Once you have the MPEG2 file(s) from the DV-AVI file, you then need other software to author the DVD and burn it.

Timeless Posts about Movie Maker and DVD Burning

4/25/05 - just completed a large project using Movie Maker 2, having saved what began as a combination of DV, jpgs, avi and mov's to the DV-AVI format. am now looking for an easy-to-use, low-priced DVD authoring program that has a decent (not professional-grade) feature set.

I've read various WMM forum postings and it appears that the consensus choices are MyDVD, Nero Vision Express, and U-Lead Movie Factory.... anything over $100 seems like a lot to spend on DVD authoring software, especially given my basic needs. I'd love recommendations to fit these needs and my budget. > The best thing to do is download a trial version of each and see which one you like best. Add to your list: Roxio EMC 7.5 which comes with VideoWave, Intervideo's WinDVD Creator, and Cyberlink's PowerDirector. With about 30 days on each trial, you'll have plenty of time to find out which one suits your needs.

1/2/04 - Is it pretty much standard that you only get one hour of video on a DVD?... I would like to maybe get two or three tapes on a DVD. Is that possible? > you should get at least 2 hours of footage on a dvd > It's a function of the quality of the video and audio you want. The higher video quality and higher audio quality = less minutes of play time on the DVD.

9/23/03 (SimplyDV - Capturing and Editing Video forum) - I've played around with PhotoStory a bit, and I'm starting to get some decent results. Using PhotoStory, I produce a slide show and then save it as a wmv file. I've tried various resolutions and seem to get the best results on DVD playback saving in 800x600 resolution. I then take this file into WMM2 and lay it out with other sections and/or video. I then add the background music in WMM2 (more flexibility in WMM2 than adding it in PhotoStory). I save this as DV-AVI file, then convert to MPG-2 using TMPGEnc Plus, and finally write to DVD using TMPGEnc DVD Author.

With this technique, I am getting good quality on my HDTV. I only notice minor shimmering of some bright objects.

Through this process, I learned something useful. The resolution limiting factor in my entertainment system is my DVD player, not the TV. Even with a high end DVD player, you cannot obtain the resolutions that the HDTV is capable of displaying. When I produced one of the slide shows at higher than 800x600, the image quality actually got worse instead of better. I assume that this has to do with overloading the DVD player with too much information. The higher resolutions look much better when playing in WMP 9 from the hard drive, but not when attempting to play them from a DVD player.

8/9/09 (SimplyDV) - I've just added a LaCie external DVD writer to my set up. It's working fine with everything other than MovieMaker2. The application still only "sees" the old CD writer on drive E that I used to use. There is no option of switching to drive F, which is the LaCie. I've disabled the old drive, but I still can't get MM2 to find drive F. > Problem solved! It was my fault - I just hadn't disabled the old CD-RW drive properly. Once I did, MM2 found the LaCie drive straight away. BTW, The LaCie external DVD writer is really excellent and will burn to any format. It's very sturdy, so can be taken anywhere.

6/15/03 - My HP PC came with +RW drive and was toying with the Sony drive so I can write to both + and -. My stand-alone player can handle my +R and +RW movie disks, but my fear is having home movies of my kids on a format akin to the old betamax ? > (first thread from the post) After buying an included +RW with your PC, it seems a crime to go out and spend another $300 on another drive. If your PC and DVD both work with the +RW, I would stay with that until you hear an announcement that +RW is going extinct, and then buy a new drive. At that time, chances are both +RW and -RW will be replaced by the 27 GB blu-ray drive. One question, what format are you backing up to DVD in? Are you just writing out DV-AVI files to data DVDs, or are you creating real DVDs? If real DVDs, are you pleased with quality of the MPEG video, your editing, choice of background music, transitions, so that you won't need to re-edit the video in the future? Since MPEG is a compressed format they don't really recommend re-editing it. > In the mid 90's or so, I worked with a company called CD Team in the UK. Back then, the UK had DVD/+/-/R/RW formats, and in the end they choose DVD -R/-RW. I can't quite remember if it was before or after my work with the UK, but in Chile, they had DVD players well before the US. A while back I went to Japan and looked at their cell phones, Japan is several years to a decade ahead of the US. Point of the story. The US economy is based upon marketing. Other nations have already decided the path and standards. In the US, it is a question of how to get consumers to buy more products. As for DVD+R/+RW it is obsolete well before it came to the USA. As for cell phones, there are already phones that play MP3's, have full internet access, use smart media, and have a video/still camera, all in the size of a Star Tac phone. This is a major reason why things are obsolete so fast in the US. > So are you saying DVD- is the format to go for ? > Yes. > (second thread from the initial post) - It's a great question. I have a +RW that came with my PC and will just choose to ignore other formats until it is a problem... I see the Sony combo drive as a sign that the industry doesn't see a shakeout for a long time and that their DVD players will support both standards. I bought a fire-safe to keep my original tapes in - both for peace of mind and to be able to re-capture them again someday for other uses. If I ever do a home movie worthy of some future format or use, I'll back it up to tape as well as make a DVD. I'm not too worried about the discs I make (as long as they play, I don't care if they are + or - ) and I'll enjoy them now and just keep my DVD player if the next one I get doesn't play the 'old' discs. > it is a bit of a pain though - my mum's DVD player does not play +, so the DVD I created of her grandchildren didn't work last christmas, which was annoying.

Q. If I get a DVD burner, will the viewing quality be significantly better than SVCD quality or will I just be able to get more on the DVD? I am reluctant to buy a DVD burner if the viewing quality is not significantly better.

A. Microsoft - I think it's all going to depend on the SVCD/DVD software and the MPEG2 encoder they include. I'd try asking this question on rec.video.desktop, and I'll bet you find a number of people there with opinions on the best SVCD/DVD encoder.

Q. OK, I have a DVD burner, but i've never used it. I've downloaded some cartoons on my computer that I want to burn so I can watch them on TV. Do I have to go buy some $100 program to do this, or is there something free I could download. Silly me, I thought the computer would come with something for this, but I haven't found it yet. I need a program that will not only let me put the cartoons on a DVD, but will also let me make an opening screen to navigate with.

A. "Normally", a DVD burner includes a DVD authoring application > Movie Maker will only make movies that you can play on your PC. You can make movies in Movie Maker and then convert them to a format that you can use to burn DVDs and Video CDs. (Note: not all DVD burners can burn DVDs that you can play on your TV).