Pixelated DVDs - many artifacts. Why? Cure?

[martinlest]

There are some areas of IT in which I consider myself 'expert', but the area covered by this website is not one of them, so I would appreciate some help in layman's terms. I have looked through threads here but there is a lot I don't really follow (though I am not a complete beginner and/or complete idiot - I like to think!).

I have been using AVStoDVD for several months and have been more than happy with the results. The past few weeks though the DVDs I have made using it have been plagued with artifacts and pixelated areas. Anyone able to help me troubleshoot this? I add my settings at the bottom of the thread - I guess this is what is needed?

Could it be to do with the format of the input files? Latterly I have quite a few mkv files? The original videos have no problems at all and are of good quality all round. I use DVD Shrink to get the file size down to what will fit onto a DVD - but it is the original VOBs made by AVStoDVD that have the problems.

Thanks for any advice. I burn to DVD-RWs at the moment as I have produced too many 'ugly' DVDs (4 or 9GB) of late..

Martin

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DVD Video Standard: PAL
DVD Titles number: 4
DVD Size: 9172/4450 MB (206%)
DVD Output Setup: DVD Folder
DVD Label: DVD
DVD Menu: Static Menu
Output Folder: D:\My Documents\Video Files
Delete Temp Process Files: Yes
Delete Working Files: Yes
Edit Command Parameters: No
Post Process Task: Show Progress Status window

PREFERENCES

MultiThread: 1
AVS Source Filter: A2DSource
AVS UpSize/DownSize Filter: Lanczos4Resize/Spline64Resize
PAL SpeedUp: 0
Video Resolution: 0
Video BitRate Min: 4500
Video BitRate Level 1: 6500
Video Profile Level 2: 4500
Video BitRate Max: 9000
Keep DVD Compliant Video: 1
AC3 Audio Encoder: 0
Force FFmpeg for Long Audio: 1
DVD Audio Format: 0
DVD Audio BitRate: 256
Keep DVD Compliant Audio: 1
Normalize Audio: 0
Auto Delay Audio: 1
DVD Audio Language (Primary): EN - English
DVD Audio Language (Secondary): EN - English
DVD Subs Language (Primary): EN - English
DVD Subs Language (Secondary): EN - English
DVD Subs Font: Tahoma 18pt (255,255,255)
Chapters Interval: 5
Use Source Chapters: 1
DVD Burning Drive: R: PBDS DVD+-RW DS-8W1P BD1B
DVD Burning Speed: 4x
Auto Erase DVD RW: 1
Save Log file: 1
Display errors messages: 1
Unload ActiveMovie library: 0
Adjust ffdshow mixer: 1
Save General Settings: 0

[hech54]

Could it be to do with the format of the input files?

....or the QUALITY of the input files?

[martinlest]

Well, they look good when I play them via VLC or whatever on my PC - no artifacts in the places they appear after converting and burning to DVD.

M.

[manono]

I have been using AVStoDVD for several months and have been more than happy with the results. I use DVD Shrink to get the file size down to what will fit onto a DVD - but it is the original VOBs made by AVStoDVD that have the problems.

You're really first creating oversized files and then getting them down to DVDR size with DVDShrink? A very bad idea. Much better would be to dreate the files to the correct size in the first place.

Well, they look good when I play them via VLC or whatever on my PC - no artifacts in the places they appear after converting and burning to DVD.

Maybe upload a sample of the output you say is pixelated and of poor quality?

Video BitRate Min: 4500

Avs2DVD sets a minimum bitrate of 4500? Or are you doing that? That's foolish, in my opinion, and could easily wreck the overall quality and could easily prevent you from achieving the DVDR size all by itself (thus forcing you to use Shrink on it). The average bitrate of 6500 for that movie is high enough. But it won't be that after Shrink gets done with it.

The past few weeks though the DVDs I have made using it have been plagued with artifacts and pixelated areas.

Have you switched DVD brands also, within the past few weeks? I suppose bad media could account for it. Do you see the same pixelation when playing the completed DVD on the computer from the hard drive (not from the burned disc)?

DVD Titles number: 4

4 titles? Not 4 full-length movie titles I hope.

[Hoser Rob]

I haven't burned video to dvd recently ... too much of a pain ... but I used avstodvd and it was the only program that worked reliably at all.

When you say the videos look fine on the computer screen ... what's the difference in screen size between it and your tv? How much are you upsizing the resolution?

When I used avdtodvd (which I uninstalled ... I won't use anything that uses 3rd party codec/filter packs anymore) I didn't let it select encoders based on bitrate. I forced hcenc in 2 pass mode. That's as good quality as you'll get with avstodvd, basically.

Also turning up the AQ to near max will help a lot with pixelation in dark areas.

[martinlest]

The TV thing was a bit misleading - when I play the VOB files that AVStoDVD has created on a media player like VLC on my PC, even before burning them to DVD, they have a lot of artifacts, whereas the original video files are clean. So it's not the media or DVD Shrink doing this - the AVStoDVD output itself is pixelated before I do anything else with it.

No, that's 4 titles of about 40 minutes each, not full movies! I have to use DVD Shrink to reduce the size of the VOB output as I haven't found a way to make AVStoDVD do this automatically. (I even emailed MrC, but apart from trying to set the minmum bitrate lower, he gave me no clue as to how to set the programme to adjust the size of the VOB folder automatically, so it produces a 4.4GB output).

I adjusted the minimum bitrate back to 4500kbps yesterday as that was the default: I had been using 2500 as a minumum, but then started getting all these pixelated images over the past few weeks, so went back to 4500: it hasn't made any difference unfortunately. Previously, I had been making DVDs with say 12 x 30 minute videos with no problem: but AVStoDVD makes a VOB folder far too big to burn to a normal DVD with 6 hours of video inputted in that way, so I used DVD Shrink to reduce them to 4.3GBs. The results were excellent - no artefacts and no pixelation at all - excellent picture quality too, even when burned to a DVD and played on a TV.

I already have hcenc in 2-pass mode... AQ to max?? Will have to go back to the programme to see what that means.

I will try to post a short clip a bit later to show what I am on about.

Thanks a lot for the replies.

M

[_MrC_]

Codecs messed up?

Do you get pixelation if you simply use the 'Preview Title Output' option in AVStoDVD?



Bye

[martinlest]

Will try it. I hope you don't think that I am in any way criticising the software - it's the best I have ever used for making VOB files. The menu creation is just awesome, for instance! I just hope I can get this sorted out.. How would i clean out all my codecs and start from scratch? Last time I did that everything else stopped wortking..

M

[_MrC_]

How would i clean out all my codecs and start from scratch? Last time I did that everything else stopped wortking..

I would start to make a list of all the codecs and codecs packs installed.

Then I would try to unistall them one by one, beginning from packs.

Let us know



Bye