avi to mpeg 2

[mattiemac]

HEllo, as if probably fairly obvious from my question, I am a novice when it comes to video editing. I edited some short films using Ulead Studio editor and am hoping to burn them to dvd.

I uploaded my video clips from a dv camcorder, and they were in avi format.

First question...if I am trying to retain the quality of video clips, is it best to convert them to mpeg 2 files before I burn them to dvd? Or is another format preferable?

Second, when I tried doing that (converting finished avi clips to mpeg 2), the bottom 1/6 of the screen was flickering in Windows MEdia player when I played the files. I think this may be due to a proportional discrepancy between the avi screen proportion and the mpeg 2 screen proportion, any ideas? Advice?

when I kept them in avi format, the quality of the videos was very poor.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Matt

[donzz]

Matt, Can you bring your videos to your computer in mpeg? I know with my All-in-Wonder I can select AVI or MPEG (and a couple others). I know when I do movies in mpeg the quility and the speed of rendering is better/faster! Don

[mattiemac]

Thanks for responding. Unfortunately, the device from which I uploaded is not mine, and I no longer have access to it. The clips were uploaded as avi, so I guess that's what I have to work with. I'm hoping there's a way to retain as much of the quality as possible when converting to mpeg-2.


Like I said, the quality seems good when converting, it's just that pesky "flickering bar" at the bottom of the screen which bothers me.

matt

[Ken Berry]

You need to give us a lot more information before we can comment in detail: how exactly did you capture your video: via Firewire or USB? Was it originally digital video i.e. from your mini DV cassette in the camera or were you just using the camera as a pass-through from an analogue camera? What exact format did you choose when you converted from AVI to mpeg-2 i.e. did you go to Share > Create Video File and then choose mpeg-2 or DVD? Did you make any change to the default settings of the template you used? What is your operating system and computer specifications? And what is your version of Video Studio?

On your first question, though: apart from a very small category of DVDs which are made from mpeg-4s (and will only play on special players that accept such discs), all video DVDs in effect have to have mpeg-2 format files before you can burn them. But when going to Share > Create Video File, you need to choose DVD and not mpeg-2, as the latter is in a format suited to burning SVCDs and not DVDs (different frame size and Frame based, for starters). So in effect, you cannot avoid converting your AVIs to mpeg-2. And it is better to do it at this stage than to simply add AVIs to the burning module, when they will have to be first converted on the fly as part of the burning process, as well as multiplexed etc. All of this can put a strain on computer resources and perhaps lead to problems, particularly if you computer is not very powerful to start with.

As for your second problem, the flickering at the bottom of screen, is it really across 1/6th of the screen, or just a small line of flickering right at the very bottom of the screen? I ask the latter question because if it only covers about 1% of the very bottom, this is very common with video captured from an analogue camera (and hence my earlier question above about the exact source of your video). And it can be ignored since it is outside the 'safe area' of the video and so will not show when played, say, on a TV. But if indeed it is much wider, then I am not sure what might be causing it.

It could be a Field Order problem, though that would presumably affect the whole screen and not just a part of it. But it is impossible to say until we know the exact properties of both your AVI files and the converted mpeg-2s. Right click on them in the Video Studio library pane, copy the properties and post them here. Normally, a file downloaded/captured from a digital camera will be Lower Field First (Field Order A if you are using VS7), and when converting to mpeg-2, it should also be Lower Field First. If you selected 'MPEG-2' and not 'DVD' as the format, then you will have produced a Frame Based field order from something that was presumably Lower Field First when captured, and this change could be causing the flickering. Just a possibility...

[mattiemac]

I think you may have answered my question.

To answer your questions, I used a firewire to upload video clips from a Canon DV camcorder tape to my hard drive.

I am using VSE 9 to edit.

And when you mentioned this

On your first question, though: apart from a very small category of DVDs which are made from mpeg-4s (and will only play on special players that accept such discs), all video DVDs in effect have to have mpeg-2 format files before you can burn them. But when going to Share > Create Video File, you need to choose DVD and not mpeg-2, as the latter is in a format suited to burning SVCDs and not DVDs (different frame size and Frame based, for starters). So in effect, you cannot avoid converting your AVIs to mpeg-2.

that seems to have answered my question. I do not have a dvd burner at this stage. I am planning on purchasing one in the next few days, but I anticipate when I do, and if I choose Share > create video file and then DVD instead of MPeg-2, the flickering will hopefully be eliminated.

Thanks for responding.

matt

[DVDDoug]

Try to follow the Recommended Procedure.

A video DVD will be in MPEG-2 format. However, it's better to let Video Studio do the AVI-to-MPEG conversion (once) as the final step before burning.

MPEG is not meant to be edited. It is a lossy compression technique, so any editing that requires the video to be decoded and re-coded will degrade the video quality. Worse, you can end-up with corrupted MPEG files that play-back OK... 'till you try to make a DVD.

I don't know what caused the MPEG flickering problems. You didn't edit after performing the MPEG conversion, right? I also don't understand the low quality results when you "kept them in the AVI format". Did you use the same MPEG bitrate in both cases?