Shaky, blurr, grainy, ghosting, video after burning DVD

[Taters]

I have MovieFactory 3.5.

After I burn a movie onto a DVD, I play it in my DVD player hooked to my television, and the video quality is extremely poor. There is jerky, shaky, blurry video... lots of pixelization as well.

The movie is fine when I use another program to export it to tape, but when I burn a DVD (I only have MF 3.5 burning software on my computer), it's terrible.

I noticed on this message board quite a few people are having this problem, but so far, ULead hasn't answered their questions.

Is this just something that's a bug you know you can't fix, or can it be fixed?

Thank you!

[jcc]

What are your project settings?

[keithm]

sounds like the field order is the wrong way round: try a short clip but reverse the field order - it will be in project settings.

[Taters]

The piece that was shaky after burning onto a DVD with MovieFactory 3.5 was an avi file I made from Adobe Premiere. I took that file to Pinnacle Studio 7, and made it into an mpeg movie file.

Then, I burned the project again using Movie Factory, and it came out fine. No shaky or grainy... just the way it should be.

I hope that helps some of you who are still searching for answers!

[Ron P.]

The piece that was shaky after burning onto a DVD with MovieFactory 3.5 was an avi file I made from Adobe Premiere. I took that file to Pinnacle Studio 7, and made it into an mpeg movie file.

Then, I burned the project again using Movie Factory, and it came out fine. No shaky or grainy... just the way it should be.

I hope that helps some of you who are still searching for answers!

So you were trying to burn an AVI file to disc? I think to burn to disc they should be DVD-compliant (MPEG-2)...

[tfraust]

Another newbie here...
I am also having a problem with blurry video.
I was using the trial version of disc creator without any problems.
I purchased DVD Movie Factory 4.
I used the straight to dvd feature, burned a vhs tape to DVD video, and its blurry.
I also captured video from my TV, burned the MPEG files to DVD video, and had the same problem.
What could be causing this?

[Ron P.]

Hi Tfraust,

What was your capture and project settings?

If your capture properties resolutions are say, 352 x 240 or 352 x 288 (NTSC VCD and PAL VCD respectively), and then your burning properties are DVD compliant MPEG2, 720 x 480 or 720 x 576, then you will have blurry results. You need to insure your properties match all along your workflow, from capture to burning.

Ron P.

[tfraust]

Hi Ron,
I think these are my capture settings:
MPEG Files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 7000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48.0 KHz, Stereo
Frame size: 720 x 480

I'm not sure how to find the project settings?
Thanks,
Teresa

[maddrummer3301]

If your capturing VHS tape then I assume your using an "Analog' capturing
device?

Field Order:
Analog Capturing Device = Upper Field First (Field B)
DV Camcorder/Firewire = Lower Field First (Field A)

If you use the software to "Auto-Detect" the field order on my machines
the program chooses the wrong field order.
So, if your capturing from an Analog capture device use "Upper Field First".
If that doesn't fix the problem then your probably dropping frames.
Dropping frames isn't blurry video. Usually jerky looking.

Manually assign the field order to "Upper Field First".

Hope this helps,

MD

[nyco_ork]

I just bought MF 4, and am experiencing the same problem, and it has nothing to do with DVI. I am using an analogue capture board to capture VHS output. I have no problem capturing in MyDVD, but MF4 is a catastrophe. I have spent two days and an entire spindle of media experimenting with different capture settings, and nothing seems to work. The closest I can get to a decent capture is to set quality at 85% and check the "Deinterlace output" box in Advanced Capture Properties. (There is no discussion of this box in the manual.)

When I import a capture from MyDVD, the resulting DVD authored in MF 4 is perfect. I used Autodetect, and my card wants "Upper Field First." This is also the setting that MyDVD uses. I tried setting Lower Field First just to see what would happen, and it indeed made matters worse.

I am capturing files in simple MPEG-LPCM format, so there should be no conversion issues. Again, these are the settings I use in MyDVD.

Also, I now see on this forum that MF 5 has just been released. There is no notice of that on the purchase website; I would have held off the purchase if I'd known.

I'd like to use the Ulead capture engine if possible, because it has features such as changing contrast and brightness that others lack, and I have some VHS tapes that need that treatment.

Any ideas for tweaking this recalictrant capture engine would be appreciated. I'm afraid it may simply be an incompatibility between the software and my card (a Philips, built into my Thinkpad laptop; can't change it).

R

[maddrummer3301]

Hi,
I don't believe the "MyDVD" gives you any fielding options.
The program sets them automatically.
That's the thing that ulead products do is give you access to many of
the capturing options and encoding settings. Nero & MyDVD don't do this.
(The latest version of Nero lets you customize the settings now).

>>and check the "Deinterlace output" box in Advanced Capture Properties. (There is no discussion of this box in the manual.)

Look up the definition of De-Interlace. This removes fielding from a
normal TV/fielded video/frame. If your capturing from an analog VHS
fielded source (which you are) and your target is for DVD to display
on a TV then you need the fielding captured.
If your target is for the computer then "Frame-Based" would be the
selection because computer monitors are frame-based.

There are different methods for de-interlacing.
Basically de-interlacing is for playback on computer monitors or for
trying to capture a single frame.
Some programs use only 1 of the fields and drop the other to make a frame.
Some programs blend the 2 fields together (linear blending) to make a frame.
If you try to capture a single picture/frame of video the picture can look torn & blurred. De-Interlacing can fix that.

If you can capture in MyDVD and it looks good then you can capture
in MF4 the same. It's usually in the settings. I make or assign the
capture settings manually.
A compression setting of 85 is good. Nothing wrong with that at all.
70% compression is standard/average for real-time capture.

You should post your capturing settings and Project Property settings
so others can give input to your problem.

Hope this helps,

MD

[nyco_ork]

Thanks for the info. I knew what interlacing is, but wasn't sure what effect that checkbox would have on the capture. Your explanation helps. Ironically, the best results I've obtained so far (with burned DVDs shown on TV) is with the de-interlace box checked, capturing in frame mode. However, I'm running a new series of tests today, seeing if I can tweak things further. If one test really works, I'll let you know the settings. If I'm still having a problem, I'll post the settings for those tests that get the closest to being acceptable.

R

[nyco_ork]

If you can capture in MyDVD and it looks good then you can capture
in MF4 the same. It's usually in the settings. I make or assign the
capture settings manually.

-----------------

You should post your capturing settings and Project Property settings
so others can give input to your problem.

Hope this helps,

MD

-------------------------------------

Okay,

I tested 10 different capture formats, and they're all bad. The video is uncoordinated and jerky.

First, let me give you the settings that MyDVD uses for its successful captures. These are HQ captures, as are the ones I'm trying in Ulead. I'm not even experimenting with compression yet.

MyDVD:
Mpeg-2 video, Upper Field first (my analogue card's default)
24 bits, 720x480, 4:3
8000 kbps (constant rate)

MPEG audio, Layer 2 files
48000 Hz, 16 bit stereo
Layer 2
Bit rate: 224 kbps

-----------------------------------------------------

Now, here are the capture settings I tried today in Ulead. All captures were made with the quality slider set to 80%.

Clip 1:
MPEG-2 video, de-interlace on
Variable rate, max bit rate of 7000 kbps (Ulead default)
Mpeg audio @ 224 kpbs

clip 2:
Ditto one, except video bitrate is constant @ 7000 kbps

Clip 3:
Ditto 1, but video bitrate @ variable up to 8000kbps max

Clip 4:
Ditto 2, except bitrate of 8000 is constant

Clips 5-8:
Ditto clips 1-4, except de-interlace is off; using Upper Field First

Clip 9:
video bitrate constant @ 8000 kbps
de-interlace on
LPCM audio

Clip 10:
Ditto clip 9, with de-interlace off, using Upper Field First

----------------------------------------------------------------
Project Property settings:
MPEG files
24 bits, 720x480, 29.97 fps
(DVD-NTSC) 4:3
Video data rate: 8000 kbps
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz. Stereo
In compression tab of advanced settings, slider is set at 80%
Resample quality set for BEST
"Do not convert compliant mpeg" is checked (active)
"Autorepeat when playback ends" is checked
Using motion menus
---------------------------------------

All the clips were jerky, some more than others, but not a single one was acceptable. Doing the capture exactly the same as MyDVD does not cure anything. Do you see any settings I can change here, or is this a case of the software being incompatible with the capture card?

The card is a Philips Phildecn, built into my Thinkpad A31p laptop. I can't change it.

I'd like to get the Ulead capture to work, so I can tweak the contrast, brightness, and color controls of the captures. I can't do that in MyDVD. If it weren't for that, I'd just give up and use MyDVD to capture, and Ulead to author.

Any help would be appreciated.

Richard

[maddrummer3301]

>>Okay,
>>I tested 10 different capture formats, and they're all bad. The video is
>>uncoordinated and jerky.

I would have given up already.

There is only one other thing I can think of and that is in MovieFactory you
can change the "Capture" Plugin.
Maybe your device has it's own compatible driver.

In MF3 while in the capturing module clicking on the down arrow displays additional capturing options.
I would look and try to find "Change Capture Plugin" under the Options icon or one of them.
My Direct capturing to mpeg video from an analog source uses the "Ulead DSW Mpeg capture Plugin" or similar wording. Other choices are for DV camcorders and Other compatible drivers. Maybe your driver is also listed. I know that MyDVD gives the Name of the Device.
When choosing the corrrect capturing plugin MF will also display the name of the device in the source capturing box.

If changing the "Capture Plugin" doesn't work then maybe a bad or corrupted installation. Whatever the case, in my opinion I would completelyremove the program. Reboot, download MovieFactory 5 trial version and see if that works. You can also install MF5 with the existing MF3.5 program but something is obviously wrong within the
capturing process.

Hope this helps,
Download MF5 trial and give it a try. So far I've had excellent results with it.

MD

[nyco_ork]

I checked the capture device, and the only option I'm given is the Philips card.

I guess I'll try the trial version of MF 5. If that works, I'll have to hassle with Ulead about price. I just bought MF 4 two days before MF 5 was released. They should have sold me MF 5 .

Thanks for your time and help.

R