What can I do to improve my quality?

[Captain Satellite]

Last week it was pointed out that my videos were noisy and blocky on my site. I'm not concerned about my site but I want my 'masters' to be the best they can be. I am trying to pinpoint where this occurring. I shoot my videos with my DV cam and capture with WinDV. I import the footage into Premiere Elements 7 and mux the audio I record in Reaper.

When I export, I set all quality settings to the highest setting. I only use 1 pass because I can't tell the difference using 2. I'm still seeing some lines. Is this normal? I think the quality could be better.

I know we don't like to download from unknown sources, but I've owned the site below for four years - no viruses or any of that nonsense. Can I get somebody's opinion please? Even if you think it's crap.

Below is a short clip. Turn the sound down if you don't like loud guitar...

http://myfavoritevideoclips.com/vhelp/vhelp.mpg 25 megs You might have to right click to download.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[minidv2dvd]

the only thing i would suggest is that since you are using a high bitrate vbr to go ahead and do the 2 pass. it allows the encoder to allocate more bitrate to the parts with fast movement and you might get clearer video of the finger movement. if you have cce i would go so far as 5-7 passes.

not much of a fan of single coils myself..... 8)

[lordsmurf]

I think your MPEG-2 at a good bitrate (VBR 2-pass) looks fine as-is. Put about 90 minutes on a disc, 2 hours max -- unless DVD+R DL

[jagabo]

Switching to 2 pass VBR will not improve the quality of your video by any significant amount if you intend to keep it DVD compatible. It's already 9000 kbps CBR.

The "lines" you see are normal. You are dealing with an interlaced video source. Each frame contains two half pictures, called fields. These are intended to be viewed one field at a time, in sequence, 1/60 of a second apart. But when displayed on the computer screen you see the two fields woven together into a full frame. Anywhere there is motion you will see interlace comb artifacts. If you need to see the video without comb artifacts use a player that can deinterlace on the fly.

This won't be a problem if you are making a DVD. The DVD player/TV will handle the video correctly. But when making videos for use on computers where you can't control the player you will want to deinterlace, or even better, shoot progressive to start with.

Here's a piece of your MPG file BOB deinterlaced with one of the best deinterlacers, AviSynth's TempGaussMC_beta():

half.avi

Note that file is 59.94 fps. Most others will leave you with a lot more artifacting with that type of material.

[Captain Satellite]

Thank you for the replies, gentlemen. It sounds like I'm on the right track. I really appreciate the time you took to reply.

jagabo, That looks amazing! I almost wish I didn't see it. I've tried script before and was overwhelmed. I am more of a 'wizard' or three step kind of guy. I wish I could grasp this stuff like you guys. Over 900 posts and they're all asking for some type of help.

Once again, thanks to you guys for taking the time out of your day to offer your opinion.

minidv2dvd, I'm going to catch enough flack on YouTube for playing a Tele instead of my Strat, let alone my humbucker equipped Gibson SG or Gretsch 6120!

[lordsmurf]

For good streaming encodes, you'd want to deinterlace better (or shoot progressive), as well as de-noise everything beforehand.

[jagabo]

Note the tradeoff of shooting standard definition progressive is the lower frame rate -- 30 frames per second rather than 60 fields per second. Motions won't be as smooth at 30 fps. Another possibility would be to switch to a 1280x720 60 fps high def camcorder. From that you could make both 30 or 60 fps progressive or 30i DVD.

[lordsmurf]

Would smooth motion even be an issue, given his content?

[minidv2dvd]

if your site has the bandwidth then encode to 864x480 using an h264 mp4 at a bitrate around 1000kbps. the critics will stop whining.....

does the sg have '57 classic pu's or burst b?

[Captain Satellite]

I use TMPGEnc 4.0 Express to render an mp4 for YouTube. I use Xvid4psp for my site. I'm able to get decent quality with both. It sounds like I can do better quality wise but it would take some effort, but most of all trying to comprehend this stuff and I just get lost. It really is over my head.

Here's the whole video on YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MekM-Ll0ack

I have two SGs. A 1973 SG Standard (original owner) and a 1977 SG Custom. I don't think anybody was selling aftermarket pickups back then. I bought the first Dimarzio SDHP in 1975.

Thanks again for the replies. You guys are great.

[jagabo]

The basics of AviSynth aren't that hard. Here's the script I used:

import("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\TempGaussMC_beta1.avs")
MPEG2Source("vhelp.d2v")
TempGaussMC_beta1()

The most difficult part is downloading all the filter packages installing them (TempGauss uses several other filters). You only have to do that once though.

TempGaussMC_beta1() is very slow though. It took 10 minutes to deinterlace your short sample. Compare that to 10 seconds for simpler deinterlacers.

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks, jagabo. Perhaps I should give it another whirl.

[poisondeathray]

I think I mentioned a few of these suggestions on another thread:

For your "masters" you might consider using the original DV source, instead of MPEG2. If you are doing simple cutting & joining you could use vdub, for example, and keep the DV-AVI format to use as your "master". Re-encoding to MPEG2 is lossy. Re-encoding the MPEG2 to another format compounds that loss.

For encoding to website, you might want to add SelectEven() to the script jagabo gave, because it's going to be 2x the fps (would require 1.5x-1.8x the bitrate for the same quality on each frame), unless you wanted to keep bobbed framerate, and don't mind the larger bitrate required

You also might consider using h.264/aac in .mp4 on your website instead of the h.263/mp3 in flv, which is an older (2 generations), lower quality, less efficient flash format. aac audio is clearly better than mp3 at equivalent bitrates.