Using a DVD recorder to encode and author DVD
 

Ok folks, here's the deal. After finagling with various encoders on software, I'm deciding to turn to hardware in order to make my DVDs.

So, after ripping my retail DVD episodes to my PC and cleaning them up with Virtualdub (NeatVideo), the result video is saved as an AVI (Huffyuv) to my PC. My plan is to purchase a decent DVD recorder with a built-in hard drive. I want to transfer my AVI videos from my PC to the DVD Recorder hard drive. From there, I plan to burn the episodes to DVD.

My questions are as follows:

1. is this possible?

2. If so, can I do it with an USB/(red,white,yellow cables) port?

3. And the most important one of all: If this is possible, what DVD Recorder (with built-in hard drive) do you folks suggest in terms of resulting quality and encoding?

Thank you very much.

Not easily. Most computer output is not what I'd call "true" 1:1 analog output. The quality is altered (softer). And the interlacing doesn't really match up, so you'll be forced to use player deinterlacers, or slow Avisynth deinterlacers, also resulting in reduced quality. You'd be better off with an MPEG encoder from this kind of digital source file.

Can it be done? Probably.
Will it look good? Unlikely, but you'll never know until you test it. Those cables vary highly in quality and function.

This one: http://www.amazon.com/RCA-DRC8030N-R.../dp/B000US4JKE -- The RCA DRC8030N with 80GB hard drive

The Zoran chipset makes gorgeous encodes when the source is already clean. Rich colors (not fake or over-saturated), zero flaws in IRE or luminance, very fine-grain block-free MPEG encoding quality. If a DVD recorder could ever be accused of having a "film look", this is it. It's just really nice. It's not suggested often because it only looks good in a narrow set of circumstances. Plus it's usually somewhat hard to find -- it's a fluke that Amazon has one used, and for only $125. New MSRP was $300, and worth every cent.

Hope that helps you.

Too bad. This machine that you're talking about sure sounds like a gem!

So when I save my VOB as an AVI (after cleaning in Virtualdub) it's not considered accurate? Is it that far off from the original? (other than the conversion from YUV to RGB and back to YUV).

I think at this point you're right, encoding with software (I'm currently flirting with AVStoDVD) is better. I just wanted to do the encoding in hardware, as I figured it would benefit the quality better than software.

The output hardware isn't accurate -- not the file.
If there were a way to easily get the signal out of the computer, then the AVI would be fine. But there's not.

Hardware is also realtime. On a good quad-core computer, or even a dual-core, software encoding can be 2:1 or faster. So the hardware method also comes at a sacrifice of speed. Something else to consider.