overwhelmed

[fonefixr]

I am very new to this. I bought a asus v9250 video suite graphics card, a western digital 80GB 7200 rmp drive and a verbatim dvd +r/r-+rw/rw burner. system is a 1.4 Ghz amd athlon, msi mainboard with 512 Mb ddr memory. I am using videostudio 7 from Ulead. I can capture in .avi very nicely but when I convert to dvd or mpeg2 and preview the project it is very jerky when the camera movies and overall qaulity sucks. I have been reading this sight for a couple days and am overwhelmed with the amount of info. I just want to transfer home movies to dvd. I downloaded TMPGenc today(trial version). But i am not sure that the software i am using would do it justice. Is there a guide that will suggest how to use avi.script/TMPGenc and whatever else i need to actullay turn out a decent product? card/burner/ulead i am about $500 into this and am pretty frustrated. I appreciate any help that you can give me.

[FOO]

So the AVI is OK ?
so we assume the encoder is no good.

open it with TMPGenc, use the wizard and you should have
a good MpEG2 file.

[Tommyknocker]

Okay, let us say for the moment you have a decent capture. We are going to use TMPGEnc to make a DVD file that Video Studio can burn.

1. Load the AVI video into TMGEnc. Select Load and select the appropriate template for your DVD (NTSC,PAL) and select okay.
2. Press Start. When the file has converted, load it into Video Studio, and burn it into a DVD.

Since the VS encoder did not meet your spec, hopefully TMPGEnc can do better.

[fonefixr]

I have not tried TMPGenc yet but i do have other questions. what capture resolution should i use when capturing to avi? i am using a analog camcorder as my source. to capture from my camcorder to my hard drive i have tried 352x576 and 720x480. i have (in vs7) captured without compression and captured using tjep2 compression. The capture seems to look decent without compression but when captured using compression the playback already looks horrible, and when i render it to mpeg2 it becomes even worse. I have yet to find an article here that says...from camcorder/capture/avi/use this capture resolution/to dvd.....I think maybe some of my problem is the settings i am using when i capture. A nd again, i apprecciate all help.

[FOO]

You need to capture with the highest settings you
can get away with. Even if it fills up your disk.
You will delete the capture after you encode it anyway.
If you can get away without compression, do so.
If you get 720 x 480 Tmpgenc will run faster
because it won't have to resize.

When you encode use at least 4000 K bit/sec for bitrate

[fonefixr]

Thats another problem. I have found nowhere in ulead that lets me set bitrate

[FOO]

OK then use TMPGenc

[Gees]

TempEnc is a great program and I use it a lot. But I also use VS7 and you can do a lot of editing in it that you can't do in TE. So, don't abandon your VS7 too soon. You will probably, like me, find uses for both - as well as other programs.
If you are very new to all this, you may not be aware that the way the video shows in the preview windows is not how the final clip will play. You need to do a few tests of short clips to see what I mean. Don't rely soley on how the preview plays, as it demands lots of your computer to show changes on the fly and I often see pauses and stutters that are not in the final rendered video.
To set bitrates in VS7, go to FILE -> PROJECT PROPERTIES ->EDIT -> COMPRESSION. Set your Media Type (PAL or NTSC, etc.) and then select bitrate from "Video settings".
When you go to "Create Video File" you can check again there that all your settings are how you'd like them.
Good luck. Have fun. :c)