realized you were asking about software too. You should be able to get the "home version" of Vegas, Pinnacle, and others for about $100. You can download trial versions, but I think some features are disabled.

[j_d_mcnugent]

you can also find many answers here:

http://www.videohelp.com/

[acsguitar]

Get nero

Find a program to convert avi to DVD formt. I used WINAVI

Basically you convert your 1 file into a bunch of DVD files then burn to disc with nero

[BostonBK7]

This threads is helpful (it has a great link by the last poster *wink wink*)

http://www.fantasybaseballcafe.com/foru ... =camcorder

or you can cut to the chase and go here:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/

You don't want to use a CD, because all you'll get is a video CD (VCD I think) and they have pretty bad quality, and you can't fit a lot on it. Get yourself an internal DVD burner. If you have a desktop, install it there. If you use a laptop, get yourself an external housing with firewire/USB 2.0 (assuming your laptop has either firewire/USB 2.0 outputs. If not, you'll also need a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card bus). The drive itself shouldn't be more that $80, the housing another $50, and you should be able to get the PCMCIA for bout $20. These prices may be out of date. Then you can go to Cost-co and get hundreds of blank DVDs for something like $20ish.

good luck, and if you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

EDIT: Just realized you were asking about software too. You should be able to get the "home version" of Vegas, Pinnacle, and others for about $100. You can download trial versions, but I think some features are disabled.

I'm supposed to be making a movie for my H.S. French class. I don't think we were expected to have to buy anything except DVDs. All that stuff you're mentioning seems way too professional.

[shpuck]

I'm supposed to be making a movie for my H.S. French class. I don't think we were expected to have to buy anything except DVDs. All that stuff you're mentioning seems way too professional.

Oh. That changes things then. I thought you were videotaping personal things and wanted to turn them into movies. If it's for a french class, do what ACS said, but you won't really be able to "edit" the footage, and by edit, I mean put in titles and such (Unless your camera can do that for you).

[Grouperman941]

Try Windows Movie Maker. You should be able to import your footage, edit, and make a video CD.

If you don't have a ton of RAM, importing video over USB might not work very well. (You won't know until you try, though, so experiment.)

It comes with XP. Your school might have it if you have MS computers.

[BostonBK7]

Try Windows Movie Maker. You should be able to import your footage, edit, and make a video CD.

If you don't have a ton of RAM, importing video over USB might not work very well. (You won't know until you try, though, so experiment.)

It comes with XP. Your school might have it if you have MS computers.

Yeah I checked that out yesterday and it looks like a good tool for what I have to do.

Can you burn it straight into a DVD from that program or do you have to save it as a file first and use another program?

[Grouperman941]

Yeah I checked that out yesterday and it looks like a good tool for what I have to do.

Can you burn it straight into a DVD from that program or do you have to save it as a file first and use another program?

You use 'Save Movie' and it will make your project into a CD. There are other options as well, like save to hard drive or publish to the internet.

It has limitations, but it also has tons of options as far as effects and titling.

Good luck.