Video Workflows: Capture MPEG-2 for DVD
the Frequently Asked Questions…
- Which computer capture card is best for making DVDs?
- How do I capture videotapes onto the computer?
- What do I use to capture video to MPEG files?
and The Digital FAQ Answers…
Capturing directly to MPEG-2 for DVD-Video format (“a DVD”) isn’t suggested anymore in the 2010s. But it can certainly be done if you’re looking to save time, and are willing to compromise quality in the process.
Technically, you can even capture to MPEG-1 for DVD-Video, but that’s never been suggested.
In the days of analog cable, “digital” satellite (also analog output!), and analog antenna TV, it wasn’t a terrible method. You could record a clean source through s-video on the cable box or satellite receiver. While it had some noise in the capture, maybe even some noise in the analog source, it was very tolerable. Especially since most TV sets were still the old-fashioned 4×3 CRTs, not the huge flat screen 16×9 HDTVs of today. Those older TVs hid quite a but of noise, too.
Capturing video tapes directly to DVD was never suggested, and is even more true now. Thanks to advances in video filters, using program like Avisynth and VirtualDub, you can completely eliminate tape errors. The caveat there is that it needs to be a lossless or uncompressed AVI file. Note that using a quality VCRs has always been suggested, and still is.
But if that’s what you want to do, and capture directly to DVD-ready MPEG, this is what we suggest…
