Put my 1920 x 1080 onto DVD using DVD Flick

[Matthew]

Hi guys,

I've just made a feature film, and I've made it 2K. I'm about to send it to a festival where I need to send it physically on DVD, but whenever I use the basic settings for DVD Flick it squashes the image (making the black bars at the top and bottom of the TV screen huge, and making my actors look small and fat), and the resolution is quite smudgy. I'm also losing a bit of pictures on the sides of the screen as well. Can anyone help me out with what settings I should use to keep the quality and size of the image the same as my input?

Thanks everyone,

M.

[smrpix]

Can you cut and paste the delivery specs as written? It seems hard to believe any festival would require a DVD these days. DVD is standard def (unless it's a data file.)

[manono]

Did you set it up to encode as 4:3 rather than 16:9, as you should have? Anyway, DVD Flick isn't all that good. If you don't know how to make a DVD yourself, use AvsToDVD to do the job.

Compared to your hi-def source, the DVD will always look blurry in comparison. There's not a whole lot you can do about that when you have to encode as 720x576 something you created at 1920x1080.

And if you have to send it "physically on DVD" does that mean you have to convert it to DVD specs? Or can you just burn your hi-def film to a DVD and send that instead?

[Matthew]

Hi guys,

Thanks so much. I didn't set it to 4:3, I'll give that a try. I'm also downloading the AVStoDVD software, so I'll try that too. As for the festival specs, they say "Submitted DVDs must be formatted in MPEG‐2 video for Region 1/North America or Region 0/no region (i.e. the DVD is authored as a video DVD and not burned as a data disc containing Quicktime or other similar file format;" and they also say, "TIFF does not accept submissions in any other manner or format, including: content burned to Read/Write (RW) discs, Blu‐ray discs, external online links, downloadable files or trailers."

I know, it's TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), which is a massively influential and popular fest, so seeing the archaic submission rules were strange to me as well, which is why I was so unprepared for it. Thanks so much for your help, guys!

I'll be using the AVStoDVD software tomorrow -- any recommendations for the settings I should use for that?

Thanks again,

M.

[Matthew]

PS/UPDATE:

AVStoDVD is not working on my computer -- it says 'Windows Common Controls 6.0 ActiveX Library (mscomctl.ocx) is not present or not correctly registered.' It then says to troubleshoot, but I'm on a bit of a time constraint and think it's probably better to just use other software, so I'm downloading Nero now. If that doesn't work either, are there any other recommendations you could give me for making my picture the best possible and not cutting off the sides (I'm losing some of the letters of people's names during the opening credits)?

I'm creating and MPEG-2 version and was going to use 'Copy MPEG-2 Streams' (with the box to the right set at '11'). Will that help, do you know? Is that the best version DVD Flick has to offer? I've tried playing with other settings too but I'm just making them all maximum, not really sure if it's having any effect.

Thanks again, guys,

M.

[manono]

Yep, they're pretty clear - DVD video.

If by "box to the right" you mean "DC precision", then you want to set it for 10. I don't use DVD Flick and I doubt many here do either. I had a look at a guide and that was one setting that seemed to fit what you were asking.

Oh, and 16:9 is what it should have been set for. I apologize if I was unclear. And because all DVD video is anamorphic in the sense that what is stored on the DVD gets resized to a different aspect ratio at playback, then make sure you're playing the encoded file and not having a look at the 720x480 images.

[davexnet]

I thought if you used AVStoDVD installer version as opposed to the portable, it would offer to install the common controls?
I've done this in Windows 10 and it works's fine

[Matthew]

Hi Manono,

Thanks again. Yeah, the box to the right does say 'DC Precision' above it -- does setting it at 11 make the picture worse? I encoded it last night at 11 and 4:3, and it still came out pretty terrible. I was using the MPEG-2. It cut off some of the credits at the right and left side of the screen as well.

If I encode it at 10 and 16:9, would that be the best quality I could get from DVD Flick?

Also, encoding it at 16:9, should that be the pixel aspect ratio, or the target aspect ratio? Or both?

A couple of other things I've upped: I put the thread out at 8, the target bitrate at 8Mbit/s, and I'm encoding at 'Best.' Are there any other settings I could toggle, to try and make it less jumpy and blurry, and to fit the screen better?

Thanks again,

M.

[Matthew]

Hi davexnet,

I installed everything it offered to install, including quite a few things I'm pretty sure aren't AVStoDVD but which I installed just in case. Is there something else I should do; perhaps I can install those controls manually?

Thanks for your help,

Matthew.

[Matthew]

Oh, also, should I burn at a lower speed? I'm currently burning at 4x. When I choose 1x or 2x, though, it says that it can increase the risk of playback errors. I'm tempted to trust DVD Flick on this, but considering I'm getting playback errors already I'm just thinking about what else might be the cause of the issues.

[manono]

Thanks again. Yeah, the box to the right does say 'DC Precision' above it -- does setting it at 11 make the picture worse?

Don't use 11 for the DC Precision.

"intra_dc_precision: the MPEG-1 DC value is mandatory quantized to a
precision of 8 bits. MPEG-2 introduced 9, 10, and 11 bit precision set
on a picture basis to increase the accuracy of the DC component, which
by very nature, has the most significant contribution towards picture
quality. Particularly useful at high bit rates to reduce
posterization. Main and Simple Profiles are limited to 8, 9, or 10 bits
of precision."

https://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-94949.html

It cut off some of the credits at the right and left side of the screen as well.

Watching on a television? Then it's the overscan. On a computer everything should be visible.

If I encode it at 10 and 16:9, would that be the best quality I could get from DVD Flick?

As I said, I don't (and won't) use it. The greatest determiner of quality is bitrate - the higher the better. But yes, for a 1920x1080 source you want to use 10 and 16:9.

A couple of other things I've upped: I put the thread out at 8, the target bitrate at 8Mbit/s, and I'm encoding at 'Best.'

I don't know what 'put the thread out at 8' means. Is the 'target bitrate' the average or the max bitrate? You use an average bitrate that comes as close to filling the DVD as possible, also taking into account the audio size and the muxing overhead. That's what bitrate calculators are for. The maximum bitrate is usually a good deal more than 8,000. Well, 'Best' is usually the ... best, but I wouldn't trust anything that says 'best'. I prefer to choose my own settings. I suppose if you don't know any better you might not have any choice and be satisfied with what's offerred.

Also, encoding it at 16:9, should that be the pixel aspect ratio, or the target aspect ratio? Or both?

For DVD there are 2 DAR's (Display Aspect Ratios) available, 4:3 and 16:9. For your source you want to use 16:9.