From .m2t to DVD authoring

[peripterman]

Greetings to everyone
This is my first post on your forum and i hope that someone will be able to help me
I have a short film shot with Canon HV20 (PAL) - 1920x1080 25p - duration 9min 8 sec - edited with Sony vegas pro 9
It is shot in entire dark environment so contrast an brightness are very important to me.
I m trying to encode my film to dvd compliant in order to submit it to a film festival.
My first effort was with Sony DVD Architect but the result was very BAD.
Everything was so bright there was no contrast an all the dark mood was gone.
Then with the precious help of a friend i tried to encode it with HCencoder to a DVD compliant .m2v
i used an avs script he provided me.
Although the result again was not the one i was expecting

I kept getting the message during the second pass
*** WARNING, 9637 frames found with small mismatch errors
*** ERROR, 1169 frames found with large mismatch errors
Then i tried to author my DVD with ifoedit using the .m2v file and my .ac3 audio track ...
The problem was that there was a small delay between audio and video and there were scenes in the movie that audio had to be synchronized with the video.

Too many problems right?
Well i would appreciate if anyone could give me some advice about this , cause i have a deadlne to submit my DVD.
THanks in advance
Alexander

[Moontrash]

multiAVCHD will do that easily...be careful though, it's not an easy app to use....gotta get use to it...install it and go thru all its settings before loading up that m2ts file

[yoda313]

It might be more easy going for a beginner to use avstodvd for dvd creation. It is a package of suites with a nice relatively easy to use interface to control the programs it integrates.

Multiavchd is a great program but can be overwhelming for novice users.

[peripterman]

what really concerns me is to get the best quality...

[yoda313]

Either program will do it for you.

Just remember converting to dvd will lower the resolution if this is from high def source.

Your only alternative is to author as a bluray or author as a avchd disc if you can play back those forms - either on a computer or a bluray player that plays bluray recordable discs or plays avchd on dvdr media - most play avchd but not all are a certainty.

[Moontrash]

yoda has hit it on the head....u gotta choose what format you want...will this film festival be showing movies from both formats...hd and dvd? or does it matter...if you just wanna enter it then both applications will do the job...if u wanna author it in BR or avchd, then Multiavchd is the one to do that...as far as the dvd format....both apps use the same encoders so the quality will be the same...avstodvd is a bit easier to use...i don't know if it accepts m2ts files though...i've nvr tried it for that

[edDV]

Tell us your Vegas work flow.

Source = HDV PAL

Project = ?
HDV project gets you an HD timeline
DV project causes a downscale to 720x576i on the timeline

Export format? You should be encoding for DVD (archtect mode) in Vegas.

Everything was so bright there was no contrast an all the dark mood was gone.

That shouldn't be happening in any normal Vegas workflow. Did you filter the video?

[yoda313]

avstodvd is a bit easier to use...i don't know if it accepts m2ts files though...i've nvr tried it for that

It does read at least the h264 m2ts files I can get from my hauppauge hdpvr. It would vary depending on the camera used if they were h264 or quicktime not sure if it can read quicktime if they use that in .mov files.

[peripterman]

The project was hdv and the output was 1920 x 1080 25p .m2t file.
The DVD is for the preselection , once the film is selected i ll have to send an HD file.
So the main concept is to send a proper dvd.
When i encoded with dvd architect i got a dvd that had a good quality when previewed in DVD player but very bad when viewed in a pc...
but i cannot take the risk to send this dvd because if they watch my film in a pc it wont be selected for sure ...

[edDV]

The project was hdv and the output was 1920 x 1080 25p .m2t file.
The DVD is for the preselection , once the film is selected i ll have to send an HD file.
So the main concept is to send a proper dvd.
When i encoded with dvd architect i got a dvd that had a good quality when previewed in DVD player but very bad when viewed in a pc...
but i cannot take the risk to send this dvd because if they watch my film in a pc it wont be selected for sure ...

From an HDV-PAL project I would export encode this way. Note the change from VBR default to 9500 Kb/s CBR. Max duration at this bit rate is about 1 hour. DVD Architect will import this asset with no recode.

[peripterman]

SO i should try this way.I dont think that i had those settings in my previous effort with Architect.
Could you think of a reason why i had such differnce in quality from the pc to the dvd player?

[edDV]

SO i should try this way.I dont think that i had those settings in my previous effort with Architect.
Could you think of a reason why i had such differnce in quality from the pc to the dvd player?

Yes. These settings should max the quality using Vegas to downscale.

Don't forget to save the HD version as well. If you want to save to 1920x1080i/25, increase the MPeg2 bit rate to 35 Mb/s CBR.