Need help making DVD of Football games recorded on DV

[brewc]

Hi, I'm trying to burn some copies of games from our past football season, to give to players. I'm a high school coach and we used a Digital video camera, DV deck with Firewire for watching and recording to VHS for film trades. I captured the video via Firewire to my PC, that has Win XP sp2, and a DVD+R drive, used Intervideo to capture it. I am just wanting to do a straight port no menus or adding of sound to them.
I have burned 2 copies and on both it looks jerky and blocky on the TV almost VHS quality, not as sharp as viewing them directly from our DV player which looks great on TV, these dvds do not.
I tried encoding the second one using TMPG Enc to mpeg2 and it looks as same as the first one. I didn't do the authoring mentioned elsewhere in the thread as I'm not adding menus just a straight copy of less than an hour of game film to DVD that when done looks like VHS quality.
I also have sonic video installed but want to find out what's wrong that it isn't looking even as good as the original source?

[mikesbytes]

Is intervideo converting the DV into something else when you capture via Firewire? If so, try transferring it from the DV source to the computer using WinDV.

Was the camera hand held when you were filming? if so there will be camera shake. Camera shake can be removed, but its a long slow process.

When recording to mpeg2 using TMPG, what settings are you using? It could be that your bitrates are not high enough.

[brewc]

The camera was on a Tripod when filming.
During the season we watched the DV on Sunday during the season to break the game down for mistakes made. They are DVD quality when watching the video from the DV deck or camera to the TV, so I'm guessing it was encoded wrong when captured?
Intervideo WinDV Creator and WinDV aren't the same program?
Intervideo recorded it to an mpg file on my pc and then I ran it thru TMPG, was that the Error should it be an AVI file when done capturing?
As far as TMPG I think it was set to automatic or default I'm new to that program, I download the trial version. Where and what am I looking for to find the bitrate settings on it?

[thecoalman]

Intervideo recorded it to an mpg file on my pc and then I ran it thru TMPG, was that the Error should it be an AVI file when done capturing?
As far as TMPG I think it was set to automatic or default I'm new to that program, I download the trial version. Where and what am I looking for to find the bitrate settings on it?

Convert to mpeg only once. Either capture as mpeg and use that file or capture as AVI>convert w/tmpgenc>burn. You can use the direct route but will get better results capturing with AVI then converting.

[tmh]

As a fellow football coach, this is one of the things I'm using my new-found video knowledge for. Now, coach, make sure to use the film for GOOD thing that happened also!!!!!! (not just the mistakes).

The Coalman gave you the process that should work well. My experience is that your final DVD should look pretty good compared to the original, but not exactly the same.

If you answer these questions I (or someone smarter about TMPGenc) can maybe help you with the settings needed.

1. What amount of footage (in hours) are you trying to get onto each DVD? How many DVDs will you make total?
2. Are there breaks in the camcording or just turn it on for the entire game? I assume breaks, so that will affect your WinDV capture settings.
3. Which version of TMPGenc do you have (plus, express, etc.)
4. How much free hard drive space do you have?
5. Do you or another person you know have a settop DVD recorder that accepts firewire input? If so, that might be a heck of alot easier way to go. I use this method when i'm not "fiddling around" with the footage (edit, cut, etc.).
6. Do you want to cut/edit the footage at all - if so, how much?

[brewc]

1 It's about an hour of footage for each game, I'm making copies to keep for myself, head coach and a nephew who was on the team.

2 The games were filmed where play was filmed paused then film next play. I'm recording the whole game which except for 1 or 2 games were never more than 65 min. of video.

3 I downloaded the trial version

4 50 gig

5 No one I know

6 I want to make a straight port of the DV footage

[tmh]

OK, pretty straight forward then, I'd say. Here is a guide to walk you through from capture to authoring. http://www.dvd-guides.com/content/view/33/59/

Now, that guide is for PAL regions, if you're NTSC (USA) then your settings will be a bit different, but you can likely figure it out once you select NTSC.

1. Try a short (5 min.) section to get the process down. Don't go on until you can get that 5 min from DV to a RW DVD and play it to your satisfaction. Remember, it won't be quite the original, but should be close.

2. In WinDV, set the "discontinuity" to either 0 or a very high number (I can't remember which way ignores all the camcorder on/offs to give you the one AVI you want.)

3. Remember, the DV footage will take up about 13+ gb per hour. You'll only be able to do a few with only 50 gb before deleting the finished ones. You can maybe do 2 games per DVD depending on the bitrate you encode at - the lower bitrate the more you can fit. You'll have to deside what bitrate is acceptable to you.

4. "Authoring" is NOT only putting chapeters, etc. into the video - it is a required process to take your encoded mpeg2 file (and audio) to create the Video_TS file with .VOBs, etc. that you will burn to the DVD to make it work on a standalone player.

5. Many apps can burn, including TMPGenc DVD Author (I think), but I always use Nero as it came with my DVD burner and works well for me.

Good luck.

[vhelp]

Serioucly, you'd'ov ben better of exporting it to VHS. It would have
ben good quality. I'm not sure what your first problem was with your
VHS exporting process though.
.
But I must admit, it would be more conenient to throw in a DVD disk
and go right to a point in the video w/ your remote. So I do under
stand going towards DVD. Just remember its not going to compare
to Professional video quality (ie, like Cinema/Hollywood) as these
are 24fps not 30fps like DV cams.

You main concirn with obtaining maximum quality from your DV footage
is with Interlace. Just remember to make sure that whatever Encoder
you do use, that you set the encode to include Interlace.
.
Also, since your footage is less than an hour, and because your source
is sports (lots of grass and fast action/movements) you would do
better with a CBR 9000 bitrate. Actaully, 9000 might not be enough
bitrate because of the high action envolved (unless you were actually
taking footage of someone warming the bench hehe)

You might also want to try another Encoder, Procoder by Canopus.
This is a good encoder for Interlace source (ie, DV) and I have
used it, though only a couple of times. I found it to be very good
quality too. Only v1.5 yields best quality, but this version is no
longer avaiable for D/L (to my knowledge) and their latest version,
which is v2.5 has taken a left turn for quality with Interlace source.
.
Accept this with a grain of sand

As for TMPGenc.. I use it extensively.. So I'll share my knowledge
with you here for you to try out

In TMPGenc, there are several major elements to focus on in your
encoding setup for best results.

.. Make these, and only these changes/setings, and your video should look
.. better than previously, unless your DV source has other issues or conditions
.. that are unusual to these settings.

After loading your AVI source file in TMPG.. start with [Setting] and
then..

Settings for ENCODING DV VIDEO in TMPGenc - by VHELP

* Go to: OPTIONS\Environmental setting.. and make the follwing changes:
* [x] Enable reading.. -- is default.
* [ ] Interpolate YUV data..
* [ ] Set equation for color space..
.
* VIDEO - TAB:
* size: [720 ] x [480 ] pixels
* aspect ratio: [4:3 display ]
* Frame rate: [29.970 ]
* Rate control mode: [Constant bitrate (CBR) ]
* Bitrate: [9000 ]
* VBV: [0 (automatic) ] -- or set to [224 ]
* Video format: [NTSC ]
* Encode mode: [Interlace ]
* YUV Format: [4:2:0 ]
* DV compon.. [9 bits ]
* motion sear.. [Highest quality (very slow) ]
.
* ADVANCED - TAB
* Video source.. [Interlace ]
* Field order: [Bottom field first (field B) ]
* Source aspect.. [4:3 525 line.. ]
* Video arrange.. [Full screen ]
.
* GOP structure - TAB
* I [1 ]
* P [5 ]
* B [2 ]
* MAX number of frames: [0 (No limitation) ] = default, but entering
.. an [18 ] would give you increased quality, though slower encoding.
.. so use as an option, if quality is not enough, and you want to try
.. everything.
.. These are the standard GOP settings.
* [x] Output bitstream.. -- I check these, cause they help me w/ DVD Authoring
* [x] Detect Scene.. not necessary, but pushes quality a little more, even if minute
* [ ] Force picture type sett.. -- leave unchecked!
.
* QUANTIZE MATRIX - TAB
* [ ] Output YUV data ...
* [x] Use floating point DCT...
* [ ] No motion search
* [x] Soften block noise [35 ] x [35 ] -- optional, though I would use!
.
* AUDIO - TAB
* Sampling freq.. [48000 ] -- for DVD specs.
* Chan.. [Stereo ]
* Bitrate: [192 ] -- I use a minumum of 192k for my audio.. more than enough 4U.
.
* SYSTEM - TAB
* Stream type: [MPEG-2 Program (VBR) ] -- ( for DVD authoring.. )

Good luck with your footbal project(s)
-vhelp 3047

[mikesbytes]

Intervideo WinDV Creator and WinDV aren't the same program?

Nope

Intervideo recorded it to an mpg file on my pc

This is probably your problem, Intervideo is converting the DV to mpeg on capture and probably causing a host of problems.

Find WinDV on this site and download it. Then use WinDV to transfer from the camera to the PC. Then use TMPG to convert to mpeg 2.

[tmh]

vHelp, do you have a "DV to DVD" guide anywhere on the internet? I find that there is a great lacking in DV to anything considering how many people now want to edit and create from their home movies.

Also, many say Procoder is a better DV to mpeg2 encoder than TMPGenc - any experience with that?

Thanks for the detailed config settings. I'm bookmarking this page for future reference (unless you have a guide out there).

[brewc]

Yea, I would like a guide as well. It may be a couple of weeks now for me to try as coache sent the tapes off to the guy doing our highlight video for this year. If wondering he gets them in VHS , even though 75- 100 DVDs would be way cheaper, I'm going to call the guy and see what software and equipment he is using.

[mikesbytes]

vHelp, do you have a "DV to DVD" guide anywhere on the internet?

https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?tools=&madeby=&formatconversionselect=DV+to+DVD&ho...or+List+Guides