Help with burning to DVD! at DVinfo.net

Patrick Janka · April 23rd, 2010, 02:47 PM

Okay, I've rendered in Sony Vegas 9 Pro to both a wmv file and an mpg-2 file. Quality looks good. However, when I burn to DVD it looks dull. The colors aren't very vivid, and the picture isn't as sharp. What am I doing wrong? I'm using Sony DVD Architect. I'm maxing out all the settings for highest quality. What is my best course of action to get the best looking DVD? What should I render to, what should I burn as, and everything else in between? There are a zillion options in these programs, it's overwhelming. Is there always quality loss when transferring to DVD? If so, how do pro movies look so good on DVD?

Don Bloom · April 23rd, 2010, 03:13 PM

well, Hollywood DVDs aren't burned, they make a glass master and then they are pressed but besides that, have you burned one and looked at it on a TV? The preview screen in DVDA isn't all that great and frankly color should never be judged on a computer monitor. Also render the audio to AC3 since DVDA is going to recompress to AC3 anyway. It won't do anything to help video quality directly but it does make the audio file smaller which will aloow a higher bitrate if need be for the video. Name them both the same, IE; the wedding.mpg and the wedding.AC3 then in DVDA when you bring in one the other will automatically follow.

Jeff Harper · April 23rd, 2010, 03:35 PM

Patrick, do NOT max out the settings for higher quality...leave at default values or lower. The higher settings only create possible playback issues for your burned DVD and do nothing to improve the images.

As has been said your DVD will almost never look as good as an avi file on computer.

The more important question is what camera are you using? My Canon HV30 can look great in Vegas, but the quality drops significantly on the teleivsion. That's just the way it is. The better your camera the better it will look on TV.

Mike Kujbida · April 23rd, 2010, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick Janka

Okay, I've rendered in Sony Vegas 9 Pro to both a wmv file and an mpg-2 file. Quality looks good. However, when I burn to DVD it looks dull. The colors aren't very vivid, and the picture isn't as sharp. What am I doing wrong? I'm using Sony DVD Architect. I'm maxing out all the settings for highest quality. What is my best course of action to get the best looking DVD? What should I render to, what should I burn as, and everything else in between? There are a zillion options in these programs, it's overwhelming.

Download and read Vol. 1 Issue 7 of Edward Troxel's excellent and free newsletters.
This particular one deals exclusively with dvd authoring.
While written for an earlier version of DVDA, everything is still applicable.

Quote:

Is there always quality loss when transferring to DVD?

If it's a hour video, it's (roughly) 13 GB. of data.
A DVD only holds 4.3 GB.
Something has to suffer and that's picture quality.
The old expression of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) is very applicable in this business.
I shot a stage play last week that ran 2 1/2 hr.
I was certain that I'd have to put it on 2 DVDs but, after a trial run, I was so impressed with the overall quality that it stayed on a single disc.
I was using a 3 CCD camera with 1/2" chips and a good lens and that makes a lot of difference.

Quote:

If so, how do pro movies look so good on DVD?

Multi-million dollar production budgets, highly skilled crew and a DVD authoring process that uses equipment that costs a lot more than your house along with more highly skilled operators.

Patrick Janka · April 23rd, 2010, 06:02 PM

Thanks guys. I'm using a Canon XHA1.

Adam Stanislav · April 23rd, 2010, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick Janka

Okay, I've rendered in Sony Vegas 9 Pro to both a wmv file and an mpg-2 file. Quality looks good. However, when I burn to DVD it looks dull.

While DVDs use MPEG-2 compression, at least two factors may be different from the MPEG-2 file you have made. One, the bit rate is probably lower on the DVD than in your computer file. Two, the DVD does not use square pixels, while your MPEG file probably does. If it is a widescreen DVD, the image is compressed to the width of 720 pixels. It is then expanded to the widescreen resolution when played. This compression will inevitably throw some data away, so the image is not as sharp as before and the color is duller.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

Hollywood DVDs aren't burned, they make a glass master and then they are pressed

While that is true, I do not see how that would affect the video quality. It is the same digital data whether it is pressed or duplicated, is it not?

Randall Leong · April 24th, 2010, 08:34 PM

What causes this loss of color information is the mismatch in color space between the video clip and Vegas' native color space. Those video clips are typically 4:1:1 (or 4:2:0) YUV while Vegas (and most other NLEs) natively operate in RGB. Your XHA1 operates in 4:2:2 YUV colorspace in HD mode. Thus, YUV videos are automatically converted to RGB in the NLE during import. Unfortunately, the NLEs themselves don't do a very good job of converting color spaces, which is why you see dull, muted colors in the finished product.

Also, the downconversion of HD content to SD has never been Vegas' (or most other NLEs') forte.

April 23rd, 2010, 02:47 PM	#1
Patrick Janka Major Player Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 623	Help with burning to DVD! Okay, I've rendered in Sony Vegas 9 Pro to both a wmv file and an mpg-2 file. Quality looks good. However, when I burn to DVD it looks dull. The colors aren't very vivid, and the picture isn't as sharp. What am I doing wrong? I'm using Sony DVD Architect. I'm maxing out all the settings for highest quality. What is my best course of action to get the best looking DVD? What should I render to, what should I burn as, and everything else in between? There are a zillion options in these programs, it's overwhelming. Is there always quality loss when transferring to DVD? If so, how do pro movies look so good on DVD?

April 23rd, 2010, 03:13 PM	#2
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	well, Hollywood DVDs aren't burned, they make a glass master and then they are pressed but besides that, have you burned one and looked at it on a TV? The preview screen in DVDA isn't all that great and frankly color should never be judged on a computer monitor. Also render the audio to AC3 since DVDA is going to recompress to AC3 anyway. It won't do anything to help video quality directly but it does make the audio file smaller which will aloow a higher bitrate if need be for the video. Name them both the same, IE; the wedding.mpg and the wedding.AC3 then in DVDA when you bring in one the other will automatically follow. __________________ What do I know? I'm just a video-O-grafer. Don

April 23rd, 2010, 03:35 PM	#3
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Patrick, do NOT max out the settings for higher quality...leave at default values or lower. The higher settings only create possible playback issues for your burned DVD and do nothing to improve the images. As has been said your DVD will almost never look as good as an avi file on computer. The more important question is what camera are you using? My Canon HV30 can look great in Vegas, but the quality drops significantly on the teleivsion. That's just the way it is. The better your camera the better it will look on TV.

April 23rd, 2010, 06:02 PM	#5
Patrick Janka Major Player Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 623	Thanks guys. I'm using a Canon XHA1.

April 24th, 2010, 08:34 PM	#7
Randall Leong Major Player Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Melrose Park, Illinois, USA Posts: 936	What causes this loss of color information is the mismatch in color space between the video clip and Vegas' native color space. Those video clips are typically 4:1:1 (or 4:2:0) YUV while Vegas (and most other NLEs) natively operate in RGB. Your XHA1 operates in 4:2:2 YUV colorspace in HD mode. Thus, YUV videos are automatically converted to RGB in the NLE during import. Unfortunately, the NLEs themselves don't do a very good job of converting color spaces, which is why you see dull, muted colors in the finished product. Also, the downconversion of HD content to SD has never been Vegas' (or most other NLEs') forte.