which software for hauppage hvr 2250 tuner card & windows 7

dsperber said:

If you buy a wonderful software product like VideoReDo TV Suite, you can handle all of these formats as input... including WTV directly as well as TS or TP (which came from BeyondTV) or MPG or anything as a wrapper over the underlying MPEG-2 codec used for HDTV.

Frame-accurate editing, ability to produce output again in any form you want... and NOT RE-COMPRESSED if it's not needed (this is called "fast frame-copy"). Of course there might be a need to decode/encode a few frames at the start and finish of your edit depending on your edit and the "scenes" you're putting together if any, but 99.999% would be direct "frame copy" un-recompressed true original bit-perfect HDTV quality.

And the original DD5.1 audio stream is also retained in the edited output.

I believe VideoReDo can burn to DVD, but I'm not sure about BluRay. Perhaps, but I don't have firsthand knowledge or experience here.

I myself use multiAVCHD to "author" my own BluRay output, and it accepts the MPG edited clips (with MPEG-2 inside) from HDTV out of VideoRedo directly and again does NOT RE-COMPRESS. So while the titling and chaptering from multiAVCHD is 1080p, the actual content can be the true original bit-perfect 720p or 1080i edited clips, and the BluRay will reflect that... with no "tampering" or re-compression done by multiAVCHD for the content itself. Again, the original DD5.1 audio stream in the HDTV clips is also retained bit-perfect as-is in the BluRay output.

Obviously you can use whatever you want to produce your BluRay outputs. But the clip editing really should be done using VideoRedo. It's the best.

BluRay disc output from multiAVCHD is playable on any player which accepts "home burned" onto blank BluRay media (or even BDMV output format burned onto DVD+/-R blank media, to save money for shorter programs that can fit on a DVD blank). Certainly my Oppo players support playback of BluRay's (or BDMV on DVD) produced by multiAVCHD (and burned using IMGBurn).

this is exactly the type of information that I need to know.............is there a "guide" for dummies for these processes. What is "authoring" a blu ray? Finally, can HD programs be burned onto regular DVD's, played on a blu ray player & output a 1080p program?

bnewt said:

this is exactly the type of information that I need to know.............is there a "guide" for dummies for these processes.

VideoReDo is a very intuitive product to learn to use, and is supported wonderfully (and actively) by its author.

There's a support forum for the product (including a sub-forum for beta versions) which is probably where the best Q&A can be had, if the HELP in the product isn't helpful enough.

But basically you just open the raw video file you want to edit. Then you "navigate" through it using either the rough-resolution progress gauge, or using the fine-resolution 30-second slider, or even more precise frame counters or even easier keyboard arrow left/right keys, etc. You "mark" the START of the clip section you want, and then you repeat the navigation to mark the END of the slip section you want. Then you "add" this clip to an initially empty list (but continually growing as you may add additional scenes) of clip "scenes" you want to have VideoReDo assemble together seamlessly into one finished single continuous video. I use this "scene" method of designating clips, which is an intuitive way to understand "start" and "end" of a segment that I call a "scene".

When your list of edited scene clips is finally complete, you push the "save as..." button and then select the type of output you'd like to produce (e.g. MPG) and designate the target folder and file name. VideoReDo will then do whatever is necessary to produce the output result in the form you've specified.

Obviously you need to try this for yourself to understand what I'm describing above. The product has a 30-day free trial period, but I'm certain you'll buy it (very reasonable price, in my opinion) after just a little bit of playing.

What is "authoring" a blu ray?

You are essentially creating your own graphics which will be presented by your player when you insert the disc and start playing it. You'll see a main title, navigation buttons to allow you to navigate through the various one or more "titles" which you may have placed onto the disc, as well as possible "chapters" which may be inside each of the "titles". You may also have "thumbnails" to aid in navigation through the titles and chapters, along with annotative text under the thumbnails, etc. Just like a commercial disc would have. Maybe even musical background if you want.

And a program like multiAVCHD also supports the "popup menu" function while you're playing, to allow you to directly navigate to the next/last chapter, next/last title, or to see the complete chapter list for the current title, or to go back up to the complete title list. So this is a navigational aid convenience while watching and playing.

Once you push the PLAY button you're actually playing those actual HDTV clips you selected with VideoReDo and "authored" into disc form (BDMV format) using multiAVCHD. MultiAVCHD produces a folder of content, which is in the precise BDMV form needed to then have IMGBurn produce the actual disc to blank BluRay media... which is truly a BDMV disc, suitable for playing on any machine BluRay player.

Finally, can HD programs be burned onto regular DVD's, played on a blu ray player & output a 1080p program?

Yes. As long as it can fit on the smaller DVD+/-R media and as long as your player allows playback from home-burned media, multiAVCHD can produce what appears to the player to be BDMV (BluRay movie), but physically on DVD media. I've used this approach to "try out" things and experiment (since BluRay blank media is quite expensive compared to DVD), as a way of learning what I just did with multiAVCHD and if it actually produced what I wanted to produce, or whether I needed to revise some text annotations, fonts, thumbnails, etc.

It'll take you some time to get familiar with these new tools and learn all of their useful options, tricks and techniques, but honestly it's reasonably intuitive. A little trial and error is the best way to learn by experience, and to figure out what your next set of questions should be to those who might be available to help from their own experience.

I'm afraid multiAVCHD is no longer supported directly by the author (there used to be a forum where users could exchange knowledge, even if the author didn't respond). The forum site itself has been taken down, so you can't even refer to it for historical information or how-to details which I found invaluable.

But there still is the Doom9 site and multiAVCHD thread so you can still get support there.

And here's another thread on the Doom9 site that is more "tutorial".