Newbee needs help

Hi,

I've been recording some sports events and am trying to transfer them to DVD. Due to the nature of American Football it stops every few seconds and so the final video has usually well over 100 scenes. When I've tried to make them on the pc, I can only seem to transfer each scene individually where preferably Id like to just combine the quarters so there was just 4 scenes. i'm sure this is easy but i cant work it out can someone help me. Im using Image mixer if that helps.....

Thanks Mark Vickers

What are you recording the clips with?

What format is the Image saved in (avi. mpeg. etc) ?

What operating system is on your computer?

The software you are using is for a Sony camera, are you using the camera to save the movie/s.

I copy movies (motor racing mostly) from My Camera DVD using "Windows Movie maker" which is bundles with XP.

You can make a starting frame then load in the various clips (Removing any you don`t want) make an ending frame then save it and burn it to a DVD.

Does that help ... If it is what you are trying to achieve

hi ferret, thanks for your reply. I am very new to all this and not very much a techy at all so please bare with me....

I managed to create the DVD menu last night breaking it into 4 quarters as I wanted so that seemed to be solved. I then went to the function to write this to the DVD. a pop-up hit the screen saying please insert a blank disk. Problem was it kept saying that even though I had inserted a blank disk.....

I tried different new blank disks and it did the same thing. Eventually I did burn the scenes onto the DVD RW but this was just the files and not the whole project (i.e. No menu, just the 4 scenes).

Are there like any training modules on how to use the software? it feels like im learning at a very slow pace at the moment!

to answer some of your questions. The camera is a Hitachi but came with the image mixer disk. I've checked image mixer website and my camera is compatible. The files save as Mpegs when I save them as scenes in image mixer. My operationg system is Windows Vista.....

Lots still to learn, but any advice appreciated.

First Question. What are you trying to achieve, Do you want a DVD that plays on your computer only, Or a DVD that you can play via a Television (DVD Player)

The files you have saved may need to be converted and reburnt if you wish to play them on a television.

I use ConvertxtoDVD however you have to buy this program. So I would suggest, as you are just starting in this field you download DVDFlick which is FREE.
http://www.dvdflick.net/

Just open DVDFlick add your movie files. Put in a blank DVD and it will convert the files to a format suitable for playing on the TV or computer.

Just remember that large files take quite sometime to convert so for example a 700 mb movie file might take 90 minutes to complete and during that time you may not be able to use the computer for other work (takes up most of the CPU time).

Don`t worry we will soon have you up to speed on this

Feel free to ask questions as required.

Cheers for you help Ferret, I will try that link tonight as I am looking to produce a DVD to play on a DVD player.

really basic question - Does it matter if I use a DVD-R or DVD RW? am I correct in saying the R you can only write onto once and the RW you can write onto multiple times?

more questions to follow i'm sure!

Thanks

Mark

DVD-R write once
DVD-RW write multiples ( They say around 10 times, but I notice the quality going after 5 )

Brand name DVDs are good, but you get the same quality with the cheaper Supermarket DVDs (Tesco)

If your buying the cheapest (Supermarket) ones .. it doesn`t feel so bad binning them after just one write