Pixelization and Pixel Blocks on my first DVD movie

[pavlograd]

I'm new. I have recently transferred several 8mm Digital Tapes of home movies to DVD. I am disappointed. I used Ulead MovieFactory 3. My camera is a Sony TRV230. I had MovieFactory set to 'Best' Quality and the resolution to max (720 by something) and sampling rate at 7000.

The movies played from the DVD not even near the quality of the original tape when played thru the camera. Especially on swimming pool water, and any motion (whether by subject or by camera pan) displayed obvious what I call 'pixel blocks'.

Can anyone give me any suggestions? I wouldn't think I'd need a special external converter since the camera has a pretty good one built in.

Thanks, Steve

[ZippyP.]

Try 352x480 as that is closer to what your camcorder is actually producing, if moviefactory has that setting. Otherwise, convert it to mpeg with something like TMPGEnc.

[pavlograd]

Okay, I just burned a portion of the same movie source (from 8mm digital tape) to DVD, but I changed the resolution ot 352x480. If anything, the block pixelization is worse - for sure no better. It is not visible when I view the tape straight from the camera. At first, I thought it might be the digital zoom, but that would also show when played from the original source, right?

Right now, I am very discouraged about the quality because I've made 3 DVD's that took a lot of time.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks, Steve

[lordsmurf]

Quit relying on MF to encode video. Use a real encoder.

[ZippyP.]

Quit relying on MF to encode video. Use a real encoder.

Like TMPGEnc.

[FulciLives]

I agree with needing to use a "real" MPEG encoder.

The 3 most popular (in no particular order) are:

1.) TMPGEnc Plus
2.) Cinema Craft Encoder (aka CCE BASIC)
3.) Mainconcept MPEG encoder

You might still be able to use MF3 for the DVD authoring stage but be sure you have it set up to not re-encode your input files.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[pavlograd]

Well, I just today bought a package at the grocery store called 'Magix Movies on CD and DVD 2004'. On sale for $30. I imported and burned a short part of the movie I'd done about with MF3 and there is NO pixelization whatsoever that I can see in the same scenes! Beautiful picture!

Using TMPGenc... how do you get the movie in from your camera and menu and author it before encoding it with TMPG..? Do I take it that I can import the movie with MF3, and then not encode, and then import those clips into TMPGenc for the encoding and burning?

Steve

[FulciLives]

Well, I just today bought a package at the grocery store called 'Magix Movies on CD and DVD 2004'. On sale for $30. I imported and burned a short part of the movie I'd done about with MF3 and there is NO pixelization whatsoever that I can see in the same scenes! Beautiful picture!

Using TMPGenc... how do you get the movie in from your camera and menu and author it before encoding it with TMPG..? Do I take it that I can import the movie with MF3, and then not encode, and then import those clips into TMPGenc for the encoding and burning?

Steve

MF3 should let you just capture from a digital cam to DV AVI file. There are also other programs some of which are freeware that do the same thing i.e., simply capture digital cam to DV AVI file.

Take a look here: https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=33#33

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

It's times like these that I just give up.

Uh-oh, I'm starting to sound like FOO !