I'm so disappointed with the quality of VCD from DV

[motherlori]

Hi,
I'm totally new at this and have read several of the guides. I've found that I am technically dyslexic. I read the guides, but everything becomes an alphabet soup, however I've worked out several problems and finally created my first VCD from a DV tape that I transferred via firewire. Previously I was attempting to transfer via USB port - what a nightmare.

Anyway, I transferred my DV (which is very clear when played directly to the TV) and edited it and burned a VCD. The picture when played on the DVD player was horrible!! You could hardly recognize the people in the video. My question is, does the quality of your capture card and firewire (although I assumed it was just a cable) affect the quality of your output? My card and cable only cost about $50.00 and I was wondering if I upgraded to a better card if the captured video would be a better quality?

I've learned a lot from reading over the past 3 weeks and the answers on this forum have helped alot. Keep up the good work!

Thanks,
Lori

[Grim-Ripper]

Question:

What program did you use to make the VCD?

And...

What steps did YOU take to get it?

[fmctm1sw]

In addition to what's above my post, why don't you make a SVCD?

[motherlori]

I used ULEAD Media Studio Pro 6.0 SE to edit and save the .avi files. And my DVD player is extremely useless and can't play the SVCD. Also when I output a DV file back to my DV camcorder, the quality is as poor as when I burned it to CD.

Thanks for your quick response!!
Lori

[Grim-Ripper]

When you have MS6 "save your .avi files" are you actually saving them as .avi or are you have MS6 create and MPEG-1 VCD file for you?


Also...What Software do you use to burn with?

[curryman]

this is the reason i purchased a dvd burner.
used to make great svcd's from hi8, then decided to upgrade to dv and came across same problem you have it was explained to me quite vaguely that it is very difficult to get good results from dv - s/vcd because dv naturally has alot more detail and higher bitrate and vcd bitrate struggles at only 1150 thus getting the picture you described. i think there are people here who could explain this alot better than me but i hope you get my drift.
if your funds allow i recommend you upgrade to dvd-r you won't be dissapointed with the results

[curryman]

When you have MS6 "save your .avi files" are you actually saving them as .avi or are you have MS6 create and MPEG-1 VCD file for you?

you can't send mpg back to a dv camcorder he must be creating avi,
maybe a setting is way out when your'e rendering- make sure your output settings are exactly the same as your capture settings

[motherlori]

Grim Reaper,
At first I saved them as AVI files, but then tried MPEG files. I have burned the MPEG files, but not exported them to DV. Would this help? Exporting the MPEG files to DV?

Also I used Nero to burn the CD.
Thanks,
Lori

[Grim-Ripper]

My concern was the VCD creation...

I wanted to know if MS6 was creating an mpeg or if it was being encoded by burning software (which can be crap)

[motherlori]

Curryman,

Thanks for your response. My husband has a DVD burner on his computer (actually it's in a box since Christmas waiting to go on his computer). I can access his computer through a wireless network. Should I try burning a DVD instead?

Thanks, Lori

[curryman]

i agree ms6 is crap at encoding mpeg, use 3rd party encoder - tsunami is pretty good and easy to use

[curryman]

that's out of my league cos i don't know what speed a wireless network would send a avi/mpg file to another pc, if at all possible.
but certainly get the burner installed and ask him nicely if you can use his pc directly

[motherlori]

Grim-Ripper,

No, I was using the studio software for encoding the files.

Thanks,
Lori

[fmctm1sw]

Grim-Ripper,

No, I was using the studio software for encoding the files.

Thanks,
Lori

Yeah, that's probably a "no-no." It may take forever to try to send a big file over a wireless connection too.

[Grim-Ripper]

Yes, try TMPEGenc to do (if you must) a VCD.
To make it easier, use the VCD templates.



or you can get Media studio 7 (I use this to edit and convert some
Divx sources) - the MPEG encoding is vastly improved!

(Did Star Wars Trilogy SE with it - Came out great!) Burned All 3 to fit
on DVD-R with menus and chapters with DVD movie factory 2
Though I would have used TMPEGenc but sources had bad frames.

If you want higher quality - Go DVD
(try one - it couldn't hurt )

[motherlori]

Grim-Ripper,

Thanks for the info. I do have VCD easy but I've only gotten the 4th part of it from email. It expired before I could use it. Maybe I should try that to encode the avi files instead? Or I'll try the one that you suggested. I'll bug my husband to install his DVD burner and try to burn one over the net and let you know if it works!

Thanks for all your help,
Lori

[Grim-Ripper]

if you use MS6 to convert to .AVI before you use TMPEGenc & you HAVE space to spare...try using less compression when MS6 creates your .AVI

(I though would do and MPEG with some of these setting for ms6 for better quality
Frame Based source (Not field based)
Mpeg-1 (352x240 NTSC) 29.97 fps
video bitrate 1150kbps / audio 224 kbps
Aspect ratio: Same as source
(do not stretch image - select keep aspect 4:3)

Hope you get a good conversion going

[rhegedus]

Anyway, I transferred my DV (which is very clear when played directly to the TV) and edited it and burned a VCD. The picture when played on the DVD player was horrible!! You could hardly recognize the people in the video. My question is, does the quality of your capture card and firewire (although I assumed it was just a cable) affect the quality of your output? My card and cable only cost about $50.00 and I was wondering if I upgraded to a better card if the captured video would be a better quality?

I'm assuming that you're trying to convert DV cam footage to VCD. In my (limited) experience, the price of the capture card doesn't matter much since price doesn't necessarily correlate with quality (because it's usually dictated by the 'free' software you get).

Capture the whole footage as uncompressed DV avi (there are quite a few trial DV capture programs available - see tools / capture). Play this back on PC just to make sure it's captured OK and that everything is in sync.

Now the good part! Encode to VCD with TMPGEnc (see tools). It might not be the fastest program, but it certainly (IMHO) is the best quality and easiest free mpeg encoder there is. Just whack in the file use the avi for the audio source as well as the video) and deinterlace (odd field - not strictly necessary if you're going to watch on a TV, but I like to review on PC before burning) and away you go.

Burn with whatever burning software you have (Nero is quite good IMHO) and there you are!

Some samples can be found here (they're VHS to VCD but it gives you an indication of what you can get).

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=154883&highlight=

[motherlori]

I hope I get a good conversion. I taped the senior play at school and promised every cast member a copy. So far it's been a nightmare~!
Thanks for your help.
Lori

[motherlori]

Thanks Rob,

I'll try that as well. Anything that I can fool around with is helpful. And I'm glad it's not the capture card because my husband was very skeptical of the amount of money that I paid for it. And I hate it when he's right!!!

Thanks again,
Lori

[Philbiker]

Lori,

It's definitely not thecapture card.

I recently got a DVD writer, but before that I made VCDs.

I captured my mini DV video to the hard drive using various tools.

I have three tools that can generate VideoCDs. (1) The "MediaWave III" software that came with my firewire card, (2) Roxio EZ CD Creator 5 Platinum, (3) Pinnacle Studio8.

I created VideoCDs of the same material from all three tools.

MediaWave III:
EZ CD Creator 5 Platinum:
Pinnacle Studio8: 8)

99% of the quality of the videoCD is determined by the MPEG Encoding software you use. Find a good encoding program!! Start with rhegedus's suggestion. And from what I've experienced, the quality of the output is inversely proportional to the processing time on the encode. In other words, good MPEG encoding engines take their time.

[vance43211]

if u copy and paste your video to another computer over a network it shouldn't take too long

it take me about 8 to 10 min to do a 5 or 6 gig movie