Burning DVDs

Burning DVDs

Objective: This job aid shows how to transfer a VHS tape to DVD. This job aid will take you step-by-step through the process beginning with digitizing the video, then capturing it to your computer, and, finally, burning it to a DVD. If you have a dazzler (wire that bypasses the digitizing steps by capturing the video directly from the VHS to the computer), skip to step 2.
Check your CD/DVD drive to make certain you have the correct DVDs (+R, +RW, -R, -RW).
This job aid follows a format for use with Roxio software.

Step 1: Digitize the video

Connect the VCR to the digital camera.
The camera should be on VTS mode.
Press record (if there is a blank button next to the record button press both at the same time) on the digital camera. Make certain the red light (signifying the camera is recording) is on the camera.
The video will now be digitized to the digital tape in the camera.

Step 2: Capture the video.

Connect the digital camera to the tower (power box) of your computer using a fire wire. (If you have a dazzler connect the VCR to the tower (power box).
Open Roxio DVD builder.
Select the camera icon.

A DVD generally holds 2 hours or 4.7GB of video. If the video you are burning is near this limit, then a dialogue box will appear, when you begin to burn your video, that will warn you about the size of your file. It will state that it may not fit. Use your discretion to decide if you should continue or not. The video may or may not all fit on one DVD. If it does not, you will have to start again at the editing step and make it smaller and then encode and burn your movie again (Note the above time frames for encoding and burning). For this reason, during this step of capturing video, you may want to capturing smaller amounts of video to each file and burn them separately.

Select "Start Capture."

Your video will now be captured into Movie A.

Step 3: Edit your video.

To view the video, double click on "Movie A."

The video will capture in clips. The clips will be burned in one fluid video, but you can use the individual clips for editing and trimming.
To trim, double click on the clip itself.

That clip will play in the Screening Room.

To trim within a movie, pause the clip at the point you need to split (i.e. before the beginning of a commercial) and click on "Split Video." That clip will be split in Movie A. Now you will be able to trim within the movie.

To trim a clip, select the clip by double clicking on it. Pause the clip at the point you want to trim. To trim the first part of the clip, click on "Trim Left" and to trim the end of the clip, click on "Trim Right."
The files you trim (delete) will be placed in the trash. If you need to replace the clips back into your video, double click on the trask icon and drag and drop the clip back into your movie.

To add a transition in between clips (segments), select the transition icon at the bottom of the screen and tranisition options will appear.

Choose the transition and drag it to the arrows in between the clips. The arrows will change to yellow when they contain a transition.

Step 4: Save the File

To save your file select File>Save as. Your file will be saved in a Roxio Capture folder. Name your file.

Step 5: Burn your video

Before you burn the DVD, check the size of your file. A DVD generally holds 2 hours or 4.7GB of video. If the video you are burning is near this limit, then a dialogue box will appear, when you begin to burn your video, that will warn you about the size of your file. It will state that it may not fit. Use your discretion to decide if you should continue or not. The video may or may not all fit on one DVD. If it does not, you will have to start again at the editing step and make it smaller and then encode and burn your movie again (Note the above time frames for encoding and burning). If Roxio warns you about the size of your file, you need to decide if you want to proceed and take the chance that after you spend the time encoding and burning you will have to start all over and make it smaller. Therefore, you may want to go ahead and make it smaller before you begin the encoding process. If you decide to make it smaller you will need to save each portion of the video in a seperate file and burn them seperately.
Insert a DVD into the E drive of your computer.

Select the "Burn DVD" icon.
A dialogue box will appear.

Select the number of DVDs to burn.
Select OK.

At this time, the encoding process will begin. Once this process is finished, the burning process will automatically begin. Once that DVD is burned, you will be prompted to insert a new DVD. When all DVDs have been burned, a preview of your video will be displayed.

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