Trying to convert for DVD burn-age...

[Follow_The_Day]

Hi, there!


I'd like to convert an .MPG movie with AC3 audio to a format that does not use AC3 audio for DVD. What is the best way to do that?


I'd also like to keep the quality of the video after conversion – the last conversion I tried ended up looking zig-zaggy where action was happening, or almost like ripply water. I needed to cut a little of the video out, and wanted to add a title, captions, and credits. When I'd converted the movie in the first place and I played it on WMP, it looked great - after working on it, the quality had gone down pretty drastically. I know tha tnot all of the quality can be kept after converting, but I'd like to not have the wavy effect!

(Also, I had 3 video clips, and put them together - these details are from the first, unconverted video.)

Details:
File type: .mpg
Frame Width: 720
Frame Height: 480
Data Rate: 9100 kbps
Total bitrate: 9536 kbps
Frame rate: 29 frames/second

What I *did* turn it into, and looks icky (all 3 clips together):
File type: .wmv
Frame Width: 720
Frame Height: 480
Data Rate: 2799 kbps
Total bitrate: 2991 kbps
Frame rate: 29 frames/second

I have Windows Live Movie Maker on Windows 7 (I just did the update for it last night), and I have Any Video Converter to work with (free version, got the update for it today).

Any suggestions?

Thanks so much in advance!

[Baldrick]

zig-zaggy sounds like an interlaced dvd source. You must then deinterlace in windows live movie maker....if it's possible.

[Follow_The_Day]

Hey, and thanks for the response.

If it helps, this is what it looks like when there's action happening - I'm quite new to this, how would I do about deinterlacing? I poked around Google, but since I'm assuming that this make of WLMM is new, I don't think there's a lot out there on it. :/

Zig-zaggy mess!

[Baldrick]

I don't know if it's even possible in wlmm. One reviewer mentions that it's possible but no other sites. Have you searched the wlmm help for deinterlace / deinterlacing or?

[neomaine]

For DVD, though not a DVD player requirement, your only other option is MP2 audio. What's your reason for not wanting standard AC3 audio?

[Noahtuck]

For DVD, though not a DVD player requirement, your only other option is MP2 audio. What's your reason for not wanting standard AC3 audio?

I was wondering the same thing

Converting it to PCM will just take up more space with no quality gain and mpg audio is not required in the dvd specs, just DD & PCM are.

And your first mpeg file you have listed does NOT require any re-encoding as it is dvd compliant already, it just needs to be authored, no reason to encode it again and degrade the quality.

The .wmv does need to be re-encoded to match the mpg file if you wish to join them.

Trying to convert for DVD burn-age...

And you want to "burn" a dvd not a doobie...
LOL!!

[jman98]

For DVD, though not a DVD player requirement, your only other option is MP2 audio. What's your reason for not wanting standard AC3 audio?

Well, he could also use LPCM but that would give a larger audio file than AC3.

MP2 is technically not in the specs for NTSC DVD although most if not all DVD players may play it anyway.

[Follow_The_Day]

Actually, I'm a she who has no experience with doobies.

Wow, this thread exploded while I was at work! Thanks so much for your responses, everyone.

My reason for not wanting AC3 was because the person I'm doing this for had an issue with it. I gave her the completely un-edited fiiles, and she said that her computer would play the video, but not the audio. her computer(s) is(are) not that cooperative in the first place, but she told me she thinks she was having a hard time because my laptop is newer, and anyone who wanted to watch the DVD would need a whole new computer to do it on. I can't recall if she mentioned anything about her codecs.

Could she be right? I wanted a DVD people could play on their DVD players, which would be able to also be read by a computer, as most DVDs are if you have the hardware/software.

So. There's that, and my ideal. 8D

Baldrick - Unfortunately, their help topic isn't terribly vast. :/
I DID see that review that you linked, though! Unfortunately, no many details were given.

Neomaine and Noahtuck - If I *can* get away without having to convert/encode, that would be great!

jman98 - Told you I was new at this.

Thanks, everyone - maybe what I'll do is take the original video, add and subtract what I need, burn it, and test it on the DVD players/computers around the house. I appreciate ya'll giving the newbie a hand, and if you have further feedback, I'l still be happy to read it.

[freebird73717]

The person that had problems with the audio needs an ac3 decoder. Tell her to install ac3filter and she'll be able to use those files just fine.

[Follow_The_Day]

The person that had problems with the audio needs an ac3 decoder. Tell her to install ac3filter and she'll be able to use those files just fine.

I'll see if her computer(s) will cooperate with her, and I'll suggest it. Thank you.

[Noahtuck]

What freebird said.

Same goes for playing video, she had to install something that installed the MPEG2 codec to play dvd's because windows does not come with a decoder for dvd or mpeg2 video.

But if she can already play dvd's then ac3/DD should not be an issue.

As far as playing any dvd on a standalone player, there should be no problem with ac3/dd either.

[Follow_The_Day]

What freebird said.

Same goes for playing video, she had to install something that installed the MPEG2 codec to play dvd's because windows does not come with a decoder for dvd or mpeg2 video.

But if she can already play dvd's then ac3/DD should not be an issue.

As far as playing any dvd on a standalone player, there should be no problem with ac3/dd either.

Thank you, much!

[Noahtuck]

So i have to ask, curiosity is getting the better of me and i just noticed your location is Michigan....

Where abouts in michigan are you ?

I just ask because Michiganders seem to be a bit rare here....

I am about 10 minutes west of grand rapids, Yoda is around the detroit/east side of michigan, Gadgetguy is pretty close to me and i know of one other person that is around mid-michigan, his name escapes me at the moment, but last time i said something about him he popped right up to remind me....
And as soon as he does i will remember.....
LOL!!!

[Follow_The_Day]

Bwahaa...I'm in the more central-ish region, myself.

Okay, guys - so, I took the ORIGINAL, un-edited videos (the .mpg files), threw them into WLMM, put in titles, captions, credits, and cut out a small portion. The quality is better (no more wavy-ness), the sound is fine...but after I burned it (Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 LJ), and tested it out on our DVD player that's hooked up to the YV, I immediately got a disc error, though none came up as I burned the disc. What's happening with that? O_o I didn't convert anything this time, and I don't want to assume everyone hthat will get this DVD will pop it into a computer to watch it...

I'm sorry, I'm a little impatient, I was hoping to just be DONE with this piece of work! GAH!