DVB to DVD Mpeg using Ulead Video Studio

[computerchuck]

I have a few mpegs (544x480 NTSC) trying to convert to dvd compliant mpegs using ulead videostudio 8. I am impressed with the visual quality ulead puts out, however every now and then you can see lines starting to pixelate especially where onscreen text or peoples eyes or other curvy objects occur. It's not that noticeable until that object stays on long enough to take notice. I am encoding at CBR 5000 framebased 720x480. I don't see the quality loss like I did when I used tmpgenc. Picture is sharper without applying filters. Is there anything I can do in videostudio 7 or 8 that can clean up the lines?

[Bstansbury]

Computerchuck,...I'm not sure how you got a NTSC video at 544x480 frame size, and this could be the source of your encoding / convertions process, especially when your taking the video up to 720x480 full NTSC frame size. It's not 1/2 D1 nor is it standard NTSC of 620x480.

One other thing you can try would be to go into the custom MEPG settings and change your encoding to VBR 8000 kbs, and also set the quality setting to 85-90 and see what you get out. CBR -Constant Bit rate will give you a predicitable file size for "N" minutes of movie. VBR - Varible bit rate will put the highest bit rate at the place were the it needs it the most. CBR wastes a lot of bit rate on scenes that have no real action or difficult video for encoding.

I don't have VideoStudio 8.0, just saw is come out last week. I have 6.0 and 7.0,... but I would be very interested in your testing to see if the encoder has any improvement in the MPEG compression. I wish I had some good test cases to make some tests on, and to compare the tests against TMPEng. There use to be some good comparisons on this web site but they seem to be gone now.

[SatStorm]

You have interlace distortion
544 x 480 are usual NTSC DVB feeds of high quality.
With TMPGenc you had quality loss because you didn't enlarce properly.

Anyway: Download virtualdub mpeg 2. Load your DVB file. Resize it using lanzcos to whatever. Adding a minor filter also helps for the encoding, but it is not neccessary. Now, frameserve to your encoder and encode.
That is the best way to convert DVB transmissions.
For 352 x 480 minimum 2000 - average 3000 maximum 4000 is more than enough. For 704 x 480, minimum 2000 - average 4000 maximum 6000 is also excellent. Only if you don't use filters to smooth the things we don't see but the encoder do see you need more bitrate for the picture.

[computerchuck]

Is it possible to frameserve into ulead videostudio 7 or 8? Currently testing with tmpgenc plus to see if it yields better results. Also are there any suggestions on resize with lanzcos or proper setup tutorials?

[syeager]

Noone answered his question. Is it possible to frameserve from virtualdub to VideoStudio?

[PC Master]

You can frameserv with VirtualDub from any video file that VD can open to any program that can open an AVI as I recall.