DVD quality not as good as source VHS

[doodah12]

I'm transferring a copy of a VHS tape to DVD. I've captured in Adobe Premiere Pro, with a Canopus ADVC-100. I've done some editing and then frameserved the file to Mainconcept MPEG encoder, then authored with DVD Lab. The quality of the resulting video is a definite one or two steps down from the original VHS tape. I'm just not sure where in this process I've lost the quality. Some notes: I captured to AVI in Premiere Pro. Then encoded to MPEG2, I set parameters such as "Elementary Video' instead os "Program Video'. Could this be one of the problems. I've also set VBR, with two pass encoding.
Also, when DVD Lab prompts, I've demuxed the video instead of just using the video as is. Could this be causing a problem. I was told that my resulting DVD's should look close to identical to my original source(if everything is done correctly). Is this usually true? Thanks for anyone's help in advance.

[greengate69]

How does the DV from the Canopus look before you encode it to MPEG2? That could give a clue as to whether its a problem in the capture/transfer or the encode.

Also, could you be a bit more specific about the problems with the encoded video (e.g. colour, sharpness, blocks, blurring etc)

Another thing - is your source the same standard as your target (i.e. PAL/NTSC)

And lastly - how much are you trying to fit on the DVD? I think 2 hours is the rule of thumb for a DVD5 - if its a full E180 that could be a problem.

I haven't used the canopus but from what I've read your hardware and software should be more than up to the job of producing a faithful copy. I go straight from vcr to stand alone dvd recorder and the resulting dvd is (to my eye) as good as the original. In fact I swear sometimes it looks better (which must be impossible!)

[lordsmurf]

It's all about your settings.

[doodah12]

From what I see on my computer, the video looks fine, but I obviously can't look at it on my TV until I've burned to DVD. As far as how the video looks on my finished DVD, it just isn't as clear, more grainy than the original. It's as if I took my VHS original, and went down one to two generations in quality.
As far as source and target, they're both the same, NTSC. And because I'm authoring to DVD 1 hour and 45 minutes of video plus menus, audio and want to do it at highest quality, I'm splitting the video onto two discs, this first one being only 1 hour, so file size isn't a problem.
Are there any settings that are essential in MPEG encoder and DVD Lab that could be the source of these problem? Thanks.

[daamon]

Hi doodah12,

When you're encoding to MPEG2, I'm gonna take a guess that you're doing it at full D1 resolution (720 x 480 / 576 - NTSC / PAL)...

If so, try encoding to 1/2 D1 (352 x 480 / 576) - as this is closer to the resolution of VHS and will also mean that you can use a lower bitrate and so get more on to a single DVD.

Either CBR at (around) 3,500kbps or VBR with this as the average (min = 1,000 and max = 5,000) - This 3,500 is a very rough figure, you decide what it is based on your need for final filesize and minimum level of acceptable quality.

Use 2-pass VBR if output filesize needs to be considered because of the capacity of a DVD disc. Otherwise CBR will be OK.

Do a search in the forums for "VHS to DVD" - you'll get lods of info, especially more accurate bitrate settings as it's been a while since I looked into this...

Hope that helps some...

[jimmalenko]

What daamon said. Also, you might want to try incorporating some noise removal. For VHS to DVD via my ADVC-100, I use FulciLives' guide along with TMPGEnc. It incorporates noise removal and you can even use it to resize. Both processes are much quicker doing it this way rather than letting your encoder do it.