Some MainConcept MPEG2 Encoder questions

[shimonmor]

I've been making some DVDs for playing on home systems from DV source and digital camera AVIs (edited in Premiere 6.5 and Windows Movie Maker). I was having trouble getting the DVD quality to come out ok but I think I figured it out (see this post: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=267872 ).

Now that I have produced a DVD that looks good on TV, I would like to "go back" and ask some questions about the Adobe MainConcept MPEG Encoder. I read the MainConcept manual and spent most of today reading through posts on this forum but some things are still a little fuzzy.

1. Is there a quality difference when multiplexing the output file? I find it easier to have on .mpg file as opposed to a .m2v and .wav file. If I multiplex...there are a bunch of options under the multiplex tab...should I worry about them?

2. Are commercial DVDs (movies) interlaced or progressive?

3. It seems like I should interlace my DV files. I made this current DVD with "none" selected and things came out ok. Next time should I select "lower field"?

I guess that's all for now. Thanks.

[ronnylov]

1. Multiplexing would not change the quality unless you also do some audio encoding at the same time like encoding wav to mp2 audio. You may want to encode the wav to ac3 or mp2 to allow higher video bitrate, but a mpg file can not contain wav or ac3 audio, only mp2 audio is allowed in mpg files, so you may want the audio separated to allow it to be imported like ac3 or wav when authoring a DVD. Uncompressed audio (wav) is better quality than ac3 or mp2 but a compressed audio will allow a higher maximum video bitrate on a DVD.

2. If they origin from film sources (movies) then they are encoded as progressive, but some commercial DVD's origin from interlaced video like some TV series or concerts and they are are encoded as interlaced.

3. If your DV files are containing interlaced video then you should make interlaced DVD with lower field first. But some DV cameras can record progressive video and there are also DV capture devices that can record movies sent on TV which may be progressive and then it may be encoded as progressive.

As an example the DVB digial TV MPEG-2 streams here in Sweden (PAL format) are always set as interlaced no matter if they send progressive video like movies or interlaced video like news or sports. It's probably easier for them to encode everything as interlaced in real time.