Dv to DVD quality Issues..........

[strangezero]

For best quality to transfer to dvd-r am i taking the right steps??

1) Capture 1hour of video (dv avi) with pinnacle studio 8

2) Edit my video in sonic foundry vegasvideo 3 and save it as pal dv(default in vv3).

3) Create menus & chapters in Ulead DVD Workshop and then dvd workshop encodes the dv avi file to mpeg2 (8000 kbps constant bitrate) and burn to dvd-r.

Am i doing all right???
With this procedure do i get the best out of dv --- > dvd-r??

THIS IS MY QUESTION..............

What do i have to do to have the BEST QUALITY from dv to transfer to dvd-r????? After editing with vegas?????

Thank you in advanace

[bartman]

run it through TMPGEnc or CCE to get a high quality, medium bitrate MPEG2 file. If you average 4000kbps you will fit twice as much on your disk as you will encoding with DVD Workshop (@ 8000kbps). You can still import the files into DVD Workshop later.

[tjclement]

I capture and create the entire video using Pinnacle 8, but do not burn to disk. I had a problem with the resulting Pinnacle 8 DVD (written to my hard disk)working correctly (using WinDVD) that I later discovered was caused by not having enough memory in my PC (had 512 MB, added another 512MB, problem solved). Anyway, I would then take the resulting temporary mpeg file (NOT the VIDEO_TS directory) and process it through Dazzle DVD Complete, and added chapters, menus, etc. etc. Result was awesome. Great 8000 bitrate video that rivals the best DVD's on the market. As long as your DV capture is good quality (I use a Sony TRV-720 with firewire capture), you should get NO degradation from DV tape to DVD-R/RW disk (which is what i end up with for DVD use). I have a Pioneer A03 DVD-R/RW burner, and 2 Apex DVD standalone players (AD-600A, and AD-800). The DVD-R disks (Princo) won't work in the 800, but work flawlessly in the 600). The Princo disks cost me 61 cents (US) each. The more expensive 2x DVD-R (Verbatim) worked flawlessly in both machines, and the DVDPro 4x (burned at 2x) worked flawlessly as well in both machines. I used to have problems writing to the cheap DVD-R's, but the latest ones seem to be greatly improved. I couldn't resist the price: 100 cost 61 dollars US.

By the way, Pinnacle 8 appeared to have bugs galore, as it must have crashed, and trashed my writes multiple times. When I added the extra 512 megs of ram, all the problems seemed to be solved. Even though Pinnacle 8 claims it has been awarded 8 emmy awards, it has more bugs than that! It still is a sweet DVD editor, and I recommend it if you have enough memory

[strangezero]

thank you both for your replies!!!!!!!!

1) I am only using pinnacle studio 8 for capturing dv avi and nothing more so there shouldn't be a problem for me (about the bugs).

2) I don't want to use tmpeng for encoding because it's to complicated for me in advance settings.

Do you think if i try canopus procoder for the encoding to mpeg2 that i could have perfect looking dvd's????

[kudos]

I use CCE2.50to encode footage, the output is blocky, how do I improve that? What settings should I have?

Can I use media studio pro for editing and use CCE2.50 to encode, if yes, how do I do so?

Thanks

[q1aqza]

Doesn't Vegas Video 3 come with the built-in MainConcept encoder - the same one as included in Adobe Premiere 6.5?

If so you should use that. It is a very good encoder and you can save yourself an intermediate step and disk space as it will encode straight from the timeline.

[strangezero]

If so you should use that. It is a very good encoder and you can save yourself an intermediate step and disk space as it will encode straight from the timeline.

Yes but my "problem" is that i want the best quality possible..... so i need to know if Canopus Procoder encoder is better than Vegas Video 3 encoder because i will use the dvd-r for professional reasons.

Thank you in advance

[bartman]

You shouldn't need to do anything in the advanced settings in TMPGEnc..just load the default DVD template and you will get plenty good quality (one of the best actually).

The thing is though, If you want to be doing some professional work you will need to do some advanced stuff to get the best quality. A lot of the DVD encoding settings in the "all-you-can-eat" programs are far from optimal.

[donpedro]

This might help to solve some Studio 8 issues or questions.

Pinnacle Studio 8 and DV home video editing

[q1aqza]

The MainConcept encoder is very good and very fast. Since I have had Premiere 6.5 I only use this encoder now for my DV encodes. Lots of people have done tests between this, CCE and TMPG and found all three were comparable in quality.

I did my own tests and I could hardly tell which was which. I would say TMPG had the slight edge but it took 5 times as long as the others. As you already have it as part of Video Vegas you may as well give it a try and do your own comparisons. At CBR8000 you will probably be hard pressed to see much difference between any of the encoders, so then speed should be your next objective, for professional use.

I can't comment on the procoder as I've never used it.

[strangezero]

I would like to thank all of you for your time and help!!!!!!

Since i only encode 1 hour of video (always) i will use constant bitrate as i think it has best quality.

I unsterstand that there is not much difference in constant bitrate bettwen encoders right????

So i will use mainconsept encoder (the one in vegas video) because it's difficult to me to set all the properties in tmpeg and cinemacraft encoder.

I think this will the best way for top quality~~~ If not please advice!!!

Thank you again all for your help

[tjclement]

Just hang in there. I have over the course of the last year learned (little by little) all the settings for Cinema Craft Encoder, and tMPEG. I prefer CCE. My DV encoding is done by Pinnacle Studio 8, but my rips use CCE. I can't see any difference between any of them.