I Have A Question Please.

[Shavek]

Hello there....

MiniDv Camera Sony


I just recently ventured into the world of home movie making. I am currently using Ulead video Studio 7. The program is working well for me and I have been searching all areas for all types of related information concerning Dv,Authoring,the works.

I finished my first Home movie on Dvd, but was not happy with the quality of it at all. Well, I found one of the guides to using the program here at videohelp and now my finished dvds are very high quality. I dont see any pixels or stuttering at all. But it still does not look how mediaplayer showed it.

My question is, When viewing this movie on mediaplayer before it is burned, It just looks amazing. It's crystal crystal clear and wondering if I use the other guides on this site and tried it their way, then burned it, Would it make a huge differance of quality? I know the other process requires using tools such as TMPGEnc etc. , But will it make a huge differance? I just started learning about all of this a few days ago, so sorry if I am not coming across correctly. I'm Still learning.

Thanks for all the help..

[daamon]

Hi Shavek,

I just started learning about all of this a few days ago, so sorry if I am not coming across correctly. I'm Still learning.

Aren't we all...? You are coming across just fine - I (and I'm sure many others will be the same) applaud you for taking the time to read, read, learn, experiment, and read some more. You'll find that this approach is not only more rewarding, but is more likely to elicit help from people on this forum.

There's a few details that will help clarify your quesiton:

1. When you play "it" on mediaplayer, what is "it"? Is it the source file (what format?), the encoded .mpg file, the authored files (VOB etc.) played from your hard drive, or the authored DVD?

2. What guide are you using? (Post the URL).

3. What is it about your finished (much improved) DVD that you're not happy with? Perhaps a screen shot is possible?

4. I'm not sure how'd you find this out (sorry), but what is the audio format that's being used for the finished article? (e.g. WAV (PCM), MP2, AC3 etc.).

I ask because, if your video footage is long enough and you're using WAV, then the amount of bitrate (and hence quality) that's being allocated to the video will be reduced, possibly causing the reduction in the picture quality. Why is this? It's because WAV is uncompressed and so takes up a lot of space on the disk compared to other audio formats. Thus leaving less space for the video, and so forcing a lower bitrate meaning a (possible) reduction in quality.

I know the other process requires using tools such as TMPGEnc etc. , But will it make a huge differance?

I don't know Ulead video Studio 7, so can't comment on if TMPGEnc is better or not. That said, there are a lot of people (myself included) who like to use the right tools for each job rather than an "all-in-one" package. I use TMPGEnc to encode my home shot DV AVI and then author the resultant DVD compliant MPEG2 to DVD disc and am very happy with the results.

Well done on getting so far, and for taking the effort to investigate. The beauty of this hobby (if you're a sadist) is that the more you look into things, the more you realise the less you know... But it's fun and rewarding to learn.

Post back with any further questions.

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[Shavek]

1. When you play "it" on mediaplayer, what is "it"? Is it the source file (what format?), the encoded .mpg file, the authored files (VOB etc.) played from your hard drive, or the authored DVD?

The Files that I am viewing are Avi files. When Ulead captured/Stored my DV, Ulead saved them as Avi files. What I usually do is edit,add transitions, and then save everything as another Big avi file or I believe I cant just go to the mpeg conversion part from there.

Here is the Guide I used.
https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=512&howtoselect=9;48#512

3. What is it about your finished (much improved) DVD that you're not happy with? Perhaps a screen shot is possible?

The best way I can explain this, Lets say viewing the avi in media is 100% clarity of picture. My burned dvd is about 98% clarity. It's probably maybe everything looks better on a monitor? I am not sure if it can get better. I just love the silk smooth look I get when viewing on the computer, looks like I am using a very expensive movie camera.

4. I'm not sure how'd you find this out (sorry), but what is the audio format that's being used for the finished article? (e.g. WAV (PCM), MP2, AC3 etc.).
It's finished on the dvd as Pcm. I dont think Ulead can do anything else except Pcm. I forgot to add that I didn't like the pcm format, I think it crackles sometimes in the dvd I burned.

This guide that I used helped me a lot, My first dvd prior to using this guide came ok good, but now it will be excellent. I am not getting any artifacts, no slowdowns, but missing that little bit of clarity that would make it outstanding.

Thanks again for the help..

[guns1inger]

When you play the DVD back through your TV, what connection do you use (composite, s-video, component) ?

What TV do you have (make, size).

If you play the finished DVD on your PC, are you happy with the output ?

The computer monitor will usually be crisper than a standard TV screen due to the design, so a small drop in clarity is to be expected.

to take Daamon's point about audio further, I always go AC3 now (and I'd go DTS if I could afford an encoder) for space. I use Vegas with the AC3 plugin, and can mix full 5.1 audio if required, in much less space than LPCM.

[daamon]

Hi Shavek,

DV AVI is 25Mbps, so the quality is much higher than even DVD which is up to around 9Mbps (9,000kbps). Also, as guns1inger has said, monitors are crisper than TVs.

I've had a look through the guide and it all looks OK for capturing DV AVI, editing it, and generating an MPEG2 from it. The only apparent drawback being that, when you create your MPEG2 from your edited DV AVI, it seems there isn't enough flexibility to allow the user to define bitrates, audio format etc. - ending up with PCM audio, which is very disc-hungry and so (possibly) reducing the quality of the video.

This is why I, and a lot of others, use a different tool at this stage (TMPGEnc Plus in my case).

So, here's a suggestion:

1. Capture as you currently do, to DV AVI. However, the guide suggests Type 1, I'd suggest Type 2 (I'll explain why shortly).

2. Edit as you currently do, and save as DV AVI (again, Type 2 if you get the option - probably don't though). At a later date, you may want to look into frameserving - but get comfortable with this first.

3. Don't use Ulead video Studio 7 to encode your DV AVI to MPEG2. Instead, use a dedicated encoding tool. I'll refer to TMPGEnc Plus as that's what I know and am happy with. There are others (Canopus Procoder, Mainconcept MPEG Encoder, Cinemacraft Encoder etc.)

See below for details on TMPGEnc usage, as well as other tools etc. Then return here to step 4.

4. I believe you may be able to author the resultant files from the details in step 3 using Ulead video Studio 7. Though, not being familiar with it, I don't know if it's possible or how it's done. Some research for you... If you can't (I'd be surporised / disappointed), look into TMPGEnc DVD Author as a good one to start with.

5. Burn to DVD as you normally do.

That's it.... Hope that helps. Good luck...


Details for Step 3:

Firstly, I'm guessing you have questions, so I'll try to guess those and give answers:

Q: Why use a different encoding tool?
A: It allows you a lot more flexibility in various settings meaning that you are likely to get better quality. You can also do the video separate from the audio meaning that you can compress the audio rather than being forced to use PCM.

Q: Why does compressing the audio make the video better?
A: By compressing the audio, it takes up less space on the disk. That means that there's more room on the disk for the video. This, in turn, means that you can use a higher bitrate: because more bitrate = bigger filesize. But, a higher bitrate also means that the quality of the encoded video is increased (as a rough rule).

So, to the steps:

3.1: Use TMPGEnc Plus to encode the video only. This will produce a video_name.m2v file. The ".m2v" extension is the video part of MPEG2.

3.2: Use ffmpeggui to load your DV AVI and convert the audio to AC3. AC3 is compressed audio that has a negligible loss in quality, but is much smaller than WAV (PCM). This will produce an audio_name.ac3 file.

3.3: These two files are used as the input into step 4 above, the authoring process which gives you your VOBs etc. in the VIDEO_TS folder ready for burning to disk.

Your next questions are: What settings? How do I use these tools? etc.

This link (particularly from step 4 in it):

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=725433#725433

...may prove useful as it's the process I use to achieve what (it sounds like) you want to do, in a step-by-step way. It's not designed to be a definitive guide, but a record of what I do coz I'm happy with my results. It also references various useful guides etc.

That said, it's a reasonably detailed description of my method. I don't claim it's the best, or that it's perfect for you - only that it seems logical and works for me.

And, of course, there's loads of guides and "how to"'s, and you can always post back here.

Hope that helps. Good luck.