Burning DVD's and the HD7

[Ray Grizzle]

I've got some questions about DVD's, can anyone help me?

My problem is the quality. I shoot whith the HD7, and I can render my files as NTSC DV in .AVI's or .MPGs, and they still look great, but once I burn it, it looks like crap. And I mean shot on a cell phone crap. I know it's not going to be lossless, but my results really are bad.

I don't think it's my burner, I can burn other files, such as DV footage from my miniDV camera, and they look okay, and I can burn DVD's I've ripped and they look okay too. Does it have to do with the fact that it's HD?

I use Vegas 8 and Nero 8. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Paulo Teixeira]

You should not us AVI at all. Just edit the native HD files and then once your done, export it to a DVD using the highest setting. It might be on a low setting.

[Kaushik Parmar]

Originally Posted by Ray Grizzle

I've got some questions about DVD's, can anyone help me?

My problem is the quality. I shoot whith the HD7, and I can render my files as NTSC DV in .AVI's or .MPGs, and they still look great, but once I burn it, it looks like crap. And I mean shot on a cell phone crap. I know it's not going to be lossless, but my results really are bad.

I don't think it's my burner, I can burn other files, such as DV footage from my miniDV camera, and they look okay, and I can burn DVD's I've ripped and they look okay too. Does it have to do with the fact that it's HD?

I use Vegas 8 and Nero 8. Anyone have any suggestions?

You should select DVD HQ mode while creating DVDs, HQ mode use 8MB rate, it will look good if you watch them in stand alone DVD player, and we have habit to see all our recording in true HD mode, so it looks very sharp, but when we create DVDs it looks dull! But same time if you use your created DVDs in stand alone DVD player in TVs you will get better images this is what I have experienced! But while compiling DVDs do not forget to put it in HQ mode, which is the highest setting for DVDs!

Try and send your feedback!

Kaushik

[Chad M. Bell]

I have the same problem. I checked to see if my settings were DVD HQ in Power Director and it already was. Steve Mullen (camera guru) told me to get the Ulead Movie Factory Plus which burns HDDVD. You will of course have to covert to MPEG in Power Director and then edit with ULEAD. You can use your red laser aleady in your computer to do this. And of course you will have to have an HDDVD player (Toshiba or XBOX 360). Honestly, I haven't done this yet, but that is where I am going. Why have an HD camera if you can't edit and view in HD? I also noticed that if you click on the clip in power director while it's still in the media section and watch, it looks crystal clear. But when you bring it down to the timeline and watch, it looks like you said - cell phone quality. I don't know why - frustrating. Anyway, great camera - you'll just have to find the workflow that works best with what you are trying to do. If you are like me and just want to make home movies of birthdays and trips and spice them up a bit with music and some simple effects, power director is the way to go - at least for me for now. There are a ton of other ways to get your files converted for editing and this forum is full of them. Unfortunatly I'm not smart enough with computers and don't underdstand the language of video enough to know how to get it all straight. Hope this helps! - Chad

[Kaushik Parmar]

[QUOTE=I also noticed that if you click on the clip in power director while it's still in the media section and watch, it looks crystal clear. But when you bring it down to the timeline and watch, it looks like you said - cell phone quality. I don't know why - frustrating. - Chad[/QUOTE]

Do not go on "timeline", it shows you very low resolution, but while converting them in DVDs or any format you can just watch final output in small windows, that is actual output!

I noticed same when we drop clip on timeline it shows blurry and very poor resolution, but we should not worry about this, first you drop clip on time line then press "produce" then you will see clear image, that is actually your output!

And if we create DVDs it will look ok in computer monitor but look very good in TV, and if you have big CRT then image would be very nice!

And I am using Ulead also, it’s true you can make HDDVD with it, but with PowerDirector you can create Blue-ray Disk also! So why would we need Ulead if supplied PowerDirector is able to do same work! And you can buy dual player from LG which can play both Blue-ray as well as HDDVD!

Kaushik

[Greg Huber]

I tried to use Power Director (the bundled software) with the camera to do some basic editing on some wedding footage, and then burn a DVD last night. I had about 15 clips or so, and about 60 minutes worth of video. I spent about 30-45 minutes working with the tool and almost drove myself mad. Every time I clicked on a video to add a transition, text effect, etc. the computer lagged anywhere from 10-30 seconds- I think it was reloading / buffering the entire video in the "preview" window. I eventually got through building my storyboard (a few transitions ,titles, etc) and went to create the DVD. This is where things got really ugly- very limited options, only one "scene" was detected, and just not a good experience overall. I decided to give up and try Windows Movie Maker- I have used that in the past with a lot of success on my old sony mini-dv.

A little background about my system- I am running an intel 1.8ghz Core Duo processor with 2 gb of ram with Windows Vista Ultimate. Windows Movie Maker seemed to handle things a LOT faster than Power Director. The above lag problem did not occur. I also have all the benefits of using the transitions, text overlays, etc. and I don't have to purchase any upgrades to do so. It took me about 15 minutes to do everything I was trying to do in Power Director (and I was able to do more transitions as well).

The only problem I am having is the end result DVD. I told Move Maker to output a 16:9 video. It ended up outputting a 16:9 "letterbox" inside of a 4:3 aspect ratio. However the picture quality (and sound) is excellent. The program also automatically detected scenes and did a great job building the DVD menu.

Unfortunately the 16:9 scrunched into a 4:3 is pretty much a show stopper for me- it looks pretty goofy as you can probably imagine. Has anyone else had this issue, and if so have you been able to resolve it?

In case anyone is wondering, it probably took around 2 hours on my system to render the DVD, which wasn't bad at all.

[Chad M. Bell]

I haven't experienced your same problems but... I upgraded to Power Director 6 and it is truly alot better. It is much faster and all of the effects and transitions are usable where the bundled version was horrible and incredibly slow. I think it only costs about $75. Or you can look a couple of posts up and see what a proffesional camera guy recommended for me to do with Ulead. Sorry you are having problems - hope this helps a little.

[Kaushik Parmar]

Originally Posted by Chad M. Bell

I haven't experienced your same problems but... I upgraded to Power Director 6 and it is truly alot better. It is much faster and all of the effects and transitions are usable where the bundled version was horrible and incredibly slow. I think it only costs about $75. Or you can look a couple of posts up and see what a proffesional camera guy recommended for me to do with Ulead. Sorry you are having problems - hope this helps a little.

Chad,

I agreed with you, "PowerDirector 6" is far better than supplied "PowerDirector 5". I immediately upgraded with supplied bundle software, its fast and have more features as well, some very interested features are missing in supplied software, but after up gradation we are fine, I would advise everybody to do same.

Greg Huber, you told that Window Movie Maker is faster than PowerDirector, but I tried Window Movie Maker also infect it took more time than PowerDirector, and it is not giving full HD option as well.

The best feature of PowerDirector is you can reduce the shake, it has Magic Fix feature which can reduce shake & blur from the video and it is working like wonder! There is one option with PowerDirector 5, you can create .TOD file as well, this would be very useful, I always first use Magic Fix feature and then create .TOD file, and then I do any editing. So I am using both, PowerDirector 5 to make .TOD files, then I use PowerDirector 6 for any kind of editing.

For me editing is very new so I am happy with PowerDirector 6, but I will soon go for Adobe or Sony Vegas, for better features! PowerDirector is good for entry level, but it works very nice! I am happy with it.

Kaushik

[Greg Huber]

Thanks for the info Chad and Kaushik. I may have to check out PowerDirector 6. The shake reduction would come in handy- I have some issues with that at the higher end of the optical zoom in my last video. I also noticed the ULead post above- what really interests me about that is burning HD DVD's with a red laser. Does PowerDirector 6 let you do that?

Also, I figured out my Windows Movie Maker issue. You have to set the 16:9 in both Movie Maker (which I didn't do) as well as the DVD maker. Once I did that everything worked fine. I was pretty happy with the quality, though it's definitely not HD.

Originally Posted by Kaushik Parmar

Chad,

I agreed with you, "PowerDirector 6" is far better than supplied "PowerDirector 5". I immediately upgraded with supplied bundle software, its fast and have more features as well, some very interested features are missing in supplied software, but after up gradation we are fine, I would advise everybody to do same.

Greg Huber, you told that Window Movie Maker is faster than PowerDirector, but I tried Window Movie Maker also infect it took more time than PowerDirector, and it is not giving full HD option as well.

The best feature of PowerDirector is you can reduce the shake, it has Magic Fix feature which can reduce shake & blur from the video and it is working like wonder! There is one option with PowerDirector 5, you can create .TOD file as well, this would be very useful, I always first use Magic Fix feature and then create .TOD file, and then I do any editing. So I am using both, PowerDirector 5 to make .TOD files, then I use PowerDirector 6 for any kind of editing.

For me editing is very new so I am happy with PowerDirector 6, but I will soon go for Adobe or Sony Vegas, for better features! PowerDirector is good for entry level, but it works very nice! I am happy with it.

Kaushik

[Kaushik Parmar]

Originally Posted by Greg Huber

Thanks for the info Chad and Kaushik. I may have to check out PowerDirector 6. The shake reduction would come in handy- I have some issues with that at the higher end of the optical zoom in my last video. I also noticed the ULead post above- what really interests me about that is burning HD DVD's with a red laser. Does PowerDirector 6 let you do that?

Also, I figured out my Windows Movie Maker issue. You have to set the 16:9 in both Movie Maker (which I didn't do) as well as the DVD maker. Once I did that everything worked fine. I was pretty happy with the quality, though it's definitely not HD.

Greg Huber,

Yes you should go for PowerDirector 6" I am sure you would be fine, and you can create Blue-ray disk with "PowerDirector 5", so forget HDDVD! There is actually format war is going between Blue-ray & HDDVD, but right now Blue-ray has an edge, it will maybe winner, that is prediction though!

And you can buy dual player from LG which can play both Blue-ray disk as well as HDDVD! And there would be some more companies as well who are promoting dual player!

I would say again stop using Window Movie Maker, "PowerDirector" 6 is great choice. I would advise you follow what exactly I am doing, first make ,.TOD file with "PowerDirector 5" and do not forget to use Magic Fix feature for reduce shake, then press "produce" button and you will see option for making GZHD file, select that and select 1920x1080. And then open this .TOD file with "PowerDirector 6" it will ask you to convert .TOD in MPEG, select yes; then you can do any editing with it.

So "PowerDirector 5" is useful to make .TOD file, I am doing my videos like this, you can see my posted videos in this forum.

Kaushik

[Chad M. Bell]

He's right- Power director will do blu ray. But... who has a blu ray burner? Have you seen how much they cost!!?? Hopefully we'll see more dual setups in the future. But for now, HDDVD is the cheapest way to go since you already have a red laser burner. Power Director only does Blu-ray, not HDDVD. Have a good one.

[Kaushik Parmar]

Originally Posted by Chad M. Bell

He's right- Power director will do blu ray. But... who has a blu ray burner? Have you seen how much they cost!!?? Hopefully we'll see more dual setups in the future. But for now, HDDVD is the cheapest way to go since you already have a red laser burner. Power Director only does Blu-ray, not HDDVD. Have a good one.

Yes, PowerDirector only make BD not HDDVD, and you have to have BD burner in your PC. When initially BD player and writer were launched was too expensive but now available at reasonable price, this would be one time investment. And BD has more capacity than HDDVD. Get installed BD drive/writer in your PC, and buy standalone BD player or we can but Sony Play station 3 as well which has BD player too! I would go for BD.

Kaushik

[Chad M. Bell]

Just Curious, how much did you pay for your BD burner? If you dont want to say I completely understand. Thanks!

[Ray Grizzle]

Woah, I haven't been checking this, thanks for a the response!

Originally Posted by Chad M. Bell

I have the same problem. I checked to see if my settings were DVD HQ in Power Director and it already was. Steve Mullen (camera guru) told me to get the Ulead Movie Factory Plus which burns HDDVD. You will of course have to covert to MPEG in Power Director and then edit with ULEAD. You can use your red laser aleady in your computer to do this. And of course you will have to have an HDDVD player (Toshiba or XBOX 360). Honestly, I haven't done this yet, but that is where I am going. Why have an HD camera if you can't edit and view in HD? I also noticed that if you click on the clip in power director while it's still in the media section and watch, it looks crystal clear. But when you bring it down to the timeline and watch, it looks like you said - cell phone quality. I don't know why - frustrating. Anyway, great camera - you'll just have to find the workflow that works best with what you are trying to do. If you are like me and just want to make home movies of birthdays and trips and spice them up a bit with music and some simple effects, power director is the way to go - at least for me for now. There are a ton of other ways to get your files converted for editing and this forum is full of them. Unfortunatly I'm not smart enough with computers and don't underdstand the language of video enough to know how to get it all straight. Hope this helps! - Chad

I see what you're saying, but I don't use power director, I didn't even install it. Power director just doesn't cut it for me.

And about the clips looking bad in the timeline, it's probably because Power Producer doesn't render things in real time. It looks bad because if it displayed the video at full quality while you were editing, it would run very slowly.

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Chad M. Bell

He's right- Power director will do blu ray. But... who has a blu ray burner? Have you seen how much they cost!!?? Hopefully we'll see more dual setups in the future. But for now, HDDVD is the cheapest way to go since you already have a red laser burner. Power Director only does Blu-ray, not HDDVD. Have a good one.

Right on! BD burners cost $600 to $900 and BD discs only play on a few players. Why spend the money when you can use the DVD burner you already have? HD DVD players are crazy cheap. The dual format players are a joke because they are more expensive than buying 2 individual players -- plus they may very well not play home burned BD.

For the price of upgrading a CyberLink app -- you can buy the Ulead MF6+. I really can't see staying in Cyberlink land as these are sub-consumer products.

Buy EDIUS 4.5 and get a real NLE. IMHO, forget Vegas as it a pain in the a**. An audio editor pushed into the video world.