DV Capture from WS Handycam

[Topper21]

I have been using Ulead DVD Moviefactory 4 to capture DV from my Sony Handycam HC39E and create a DVD. Whenever I play the end product in any DVD player the video looks like very pixelated compared to the original footage. The picture is fine when the camera is being kept still, when shooting, but if the camera is panning across the picture has a 'frosted glass' effect. This is certainly not evident on the original footage.

I have used various quality settings including the highest, which got an hours DV onto a single-layer DVD disc.

I have also made sure that I have captured the video in WS through the settings.

Is there a better program available for Widescreen capture? The picture from the camera is excellent and I would really like to replicate this on disc.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone could give.

[daamon]

Hi Topper21,

Welcome to the forums.

Can you post a screen shot of the "frosted glass" look? Play the DVD in something like PowerDVD on your PC (if the effect manifests itself there) and take a screen shot from there.

Uploading screenshots:

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=271697

[Richard_G]

Presumably you are transferring the footage from camcorder to pc over Firewire (i-Link) and not USB. In the Capture settings, make sure the field order is set to Lower Field First. MovieFactory usually detects the source and sets it correctly, but it may be set wrong. A wrong field order is often the cause of problems when panning.

[FulciLives]

You might want to try another MPEG-2 DVD spec encoder.

The program you are using now has an encoder built-in but it is not as good as a dedicated encoder. Your program is trying to be an "all-in-one" solution. Capture, encode (or convert if you like), author and burn. Such programs tend to be less than perfect. So you want a real dedicated MPEG-2 DVD spec encoder.

Some of the more popular encoders around here include:

1.) TMPGEnc Plus
2.) Cinema Craft Encoder or CCE for short
3.) Mainconcept MPEG encoder
4.) Procoder

There are a variety of programs that you can use to "capture" or "transfer" your DV from the camcorder to the computer. A popular freeware program is WinDV as well as another called DVIO.

The problem you are most likely having is not the transfer from the camcorder to the computer, as this is just a "data dump" or "transfer" not a "capture". The problem is the DV to MPEG-2 DVD spec encoding stage.

This is why I suggest using a dedicated encoder such as any of the 4 I mentioned above.

As you can imagine each of the 4 listed have pros and cons ... each has a large degree of users who like and users who do not.

I can say this though ... TMPGEnc Plus is probably the easiest one to use and does offer a free trail period of full functionality. Since you are new to this that would be where you should start.

For "best" results it is a good idea to keep the running time to no more than 60 minutes per DVD disc when dealing with home shot camcorder footage. When encoding DV footage to MPEG-2 DVD spec the spec reaches the MAX at the 60 minute mark, more-or-less. Once you go over that 60 minute running time you have to use lower than MAX possible bitrates and therefore there is a decrease in quality. This doesn't mean you can't go over 60 minutes but it makes things a bit more "tricky" in order to retain "best" quality.

There are so many more details I can get into but I think this is a good start ... there are many guides too on this website that give help on how to use various programs. Make use of these guides but feel free to ask "specific" questions as they arise.

I will give you this tip on using TMPGEnc Plus. Use the WIZARD mode to select the correct NTSC/PAL WS template. Use CBR for your video bitrate and try a video bitrate of 7500kbps and use PCM WAV audio. The other alternative is to use 8000kbps for the video bitrate and again use PCM WAV audio but then convert the PCM WAV to AC-3 format. This gives slightly higher (though hard to notice) video quality while compressing the audio. Having said that please note that AC-3 audio at high enough bitrates (usually 256kbps is considered high enough for 2 channel audio) will sound very good and not much different from PCM AUDIO except for the most discernig audiophiles.

So the "best" you can do is 7500kbps CBR video with PCM WAV audio or 8000kbps CBR video with AC-3 audio. If you try to use 8000kbps CBR video with PCM WAV audio then you run the risk of the bitrate being "too high" which could cause playback problems. Even the highest bitrate that AC-3 is capable of is only like 1/3 of the bitrate that PCM WAV audio uses.

For the record PCM WAV audio has a bitrate of 1536kbps whereas AC-3 hits the max at 448kbps although as I said 256kbps is considered the "sweet spot" for 2 channel audio be it mono or stereo. 448kbps is generally only used for 5.1 multi-channel audio.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[gadgetguy]

I would add QuEnc to your list of encoders. It's a free alternative to the commercial ones and IMO it does an excellent job.

[Topper21]

Thanks for that help, that is really useful.

Havent got around to having a good play with the software mentioned yet.

Might wait til I get a better PC which might be soon as my current one is looking more and more outdated by the day.

Thanks again!

[t-h-e-w-h-o]

I would add QuEnc to your list of encoders. It's a free alternative to the commercial ones and IMO it does an excellent job.

agreed.