DV to DVD issues

[labrat99]

I've made some very nice VCD's using TmpGenc, but recently I've been experimenting with creating a DVD compatible file and the results have been horrible - big, ugly macro blocks throughout the clip.

Yesterday, I tried making a DVD file directly from Pinnacle Studio 7 using a new copy of the same clip - it looked pretty good. I don't have a DVD burner yet but I viewed it in PowerDVD on my PC and there were NO visible macro blocks. What gives?

I tried many different setups in TmpGenc - constant quality, variable bitrate, etc. as well as the default template and a couple of others downloaded from this site - all had macro blocks, Pinnacle encoder does not.

I had captured this clip twice before, once with the scenalyzer trial and once with the Adobe Premiere 6.0 trial; both looked about the same after encoding w / TmpGenc.

Right now I can't encode this new copy of the clip with TmpGenc, as I have the shareware version and the MPEG-2 feature has expired. I don't mind paying for the software, but I want to make sure that it works for me before I do. I guess I'll try to get another 30 day trial and try again w / this new capture.

In the meantime, does anyone know what kind of encoder Pinnacle Studio uses? Any ideas why I'm getting better results with it than w / TmpGenc?

Thanks in Advance...

[yg1968]

Don't use Pinnacle 7 to encode, use TMPGenc. For DVD authoring and burning, I would suggest Dazzle DVD complete (they have a trial version). From what I have read, Pinnacle has issues with importing TMPGEnc files.

See this website for more DVD making info:

www.dvdplusrw.org

[Feuerwehr]

There is no way that the Pinnacle 7 mpeg2 encoder can approach TmpGenc in quality. I use Pinnacle 7 for over a year as an editor, but always output to AVI and encode with TmpGenc or CCE. The latest Pinnacle 7 patch did marginally improve pinnacle's MPEG2 output quality, but it is still not acceptable for DVD-R or SCVD purposes.
I don't understand why you are having problems with TmpGEnc using the standard templates. In the settings try "2-pass VBR" and set Motion Search Precision to "Normal" or "High Quality."
Good luck!

[labrat99]

OK - I got home from work, reset TmpGenc to give me another 30 days, and tried to encode in TmpGenc with the new capture that I had made yesterday using Pinnacle Studio.

Looks good - no macro blocks. So, apparently my problem was with the capture, not in the encoding. I was under the impression that all DV captures were the same. I guess not - but I sure would have thought that Premiere or Scenalyzer both would be better than Pinnacle! Maybe I had something set wrong for the capture.