What is the Best Combination for Quality?

[drxpsp9]

The various programs that I have tried with my Panasonic DV are: ULead Vid Studio v11, Adobe Prem. Elements, and Nero. But I am getting some very different results. I am wanting to edit some home / travel video and add menus, some music to parts, and then burn to DVD (NTSC).

So I am wondering, what is the best combination for excellent quality?
1. Should I capture in AVI, DV, or MPEG-2? In these programs, the only one that I can REALLY change the specs on is MPEG -2, the other formats seem to give me somewhat default settings.

2. If I capture in AVI format, in Nero, there are several compressors settings that I can use. Or there is a setting that is "None (default)". Which is the best? Why would I use a compressor for AVI? Is it because the AVI files end up being so large? Obviously the AVI, when burned to disc, is incredible quality...but the size is too big.

3. Is there a way to keep the AVI quality and still put a 60 min miniDV onto a 4.7 GB DVD?

4. I have gotten a lot of interlacing problems with some edit / burns and so I am using the bottom field first setting. Is that what will give me the best quality on a stand-alone DVD player?

5. There seems to be a MAJOR difference in the quality (when keeping the settings very much similar or even the same) between the three programs. Nero is by far the best for quality, but last on the list for creative editing. Is there some other program out there that I should try?

6. If you use more creative editing versus less...does this degrade the quality of the end video?....even if the size would easily fit onto the 4.7 GB DVD with the editing.

7. Is there one program that is known for it's quality when it comes to capture?....same question for: encoding / rendering / burning?

Nero has less pixelated picture, but less editing options. ULead is the most intuitive for editing and the most fun to use, but VERY average quality with the end result on the TV, and Adobe has powerful editing, but the finished video was VERY herky/jerky with the picture on the TV. Oh, and the Panasonic program, MotionDV, is a joke.

I have been working on this problem for a LONG time and almost ready to try a different video camera all together but don't know if that will solve a thing. Any help would be greatly apprectiated.

[edDV]

1. Capture DV via IEEE-1394 (aka Firewire, ILink)

2. Use DV format for project settings and capture. That way you get an exact copy of the data on DV tape. There is no advantage to changing formats unless you are mixing to higher end formats or using specific filters (advanced topic).

3. DV format is 13GB/hr. You must export to MPeg2 for a playable DVD in a format supported by DVD. Handheld DV camcorder video needs higher bitrates >8500Kb/s See https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

4. Bottom field first 29.97fps is correct for DV format. Best quality is achieved by encoding MPeg2 as bottom field first 29.97fps, 720x480i.

If your TV is progressive, the TV or the progressive DVD player will do the deinterlace (or inverse telecine) in hardware and usually do a better job of it than most software deinterlacing options.

An interlace TV will want to see 480i output from the DVD player.

5. Are you evaluating on the computer monitor or the TV? With proper settings (higher bitrates than default) Premiere Elements and ULead VS11 should outperform Nero. Both use the Mainconcept MPeg2 encoder. Computer playback should be done with a quality deinterlacing player like PowerDVD or WinDVD.

6. Yes depending on what you are doing. Effects frames are converted internally to RGB format for effects editing in all three programs. Do all your effects in DV project format (Premiere and ULead) before export encoding to DVD MPeg2. MPeg2 encoding should be the last step.

7. Premiere Elements and ULead VS are optimized for DV format camcorders and should deliver similar quality for DV format to Mpeg2 DVD.

[drxpsp9]

edDV,
Thank you so much for the informative response. I was wondering, it seems like to me that the quality of the final burned DVD is way better with Nero. The Ulead and Prem. Elements have quite a lot of (I think that people are referring to it as..) "flicker"...a herky / jerky movement that is MUCH worse with movement. Ulead even has an antiflicker filter, but the amount of blur / flicker with movement is far more than if I were to burn it with Nero. If Ulead should be superior to Nero, am I missing something?

Now on one of the programs, I can encode the final video in a much higher fps...so instead of 29.97 fps I could select as high as 60 fps. Does this increase the quality or should I not be messing with that because of some compatibilty issue that I am not aware of?

Also, if money wasn't an issue, what do you think many people would say is the BEST program for this type of capture / edit / encode / burn? Is there some program that is above the mainstream programs and that is still user-friendly?
The computer that I am using for all of this editing is very powerful and has plenty of memory / processor capabilities.
Thanks SOOOO much!
jim

[edDV]

edDV,
Thank you so much for the informative response. I was wondering, it seems like to me that the quality of the final burned DVD is way better with Nero. The Ulead and Prem. Elements have quite a lot of (I think that people are referring to it as..) "flicker"...a herky / jerky movement that is MUCH worse with movement. Ulead even has an antiflicker filter, but the amount of blur / flicker with movement is far more than if I were to burn it with Nero. If Ulead should be superior to Nero, am I missing something?

Now on one of the programs, I can encode the final video in a much higher fps...so instead of 29.97 fps I could select as high as 60 fps. Does this increase the quality or should I not be messing with that because of some compatibilty issue that I am not aware of?

Also, if money wasn't an issue, what do you think many people would say is the BEST program for this type of capture / edit / encode / burn? Is there some program that is above the mainstream programs and that is still user-friendly?
The computer that I am using for all of this editing is very powerful and has plenty of memory / processor capabilities.
Thanks SOOOO much!
jim

Is this flicker occuring at the TV or computer monitor? I don't see flicker unless going from computer screen to TV through a display card. DV 480i to DVD 480i shouldn't be doing this at the TV. A wrong field order setting will cause jerky motion.

Try Premiere and Video Studio with higher than default bitrates (>8500 Kb/s). I don't have Elements, but have the full versions of Premiere Pro and Vegas which both use the Mainconcept encoder (with more advanced settings). I do have VS9 but not with me.

Higher quality may be possible but best you first get full performance from what you have. You should be getting higher quality from Premiere Elements and VS than you are describing. Key issue is your method of display.

[drxpsp9]

Thanks edDV,
I am looking at it through the TV. It is a standard 4:3 television that has the ability to do High Def...through our high def cable receiver. But the DVD is not high def and is connected with standard AV cables and so the high def settings are not coming into play.
In the case of Ulead, I recently burned a DVD and set the bitrate very high...the highest that it would go. And I still got that same blurred / flicker look with parts of the video that displayed movement. Then I burned the same video capture with Nero (even put in a menu and title page to make sure that I'd be comparing apples to apples) and the quality was much better...and...it used much less disc space than the Ulead VS did.
It is really a tough thing to think through because I really like the Ulead program, but I am not getting good end results with it. In the past, I have tried editing with Ulead and burning with Nero and now I can not recall what the quality was like. Perhaps I will go back to trying that. But if that doesn't work, then I guess that the Ulead encoder is not doing a good job for me?

You have been a huge help. Thanks.
Jim

[drxpsp9]

Actually,
Now that I read your previous post, I don't think that "FLICKER" is what I am getting. It is varying degrees of blurred video seen at times with more movement. And the worst of the programs for creating this is Premiere Elements...then Ulead...and Nero is the best. I am using Vista 32.

[lordsmurf]

Sounds like you're deinterlacing, if you get jerks and blurs.

[edDV]

Something is not set correctly. Premiere Elements comes defaulted to DV format so long as you capture to DV format. VS can be set many ways for capture and DVD export. Make sure the settings are as described above. Deinterlace will cause somewhat jerky and blurry motion. Be sure export encoding is set to bottom field first, 29.97fps and >8500Kb/s. Its fine to use Nero Burning Rom for burning once you have a Video_TS folder.

Also tell us your TV make and model number and the settings for your DVD player. Is the DVD player set for 480i (not progressive) and 4:3 aspect ratio? The problem could be

1. Capture settings
2. Export MPeg2 settings
3. Burning method
4. DVD player settings
5. TV settings.
6. Other

[drxpsp9]

edDV,
I feel like I should be paying for such good info! This forum and website are a huge help.
I will post some of those specs in the next several hours. I will be able to check that info later tonight.
If I can get this to work properly, then maybe I can go back to enjoying using my video camera again!...otherwise the tapes are just going to continue to pile up!
Thanks again.
Jim

[Jim44]

edDV,
I feel like I should be paying for such good info!

You can, if you want:
https://www.videohelp.com/donate



Jim

[drxpsp9]

Good call!
Thanks!
Jim