Problems with DV download losing quality

[mr.niftie]

Thanks in advance for your help. I'll admit that I am a relative newbie BUT I feel that I have a pretty good handle on this topic. I have a Sony digital 8mm DCR TRV 350 dowloading through Firewire to a P4 1.6 with 750MB ram and a Seagate 75gb scsi drive running Windows 2000 with all the latest service packs and drivers. As I understand it, downloading digital 8mm through firewire to a pc is just data transfer. There is no capture per se and the quality should (must?) be identical to what is on the tape. The problem is that the quality of the downloaded avi is noticeably inferior than that if I play back what is on tape. It does not mater if I use Adobe Premiere 6.5, Mainconept's EVE, or Nero. Than if I burn a dvd of my downloaded video, the quality deteriorates even further. I buddy of mine has a Canon and he has exactly the same problem. I don't expect studio quality but what I am getting is pretty crappy. Please help . . .

[tweedledee]

Are you dropping frames? Do you have DMA enabled?

[bugster]

Your Video is interlaced, you PC monitor is not. SO watching the DV Avi video on your PC will not look good.

When you encode to DVD you WILL lose some quality. How much quality you lose depends on the the encoder you use and waht settings. For best possible quality use a constant bitrate of 8000 to 9000kbps with Ac3 or mp2 audio. Even then the encoder you use is important. I don't know how good the Premiere bundled encoder is but you may also want to consider TmpGenc, Cinema craft Encoder or Mainconcept as alternatives. Each has its pro's and cons and all require setting up correctly for the best performance.

[mr.niftie]

Thanks for the replies and reminding me of one thing I left out. I always have ZERO frames dropped. I thought it might be the monitor thing too but am confused why the quality looks much worse after I burn a dvd and play it back on my home theater (Toshiba hi-def rear projection & Pioneer DVD player). I have tried Nero and Mainconcept's EVE (both the latest versions). I am pretty sure I selected the highest quality settings for each but maybe someone could set me straight if I missed something. TIA!

[pijetro]

It's just the tip of the iceberg here, but chances are, it's your encoding within Mainconcept into DVD which is causing the problem. There's probably a few options you need to look into..


First thing's first. Grab the bitrate calculator from the left hand side (tools). Click the DVD template, and punch in your time of play, and audio bitrate. Use 224 if you're planning on using compressed audio. Go to the bottom and 1536 is the bitrate for uncompressed audio.

Within Mainconcept, instead of using the templates provided, go into the Advance template and pick Edit. Got to your VIDEO SETTINGS tab. Punch in the average, maximum, and minimum bitrate required for the time play required..That's done by the numbers the bitrate calculator spit out previously. Go to the AUDIO SETTINGS tab, and pick MPEG layer 2 audio at 224 (or 384) at 48000hz samplerate..

Hit OK, and get ready to export. You'll notice an .M2V file (video stream), and you'll have an adjoining .M2P file (audio).
These will be required when you authour your final DVD. But that's another story...

View your .M2V file in WinDVD or PowerDVD (very important)...
Try a sample...

Good luck!!!!!!

[mr.niftie]

I assume there are no problems multiplexing the mv2 (video) + mpa (audio) streams to end up with an mpg stream?

[alenhard]

Something else to consider...Is your dvd player progressive scan? What display mode is your tv in? Since it is a high-def tv this is important. Try it on a different tv and/or dvd player and see what it's like.

[pijetro]

One step at a time...

Your .M2V file will tell all...

BTW, no it won't be a problem. In fact, most DVD authouring softwares prefer that you leave the elementary streams alone, in order that they can create the .VOB's themselves..

[mr.niftie]

Thanks for everyone's help. I believe I have success. I converted the avi to mpg withing Premiere instead of letting Nero do it. I used the settings you suggested and just used Nero to burn the mpg to dvd. Quality is now waaaaaaay better!