Converting Video to DVD - ConvertXtoDVD

[Last Updated: Tuesday, 13-Jul-2010 16:55:48 EDT]

Today you will find that most, if not all, video cameras on the market record video in a digital format of one kind or another. Some cameras write directly to mini-DV discs, others write to hard drives and some write to high capacity flash cards. With the advent of (HD) High Definition video, many of the new cameras are including this capability as a big selling point. Of course, with a new video standard comes a new digital encoding format. Most new cameras will record using a format such as H.264, MPEG-4, or AVCHD. Consumers think this is great that they can buy a video camera to record their home videos in HD. The problem is that the average consumer forgets or doesn't realize that current DVD players can't play HD video using one of these new video codecs. So, unless you already have or are prepared to go out and buy a Blu-Ray burner for your PC and a Blu-Ray player for your home theater, you will be stuck with a bunch of great video that you can't watch except maybe by playing it back directly from the camera itself hooked up directly to the TV. NOT GOOD!

Most, if not all cameras will include a CD with a software package to assist with basic video editing and possibly video conversion. My experience with Canon and their included software was terrible. The software continually crashed and could not handle more than 1GB of video. I never could even get it to successfully convert any video at all. So, instead of shelling out a wad of cash for a Blu-Ray burner and player, I decided to see if I could find an alternative video conversion package that could do the trick.

The problem I ran into initially was trying to determine what format Canon was actually using to record the video. The raw video file extension is labeled .m2ts . I did a lot of searching on this file extension and found next to nothing relevant. I ended up digging through the manual that came with the camera (brilliant idea) and lo' and behold, buried somewhere near the back of the manual in the specifications sheet, it mentions that the camera records using the AVCHD codec. Bingo.

Now armed with the necessary codec info, I went searching for any viable software packages that could convert AVCHD video to DVD format (MPEG-2). Many of the packages I found did not have support yet for the AVCHD codec. Alternativley, if they did contain support for the codec, the software attempted to autodetect based on file types and I could not get them to work with the Canon file extension. The m2ts extension appears to be a proprietary designation by Canon although the file format is standardized.

After a handful of packages tested unsuccessfully, I found ConvertXtoDVD. It claimed to do everything I needed it to do. Of course, so did all the other packages. So, I downloaded a trial copy to test it out. I played around with the configuration and options and got it set up fairly quickly. I created my first project using the software and it went very smoothly. I was able to import all the video clips and the software provided a long list of configurable options. One of the really nice features is the built-in DVD menu creation tool. They provide a bunch of canned menu themes that you can customize the way you like. You can add your own titles and background music etc. The software will use this information to automatically generate a professional looking DVD menu with video thumbnails and quick navigation to all parts of the disc.

One thing I found with many of the software packages is that they would hang or crash if you attempted to import or convert above a certain size threshold of video around 1-2GB, regardless of how much physical RAM you have installed in your PC (I have 2GB). Unfortuantely, when I initially tested in the summer of 2008, ConvertXtoDVD had this same issue upon performing the video conversion from the project I had created. Thankfully, this issue was resolved in an interim release. Personally, I liked this software too much to give up on it. I tested this software again after this issue was fixed and was able to successfully convert about 90 video clips comprising approximately 6GB of AVCHD video. The end result was excellent and I am very pleased with this package. The (WAF) Wife Acceptance Factor is also very high as well. The canned DVD menus are very professional looking and add a nice touch.