Home Video to DVD problems

[apco25]

Hello,

Overall Goal: To take video from my Analog Camcorder and make a nice DVD (Home videos).

This may be a little long winded, so bear with me. Also, I am very new at this (1 week) feel free to correct my terms. I am trying to pull off video from a Sony CCD-TRV58 (Analog) camcorder. I have a Generic Geforce-4 Card with S-video input and the latest input drivers from Nvidia WDM universal. I use Windows XP and dual UDMA drives in a stripe raid configuration. My Processor speed is dual MP1800s. I have been reading a lot about what software people use to accomplish this, so I have chosen the following:

1). Virtual Dub (with Huffyuv v2.1.1/PICVideo – tried both) -> AVI
2). I have also tried iuVCR (Seems to get better frame rates than VD).
2). I use TMPGEnc to translate AVI to MPEG2. (Purchased the Plus Version).
3). I have not decided on Video editing/DVD creation software, but have tried Ulead VideoStudio 7 Trial.

Anyway, the problem is I have tried several different formats to pull off the video. They all look Good played on the PC. However, As soon as I translate to MPEG2 (DVD Quality – play OK as well on the PC), it looks like crap (choppy) on my DVD player. I have tried just the MPEG files, and using VideoStudio to make an actual DVD. Now, it may be my DVD player, but I can use DVD Decryptor to backup movies that play fine in this DVD player.

Also, I have read the article on VCDHELP.COM called “capture” telling how to use VirtualDub to capture video in a playable format. However, I cannot follow precisely since I have a limited resolutions to work with : 240x180, 320x240, 352x288, 640x480, 720x480. At the higher resolutions, I cannot get more than a 20fps capture rate at 640x480 (using VDub). With iuVCR I loose about 5 frame every 30 seconds. I have tried the lower res at 29fps (352x288), but in the end I still cannot get rid of the choppiness when translating to MPEG2.

So, in summary here are my questions:

1). What are the recommended settings to capture this type of analog video? I want to get this off the tape since it is the only copy. Am I missing a step, such as filtering?
2). After getting the .AVI file, what do I need to do to get it into a playable format on my DVD player? (high quality). When translating into NTSC (DVD quality) I cannot get a version that is playable on my DVD player. I did translate to SVCD (480x480 @29) and it looks great. However, I have a lot of video, so I need to go to the NTSC format if I want to make an actual DVD (not SVCD)… Correct? It’s like my DVD player can’t quite stream the data fast enough.
3). What do you recommend for video editing/DVD creation software. There are so many, and I have started to download the demos. Also, I want to CNET and read different reviews, but there seems to be a lot of different opinions. (Yes, I read the “what do you use to author DVDs”)
4). Any recommendation on hardware? Am I using hardware that may not be sufficient?
5). I think My capture is OK, since if I try to play in SVCD format it’s OK, but as soon as I go to DVD quality, it looks choppy.

Thanks! Also, I know I don’t know much, so if you give me articles to read, I would be very grateful!

[disturbed1]

Cap at the highest resolution you can with out dropping frames. You may want to try another codec to improve your capture frame rate. Try Pic Video MJPEG, or if your card supports native YUY2, you could get better results. Pic Video supports dual cpus also.

Try setting custom format in V-Dub capture settings. Some people have problems capping with V-Dub on their systems, AVI_IO is a highly regaurded program, give it a whirl too.

Since SVCD (480x480) looked fine, encode to 352x480 which is fully DVD compatible. For an anolouge source 720x480 with high bitrate is really overkill. Your output will not be better than the input. You'll have to let your eyes set the bitrate. Two pass VBR will yeild the best results. And since you have a dually, throw in TMPG's noise filter too.

One trick a lot of people do is to capture at a higher resolution then down sample. This always yeilds the best results. It's common practice in scanning and many other imaging apps.

I generally capture YUY2 @ 640x480, then resize to 352x480, and encode with a max bitrate of 8000, min 1000, and avg of 3000-4000 (depending on length of movie). These settings allow me to retain the original quality of the source.

[apco25]

disturbed1,

thanks for the reply. I did try PIC Video and got the same results. I will try some of the other things you suggested and post back here. I cannot seem to capture at anything but UYVY, I think it's a limitation of my Card? When I select anything else it says it's not compatable. Do you mean for capture YUY2 (force output in compression settings)? This is an option in both Hufyuv and PIC video...


Thanks for the "input" - no pun intended! 8)

[apco25]

OK,

So I tried the suggestions of disturbed1. I still cannot get any mpeg2 DVD complient file to play without the chop on my DVD player. SVCD works fine however.

I did fix the dropped frames in VDUB. I changed the Disk IO to a 1MB block. Now I can capture at 640x480 29.97fps with no frames dropped.

The test is copying the file to a CD-R and playing it directly. I did this with several tests and formats. No matter what I do to the MPEG2 it looks/plays like crap. For the MPEG2 I also tried using DVD authoring software and burned to a DVD+RW. It was still choppy. Could it be the bit rate?

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I can't believe I am the only one with this sort of problem.

Thanks

[kitty]

For the DVD test try the following:

Max video bitrate 7500 kbps
Audio Rate 384 kbps
Audio Sampling Frequency 48 khz

That should play without player jerkyness due to bitrate problems. If it works you can adjust from there for quality vs. bitrate.

[apco25]

Hello,

again thanks for the suggestions. I think I figured it out. I needed to use TMP to translate the .avi into MPEG2 (NTSC) 352x480. When I tried to play on a CD-R, it will not play properly. The DVD player (using a CD-R as a source) cannot keep up with the bit rate. However, I used the U-lead to make a DVD compatable DVD and it works great! I must have tried it with 720x480 before and it did not work too well coming from the 640x480 source .avi. Also, now the bit rate does not matter it plays very smooth (however quality can be changed).

Now, I am trying many experements with quality using TMPGEnc Plus. I have used some of the suggestions above. The best so far seems to be plain VBR, no noise, no clip at 2k-8k with 6k avarage. Are there any other suggestions?

Also, I have been using Ulead VS7 to make the DVDs. I like it because I can make a .iso image and burn on a differnt PC. I tried Dazzle and Adobe so far. For simple DVD home movie creation I could not get either of these and inport the .mpgs with 352x480 and make a DVD as easily as the Ulead. Are there any others that are similar to try that may be better?

Thanks,
Apco25

[disturbed1]

Glad to hear you got it worked out.

There's nothing wrong with Ulead VS7. It's pretty nice and has some good effect's for video editing.

For half D1 (352x480) input you don't have much of a choice for consumer authoring apps. The pro-sumer and professional apps allow half D1 input (Maestro, Reel DVD, Scenarist etc.....)

If your wanting an upgrade for more controlable authoring you might want to check out DVD Workshop from Ulead. The main difference between the authroing engine in VS7 is that Workshop allows fully custom menus, other than that they are about the same.


Most DVD players can't read data off a CD faster than 5000-6000kb, one of my Apex's tops out at 3000, while another hits 7000.

If you desire higher quality, you can experiment with the noise filter in TMPG. Start with the default settings and go from there. You can also get AVIUtilities which will save a project file (.aup) which is readable by TMPG (uses VFAPI like DVD2AVI), you also have AVISynth, and Virtual Dub, which can all filter video useing different plugins and filters.

A simple convolution3D and MSharpen filter in avisynth can work wonders for snowy TV and VHS caps.