Hi all,
I am new to DVD authoring, but learning fast. Need to convert my two video titles into DVD's urgently for replication.
Have a couple of questions to solve:
1. I live in PAL country but will be producing DVD's for NTSC. (From what I understand, NTSC DVD is the most universally compatible) All our footage is PAL. At what stage can I convert it? Just did a test conversion in After Effects. Nice job but it took 1 hour to convert 2 minutes of video! (I have over 3 hours of PAL video) Is there a better way? Can the final PAL DVD be converted somehow?
2. The single layer DVD's will be replicated (about 1000 copies). Don't have DLT drive. Can a regular DVD be used as a master for replication? (From what I have read, I won't be able to have any copy protection on the DVD that way. - Is that the only problem?)
Thanks in advance for your help.
Equipment:
PC Pentium 3
Adobe: Encore 1.5, Premiere 6.5, Photoshop CS. After Effects 6.5, Audition 1.5
Have I got the program for you...:) Download DivXtoDVD converter http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_encoders/v... It converts almost all formats to DVD, and you can choose to force NTSC or PAL format. Its very simple to use. If you are going to be using the DVD as a master copy, make sure you use some good media. Other than that, I think you will be alright :)
I would assume that you will need an encoder to convert PAL to NTSC. If you are going to produce these discs, you might as well get a good encoder. I am not familiar with any of the Adobe products except for Photoshop, so I do not know how you can go about doing this with your software.
If After Effects is like Sony Vegas, then you should be able to change the settings in the included encoder to speed things up. 1 Hour is way too long for 2 minutes of video. I think this one also uses Mainconcept. If not, look for a Plugin. It should be around $40 or so.
Converting from PAL to NTSC should be done before Authoring. Try out some encoders with free trials like TMPGEnc and Mainconcept. Only Mainconcept will leave a watermark for the trial. There should be more, but I only use these two encoders and the included encoder in Sony Vegas.
As for DVDR to Replicator, as far as I know they will work fine. If you want to add copy protection, you will need to get a DVD Authoring Drive and some DVD-R(A) media. The media is cheap, but the Drive is still around $3,000. Either way, copy protection is easily broken, so there is no loss.
