Re: [Thinkpad] T30 & Making Movies

--- Dimitrios <sehh@altered.com> wrote:
>
> I've done something similar. Here are my results:
>
> It all depends on the quality of the resulting video
> and audio,
> for example, if you want full DVD quality output
> then you
> won't be able to use a laptop. The harddrive space
> required
> for an hour's video and audio can easily reach
> 200gigs
> (again debatable since some people may use a lossy
> compression
> to store their initial video, when others may use
> lossless,
> or even no compression at all).

I don't need full DVD quality, just SVHS type quality.
The films should run from 30 to 45 minutes in length.

(They are generally keynote speeches.)

I would want to give them titles and perhaps a
subchapter bio on the speaker.

> Now, there are three ways to pass your initial video
> to
> a computer: USB 2.0, Firewire, DVD-R. USB2 and
> Firewire
> connections direct from the video camera or playback
> device
> are most common, some high-end camcorders may record
> video
> in mpeg-2 files directly to DVD-R disks.
>
> I dont think the T30 has a firewire, so unless you
> can
> use USB2 then your only option would be to buy a
> PCMCIA
> firewire card. I dont think the GL2 is a DVD-R
> camcorder.

The GL2 has USB2 and Firewire capability. The T30
has neither. I'd need to buy a USB2 or Firewire
PCMCIA
card to pass the footage through to the computer.
I could pass it through to a second 80Gig hard drive
inserted in the Ultra Bay.
 
> Now, about the output. What you need to do is to
> convert
> whatever video input you have into MPEG-2 format
> based
> on the DVD spec. Thats not a problem, there are two
> ways
> you can do that: Hardware encoder or Software
> encoder.

Can you explain DVD spec?
 
> The professional choice is either a hardware encoder
> or
> a software encoder on SMP. A hardware encoder can do
> real-time effects and its fast. A software encoder
> can
> provide a huge array of options but it won't be as
> fast as hardware encoders, unless you are using a
> powerful SMP system. I'm using a dual Athlon system
> with 2gigs of memory and U160 SCSI RAID storage
> (10.000 rpm drives, 400MB/s transfers).

I'm not sure how a hardware encoder works. I feed
the raw footage into the hardware encoder and it
converts it to MPEG2 format? Where (to an external
hard drive or within the hardware encoder itself?)
and how do I get it into the laptop for burning to
DVD? USB2?
>
> A laptop doesn't have the processing power to encode
> lengthy videos at a reasonable time, so your options
> are a bit limited. In order to avoid 20-hour long
> encodings, you should consider lowering the quality
> of the movie or using pre-encoded mpeg-2 streams
> (many camcorders encode in mpeg-2 directly).

So I'd be wise to obtain a Hardware Encoder to cut
down on the encoding time. If I lowered the quality
from digital quality down to say SVHS quality would
the laptop suffice?

> Before spending money, i'd suggest you try some
> test encodings on the laptop to see if what you are
> doing is viable on a laptop.

By test encodings you mean feeding the raw footage
through a USB2 PCMCIA card to the hard drive and
using a software program to encode the footage into
MPEG2 format. From there I could use a software
program to edit, add titles, a subchapter, and then
try burning to a DVD?

There would be some cost involved in that: a USB2
PCMCIA card and a DVD burner.
 
> These are some professional encoders (some are VERY
> expensive):
> Cinema Craft Encoder (http://www.cinemacraft.com/)
> <- my preference
> Mainconcept encoder (http://www.mainconcept.com/)
> Canopus ProCoder
>
(http://www.canopus.com/US/products/ProCoder/pm_procoder.asp)
> TMPGEnc (http://www.tmpgenc.net/)

I took a look and they range from $150 to over $1,000.
 These
all appear to be software encoders with trial
versions. Thus,
I would obtain the PCMCIA card and burner above then
import
the raw footage into the computer and one of the
software
packages above. The software would convert the raw DV
footage
into MPEG2 format and save it in a file somewhere.

If that's the case the next step would be to edit that
MPEG2
file, right? I could use ULead's Movie Making
software or the
software that accompanies the DVD-R burner from IBM or

am I wrong about that?

Question: doesn't Ulead's MM software or the software
that
comes with the burner convert raw footage to MPEG2?

> The above apps are just the video encoder,
> and won't create the DVD image itself.

Thus, I would need a software package for creating
DVDs,
correct?

So I imported the footage, converted it to MPEG2,
edited
it with Movie Making software, saved the file and now
ready
to burn to DVD. I fire up the DVD burning software
and
burn to DVD.

Are those the steps and what if anything am I missing?

> If you want a cheaper solution, there are many video
> to DVD
> applications out there which include their own lower
> quality encoder and they generate DVD images
> directly.

Ok, now we're talking! Thus, I would assume the Ulead
and/or software accompanying the IBM DVD burner
would encode to MPEG2 format, correct?

So here's what I'm thinking: I buy the USB2 PCMCIA
card and the IBM DVD burner, install the software that
accompanies the burner and follow the steps above
for testing purposes: resulting in determining how
long the entire process takes and whether the T30
with 1gig RAM, two 80gig hard drives using a 1.8Ghz
Pentium 4 is sufficient to make and burn a 30-45
minute
DVD.

Comments?
 
> PS:
> sorry for the long post, i had some free time to
> spare at 6 in the morning :)

Long? I LOVED it! Thanks so much for taking the
time/effort to spell it out for me. Feel free to
expand!

Mike

=====
Mike

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Received on Sat Feb 7 15:29:03 2004