DV Quality to DVD? at DVinfo.net

John Iler · July 7th, 2003, 03:22 PM

I record my images to .avi files, which seem to have great quality. I also play my tapes right off the recorder on to the television and see great results. But when I try to convert the .avi files to the DVD format, I lose considerable detail. I've been told this was because of the limitations of the television itself; however, that doesn't wash because DV piped right into the TV looks fantastic.

Is .avi my best bet for recording if quality is important?

Thanks!

Brian Wood · July 7th, 2003, 08:34 PM

hey, for all my dvd's that I burn I use the ligos mpeg encoder http://www.ligos.com/lsx_mpeg.htm and it looks great. I dont think this has anything to do with quality, but I use DVD Compleate to author the DVD's (i'll be switching to encore when it comes out) Hope this helps.

Brian

David Hurdon · July 8th, 2003, 06:26 AM

What do you use to create your MPEG-2 files and how do they look before authoring?

David Hurdon

John Iler · July 8th, 2003, 08:45 AM

The .avi files look fantastic. The MPEG-2 loses significant detail and contrast. I use Adobe Premiere 6.02 to get the .avi files and have used TMpgEnc to get the MPEG-2 and Ulead's DVD Movie Factory to get the DVD files.

Haven't tried upgrading to Premiere's 6.5, which I understand has a encoder built in to it. But I tend to think it's the format.

Cheers,

John

Arnaldo Paixao · July 8th, 2003, 09:22 AM

Hi John.

Unless you have access to a MPEG-2 hardware encoder, you will have always some degree of image degradation.

You can get almost perfect MPEG-2 video using software encoders (i.e. TMPGenc) with high bitrates (8Mb/s) and using motion search precision set at high, but it will take ages to encode and you can have compatibility problems when playing the DVD in some set top players.

In short, my advice is:

If you'r doing DV to DVD just for yourself and you can wait for the results, do a search in the net for "Configuring TMPGEnc for high-quality, DVD-compliant MPEG-2 by Rui del-Negro", use those settings and you will get good results. To author your DVDs use MyDVD wich is as simple as it gets.

If you'r planning on doing professional work, buy a Matrox RT-X100 and you will have realtime (one hour video takes one hour to encode) MPEG-2 encoding with great quality. To author your DVDs use ReelDVD.

Good luck.
Arnaldo

John Iler · July 8th, 2003, 09:45 AM

The advice all sounds good, but a friend just gave me the advice I'll probably follow. He said, "Just record it in .avi and put it on a DVD and wait for something better to come along." Actually, I'm in no hurry and strapped for cash at the moment.

I have Adobe Premiere 6 right now. Is it worth upgrading to 6.5?

Arnaldo Paixao · July 8th, 2003, 09:53 AM

I understand, but you cannot put much video in .avi format in the 4,7Gb of a DVD. Unless you compress, you'l end up with a lot of DVDs.

If you want a simple and cost efective solution, you can get Pinnacle Studio 8. It will get you from capture to DVD in one program.

Best regards
Arnaldo

Stuart Kupinsky · July 8th, 2003, 07:19 PM

John you're giving Bethesda a bad name by giving up so quickly. (I used to live in Avenel ;-)

The configuration settings, and in particular the settings Arnaldo referenced, will give you excellent results. I use TMPGenc all the time.

John Iler · July 9th, 2003, 07:11 PM

Will do as you guys suggest. Sure takes a long time to convert, though, but if it works, it'll be worth it.

Thanks!

John

Peter Moore · July 12th, 2003, 03:57 PM

Have you tried upping the bitrate to 6 mbps average, VBR? That usually looks just as good as DV, even on a high definition set, at least using the Vegas MainConcept MPEG2 encoder set at maximum quality.

Rob Lohman · July 14th, 2003, 03:49 AM

I've had good results with TMPGEnc myself as well. Also CCE and
ProCoder (one if not the best software MPEG2 [among other things]
encoder out at the moment). Ofcourse these must all be bought.
Premiere 6.5 comes with an encoder but I don't know how good
or bad it is. Personally I'm not using LSX for obvious reasons....

John Iler · July 30th, 2003, 03:19 PM

How is the new Nero 6 for authoring? I've read some good things about it.

Stuart, where's Avenel????

(I'm a Virginian trapped in Maryland.)

Thanks again!

Gary Kelly · August 4th, 2003, 09:16 AM

Nero 6...I like it!

I used to use Sonic DVDit! (and MyDVD) before Nero 6 came out...I now use Nero 6.

Seriously, it does a great job of authoring. Perhaps one of the best 'bits' I found was adding chapter points in videos...easy (unlike MyDVD which wouldn't add chapter points except during capture, and unlike DVDit! which kept crashing on me).

As you can probably tell...I like Nero 6!

Gary

Adam Wakely · August 11th, 2003, 02:47 AM

This is great info on how to configure TMPGE for high quality DVDs!

http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html

Graham Mullis · August 15th, 2003, 05:58 PM

I've tried Procoder(demo version),TMPGEnc,Pinnacle Studio 7, and they all produce pretty much the same results. All i seem to get is a blocky video. It doesn't look quite so bad on the TV, but on the PC it looks awful. Using WME9 at the same bitrate, produces very good results. I've used the websites mentioned for help, but they do not produce any better results.

This is better than the MPEG2 videos(and this is only at 2mbits/s) :-

http://www.fordrs.nildram.co.uk/Vide...nnie10.4HQ.wmv

July 7th, 2003, 03:22 PM	#1
John Iler New Boot Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Bethesda, MD Posts: 22	DV Quality to DVD? I record my images to .avi files, which seem to have great quality. I also play my tapes right off the recorder on to the television and see great results. But when I try to convert the .avi files to the DVD format, I lose considerable detail. I've been told this was because of the limitations of the television itself; however, that doesn't wash because DV piped right into the TV looks fantastic. Is .avi my best bet for recording if quality is important? Thanks!

July 8th, 2003, 06:26 AM	#3
David Hurdon Major Player Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 484	What do you use to create your MPEG-2 files and how do they look before authoring? David Hurdon __________________ Site:http://www.faceliftmarketing.ca Blog:http://www.websitevideo.blogspot.com

July 8th, 2003, 08:45 AM	#4
John Iler New Boot Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Bethesda, MD Posts: 22	Great! The .avi files look fantastic. The MPEG-2 loses significant detail and contrast. I use Adobe Premiere 6.02 to get the .avi files and have used TMpgEnc to get the MPEG-2 and Ulead's DVD Movie Factory to get the DVD files. Haven't tried upgrading to Premiere's 6.5, which I understand has a encoder built in to it. But I tend to think it's the format. Cheers, John

July 8th, 2003, 09:45 AM	#6
John Iler New Boot Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Bethesda, MD Posts: 22	Thanks! The advice all sounds good, but a friend just gave me the advice I'll probably follow. He said, "Just record it in .avi and put it on a DVD and wait for something better to come along." Actually, I'm in no hurry and strapped for cash at the moment. I have Adobe Premiere 6 right now. Is it worth upgrading to 6.5?

July 8th, 2003, 07:19 PM	#8
Stuart Kupinsky Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Princeton, NJ Posts: 82	John you're giving Bethesda a bad name by giving up so quickly. (I used to live in Avenel ;-) The configuration settings, and in particular the settings Arnaldo referenced, will give you excellent results. I use TMPGenc all the time. __________________ DVX100A/AT4071a/Vegas/After Effects Dual 2GHz Xeon PC

July 7th, 2003, 08:34 PM	#2
Brian Wood Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: East Lansing, Michigan Posts: 77	hey, for all my dvd's that I burn I use the ligos mpeg encoder http://www.ligos.com/lsx_mpeg.htm and it looks great. I dont think this has anything to do with quality, but I use DVD Compleate to author the DVD's (i'll be switching to encore when it comes out) Hope this helps. Brian

July 8th, 2003, 09:22 AM	#5
Arnaldo Paixao Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vimeiro - Portugal Posts: 255	Hi John. Unless you have access to a MPEG-2 hardware encoder, you will have always some degree of image degradation. You can get almost perfect MPEG-2 video using software encoders (i.e. TMPGenc) with high bitrates (8Mb/s) and using motion search precision set at high, but it will take ages to encode and you can have compatibility problems when playing the DVD in some set top players. In short, my advice is: If you'r doing DV to DVD just for yourself and you can wait for the results, do a search in the net for "Configuring TMPGEnc for high-quality, DVD-compliant MPEG-2 by Rui del-Negro", use those settings and you will get good results. To author your DVDs use MyDVD wich is as simple as it gets. If you'r planning on doing professional work, buy a Matrox RT-X100 and you will have realtime (one hour video takes one hour to encode) MPEG-2 encoding with great quality. To author your DVDs use ReelDVD. Good luck. Arnaldo

July 8th, 2003, 09:53 AM	#7
Arnaldo Paixao Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vimeiro - Portugal Posts: 255	I understand, but you cannot put much video in .avi format in the 4,7Gb of a DVD. Unless you compress, you'l end up with a lot of DVDs. If you want a simple and cost efective solution, you can get Pinnacle Studio 8. It will get you from capture to DVD in one program. Best regards Arnaldo

July 9th, 2003, 07:11 PM	#9
John Iler New Boot Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Bethesda, MD Posts: 22	Will Do Will do as you guys suggest. Sure takes a long time to convert, though, but if it works, it'll be worth it. Thanks! John

July 12th, 2003, 03:57 PM	#10
Peter Moore Trustee Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Arlington VA Posts: 1,034	Have you tried upping the bitrate to 6 mbps average, VBR? That usually looks just as good as DV, even on a high definition set, at least using the Vegas MainConcept MPEG2 encoder set at maximum quality.

July 14th, 2003, 03:49 AM	#11
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	I've had good results with TMPGEnc myself as well. Also CCE and ProCoder (one if not the best software MPEG2 [among other things] encoder out at the moment). Ofcourse these must all be bought. Premiere 6.5 comes with an encoder but I don't know how good or bad it is. Personally I'm not using LSX for obvious reasons.... __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

July 30th, 2003, 03:19 PM	#12
John Iler New Boot Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Bethesda, MD Posts: 22	How is the new Nero 6 for authoring? I've read some good things about it. Stuart, where's Avenel???? (I'm a Virginian trapped in Maryland.) Thanks again!

August 4th, 2003, 09:16 AM	#13
Gary Kelly New Boot Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: UK Posts: 16	Nero 6...I like it! I used to use Sonic DVDit! (and MyDVD) before Nero 6 came out...I now use Nero 6. Seriously, it does a great job of authoring. Perhaps one of the best 'bits' I found was adding chapter points in videos...easy (unlike MyDVD which wouldn't add chapter points except during capture, and unlike DVDit! which kept crashing on me). As you can probably tell...I like Nero 6! Gary __________________ Gary

August 11th, 2003, 02:47 AM	#14
Adam Wakely Quantum Productions Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada Posts: 161	This is great info on how to configure TMPGE for high quality DVDs! http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html __________________ Adam Wakely, Quantum Productions

August 15th, 2003, 05:58 PM	#15
Graham Mullis New Boot Join Date: May 2003 Location: UK Posts: 10	I've tried Procoder(demo version),TMPGEnc,Pinnacle Studio 7, and they all produce pretty much the same results. All i seem to get is a blocky video. It doesn't look quite so bad on the TV, but on the PC it looks awful. Using WME9 at the same bitrate, produces very good results. I've used the websites mentioned for help, but they do not produce any better results. This is better than the MPEG2 videos(and this is only at 2mbits/s) :- http://www.fordrs.nildram.co.uk/Vide...nnie10.4HQ.wmv