trailing effect on dvd

[D_Shives]

I created a DVD of my son wrestling and burned it using MyDVD. There is a trailing effect with all the matches. I converted my vob files from the mini dvd to MPEG-2 files using the ANY Video Converter program. If I convert them to wmv files the effect is not there but the quality is not as good. Any suggestions?

[Nelson37]

Sounds like an interlacing or field order problem.

You can try reversing the field order, this usually manifests as a "stuttering" effect in action scenes, not sure if that fits your description of "trailing".

Other options would be various de-interlacing methods.

[D_Shives]

Not sure how to do what your suggesting. Videos that I have made before did have the stuttering problem. I am really new at this.

[Nelson37]

Try playing it on the PC with a player that will de-interlace on the fly, VLC will do this, and is something you should have in your toolkit for its codec independence. If it plays smoothly with de-interlace on, that tells you it is easily fixable.

Read up on fields, frames, and interlacing. Basically each frame is split into two striped fields, used as either Top Field First (TFF) or BFF, bottom field first. Getting the order wrong makes what should be a "1 2 3 4" playback more like "2 1 4 3", resulting in a stuttering type effect.

I'm pretty sure ReStream will fix this, free tool, found in the Tools section. No re-encode necessary.

Now if the problem is more like a ghost image or "comb lines" then interlacing is likely involved.

If you don't already have Vdub, get this tool, as well. Avisynth, too.

Using Vdub, you can step thru frame by frame, and get a better handle on the problem.

Another free tool you should get is GuiforDVDAuthor, to replace MyDVD, which sucks. I know its easy, but that's because it's simple. It actually has some useful capabilities, but is very limited.

Since the original video should be decent, my guess is it is a simple authoring switch set wrong, such as Field order, or Progressive instead of Interlaced.

Look up the terminilogy and sample images, then load the original and later the authored video in Vdub, tap the arrow keys, and in a few seconds all those terms and definitions will make a whole lot more sense. Fear not, it ain't that hard.

[guns1inger]

I would seriously suggest you stop using rubbish software, as this is the surest way to get bad output.

[D_Shives]

What is the easiest program(s) to use that will allow me to take videos from mini dvd disks, create a dvd with menues with background audio and sub menues, burn it to dvd. My videos are very clear on the mini dvds(finalized with top menues) but lose quality when I convert and as mentioned above for awful when burned. I played it on VCL, but not sure above turning de-interlacing on. I downloaded all the other programs listed above and am now very confused about how to use most of them. I really do thank everyone for your advice so far and would really like to keep getting your help.

[borax]

...My videos are very clear on the mini dvds(finalized with top menues)
Now here starts the further doing...
If you just want to 'copy' the videos from the mini dvds to a 'normal' dvd, you may just copy the vob files from these to your harddisk and use dvdauthor (with any GUI like GfD, dvdstyler or dvdauthorgui) to create the menus. No one of this programs will change anything on your video content.
If you would like to edit/join some scenes, or even add/replace with content from other sources, you need to demultiplex the files from the mini dvds. Probably one of the best programs for this task is pgcdemux. For simple editing you can use mpeg2schnitt or cuttermaran. Then you may use any one of the already mentioned programs to create a dvd with menues with background audio and sub menues from the elementary files.
The most simple program would be TDA, but it is commercial and the newer versions (>1.6) also tend to reencode the video...

[Nelson37]

Sorry, I glossed over the Any Converter issue. That's most likely the problem. ALWAYS avoid conversions of any kind unless you absolutely have to, you have seen why.

As Borax says, just load the VOB from the mini-DVD directly into GuiforDVDAuthor. I think he's just being modest because he wrote it, but IMO GFDA is one of the best authoring tools around. As stated, it won't change the original video in any way.

I'm a little concerned you couldn't figure out De-Interlacing in VLC (Video, De-Interlace, pick one) or how to use Vdub (File, open, play). It really doens't get much more simple.

Ignore the DVD menus to start with. Get good video on disk, more than once, then start with menus.

[D_Shives]

So I should capture/import straight from the mini dvd? If I need to edit the video like sometimes my camera combines 2 matches into 1 file, what should I use then. Right now I am using Video Wave. I did get video files to play using VCL and VDUB. I just was not sure what settings to change or use. I could not get VDUB to play mpeg files.

[borax]

> So I should capture/import straight from the mini dvd
If possible (not cutting required) yes.
> If I need to edit the video...
In this case I would demultiplex all the content from the mini dvd with pcgdemux and cut the resulting elementary streams (separate video and audio, but don't worry these will be cut together) with mpeg2schnitt or cuttermaran. The new version of mpeg2schnitt (0.9.1) has even some video effects (like fade in and out).
If you like VDub, you may try to use dgindex to demultiplex/save as project (create a d2v index) and use vdub. But I'm not sure if you can cut directly the mpeg2 files this way (I would assume this results in reencoding). Then you can import the (edited) elementary streams in GfD. If your material is 100% DVD compliant, you can use the MuxMan engine in GfD. It is one of the best authoring engines around (creates the most compliant DVDs).

[D_Shives]

Thanks for all the advice. I will give it a try. Wish me the best.

[Nelson37]

Getting there.

To cut MPG2, use an MPG2 cutter. There are several, I like MPG2Cut2. No re-encoding.

BUT - first, get good video on disk. Don't mess with it, in any way, until you can accomplish this.

Ditch Video Wave.

You need the version of VDUB that reads MPG files. Easy to find. Now, if yours doesn't, but you opened files with it, that means you have some sort of intermediate file. This is exactly what you need to avoid.

How did the original video look when played? To preserve this quality, DO NOT MESS WITH IT, until you have learned how to use processes which will accomplish this.

[D_Shives]

I finally got a small dvd to work just fine. Had just a couple of matches on it. I will continue to work on getting the whole project created. Thanks for all the tips and help.