Converting low res avi's to DVD format

[Krispy Kritter]

I have several episodes of an 80's tv show that I would like to use to create a multi-episode DVD. The files are in AVI format, 320x240 resolution and are just average in quality taken from TV. I have already extracted and converted the audio portion using Gold Wave. The next step would be to remaster with TMPGEnc into MPEG1 at 352x240.

I am using ULead DVD Workshop v1.3 to do the authoring. My question concerns the DVD conversion. One of the guides here states to set up a template within DVD Workshop to exactly match the input video. If I leave resolution at 352x240, what should I set Video Data Rate to?

Also, would it improve picture quality any to raise the resolution, or would that be a waste of time/space?

Thanks

[DJRumpy]

Quality is a very subjective thing, and your bound to get a large array of answers. I would suggest, since you stated the quality of your source files were just average quality, that you leave them at 352x240. I've upsized a few to half d1 when the quality was good (352x480), but doing so with lesser quailty video tends to introduce artifacts.

As for bitrate, if I recall correctly, MPEG-1 video can have a maximum of 1.8Mbps per the mpeg-1 spec. Remember these won't be VCD's, so you can ignore the VCD spec.

[FulciLives]

Based on the source files resolution I would use 352x240 on the DVD but I would use MPEG-2 with AC-3 audio instead of MPEG-1

As for the bitrate I would try a CBR of 2000kbps which should be high enough for MPEG-2 at this resolution.

I did a test once of MPEG-2 352x240 at 1400kbps and it looked pretty good but I was working with a very clean source. The worse the quality the higher the MPEG bitrate needs to be in order to achieve a nice quality picture.

As for the audio I would use 256kbps AC-3 audio.

Using a video bitrate of 2000kbps and an audio bitrate of 256kbps you can fit approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes per disc with plenty of room left over for overhead needed for the authoring stage.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Krispy Kritter]

Thanks for the replies...I will give it a try. 4 hours would be great...I was hoping to be able to fit 3 or 4 episodes per dvd.

[FulciLives]

I just realized that you said you will be using TMPGEnc for encoding.

In that case you should know that TMPGEnc has a WIZARD TEMPLATE called "DVD NTSC (Low Resolution)"

This template uses MPEG-2 at a resolution of 352x240

I looked at this BITRATE CALCULATOR and determined that with 256kbps audio (which is the same size be it MP2 or AC-3) that 4 hours of video would be at a video bitrate of 2200kbps

That should be more than enough bitrate at 352x240 resolution.

If you only want to put 3 hours per DVD then again with 256kbps audio your video bitrate would be 3000kbps which is most definately high enough for the 352x240 resolution ... might even be a bit "overkill"

I suggest if you have the time to play around that you do the exact same episode twice ... once at 2200kbps and again at 3000kbps and see if one looks better than the other to your eyes. You can use TMPGEnc to select just a portion of the episode ... no need to do 100% of the episode to test this.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[DJRumpy]

Just one additional suggestion if I may. Make sure you pick a busy scene to do your tests. Also pick a particular frame to view, so you can compare. When I'm doing these kinds of comparisons, I always pull a capture of the same frame and view them side by side to get a good idea of which I like better. Viewing a single frame is much easier than watching some sword fight, and trying to see which has more compression artifacts.

[Krispy Kritter]

I ended up using 352*240 mpeg2 (CBR 2400) with audio. Looks fine....not any worse anyway. But for some reason, DVD Workshop doesn't like it.

[FulciLives]

I ended up using 352*240 mpeg2 (CBR 2400) with audio. Looks fine....not any worse anyway. But for some reason, DVD Workshop doesn't like it.

Give TMPGEnc DVD Author a try. It should work fine with it as will DVD-Lab

Both of these DVD Authoring programs have trail periods of about 30 days each I think.

After that they lock up until you register/but it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Krispy Kritter]

I'll give them a try....


I just spent 4 hours converting the video portion. DVD Workshop still locks up...with a different error code now...piece of S*(#

[FulciLives]

I'll give them a try....


I just spent 4 hours converting the video portion. DVD Workshop still locks up...with a different error code now...piece of S*(#

A few people seem to like this program but most think it's a POS

As for myself I use TMPGEnc DVD Author. It can be tricky making a more "advanced" fancy menu with it but basic menu design is a breeze and the program works exceedingly well ... is very stable ... in short it is hard to beat

DVD-Lab allows for more creative menu designs but just has too many "issues" and isn't very "stable" depending on the kind of source you "feed" it. It is popular but I don't care for it myself.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[reboot]

Not sure what version of dvdlab you're talking about, but I have no "issues" nor "stability" problems, no matter what I "feed" it.
In fact, it grumbles about audio more than video

[FulciLives]

Not sure what version of dvdlab you're talking about, but I have no "issues" nor "stability" problems, no matter what I "feed" it.
In fact, it grumbles about audio more than video

It is well known that people often have audio problems with DVD-Lab ... also the last time I tried it I also had audio sync problems which I think had something to do with the way TMPGEnc encodes with 3:2 pulldown.

But the problem is with DVD-Lab as 2 other DVD authoring programs by two unreleated companies authored the same files with perfection whereas DVD-Lab had audio sync problems.

I've been told that there are "work-arounds" for most of the "issues" with DVD-Lab but that kind of program ain't for me.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Krispy Kritter]

I have to reencode 2 of my videos, somehow they ended up the wrong resolution, but that's no big deal.

I have DVD Author setup, and it appears fairly straight forward.

The menu that I had setup in DVD workshop was a single page with text links for each of the 5 episodes that I can fit on the disk. I prefer the text over a thumbnail, is this also possible in DVD Author? The templates all appeared to be for thumbnails.

[burnman99]

yes it is possible. For DVDAuthorGUI, just put the text on the image you are using for the menu. Then make an mpeg still of it and add the button. It's pretty siimple. As for DVDAuthor, it's command line so i'm clueless on how to use it...maybe someday I'll learn...but I'm sure it can do it as well.
Hope this helps.

Rog

[Krispy Kritter]

DVD Author worked with no problems. I have an audio sync issue with a couple of the clips and there are still a few places that require commercial breaks to be cut. But at least now I know it works.

Thanks for all the help.