PAL - Capture/ Editing Project Settings

[Gra]

Hi Guys

I wonder if the more experienced could advise me please on whether I have the most efficient capture settings or not. The settings I have are:

Capture Settings
MPEG Files
24 Bits, 720 x 576, 25.00 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-PAL), 4:3
Video data rate: 8000 kbps
Audio data rate: 384 kbps
MPEG Audio, 48.0 KHz, Stereo

Edit Project Settings
PAL (25 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 576, 25 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-PAL), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 6000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 224 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

My problem is I can watch all my productions on the PC and as we don't have a DVD player yet, I play them through a laptop to watch on TV here. I'd made some DVDs to send to friends with DVD players succesfully when I was using VS8 but now I've tried to run off a couple since moving up to MSP8 and Movie Factory (2) I'm having no success when they try to play back on their DVD players.

regards.
Gra
PS
I attach below, I hope, some screenshots of the settings as well (first time I've tried to attach so apols if they don't appear and maybe some could tell me the error of my ways there as well please).

[img]http://www.gbatbeckenham.co.uk/library/ ... gs.gif[img][/url]

[Gra]

Looks my attempts to add the screenshots failed. How do you attach/ embed an image here?

[Primekid]

Looks like you need to get rid of the

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[Primekid]

As far as your friends and/or family not being able to play the DVD it may be the format of the DVD you have recorded to. (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW)

Some DVD players do not play all formats. Especially older units and/or the cheaper units. The manuals for thier DVD players should tell what type of DVDs they are capable of playing. That is most likely going to be the cause. I believe that the format that is most widely accepted by DVD players is DVD-R, but you might want to check with them first to see if they can tell you what formats thier units will play.

[Devil]

There are several points which come to mind. First of all you do not indicate what you are capturing from. If it is from a DV tape, you would be much better capturing to the DV type 1, doing all your editing in that format and, only when that is finished, converting to MPEG in order to burn your DVD.

Your bit rates are too high for playback in a number of DVD players. I suggest you try 6000 kbit/s constant bit rate for video and 192 kb per second AC-3 (Dolby Digital) for audio. Always keep the same settings throughout your project to avoid reencoding the MPEG, which will cause a distinct deterioration of quality.

Hope this helps!

[sjj1805]

Capture Settings
MPEG Files
24 Bits, 720 x 576, 25.00 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-PAL), 4:3
Video data rate: 8000 kbps
Audio data rate: 384 kbps
MPEG Audio, 48.0 KHz, Stereo

Edit Project Settings
PAL (25 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 576, 25 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-PAL), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 6000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 224 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

Firstly as mentioned above by Devil it is better to capture to DV rther than MPEG. If however this is not available (you haven't told us what it is/how you are capturing.) then...

The capture settings and the edit settings would be beter if they matched each other, otherwise you will be re-rendering whether you have made any edits or not. (Smart render) Therefore during the capture stage consider what it is that is being captured. Think of the end result rather than the immediate capture.
In other words if you are recording something that last a hour you can have higher bit rates (8000 max) but on the other hand if your recording something that will last 2 hours on the finished DVD then capture at a lower setting.

I tend to use the pre-defined settings in DVD Workshop 2 as a good guide when capturing. I have listed them in this post
http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?p=55043

Regards
Steve J

[Gra]

Hi Guys, thank you all for your comments.

Here's the screenshots I hope:


Would it help to have other shots?

I did check out the format of the actual player as DVD-R butI wouldn't be surprised if there is an additional problem between disc brand used and what the machine will play either but I feel my settings may not be helping as I could make a couple of playable discs for the same player when I used VS8.

Concerning capturing, I am capturing from my Panasonic NV-GS10 camcorder DV tape. I've now reset to Ulead's Direct show plug-in instead of the Mpeg setting and reset to type1 and adjust data rates, etc as steve and Devil suggested.

However one worrying things is all the options for Video source, format and audio source/ format, along with compression and video display are locked out and I cannot open them. This has been a feature since I downloaded the MSP8 upgrade a couple of weeks ago!

Finally, should I set my editing controls to AVI now as well as I currently have them on MPEG settings?

Any advice to make things more efficient would be gratefully welcome.

Thanks for your time so far.

[sjj1805]

However one worrying things is all the options for Video source, format and audio source/ format, along with compression and video display are locked out and I cannot open them. This has been a feature since I downloaded the MSP8 upgrade a couple of weeks ago!

I am at work at present so not at my video editing machine. From memory all/some of these boxes are greyed out when dealing with MPEG formats but are active when dealing with AVI formats.

Steve J

[Devil]

"Capturing" a DV stream is not capturing at all. All you do is to transfer the contents of the tape to your computer hard disk without any modification other than wrapping it into an AVI envelope. This is why the transfer is of such high-quality. You have no choice whatsoever as to the format and other data because no choice is possible.

If you now do your editing using the DV settings, you will lose virtually no quality during the whole process. This is totally different from doing it in MPEG, where you may lose quality each time you re-encode. Only when you have finished your editing should you convert to MPEG.

[Gra]

Hi Steve, sorry to hear you're working on a Sunday. FYI the locked out problem seemed the same even when I thought I was on AVI.

[sjj1805]

Absolutely. As I say I am writing this from work at memory (in between dealing with the odd task at work)
The greyed out boxes mentioned only come into play when saving AVI files, such as editing and rendering small sections at a time then perhaps piecing it all back together again ready to convert to compliant MPEG.

Most of the options are greyed out when rendering to MPEG, perhaps as a safety measure to prevent you from making wrong settings such as non standard screen sizes.

Steve J

[Gra]

Thanks D.

Although I'm slowly building experience, the capture settings have always been one of those truely blind spots that I'm still trying to get my mind around.