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recorded eyetv programs to DVD

C

carmineventura

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 2, 2008
8
0
Hello,

I am tearing out my hair. New to MAC. Did a lot of video editing with a PC and Sony Vegas before switching to mac.

Have a problem with some sporting events I recorded with Elgato eyetv hybrid. I export recorded program in DV, import this DV movie into final cut express, render - edit, and then export file in quicktime to iDVD. I burn it and the disk is playable on a set top dvd player but the video is crappy. Motion is very choppy, almost a strobe like effect. What am I doing wrong ?!?!? :(

Any advice would be GREAT !
Thanks !

carmine
PS: using Imac intel 2.4 Ghz core 2
Mac OSX 10.5.2
Final Cut express 4.0
 
do your edits in eyetv then if you have toast hit burn to DVD
or make your show timeline settings are correct when given the option on a new project
 
puckhead193 said:
do your edits in eyetv then if you have toast hit burn to DVD
or make your show timeline settings are correct when given the option on a new project
Click to expand...

Okay, i will give it a try.
I just cannot understand WHY I cannot edit these recordings in Final Cut express. That is one of the reasons I shelled out $200.

I SHOULD be able to export the recordings in DV. . . edit. . . export to iDVD.
I just don't get it. Seems like I may have made a BIG mistake switching to MAC. Video editing on a PC was easier and worked GREAT.

Thanks for your time

Carmine
 
puckhead193 said:
do your edits in eyetv then if you have toast hit burn to DVD
or make your show timeline settings are correct when given the option on a new project
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by making sure my timeline settings are correct when given the option in a new project. Are you talking about Final Cut express here ?

Thanks.

carmine
 
carmineventura said:
Seems like I may have made a BIG mistake switching to MAC. Video editing on a PC was easier and worked GREAT.
Click to expand...

That's blasphemy around these parts. ;)

Your statement about the resultant footage looking "choppy" and "strobe-like" makes it sound to me like an interlacing issue.

I think your conversion process from eyeTV to DV to MPEG-2 is flawed (or at least not optimal).

Your eyeTV files, are they HD or SD? I think that SD files from eyeTV are MPEG-2, right? They're probably interlaced as well. What do you use to convert to DV? You might want to play with the interlace/de-interlace options to see if any settings help with video quality.

Also, how much footage are you burning onto the DVDs? iDVD has a couple of quality settings, depending on how much video you're trying to cram onto the DVD, you might end up with heavily compressed material.

ft
 
ftaok said:
That's blasphemy around these parts. ;)

Your statement about the resultant footage looking "choppy" and "strobe-like" makes it sound to me like an interlacing issue.

I think your conversion process from eyeTV to DV to MPEG-2 is flawed (or at least not optimal).

Your eyeTV files, are they HD or SD? I think that SD files from eyeTV are MPEG-2, right? They're probably interlaced as well. What do you use to convert to DV? You might want to play with the interlace/de-interlace options to see if any settings help with video quality.

Also, how much footage are you burning onto the DVDs? iDVD has a couple of quality settings, depending on how much video you're trying to cram onto the DVD, you might end up with heavily compressed material.

ft
Click to expand...

Hello again,

I am Recording in SD, and yes its MPEG 2. I export in DV USING the elgato eyetv export settings. there are many settings I use DV. Then open that file in Final Cut. From there back to iDVD.

Yesterday I followed your suggestion of editing the clip IN eyeTV and burn with toast. i did that and it came out great ! The only thing is, I really dont like the menus in toast and the lack of being able to put a chapter marker exactly where I want it. AND eyetv's editing controls are not as exact as Final Cut.

Thank you for your time. I sure would listen to any more advice your willing to give.


Carmine
 
Same problem as carmine

hi carmine

i have exactly the same problem as you. I have recorded analogue camcorder footage using elgato hybrid on my dual core imac. I export to imovie and burn the content to idvd and it stutters when there is motion. If I use Toast to burn the same imovie file I have no problem.

I have looked at Toast settings and you can customise the encoding process to automatic, top field first, bottom field first etc. I found other posts that talk about interlacing in these terms. idvd seems to have none of these options which i guess means that idvd works only one way and it cannot deal with hybrid output.

i am now producing exports from eyetv using settings for imovie, idvd, dv interlaced and dv progressive. All being burned to toast. will then burn the same to idvd and compare.

i'd like to know if you have got a solution because i want to use idvd for these old videos. what i am more worried about is whether my digital camcorder content will have the same problem (although the elgato hybrid is not needed for this bit).

Happy Christmas all

Simon
 
Update

After lots of effort with eye tv 3, imovie HD (6), i found:

eye tv export to dv pal normal interlacing
idvd stutter result: toast gave very good result (did not edit in imovie)

eye tv export to dv pal progressive interlacing
idvd gave passable quality: toast gave poor result

eye tv export to imovie
idvd gave stutter result: toast gave poor result

eye tv export to idvd
idvd gave stutter result: toast gave good result

changing the eye TV prefs for display to no interlacing made no difference

so basically if you have mpeg2 content from eyetv (in my case from analogue video) forget using iMovie HD and iDVD (the one thing i have not tried is normal dv export from eye, into imovie and then save as QT using expert settings, no de-interlacing option, and then using toast to burn the movie with its encoding choices)

best bet is to simply use toast to burn the original mpeg 2 steam. excellent quality, but no imovie and idvd tricks (perhaps ilife08 is better???????). I have read and tried loads and wish i had taken the simple route to begin with. If anyone truly gets good results exporting mpeg to DV and then using imovie and idvd (or toast) i take my hat off to them and ask them for detailed settings and scenario.

the good news for me is that imovie and idvd did a perfect job with my mini DV footage. if you do a slideshow do it in idvd, looks great. i made a QT movie from iphoto but all i gained was the ken higgs effect and i got motion blur (possibly because it seems impossible to get the movie rendered in 25fps - keeps coming out as 29.xx and this probably not ideal in a DV PAL project. Yes i have set imovie to 25fps and found this seems to be a common problem)

hope this is of help to someone and saves them hours of frustration....

simon
 
Eye TV and final cut

Hello,

I have figured some stuff out. I was able to record a sporting event with eyeTV and export it in DV format de-interlacing the video. I then edited in final cut express and exported that to iDVD made menus then burned and it worked fine. I believe the bottom line is final cut express NEEDS the video to be de-interlaced before Importing. Any other way will NOT WORK. I have gotten responses from people telling me final cut express can edit interlaced video, from my experiences with the program I find this to be completely false.

UPDATE: Since my origional post I have bought Windows XP and loaded that on my iMAC and am back to using Sony Vegas 7.0 for most of my editing. For the life of me I do not understand how final cut has become the standard in the business. I cant stand all the " rendering " that must be done EVERYTIME YOU ADD A CLIP TO YOUR TIME LINE. WHAT A PAIN ! NOT TO MENTION THE TRANSITIONS . . . OMG THATS ANOTHER STORY !

I love MAC but for video editing its MUCH easier in a PC with vegas.

Carmine
 
eye tv to final cut pro

Ive tried compressing movies down straight from eye tv and importing them into final cut pro but it hasnt been working. which i am not surprised of, i have also briefly tried using the toast 10 application and was unsuccessful. I am wondering if anyone knows a way of getting eye tv recordings into Final Cut Pro. Before i drive myself crazy with trial and error.
 
michigan19 said:
Ive tried compressing movies down straight from eye tv and importing them into final cut pro but it hasnt been working. which i am not surprised of, i have also briefly tried using the toast 10 application and was unsuccessful. I am wondering if anyone knows a way of getting eye tv recordings into Final Cut Pro. Before i drive myself crazy with trial and error.
Click to expand...
Export your recording from Eyetv in the DV format. Final cut will recognize that file.
Let me know how it goes. I would'nt compress a eyetv DOWN in Toast 10. . .
EyeTV records in the MPEG2 format at what ever bitrate used by your cable company ( DIGITAL CABLE ). I have been fighting with this the past few weeks.
If I burn the recordings with toast without re encoding the DVD freezes over and over, I think its because the bitrate is too low ( 3.5 MPS). If I let Roxio re-encode there is severe motion artifact. I believe this is due to re encoding a MPEG2 source file with a low bitrate to a higher bitrate. What I am doing now is exporting in DV and bringing THAT file into Roxio toast and letting toast re -encode THAT file. Results are by far the best using this method. People in these forums will say never transcode a mpeg2 file to another format and then convert it BACK to mpeg2 . . . and while this is technically correct, if your source file is a low bitrate like you get with elgato eyeTV recording digital cable, there is NO CHOICE.
Final Cut likes DV as DV is an editing format, I would stick whit that, play around with the DV export settings aiming for what ever settings give you the largest file size.
Let me know how it goes.:cool:
 
carmineventura said:
For the life of me I do not understand how final cut has become the standard in the business. I cant stand all the " rendering " that must be done EVERYTIME YOU ADD A CLIP TO YOUR TIME LINE. WHAT A PAIN ! NOT TO MENTION THE TRANSITIONS . . . OMG THATS ANOTHER STORY !
Click to expand...

If a clip needs rendering each time you add a clip to the timeline, then that clip is not compatible with the sequence, or worse, isn't a codec meant for native editing within FC. Those DV files, if done right, should not need rendering in a timeline if the timeline is also SD.

Some of your issues may be just lack of knowledge of the product. Those darn learning curves just get in our way. ;)
 
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