Advise on what equipment to buy

[rob_v8]

Hey everyone, I'm really new in all the video stuff but I'm a quick learner and would like some input on what equipment to buy. I already have some basic stuff, Sony Handycam PJ620 camera, Zoom H1 audio recorder and Corel VideoStudio X8 Ultimate.

I've been shooting a little for the last year now and have put stuff on DVD (ONLY due to other parents wanting copies want DVD and not Blu-ray, otherwise I would only put video on Blu-ray), specifically my daughters dance recitals. I've been recording 1080/60 progressive avchd video. It's been a struggle with quality but i've reached a point where it's satisfactory quality on DVD. I understand the quality loose and have learned to convert video file to avi through VideoStudio and then again to mpeg2 through TMPGEnc. This nets me the best results.

Is there a way to get better quality DVD through equipment? Is an external encoder hooked up to the camera going to be better?

I'm looking for solutions that doesn't require thousands of dollars and trying not to re-invest through the equipment that I already have if possible, ie buying a new camcorder.

My budget is around $1,000.

Any advise would be appreicated

[JVRaines]

Is there a way to get better quality DVD through equipment? Is an external encoder hooked up to the camera going to be better?

Probably not. A hardware encoder will give you faster encoding, but that's about it. You are throwing away 4 out of 5 pixels going to DVD and that will never change.

[rob_v8]

Thanks for the response. What about different software perhaps? I'v heard of MainConcept around the forums, and people swear by it. On MainConcept's website, it lists for $450. I could justify the cost if it really helped the video quality that much. I'm not looking for quality that you see from a dvd movie you buy at the store, but I definitely looking for something better. When I author a DVD in VideoStudio, I do see it uses the ULead codec, thats another reason I looked into better software (codec).

[KarMa]

Consumer level hardware encoders are usually faster but give worse quality. There are some broadcaster level hardware encoders that can push the envelope of what is possible with MPEG2. But doubt you want to pay thousands of dollars for that. Also have to understand that with 16:9 DVDs, the video is still just 720x480, which is then stretched out to ~854x480 by your TV or Player. There is no way around this besides using devices with better resizers.

A good MPEG2 encoder would be HCenc, which also happens to be free with decent custom settings. Does great 2-Pass encodings considering it's MPEG2. Some avisynth knowledge helps.

With a budget of $1000, I would think it would be cheaper all around just to put the 1080p video on thumbdrives (even on youtube or the cloud) and distribute it that way. Anymore I don't deal with burning DVDs other than for testing or for giving a video to my grandparents. So I'm not sure how parents could still want DVDs over other forms of distribution.

[rob_v8]

It is strange people want DVD in an age of HD video, I don't understand it either. I would eventually like to do just thumb drive and big ray. I don"t understand thumb drive to well yet. It seems like you can't have a thumb drive play like a DVD with menus, or I just haven't figured out how yet.

[SameSelf]

I often find myself in the exact same situation. Here is my workflow which is free :

1. Download and install Avisynth v2.60
2. Create a text file with the following (assumes progressive footage):

myVideo = "E:\video.avi"
AVISource(myVideo, audio=false).AssumeFPS(30000,1001)
Sharpen(0.5, 0) #pre-sharpen horizontally to better keep hor. details
BlackmanResize(720, 480, taps=4) #for AviSynth versions before 2.58 use Spline36Resize
#Blur(0, 0.6, false).Sharpen(0, 0.4, false) #mild, not for very detailed sources
Blur(0, 0.7, false).Sharpen(0, 0.4, false) #medium, works well with almost any source in my experience
#Blur(0, 0.9, false).Sharpen(0, 0.5, false) #strong, try medium first

Just be sure to replace myVideo portion in quotes with your video path and name. Change the extension on this text file to avs e.g. HDtoDVD.avs.

3. Download and install HCenc as KarMa suggested. Load the avs file from Step 2. Click on the "Make DVD Compliant" button. Choose a bitrate that fits on your DVD. For example, one hour of video can typically be encoded at an average bitrate of 8,000 kbps which equals ~4.1 GB (including 1,536 kbps of audio) and is about 93% of a DVD's capacity. You may need to tweak some other settings to suit your video. Things like aspect ratio, progressive versus interlaced, etc.

4. HCenc will produce a video.m2v which should be ready for TMPGenc.

5. You will need to demux or encode your audio separately as a WAV and 16-bit, 48 kHz LPCM for input into TMPGenc.

As for spending $450 on MainConcept's encoder, there are so many other things you could spend your money on that would produce way better results. For example, an Atomos Ninja 2 external recorder for your camcorder, $300 (plus drive). Or if your budget is truly $1000, a $1000 camcorder like a used Panasonic GH4 + lens.

[rob_v8]

I will try your suggestion using HCenc, thanks. I did start looking into the atmos ninja 2 as well. I'm wondering if maybe just buying the ninja 2 would help me that much more with my handycam.

[rob_v8]

So I installed Avisynth 2.6.0.6 and HCenc 0.28 21-12-2015. I copied your code and changed the file path. I loaded the avs file and I got an error in the info box "video is not YV12, YUY2, YV16 or YV24 color space". I went ahead and clicked the "make DVD compliant" button and got "possible non-DVD compliant settings fixed, frame rate not DVD-compliant". Any idea? I also tried changing ".AssumeFPS(30000,1001)" to ".AssumeFPS(29970,1001)" with the same results

Your code with modified video path:

myVideo = "F:\desktop\01.avi"
AVISource(myVideo, audio=false).AssumeFPS(30000,1001)
Sharpen(0.5, 0) #pre-sharpen horizontally to better keep hor. details
BlackmanResize(720, 480, taps=4) #for AviSynth versions before 2.58 use Spline36Resize
#Blur(0, 0.6, false).Sharpen(0, 0.4, false) #mild, not for very detailed sources
Blur(0, 0.7, false).Sharpen(0, 0.4, false) #medium, works well with almost any source in my experience
#Blur(0, 0.9, false).Sharpen(0, 0.5, false) #strong, try medium first

MediaInfo of video:

General
Complete name                            : F:\Desktop\01.avi
Format                                   : AVI
Format/Info                              : Audio Video Interleave
File size                                : 683 MiB
Duration                                 : 22 s 923 ms
Overall bit rate                         : 250 Mb/s

Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : RGB
Codec ID                                 : 0x00000000
Codec ID/Info                            : Basic Windows bitmap format. 1, 4 and 8 bpp versions are palettised. 16, 24 and 32bpp contain raw RGB samples
Duration                                 : 22 s 923 ms
Bit rate                                 : 249 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 3:2
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS
Standard                                 : NTSC
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 24.000
Stream size                              : 679 MiB (99%)

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings, Endianness              : Little
Format settings, Sign                    : Signed
Codec ID                                 : 1
Duration                                 : 22 s 900 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 411.2 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 3.85 MiB (1%)
Alignment                                : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration                     : 498  ms (14.93 video frames)

[rob_v8]

Never mind the error, I fixed it after some forum searching...

I had to add the line "ConvertToYUY2()" at the end of the avs file. Everything worked. After converting, the video is decent, I will have to play with settings.

I'm not sure what my handycam pj620 hdmi outpuit is, I've been searching but can't find the info. I'm assuming no better than 1080 4:2:0. I'm looking into the Atomos Ninja 2 if my videos will benefit from that.

[SameSelf]

I should have mentioned that since your footage is 59.94 fps (which is what p60 is shorthand for), then you have a couple of choices. You could make an interlaced DVD which discards every other horizontal line, or half of each frame, thus creating a field out of each frame and 59.94i. Or, you can make a progressive DVD which throws away every other frame in its entirety leaving you with 29.97p. These are basically your only options for DVD other than 24p (but that is for Hollywood aficionados). If you knew beforehand that this video would end up on a DVD, you might have chosen 1080p30 to a) avoid having to discard anything and b) longer exposure time which benefits all consumer cams unless filming in bright sunlight. Also, given that you are filming dance recitals, I would think the movement of the dancers would benefit more from the slight blurring that 1080p30 would give the video. Sports and slow motion video benefit from higher frame rates. Just things to consider.

So anyway, to interlace:

AVISource(myVideo, audio=false).AssumeFPS(60000,1001)
AssumeBFF()
SeparateFields() #Turns 60 frames per second into 120 fields per second
SelectOdd() #Discards half the fields resulting in 59.94i

To reduce to 29.97p:

AVISource(myVideo, audio=false).AssumeFPS(60000,1001).SelectOdd()

Also, AssumeFPS(60000,1001) means is that the frame rate is 60000/1001 fps which is equal to 59.94 fps, if you do the math. Changing it to AssumeFPS(29970,1001) is the same as saying the frame rate is 29.94 fps which is not DVD compliant.

Regarding the colorspace error, your video should already be 4:2:0 or YV12 which is DVD compliant. YUY2 is 4:2:2 and is not DVD compliant. But if you need to, you can try adding this as the last line:

ConvertToYV12()

[SameSelf]

Never mind the error, I fixed it after some forum searching...

I had to add the line "ConvertToYUY2()" at the end of the avs file. Everything worked. After converting, the video is decent, I will have to play with settings.

I'm not sure what my handycam pj620 hdmi outpuit is, I've been searching but can't find the info. I'm assuming no better than 1080 4:2:0. I'm looking into the Atomos Ninja 2 if my videos will benefit from that.

Glad to see you got it working.

Almost all camcorders output 1080 at 60i across the HDMI interface. I would be surprised if yours is any different. The main benefits of the Atomos Ninja 2 are:

1. Avoid the in-camera lossy compression to 8-bit, 4:2:0, low bitrate AVCHD, or whatever delivery codec is used.
2. Uses ProRes which is an intermediate codec designed for editing that offers 10-bit color, 4:2:2 chroma resolution, 1920x1080, and bitrates as high as 220 Mbps.
3. No limit on video length other than size of the hard drive and batteries.

Now, while the Ninja does offer 1080i60, it doesn't offer 1080p60, and if that is really important to you, you may want to reconsider.

[Cornucopia]

In all likelihood, the addition of the Ninja to a new (good) camera purchase would push the total cost beyond your current budget.

Scott