ConvertXtoDVD to encode and burn video files to DVD

[crowheart]

I use VSO's ConvertXtoDVD to encode and burn video files to DVD. This program is really easy to use and produces high quality DVD's for my PC IMO. The problem I have is that when I play these same burned DVd's that look fantastic on my PC on my stand-alone player and analog TV the quality falls off the cliff (dark,slightly blocky). Is there a way to make these DVD's play better on my stand-alone player and my TV? Other programs perhaps? ConvertXtoDVD doesn't have many user controls(good for me as a newbie), so i would imagine I would need another program to enable me to tweak the conversion process. I am quite lost any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks....

[mh2360]

DVD conversions will always look better on the PC monitor. Any "blocks" that appear on your TV will be much less noticable on a smaller screen.

Try converting a seemingly good quality Youtube or other streaming video to DVD and it will look horrendous on a large TV screen.

[redwudz]

What is your source video? ConvertX generally does a good job. If your videos are very long, then the bitrate ConvertX uses will be low and also the quality. ConvertX is best for converting Xvids or similar off the net to DVD format. If you have a higher quality source video, you might try other options.

The 'best' way to convert a AVI type file to a DVD is to use individual programs for encoding and authoring if you want the best quality and control. But you would need to do a bit of studying. For freeware, maybe HC or Quenc for freeware encoders. If you want a fairly easy to use payware encoder, look into TMPGEnc encoder. Then you would need a authoring program. GUI for dvdauthor is freeware. Payware, TMPGEnc DVD Author is easy.

The darkness, I don't know. But blockiness is usually caused by too low a bitrate. If your source video is Xvid from the net, the damage may already be done and you may not be able to improve it much. A program like VirtualDub Mod can use filters like Deblocking to improve the look of a video before encoding to MPEG. But if the quality isn't there to start with, all you can do is try to make it look a little better. Blame the people that encoded it to AVI in the first place.

And crowheart, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,
Moderator redwudz

And welcome to our forums.

[buttzilla]

In settings switch the encoding to High quality/slow encoding.

[crowheart]

I did set the video encoding to high quality-slow burn....The quality is fantastic on my pc crt monitor all 21 inches of it(20 viewable). I am just trying to figue out how to encode and burn so my stand-alone player and my analog TV will get decent quality. My player is up to date and can handle many different file types as well....

Thanks

[guns1inger]

9 times out of 10 the problems are also in your source files, however your playback software and the darker gamma curves of your monitor hide most of the flaws. You get no such protection from your TV and DVD player. Simple rule of video : garbage in - garbage out. Any feature length movie resized down and squeezed into 700 MB then expanded out again to DVD resolution is going to suffer.

[crowheart]

Should I try different file types? I was using xvids. Would it be better to convert a 4.2 GB file that wasn't compressed for viewing on my TV and stand-alone?

[guns1inger]

The issue is the quality of the source, not the source. If your standalone can play Xvid/Divx files then don't convert. If it cant then you only have one choice, and that is to convert it to DVD. Uncompressed would give you about 4 minutes on a DVD, and your player would not play it anyway.

If you want to play around, you could try using FitCD, avisynth and the blockbuster and asharp plugins to smooth out the blocks and add details back to the image. ConvertXtoDVD will convert from an avisynth script.

But honestly, there is very little you can do other than to get better source material.

[crowheart]

My stand-alone player is xvid(dvix) capable. So do you recommend just burning the file and try playing without converting to DVD? That makes sense, but will it play decently on my analog TV is another story. The files I am getting are Xvid, but universally the provider of these files is hailed as providing the very best quality in this format. I am not sure your analogy of garbage in garbage out fits here unless you were speaking of all xvid type files in particular. Thanks for the help and I will burn the file rather than convert to DVD.

[guns1inger]

Burn the files as data. You will fit 4 - 6 movies on a single disc, or 12 episodes of a typical TV series.

Will the quality be any better ? Marginally. You will still get all the blockiness that you are getting in your conversion. You can't avoid it because it is in the original Xvid. You simply cannot compress a feature length film into 700MB using Divx or Xvid without making some compromises. These are not DVD quality. They have had the resolution reduced by around 25% (on average) and then had the life squeezed out of them. Playing them back without converting them will give you the best quality you are going to get out of them. If you aren't happy with that, buy the DVD.

[buttzilla]

I just burn them to disk like guns1inger said and the quality is pretty good. It's just as good as it can be buy converting to dvd. Just remember you can't make the quality any better then what the quality is of the original source file.

[crowheart]

Thanks for all the help it is really appreciated. I have a lot to learn and I really enjoy this forum.


Crowheart.....

[clairew]

FYI - VSO will soon we adding post processing features to ConvertXtoDVD.

Some 'on'/ 'off' options will be made available soon, but detailed settings will not be made available until version 3 (sometime in 2007).

But most I would like to hightlight what Guns1inger says about the importance of having good quality source material.

If you are registered user of ConvertXtoDVD you can ask to be a beta tester you just have to email them.

[crowheart]

I am a registered user of VSO. I will look into the Beta on the new version. Thanks for the post..


Crowheart....

[Relayerman]

I, too, put 4-6 Xvid movies on a DVD as data and they play great on my 36 inch analog TV using my Philips DVP player. Especially if the Xvids were ripped from DVDs. I recently did a VHS cpature of the film Grand Prix from the mid-60's and converted the MPEG2 capture to a 1.4 gig Xvid. It played back wonderful on the same TV. I was afraid to try ConvertX2DVD for the quality reason. Data is the way to go.

Relayerman

[TBoneit]

Try playing the source on your PC with VLC. In VLC you can bring up the brightness so that it will match what your TV will show. My computer displays video darker than the MY TV set. And that is despite their being one and the same. Computers just display different. I think if you bring up the brightness in VLC and display it full screen you'll see the same defects.

Stop the video, Ctrl-G, check the enable box hit the play button and adjust the brightness. Double click the video while it is playing to go full screen.