Help making DVDs look good on Flat panel TV. at DVinfo.net

Adam Haro · January 17th, 2009, 06:04 PM

99% of what I shoot is weddings and I am having a heck of a time getting the DVDs to look good on my 26" flat panel LCD.
I am using Premiere 1.5, I have been rendering to MPEG2 using the Mainconcept encoder, I have tried darn near every setting. Everything looks really blocky and no where near as clean as a CRT.
I bought an upscaling DVD player connected by HDMI hoping it would help.
Now heres why I am baffled, I have a friend that also shoots video. He edits, renders, and burns in Pinnacle Studio and his DVDs look beautiful on the LCD TV. Mine look nowhere near the quality of his.

Any thoughts? What settings should I use to get the best quality picture on a LCD TV?

Thanks.
Adam

Paul Del Vecchio · January 17th, 2009, 10:35 PM

What are your render settings? What is the frame size?

Also, you said the LCD is nowhere near as clean as the CRT. Does the CRT look good but the LCD doesn't? Is that what you mean?

CRTs are more forgiving than LCDs, but your footage shouldn't look horrible on LCDs.

Bryan Daugherty · January 17th, 2009, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Del Vecchio

...CRTs are more forgiving than LCDs, but your footage shouldn't look horrible on LCDs.

I agree and had a similar experience with an edit I tested on my stepdad's 21" LCD. i freaked out and assumed it was my disc but found out later his monitor was miscalibrated. The next time i came by with a color bar and ramp chart on DVD and tested his settings before playing my disc. FWIW, this may not help your situation but it might be a good place to start if you haven't checked it already. Good luck!

Adam Haro · January 18th, 2009, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Del Vecchio

What are your render settings? What is the frame size?

Also, you said the LCD is nowhere near as clean as the CRT. Does the CRT look good but the LCD doesn't? Is that what you mean?

CRTs are more forgiving than LCDs, but your footage shouldn't look horrible on LCDs.

CRT looks fine but the LCD looks a little grainy and the picture has kind of a pixelation to it.

Perrone Ford · January 18th, 2009, 03:06 AM

1. What camera do you and your friend shoot with?

2. What are your encoder settings?

Adam Haro · January 19th, 2009, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

1. What camera do you and your friend shoot with?

2. What are your encoder settings?

I am using a DVC7 and an HD1, my friend has a XH-A1 and a GL1. I know his cameras are miles ahead of mine on quality but heres the kicker, I have taken footage from him to edit and when I give it back to him it still looks nowhere near the quality if he had done it all in Pinnacle.

I usually export out of Premiere at 8mbps CBR

Mark Williams · January 19th, 2009, 11:03 AM

Adam,

If you have the time, download the trail version of tmpeg at TMPGEnc.NET
and encode your video to see how it looks. I also use the premiere encoder and by all accounts its not the best. I have gotten "good" results with it at the same settings you used but with the motion slider to maximum. However, tmpeg to my eyes has the edge over it.

Adam Haro · January 19th, 2009, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Williams

Adam,

If you have the time, download the trail version of tmpeg at TMPGEnc.NET
and encode your video to see how it looks. I also use the premiere encoder and by all accounts its not the best. I have gotten "good" results with it at the same settings you used but with the motion slider to maximum. However, tmpeg to my eyes has the edge over it.

Thanks Mark. I had read that on this site and downloaded the 2.5 trial. I exported a project from Premiere to AVI but TMPG wouldn't open it, all it opened was the audio. Do you have to export it a special way?

Adam Haro · January 19th, 2009, 09:07 PM

I actually took a disc I encoded and burned over to a buddies and watched it on his 52" LCD played through a ps3 and it looked nice. Apparently the ps3 does a good job of upscaling. I might have to invest in one of those to show demos.

Sam Mendolia · January 22nd, 2009, 11:57 AM

But what happens on a clients dvd/tv or dvd/lcd, when they get your production home, how does it look?

Adam Haro · January 22nd, 2009, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Mendolia

But what happens on a clients dvd/tv or dvd/lcd, when they get your production home, how does it look?

Thats definitely a concern thats why I want to get it to look as good as I can.
I've gotten them to look pretty good by tweaking my settings turns out I wasn't at 8mbps I was only at 6. Still haven't got TMPGEnc to work, it doesn't want to open the video portion of the avi files. Might try reinstalling it.

Nicholas de Kock · January 22nd, 2009, 12:27 PM

I shoot with XHA1's and the DVD quality on a 32" LCD looks great, comparable to the same footage displayed in HD. I have found that processing my footage with Magic Bullet Looks definitely helps aswell as keeping the total run-time of the DVD at 1 hour 30 minutes anything over and compression becomes very noticeable.

Evan Kline · January 22nd, 2009, 12:27 PM

Regarding TMPGEnc, I tried out frameserving from Premiere to TMPGEnc as well, and at first all I got was audio, with black video. I found in the TMPGEnc forums a couple of posts that talk about going into one of the options, and changing the priority of your plugins. That worked for me.

EDIT: Here is a link to a post that helped me. I've seen other posts that recommend different priority settings.
http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archi...ay-t65491.html

January 17th, 2009, 06:04 PM	#1
Adam Haro Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Fresno, CA Posts: 171	Help making DVDs look good on Flat panel TV. 99% of what I shoot is weddings and I am having a heck of a time getting the DVDs to look good on my 26" flat panel LCD. I am using Premiere 1.5, I have been rendering to MPEG2 using the Mainconcept encoder, I have tried darn near every setting. Everything looks really blocky and no where near as clean as a CRT. I bought an upscaling DVD player connected by HDMI hoping it would help. Now heres why I am baffled, I have a friend that also shoots video. He edits, renders, and burns in Pinnacle Studio and his DVDs look beautiful on the LCD TV. Mine look nowhere near the quality of his. Any thoughts? What settings should I use to get the best quality picture on a LCD TV? Thanks. Adam

January 17th, 2009, 10:35 PM	#2
Paul Del Vecchio Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Syosset, NY Posts: 61	What are your render settings? What is the frame size? Also, you said the LCD is nowhere near as clean as the CRT. Does the CRT look good but the LCD doesn't? Is that what you mean? CRTs are more forgiving than LCDs, but your footage shouldn't look horrible on LCDs. __________________ Triple E Productions - Award Winning Films/Services www.PaulDV.com

January 18th, 2009, 03:06 AM	#5
Perrone Ford Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Posts: 4,100	1. What camera do you and your friend shoot with? 2. What are your encoder settings? __________________ DVX100, PMW-EX1, Canon 550D, FigRig, Dell Octocore, Avid MC4/5, MB Looks, RedCineX, Matrox MX02 mini, GTech RAID, Edirol R-4, Senn. G2 Evo, Countryman, Moles and Lowels.

January 19th, 2009, 11:03 AM	#7
Mark Williams Trustee Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Deep South, U.S. Posts: 1,526	Adam, If you have the time, download the trail version of tmpeg at TMPGEnc.NET and encode your video to see how it looks. I also use the premiere encoder and by all accounts its not the best. I have gotten "good" results with it at the same settings you used but with the motion slider to maximum. However, tmpeg to my eyes has the edge over it. __________________ Mark videos: http://vimeo.com/channels/3523 Stock: http://www.pond5.com/artist/mark29

January 22nd, 2009, 11:57 AM	#10
Sam Mendolia Major Player Join Date: May 2008 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 217	But what happens on a clients dvd/tv or dvd/lcd, when they get your production home, how does it look? __________________ I was told I have no vision, but boy do I see great!

January 19th, 2009, 09:07 PM	#9
Adam Haro Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Fresno, CA Posts: 171	I actually took a disc I encoded and burned over to a buddies and watched it on his 52" LCD played through a ps3 and it looked nice. Apparently the ps3 does a good job of upscaling. I might have to invest in one of those to show demos.

January 22nd, 2009, 12:27 PM	#12
Nicholas de Kock Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: KLD, South Africa Posts: 983	I shoot with XHA1's and the DVD quality on a 32" LCD looks great, comparable to the same footage displayed in HD. I have found that processing my footage with Magic Bullet Looks definitely helps aswell as keeping the total run-time of the DVD at 1 hour 30 minutes anything over and compression becomes very noticeable.

January 22nd, 2009, 12:27 PM	#13
Evan Kline New Boot Join Date: May 2008 Location: York, PA Posts: 17	Regarding TMPGEnc, I tried out frameserving from Premiere to TMPGEnc as well, and at first all I got was audio, with black video. I found in the TMPGEnc forums a couple of posts that talk about going into one of the options, and changing the priority of your plugins. That worked for me. EDIT: Here is a link to a post that helped me. I've seen other posts that recommend different priority settings. http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archi...ay-t65491.html