Quality : "DV to DVD" vs retail DVD

[snakedjip]

This must have been answered somewhere...

If I take a personal DV video (2 hours), then encode it (MPEG2) to burn it on DVD, I get so-so quality...

If I take a retail DVD, the quality is... DVD-quality

What's the best software to encode DV to DVD so that I don't lose as much quality ?

[Thorn]

Remember that commercial DVDs are shot with superior cameras and are not compressed to the lossy DV format. There is an upper limit to what you can get... but that aside you can generally get good quality from DV if your camera is good (DV cams with poor optics don't leave you with very good options).

Read the capture and convert howtos to the left, and search the forum for other threads discussing DV encoding methods.

Just some quick tips:
Use a dedicated encoder like TMPGenc and use the highest quality (slow) settings and precision.
Try to use a tripod when possible to keep the camera steady.
Don't shoot in low light situations - most cameras can't handle low-light well at all.
You can sometimes use video filters (with programs like virtualdub) but never overuse them.

[Eric J]

First, I assume that your original DV-AVI was better than so-so quality, so your complaint is that the MPEG-2 encoding degraded the quality. As a threshold matter, MPEG-2 encoding itself will not improve the quality of the source video, although filtering can be performed in conjunction with the encoding to improve some characteristics of the video.

In light of your comparison of commercial DVDs to those you are producing, bear in mind that most commercial DVDs are DVD-9s, while those you are producing are DVD-5s. Accordingly, the commercial disks have about twice as much storage capability of yours.

The quality of the final video is to a large extent a matter of the video bitrate. The combined video/audio bitrate for DVD is capped at about 9800 kbits/second. If you are getting 2 hours on one DVD, you are probably using a lower video bitrate than you need to get the quality you want. By comparison, for the sake of simplifying encoding, maximizing video quality, and since I do not care how much of my own content I get on a single DVD, I encode my video at 8000 kbits/second.

If you can, split your content among two disks and encode with a higher bitrate. If you cannot do that, use an encoding scheme that more effectively allocates the total storage where it is most useful, such as scenes where there is much motion. This necessitates using VBR (variable bitrate encoding) instead of CBR (constant bitrate encoding). There exist bitrate calculators that will give you guidance on how to set the bitrate to fit a given amount of video on a single disk.

If you are currently using PCM audio, you can also save some space by using AC3 (if your authoring program allows) or MPEG-1 layer 2.

If you are not already doing so, you may wish to use an encoder such as TMPGEnc to create the MPEG-2 file, instead of the encoder built into your authoring program.

Each of these subjects will require further research on your part, but this should point you in some useful directions. Search this and other forums to find out: what your authoring program will accept as MPEG-2 and audio input; the relative merits of VBR, CBR, and CQ (constant quality) for video; PCM, AC3, and MPEG-1, layer 2 for audio. Also, browse the guides on this site for assistance in connection with these various subjects.

It is possible to get very high quality video on your own DVDs if you are starting with very high quality video to start with. However, while the low end DVD authoring programs make it easy to produce something, it takes an investment of time and effort to achieve the highest quality.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Eric J

[Xesdeeni]

Thorn is absolutely right, that there is much more to getting quality video than just the compression. But I'd like to highlight his comment about lighting. The more light the better. This will considerably reduce the amount of noise in your video.

It also depends on the quality of your DV camcorder. 3 CCD cameras will produce better quality video with less noise than 1 CCD cameras. And 1 CCD cameras vary, even under the same conditions. A friend and I set up and filmed the same shot from two different angles using our respective 1 CCD miniDV camcorders. Here is a comparison of two pieces from each camera's video taken from the same instant of time (within 1/30 sec). The two top images are from my Canon Optura Pi. The two bottom ones are from his JVC (don't know the model). The most obvious difference is the horizontal resolution. But you can also see a difference in the amount of noise.



Lots of video destined for DVD is shot on 3 CCD miniDV camcorders, and the quality is excellent. But it's not just the compression. And the professionals will tell you, it's not just the equipment either.

Xesdeeni