How long does it take to finalize a DVD?

Hello All,
The customer wants a finalized DVD of footage as soon as we are finished shooting. The shoot is 2 hours long (Mini DV) and I'm feeding that into a DVD-Recorder(Sony VHS/DVD combo) via RCA or firewire or S Video ....

No experience having to do this finalizing business. My impression was that it takes "awhile" to finalize a DVD disk . Just giving the tapes to this crazy person is not enough, they want a DVD.

Any insight?

Thanks,
Al

Hi Al,

From my experience using a few different brands on stand-alone DVD recording decks, a couple of minutes is all that is needed to "Finalize" the disc so you can hand it to the customer. Will not play in other DVD players until Finalized.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

Hi Al,

When I burn a SHORT DVD in Adobe Encore and watch the progress, at the end it says "Writing Lead-Out". I guess a DVD has to have a minimum amount of data on it, so with a short recording, the "Finalizing" can take longer as it fills in some blank space.

What does Finalizing do? Closes up the files and menus and table of contents and all the "under the hood" things that makes the DVD compliant and compatible for general playback.

Until Finalized, you can continue adding more recordings to the disc, so it remains "Open" so to speak.

While changing tapes, your camera should continue to output live video, so you should be able to just let the DVD recording keep on rolling. Test it out in the office and familiarize yourself with the workflow before going live in the field when a mistake can ruin the day.

One would think that Firewire should offer the cleanest signal versus analog video, keeping it digital. Again, experiment at home and check the results

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

I always thought of finalizing as "closing" the remaining space, but with no technical basis for the assumption. Avoid the yellow composite cable if possible. While changing tapes the DVD recorder should still get a signal, so you shouldn't have to pause it. Test your workflow before the job.