Need some good advice on high quality CCE encoding

[wesleyp]

I have been trying to convert my DV Tapes into a super high quality mpeg for about a year on and off now, and need some help.

I’m more than happy with all the software and hardware ive had to buy to do this, The capture is fine, I’m using studio 8, The encoder I am using is CCE 2.66, the Authoring software is Sonics DVDIT, I’ve been using other tools such as v-dub, tmpeg, be sweet, and main concept mpeg encoder ect.

Before anyone shout s and says, "Look at the guides" I have ! I’ve read all night and experimented on trial clips, and still no joy!

My issue that I am desperately trying to find a solution to the blury picture quality, I’m encoding the video as an elementary stream CBR 6000 upwards,
Its kind of hard to explain but when I play back the mpg file on the pc for example, the quality looks kind of like a low bit rate svcd, but when played back on the TV via my Sony DVD player the picture isn’t as bad but is not crisp, The most annoying thing is that when I connect my camcorder to the TV direct, the picture is great.

I know it is the way it is being encoded, as the captured file plays back ok.

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Wez

[DJRumpy]

Make sure your not using any filtering in CCE.
Under the QUALITY settings:
Ensure you select 'Alternate' for the block scanning order
Set your Quantizer Characteristics slider to 16
Diable the Low Pass filter, the Effect Restricted Vertical filter, and the Dithered Quantization filter. Turn off the Progressive frame flag. Do no use the 'Simple' setting.
For Video options, leave everything unchecked. For Quantization, ensure your using MPEG, or STANDARD.
On the MAIN OPTIONS page:
Ensure you are using Multipass VBR. Set your MIN at 0, or 300 if your player has a problem with 0.
Set your max to 9800
Set your AVG according to the value any bitrate calculator gives you. This will vary by the length of your video. Use the bitrate calculator on this site in the TOOLS section to get this AVG value. If your video is very short, try not to set your AVG above 7000.
Disable 3:2 Pulldown detection
Disable Letter Box Hint
Disable Panscan

For your multipass settings, the more passes you do, the better. I would select a small bit of your clip, and try a 3-Pass config to see if the results are ok.

If all else fails, check out the other MPEG encoders. Forum chatter says DV Video is not one of CCE's strong points. I've never verified, as I don't own a cam. I do encode interlaced content though, without issue.