Encoding Help

[zaraspook]

Hey all, I've got a bunch of HD ts files that I grabbed off of my DVR. I'm trying to get them to DVD, but I'm not too happy with the results.

I first tried ULEAD DVD Movie Factory 5. The results were pretty bad (grainy), but I'm trying again now with CBR 8000 instead of VBR.

I also used Womble MPEG Video Wizard with better results, but it was still worse than a standard DVD.

I realize there will be loss coming from HD sources, but is there a tool that will give me good DVD quality results for a resonable price? Or is it more a matter of just tweaking settings of the programs I have? I also have TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 which I haven't really played too much with.

I'd like to get at least 3 - 24 minute shows on one DVD. It seems encoding at a CBR of 8000 will be about right for this.

Any recommendations?

Thanks.

[edDV]

Hey all, I've got a bunch of HD ts files that I grabbed off of my DVR. I'm trying to get them to DVD, but I'm not too happy with the results.

I first tried ULEAD DVD Movie Factory 5. The results were pretty bad (grainy), but I'm trying again now with CBR 8000 instead of VBR.

I also used Womble MPEG Video Wizard with better results, but it was still worse than a standard DVD.

I realize there will be loss coming from HD sources, but is there a tool that will give me good DVD quality results for a resonable price? Or is it more a matter of just tweaking settings of the programs I have? I also have TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 which I haven't really played too much with.

I'd like to get at least 3 - 24 minute shows on one DVD. It seems encoding at a CBR of 8000 will be about right for this.

Any recommendations?

Thanks.

Higher bit rate and CBR should help. There are many other issues for optimization.

First 1080i to 480i needs an encoder that won't deinterlace to resize. It's the deinterlace that blurs out the resolution. If film source, inverse telecine to 24p allows doing it right with progressive resize. Non-film 1080i needs separate field resize.

720p is easier to resize but DVD won't directly take 480p/59.94. If film based, the 3:2 frame repeat needs to be removed leaving 720p/23.976 which can then be resized to 480p/23.976. If live video at 720p/59.94, it needs resize to 480p/59.94 then encoding as interlace to 480i/29.97.

That is what should be done. Many ways to do it wrong.


PS: All the above applies to "NTSC" TS files. 25fps "PAL" is much easier.

[zaraspook]

Thanks EdDV,

Do any of the tools I listed deinterlace to resize?

Is there a program that's typically thought of as the best for taking NTSC 1920x1080, 38810 kbps (Variable) video and encoding for DVD?

Actually, it doesn't even have to be the best. Just something good that has some articles about correct settings would be great.

Thanks again.