DV to DVD (the best way)?

[Zacron]

What is the best way to convert DV material to DVD?

I´ve tried with TMPGEnc (with loads of different settings) but I´m not satisfied with the result. I know I can´t get the same quality as the original DV material due to the compression, but is it not possible to get a quality really close to the original?

I need (as many others) to convert my DV material til DVD, make a menu and play it on a normal DVD player.

Anyone with any ideas?

-Zacron

[mdm]

Why aren't you satisfied with the results? Are you viewing the final output on a TV or your computer? You should view interlaced output on your TV to see the true quality.

I've been doing the following:

"Capture" via Firewire
Encode with TMPGenc
Author and burn with DVD Workshop.

So far I've been happy with the results.

[Baldrick]

check this dvd mpeg2 guide

http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0165394101/TMPGEnc_Template.html

[igornt]

DV -- capture -- editing in Premiere -- video encoding by CCE through AVIWrapper (VBR average 5500-6000 bps, 5 passes) -- AC3 audio encoding -- authoring by DVD Maestro.

At the end, you have a DVD with video identical to your DV input with a superb Dolby Digital Audio (in case you display a creativity and create 5 audio tracks in Premiere). TMPGEnc is inferior to CCE when you encode MPEG2 for DVD.

[Zacron]

Tanx you guys. I´ll try it. I must confess I never heard about Aviwrapper... Is that a codec?

-Zacon

[igornt]

Yep. It creates a false avi file that you can open in CCE or TMPGEnc. In my case, it always works better than Avisynth and gives no problem with any of the encoders (like check sum error in CCE 2.5).
One more thing. I usually do my videos in 16:9 format, which is not accepted by CCE (it only accepts 720X480 avi files). So what I have to do is frame serving my premiere project to VirtualDub using Aviwrapper, then resizing the file in VirtualDub, then frameserving it to CCE using VirtualDub frameserving option. It slows down CCE, but produces exceptional results in the end.