How can I improve quality

[Graham T]

I have captured and burned a small test video but on playback by DVD on TV the quality is poor compared to the original camcorder recording.

Captured with ATI aiw 16 mb card on two settings for comparison
1st capture on avi at AVI 320x240 29.97fps CBR 1150kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 192kbps
2nd capture on video cd - MPEG-1 352x240 29.97fps CBR 1150kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 192kbps

I converted the AVI to mpg using TMPGne on default settings no filters set

I then burned the resulting file plus the video cd capture using VCDEasy.

Initialy encountered a problem with VCDEasy and CDRDAO so uploaded latest drivers. Would not burn with force driver set on default so changed it to generic - mmc and it now burned the CD. Noticed that on bottom of VCDEasy page that the box for ASPI seems vaild it indicated "No"

When I viewed the output (APEX dvd on TV) it was poor in colour quality and grainy compared to original. Both files seemed about the same so no benefit to first recording in avi and converting.

Can anyone point me to some articles to help or give some benefit of their experience?

[mdm]

How does it look on your screen as you are capturing? A grainy appearance usually comes from the source (bad source, bad cable, etc.). Color quality could also be source but could also just be in need of some adjustment within the ATI drivers or capture software.

Capturing first to lossless AVI and then encoding to MPEG is usually preferred, and you may want to capture at 352x480 and then encode to VCD spec (it can improve the quality).