quality of burned DVD is awful

[mypumpkins]

I have a mini dv camcorder. When I import the movie onto my pc, the quaility is wonderful. After I burn it onto a dvd the quailty of the dvd is awful. I've been using Windows Movie Maker and when I click publish, I use the setting that says best quality playback on my pc. It's not clear at all it almost looks like it is blurry or smokey. What do I need to do to make great looking dvd's?

Thanks!

[tinker]

There is a lot you can do, but before anything, check the exported file before burn, playing on computer, if OK than it is burning in WMM.
If no good than get better mpeg2 encoder.
If you go in tools under List on left side of this page, you will find lots of them.
I personally do not have much face in WMM.
You can get GSpot (free tool) and see what bitrate is your file encoded at.
For a good DVD, between 4500-8000 kbs is OK. Higher is better.

[mypumpkins]

Sorry, I am really new to this and the lingo. What is an mpeg2 encoder? Is this what Windows Movie Maker is? I heard a lot about Vegas. Would this give me better quality? I took a look at the tools, but I'm not even sure what I'm looking for??

Thanks for helping!

[SCDVD]

mypumpkins, You really need to do some study first so you can establish a basic understanding of the processes involved. I suggest you do some reading of the guides on the left. You need to establish for yourself by your own effort a basic understanding of what's involved. There are a lot of people on this forum who are happy to help people that are new to the world of video but you will find people will be a lot more willing to help you if you show an indication that you are trying to help yourself first. Otherwise you will irritate people who see your lack of self help effort as lazy or worse.

[mypumpkins]

SCDVD....thank you for your imput. But for the record....I realize that people do not know me, and have no idea that of all people, I am one who does research more than any individual that I have ever met! And, in case anyone thinks I'm "lazy" nothing can be further from the truth! Normally, I don't ask spur of the moment questions like this, but I am fighting for time. My husband pastors a church, and is preaching a funeral in the morning. The son of the deceased asked me to video the service. He has family members who will not be able to make the funeral, and would like it videotaped. I have so much to do to prepare for this funeral; most of the work has been laid in my lap. I would like the DVD to be of the best quality possible, and as I stated, I have no time for research. Maybe some of you can be a little understanding and patient with me if I am not up to date as of today. But I promise, I will be more educated in the matter as I find more time to do my research.

If you have the patience, and if not, please don’t respond and keep your insults to yourself....I only have a couple of quick questions.....Is Vegas an empeg2 encoder, and will it give me a better quality DVD than Windows Movie Maker?

[redwudz]

Windows Movie Maker only encodes in WMM or DV AVI format. Neither is suitable for a DVD that can be played on a set top player. Perhaps you mean Windows DVD Maker that is included on some versions of Vista?

DVDs use the MPEG format, usually MPEG-2. The DVD structure, format and specification is shown in 'WHAT IS' DVD to the upper left on this page.

If your original video is in DV-AVI format from a DV camcorder, transfered to the computer via a FireWire cable, then you could edit it with WMM, but you would need to output as DV-AVI, then encode to MPEG, then author it to the DVD format and burn it.

There's really no way to compress all the information it takes to create a DVD from a DV file into a few lines of text. Hopefully after the taping, you will have some time to create your DVD and study the process a bit more. If you have Vegas Movie Studio, you should be able to do it all with that program.

EDIT: I would also advise purchasing some good quality DVD media, such as Verbatim or some Sony types. And I would recommend using ImgBurn for burning, but Vegas may be able to do that well enough.

[mypumpkins]

Redwudz...thank you very much!! You answered my question. Best Buy has Vegas on sale for $49, so I'm going to run over there and pick it up.

Again, thank you!!!!

[pepegot1]

Get a program like Ulead VideoStudio 11. Vegas would be more involved for a novice. There is a learning curve, but it is not steep. Good forum from Ulead web site-plus, off course, here. If time is short hire a pro, though it will cost you some dough.

[filmboss80]

One other option (depending on your budget): buy a stand-alone DVD set-top recorder, plug your video camera into its inputs and record the camcorder playback. It's the same basic principle as copying camcorder footage to a VHS deck. That's a quick and easy way, although it does not offer you much in terms of editing and complex authoring options.

[mypumpkins]

One other option (depending on your budget): buy a stand-alone DVD set-top recorder, plug your video camera into its inputs and record the camcorder playback. It's the same basic principle as copying camcorder footage to a VHS deck. That's a quick and easy way, although it does not offer you much in terms of editing and complex authoring options.

Thank you!! That sounds like it might work out even better!!

[SCDVD]

If there is a time crunch to have finished DVDs, filmboss80's suggestion is worth considering. The absolute time-critical part of this is capturing the video at the service. If you also need to have finished DVD's ASAP as well, the stand-alone recorder is the fastest and easiest way to do this. If you record in the high quality mode, the encoding quality will be very good. This will allow you the time to acquaint yourself with video editing and authoring software.

If you wish, you would then be able to also do an edited memorial DVD with embedded reflections from family member, embedded photo montages, video from the person's life etc. But that will take quite a bit of time to develop the knowledge of the editing software that you intend to use for that.

For your own peace if mind, you could even do both - a transfer to a stand-alone recorder of the tape. You can do things like cut out footage that you don't want to include but you can't really edit beyond that. Then if you wish, you can follow up even weeks later with a nicely edited DVD that can be something very nice because it can contain much more than just the linear footage of the funeral.