The NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 suite includes nine different products in one convenient package. Included with this software is the ability to capture an analog or digital signal from any source. You must have a capture device already installed to use this capture software. NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 lets you capture and burn to Audio CD, Video CD, Super Video CD and DVD. This how-to will focus on capturing Video or TV using an external Capture Card and the NTI Capture software, then burning a DVD disc.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: Depends on length of source video
Here's How:
- Turn on your PC and place the NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 installation disc into your CD drive. Follow all the onscreen directions for installing the NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 software. Once the software is installed, remove the installation disc and insert a blank recordable DVD into your DVD recordable drive.
- Open the NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 software by either doubleclicking on the icon on your desktop or going into Start>All Programs>NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 and clicking on NTI CD & DVD Maker to open the program.
- You are now presented with six choices for creating a disc. Choose Video and in the submenu choose HomeVideo-Maker. This is the application that allows you to Capture, Edit and Burn a DVD.
- If your capture device is not attached to your PC, attach it now. I am using ADS Techs DVD XPress external analog capture device. It allows me to capture video or TV using either a Composite or S-Video cable connection.
- Click on the Capture tab at the top left of the screen. For a video source I have my cable TV passing through a VCR to my TV. This gets cable TV to my Television. I then connect an RCA Video and Audio cable from my VCR to the ADS Tech DVD Xpress Capture Device. When I click on the Capture tab, the television signal is sent to the NTI software via the capture card.
- Start playing your own Video source (TV, VCR, DVD Player, etc.) and click on the Record button. You are presented with Capture options that allow you to set a specific capture time for the video, the capture format, and where to save the video file. My video files default to the "My Videos" folder. After adjusting these settings, click Capture.
- You must either manually stop the video capture or it will stop automatically if you set a specific capture time. I capture 2 minutes of CNN and then click on the Create tab.
- Next, click on the drop down menu and select New Album. Click on the "Click here to add new media" button and the folder containing your captured video file will pop up. Double-click on the Video file and it will be added to the clips bin.
- Click and drag your Video file to the center of the DVD Menu where it says "Drag video here."
- Once that is done you can customize the DVD Menu any way you would like to personalize the menu to your Video. Using the tabs above your Video clips bin you can change the menu background, add chapters, add background music to the menu or add text to the menu.
- Once the DVD Menu is created and the Video clip(s) are added to the Menu, you're ready to burn to DVD.
- Click on the "Write Disc" button above the Video clips bin. This will take you to a new screen where you can preview your DVD project. Next, click on the red "Start" button and the DVD disc will be encoded and then recorded. Once it is finished recording, remove the disc and enjoy!
Tips:
- Important: remember to use the correct DVD format for your DVD Drive. If your drive records to DVD+R/RW, make sure you use only DVD+R or DVD+RW discs. If your drive records to DVD-R/RW, then use DVD-R or DVD-RW. For those with multi-format drives, you can use either + or - DVD recordable discs.
- Store all of your video files in one folder on your hard drive for easy access. Windows makes this easy by including a "My Videos" folder in the "My Documents" folder.
- Place your recordable DVD into the DVD Drive before starting the NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 application.
- Recordable DVDs are available in speeds up to 16x. Don't worry about using a higher speed disc than your DVD Drives speed. The high speed discs are backwards-compatible with slower DVD Drives.
- For a free trial of this software click here. This is a large download file (53 MB). I would recommend downloading this free trial only if you have a fast (Cable or DSL) internet connection.
What You Need:
- PC running Windows 98SE or later with at least 256 MB of RAM
- TV or Video Capture Card
- DVD Recordable Drive
- DVD Recodable Disc (make sure it's the right format)
- NTI CD & DVD Maker 7 software suite installed on your PC