HELP!!!! I can't create a decent looking VCD from my DV

[arrosen]

First, let me list the hardware/software I am using

Sony DCR-TRV350
Athlon 1.33 Ghz, 256Mb, ATI Radeon 7000 64Mb
Generic 1394 board
DVIO (for DV "capture")
TMPGEnc (for converting to VCD MPEG)
DVDEasy (for Burning)

Now, the problem...I shot about 20 minutes of video at my son's baseball game - bright day, lots of movement, etc. When I play the tape through the camera directly on my TV it looks fantastic.

I captured the video to my computer and played it back on my monitor. When I use 800X600 resolution on my monitor, it looks good when I play it back at 640X480 (as it was captured). If I enlarge it to "full screen", there is some pixelation around the edges of moving objects, but overall it looks ok.

The converted MPEG file looks ok when it is played at 100% size (320X240) is ok, but is a bit grainy with a few digital artifacts.

When I burn it to a VCD and play it on my 32" TV, it looks worse than a 10th generation VHS tape. There is absolutely no clarity or crispness, it is somewhat pixelated and there is sort of a film-quality "haze" over the entire video. By the way, this is exactly how the converted MPEG looks when I play it full screen.

I have also tried to use Roxio version 6, Ulead Video Studio 7 and MS Movie Maker to do the conversion and burning, but I get even worse results.

I'm pretty much at my wit's end. Am I doing something wrong, or are my expectations too high? I have downloaded VCD quality movies and burned them to VCD and they look great, so I think that I can get better results...but I don't know how.

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated.

[bugster]

I'm pretty much at my wit's end. Am I doing something wrong, or are my expectations too high? I have downloaded VCD quality movies and burned them to VCD and they look great, so I think that I can get better results...but I don't know how.

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated.

Personally I think your expectations are too high. Home video shot using a hand held camera contains a lot of 'noise' due to camera shake. This kind of noise is any mpeg encoders worst enemy, it simply eats up bitrate. As you are encoding to VCD, which has a fairly low bitrate at the best of times, you are in a no win situation.

There are a few things you could try. TmpGenc has a number of filters that you could try though others will probably be able to advise you better on which ones to use. They will increase encoding time but may improve the image.
You could try SVCD (with the header trick if required) if you can get this to play on your DVD player. The hugher bitrate should help. Or you could go the 'X' route. By this I mean break away from the standards of VCD or SVCD, try higher bitrates and see what your DVD player can handle. The DVD players compatibility list on this site might help you with that.

And as a last reort, buy a DVD burner!

[arrosen]

Thanks for the advice bugster...I'm trying to postpone buying a DVD burner until the hardware and media prices come down a bit more...I'll try tweaking TMPGEnc and see if I get better results. Would using a tripod when I shoot make a noticable improvement?

[bugster]

Would using a tripod when I shoot make a noticable improvement?

It would help certainly. How much depends on how much movement is left in the video and how good/bad your hand held camera work is in the first place!

[Gazorgan]

It (VCD) will ALWAYS look poor compared to the original DV cam. Make it SVCD instead of VCD and it will look 4x better without trying. 2-pass VBR and some temporeal filtering and it will look as good as a regular TV can display.

[vcd4ever]

arrosen;

I was wondering if you would be interested in uploading a short dv sample with lots of shaking scenes to me. The reason for asking is that i haven't encoded any dv material to vcd yet, and it would be interesting to see for my self if dv material is difficult to encode to vcd.

vcd4ever.

[arrosen]

Gazorgan -
I tried converting it to SVCD using ULead Video Studio 7 and then did the header trick with TMPGEnc and it worked much better. I'm now debating on upgrading to TMPGEnc Pro so I can the 2 pass VBR to see if that makes it even better. Thanks for your help!



VCD4Ever -
Sure...I can do it tonight...send me your email address, and I will let you know where I have posted it. My email is allen_rosen@[nospam]yahoo.com. Make sure you take out the '[nospam]' before emailing me.

Thanks for your help!!!