DV Capture OK, but DVD looks not good...

[nachomur]

hi,
i own a Sony D8 camcorder. i capture DV normally with any kind of tool to my PC.
Then, i want to record my caps to a DVD. I try lot of programs from ulead (Video Studio 7 and now 8, Media Studio Pro 7, DVD Workshop, etc, etc), and after burning the DVD's, the quality is not so good as i expected. Could be arrange a 'COMMERCIAL DVD' quality with this processes ???
thank you very much for your help !
best regards,
nachomur

[junkmalle]

You should be able to get results that are virtually indistinguishable from your DV source. I use Media Studio Pro 7 a lot -- use their NTSC DVD or PAL DVD templates. I think the default bitrate is 6000 k/sec. You can bump that up to 8000 for slightly better results.

I recommend you capture as DV AVI files, then use MSP7 to edit and convert to DVD quality MPEG2 files. Then burn to DVD with an application that doesn't reencode the MPGE2 files. I usually use Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 for DVD authoring and burning.

Be sure to get the field order right. MSP7 automatically sets the field order for DV source files. Normally, everyone says to use field order B for DVD (MPEG2) output, but I have to use field order A in MSP7. I don't know if this is an issue where MSP7 just differs from everyone else's nomenclature, or if there's just something weird on my system! In any case, if you see jerky motion on your DVDs, try the other field order.

[nachomur]

thanks junkmalle for the quick answer !
i used to have this issue from the field order, but with this ulead version, that automatically detects the order, i found a solution. the problem i have now is that the video looks like it was recorded at low res, and when i apply the pause button, the image is not perfect, has degradations and pixelations... before burning the file looks great, but after looks very bad...

thanks again !
best regards,
nachomur

[MpegEncoder]

before burning the file looks great, but after looks very bad...

What are you using to burn the DVD? Make sure that it's not re-encoding the video, that can cause loss of quality.

[TheFamilyMan]

Two things to consider:

1 - MPEG2 encoders very greatly in the quality of their output. I've used ulead's and intervideo's with bad results. I now use TMPGEnc with excellent results. You can demo it for MPEG2 for 30(?) days.

2 - Hand held camcorder footage and MPEG2 don't get along very well due to the constant motion of everything the picture. Set you encoder to use the maximum bit rate allowed by DVD (~9000), and set its motion search parameters to very high setting (higher is usually means better). If that doesn't help, you might try dropping your encoding resolution to 352/480 (1/2 D1) and encoding at high bit rate/high motion search setting. The loss of resolution is not that great compared to improved overall quality. I do this for my home footage with nearly perfect results.

Good Luck!

[nachomur]

MpegEncoder: to burn dvd i'm using nero, i enconde with uleads, building the dvd folders.

TheFamilyMan: i couldn't use TMPGEnc yet, i have some errors, i need to re download it. what kind of files do you obtain with this SW, should it works with AVI files and after encoding i obtain mpegs ? After encoding ? what steps do you follow ?
thank you very much !
best regards,
nachomur

[MpegEncoder]

MpegEncoder: to burn dvd i'm using nero, i enconde with uleads, building the dvd folders.

Which version of Nero? Some of the older versions would re-encode the file all the time. The newer ones are smart enough to check the file for proper format and will not re-encode if it's already in the proper format.

[nachomur]

last version i found, 6.3.x.x
i only need to copy and paste the files from one video_ts folder to the other, and press the burn button...

[TheFamilyMan]

The basic flow: camcorder footage -> AVI -> MPEG2 -> DVD VOB

Capturing creates the AVI file. If you edit this AVI footage, output the results in AVI (this will eat LOTS of disk space) if you want to use TMPGEnc later. Running an MPEG2 encoder converts the AVI to MPEG2. Authoring reformats one or more MPEG2 files into the DVD VOB format; authoring also is when chapter points and menus are added.

TMPGEnc converts AVI files to MPEG2 files. Checkout the guides section about using TMPGEnc, you will find some excellent guides on using it.

When you capture your footage, make sure you are not capturing it in MPEG2 format, but in AVI format. The only ulead tools I've used are Video Studio 7 and Movie Factory 2. Their realtime, i.e. capture time, MPEG2 conversion was substandard, as was their post video processing MPEG2 conversion. I don't know if the MPEG2 encoder in their Media Studio is better for I've never used it. I may be worth while to see if there are tunable parameters in its MPEG encoder and tune them as suggested, but don't expect any help from me on this.

Some use really good realtime MPEG2 encoders to capture. This saves lots of time and disk space, though editing MPEG2 is problematic. I don't know enough about the realtime MPEG2 tools to suggest any.

Too bad Media Studio does not work for you, for it does everything within a single environment. This is where the fun beings, figuring out how to use the different tools to get to the finished product. All I can suggest is read the guides about your tools, have patience and experiment (use DVD-RWs).

[Nosey249]

I just got a sony dcr-trv260 last week.. Filmed my dad's 75th birthday cookout on sunday.. used lp mode and 2 tapes and a tripod, just set it up and let it go..

I offloaded the video and played back and took some pictures and got developed, look pretty good, will probably be better the more I play with it..

I then put it to dvd.. final result isn't too bad..

my problem, the time this took from avi to dvd.. a total of 1hr45min (1hr30min on the first tape), 18+/- gig avi file took almost 6 hours to encode using tmpgenc...

my machine is a 1.8+/- gig machine with about 900meg of mem..

is this normal for encoding or have I missed something...

[junkmalle]

the time this took from avi to dvd.. a total of 1hr45min... took almost 6 hours to encode using tmpgenc

That sounds a bit on the slow side for a 1.8 GHz CPU, but not outrageously so. Did you use lots of filters?

[Nosey249]

just used the wizard in tmpgenc, never did a conversion from avi to dvd before, dont' know what filters by default were set...