Help Needed For MPEG-VOB Conversions PLEASE

[stillcool]

I recently aquired a motion capture card so I can convert films on VHS tape to DVD with pretty title screens etc but I'm having problems getting the software to work. The capture card is a WinFast VC 100 XP and I'm using the bundled software that came with it. The WinFast capture software is fine and rips the film great in MPEG 1 mode but when I try to manipulate the images and author them to DVD I get error messages. The editing & authoring software is Ulead Movie Factory 5 and Ulead Video Studio 7 SE DVD. Whenever I try to save the project to disc or just back up my work as a new MPEG I get error messages just as it finishes the save which can be anything from 40 mins to 6 hours depending on what I've told it to do.
Is it me or is this software crap.

If anyone out there has any sugestions, whether it be alternate software or anything else I would be grateful.

If I can get the trimmed finished MPEG files to VOB files that would be great as Clone DVD 2 will crush 2 films to 1 DVD won't it & DVD Shrink will do it with a title page too!

Also will home DVD recorders rip a VHS tape DIRECTLY to a DVD at decent quality? - this might be one option as the effort might not be worth the result with the capture card!

Oh my PC spec is P4 2.2 with 512MB Ram & about 55 Gb spare over 2 partitions - cheers

[oldshepp]

I have the same capture card and I'm pretty happy with it for the price!

I actually use a program by Intervideo called WinDVR 3 to capture in Mpeg II - Best quality. Although the files are bigger I find I have less problems later on with the captured file.

I then use TMPGenc DVD author to convert to VOB. It also allows you to create some basic menus. Very good program - fairly simple to use. I haven't bothered with anything from Ulead since Tmpgenc.

Finally shoot across to this site and it will give you some handy pointers on conversion, authoring etc.

www.videohelp.com

Good luck

[stillcool]

Many thanks oldshepp for the tips. Ill try Win DVR 3 for myself as I can't get a decent picture with the cards original software with my spec PC so I use MPEG 1 Optimal Quality instead which is no way as good.

After starting the thread I found TMPGE Author 1.6 which is the editor/author software for users with dual layer writers. It is brilliant to say the least although I havn't spotted an 'undo' button on the editor & it could use a musical menu option like the Ulead software - the feature I like the best about TMPGE Author 1.6 is that it ignores huge DVD projects so you CAN burn 2 films onto 1 4.7Gb blank without too much quality loss (Using Clone DVD2).

I have also found a use for my OEM Ulead CD's - I currently have 1 hot cup of coffee on 1 of them, shame there is a hole in the middle of it - if I use a bit of sticky tape on it it will be a proper coaster then won't it ...