Picture Quality

[nosbor]

I don,t want to do anything fancy, just transfer my home movies to a format that is watchable!

I,ve tryed Pixel-A imgemixer converting to Mpeg1 and found it easy to use but not impressed with the picture quality, an upgrade to Imagemixer DVD is available, would this solve the quality problem? or is there an easier solution?

any advice appreciated

Thanks

Eqpt used:
Camera JVC GRD300 mini DV
Ieee 1394 firewire port

Computer exceeds specs

[Tommyknocker]

Yes, the best available transfer is fire wire to your computer or VCR.

[tweedledee]

Use windv to transfer movie to HDD as AVI files. Then TMPGEnc to convert to mpeg2 dvd compliant. Then TMPG Author, then burn to DVD.
There are plenty of other methods, use the guides.

[FulciLives]

I see a slight problem here.

To transfer your digital video to your computer using FIREWIRE you need about 13GB per 60 minutes.

You only have a 40GB HDD and based on what your CPU is listed as I'm guessing you have a laptop which might make adding or replacing the current HDD an inpractical proceedure.

See you will need about 13GB for 60 minutes and then at least another 5GB or so in order to have enough room to convert it to MPEG-2 DVD spec.

I suggest you try TMPGEnc Plus as it is rather easy to use and gives great quality results (although a bit slow).

There are various settings in TMPGEnc Plus so you need to read some guides on it but of course the most important is video bitrate and audio bitrate.

Assuming you are happy with 60 minutes per DVD disc then I suggest you try a CBR video bitrate of either 7500kbps or 8000kbps and use LPCM audio.

Technically a CBR of 8000kbps should be fine but some think it might be better when using LPCM audio to drop down your bitrate to 7500kbps because this lowers the overall bitrate to a level that can safetly be read ... the idea here is that it is harder for a DVD player to read a DVD-R or DVD+R disc that has been created on a computer than one created in a factory.

If you are willing to use AC-3 audio then 256kbps should be a high enough bitrate but even at the highest AC-3 bitrate of 448bkps you can safetly use a CBR video bitrate of 8000kbps

Having said that I doubt you will see a different between a CBR of 7500kbps and 8000kbps

So if it were me I'd do a CBR of 7500bkps with LPCM audio.

This will very comfortably fit 60 minutes on a DVD with room to spare for the overhead needed for your DVD authoring stage.

For a simple-to-use yet professional (enough) DVD authoring program I suggest TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Remember TMPGEnc Plus is the MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoder whereas TMPGEnc DVD Author is the program that actually creates the DVD (with a menu design and chapter stops etc.) from your encoded MPEG-1/MPEG-2 video and sound files.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
There is a new version of TMPGEnc Plus called TMPGEnc Xpress that ... as I understand it ... will be the "new" version that will probably replace TMPGEnc Plus one day (soon I would imagine).

[tweedledee]

Well spotted about the 40gig HDD Fulci In that case I might consider transferring with PowerVCR straight to mpeg 2. That's what I do, and I'm happy with the result.

[nosbor]

Thanks for the prompt replies.

Is there a less time consuming/automated program out there that does it all.

[FulciLives]

Thanks for the prompt replies.

Is there a less time consuming/automated program out there that does it all.

Not really.

Not unless you expect quality results anyways.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman