Viewing DVD on large screen TV

[wwjd]

I have read many times in this forum that when capturing VHS and or anolog TV that Half D1 provides good results (VBR=4k to 6k), however when I try this and display it on my Sony 50" widescreen LCD it looks like garbage compared to full D1 at a VBR or CBR of 6k to 8k, the higher the bit rate the better. Full D1 does not look all that great either but half D1 is not worth looking at.

When I play these same DVDs on a conventional TV between 20 and 27" they look better and there is less difference between full and half D1. It has always seemed logical to me that the larger the TV/Display the worse a picture would look. Anyone who has bought a big screen TV has seen this first hand.

So my problem is that I have begun to wonder whether I am missing something in regards to how I am author my DVDs. Am I?

My setup;

Cablebox --> JVC VCR --> ADVC-100 --> WinDV --> CCE Basic --> VS8(no re-encoding) --> DVD+R --> progress scan DVD player --> Sony 50" Widescreen LCD --> display in normal 4:3 with letter box on each side(no zooming or stretching)

wwjd

[Baldrick]

this is not specific to dvd authoring, so please use the general forum for general questions. moving you

[Matt D]

wwjd- I think this is due to upscaling of the video to the native resolution of your LCD screen. Doesn't matter if you have zoom on or not, the video is being resized and not surprisingly looks like crap.

[wwjd]

Matt D,

I agree with you. The net is that when we decide to burn something to a DVD we have to keep in mind where we will view it in the near term and in the long term. When I started transferring my VHS and 8mm anolog home video a few years ago I had a 27" tube TV. I am really glad that I did not burn everything at Half D1.

Now I do all of my viewing on my Sony 50" LCD and I continue to use Full D1, which is not perfect but is better than Half D1. I get less on a DVD but since DVD blanks these days cost around $.40 - .60 cents a peice I can afford to use a few more DVDs.

wwjd

[Nilfennasion]

It naturally follows that the larger your display unit, and the better your vision, the worse your video will look when compromises are made. And half-D1 is a compromise, depending on your source. Your LCD monitor was designed to display D1 and HD content, from the sounds of it, so obviously it will not perform all that well with half-D1.

This is to say nothing of the fact that capturing any analogue source is going to produce naff-looking results. Especially from VHS, which is not only less than half-D1, it also has inherent composite and interlacing artefacts. Rule of thumb is to either find a better source, or just watch the resulting material on a smaller display.