Bad quality DVD picture on TV, clear on PC

[rwalker66]

The subject describes my problem. Once the video is transferred from my Mini-DV camera to my computer and I'm working with it in Movie Factory 4 it's crystal clear on the computer. But once the DVD is made and I watch it on my TV there is a lot of "video noise" which ruins the whole DVD experience because the picture is no longer clear. Hard to describe the "noise" but it's like a clear "snow" and also squiggly outlines around everything. If I film a tower against a blue sky the tower has a clear squiggly moving outline around it. Any idea off the bat what could cause this and how I could make the DVD picture clear as it should be?

Now some more info:
It's not the camcorder, tape, TV player or DVD player. When I hook the camcorder directly to the TV the tape plays crystal clear. I'ts not the TV player or DVD player because I played it at work on a plasma screen and different DVD player and the bad quality was still there. So it must be something in my process.

I will now list the process. You tell me what I'm doing wrong or what I should try different:
Canon ZR65 Mini-DV camcorder hooked up to PC via Firewire.
From main screen of DVDMF4 I hit "new project", DVD, next.

Under preferences I have the following boxes checked:
VCD player compliant, anti-flicker filter, always show relink message, max 30mb. Below that I have resample quality to BEST and NTSC as TV system. Under advanced tab nothing is checked. TV safe area 10%

Under project settings it says:
MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 7000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

Below that the 2 checked boxes are:
Do not convert compliant MPEG files
and
Two-pass conversion
Under compression Quality is set to 80%

For capture video format: DVD-HQ 4:3 (Dolby Digital)

Under video and audio capture property settings:
DVD is checked, speed 80%, and:
MPEG Files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 7000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48.0 KHz, Stereo

Under advanced "de-interlace output" is NOT checked.
Output field order is "lower field first"
Under capture plugin it shows "ULEAD DSW MPEG Capture Plugin"
Description:Ulead MPEG capture plug-in for DirectShow capture driver.

Does this all look right?

Once the clip is transferred the info it shows for it is:
MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 7000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

So same as above.

Any ideas why my DVD's come out with video noise on them?
Any help or advice is appreciated please.
It's really embarassing giving my relatives DVD's that have such a bad quality picture. I want them to see how good they can really be using this great ULEAD product .

Thank you.

[DVDDoug]

The only thing that looks strange to me is VCD player compliant. I wonder if it's making an MPEG-1 DVD.... That could be a problem. You are making a DVD, not a VCD.

Your bitrate and resolution look good.

Did you "capture" to AVI/DV? This will directly transfer the DV data from your tape to the hard drive without re-coding. (Movie Factory will create a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file before burning.)

[rwalker66]

The only thing that looks strange to me is VCD player compliant. I wonder if it's making an MPEG-1 DVD.... That could be a problem. You are making a DVD, not a VCD.

Your bitrate and resolution look good.

Did you "capture" to AVI/DV? This will directly transfer the DV data from your tape to the hard drive without re-coding. (Movie Factory will create a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file before burning.)

I could try unchecking the VCD compliant box and see if that helps.

For your other question: Where do I change it to capture to AVI/DV?
The file it puts on my hard drive after the capture says "Movie file (Mpeg)" and seems to be a VOB file. I thought this was the default capture format for DVD MF4? I don't remember changing it. Thank you for trying to help me with this.

[rwalker66]

The only thing that looks strange to me is VCD player compliant. I wonder if it's making an MPEG-1 DVD.... That could be a problem. You are making a DVD, not a VCD.

Your bitrate and resolution look good.

Did you "capture" to AVI/DV? This will directly transfer the DV data from your tape to the hard drive without re-coding. (Movie Factory will create a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file before burning.)

OK I found where to change the capture to AVI/DV and I also unchecked the "VCD Compliant" box. Doing these 2 things seemed to improve the quality some, but there is still a little video noise on the screen. It's still not as good quality as hooking the camcorder directly up the TV. Maybe I will try increasing the quality from 80% to 90%. I noticed capturing in AVI/DV the CPU is not taxed as much. When I captured in MPEG the CPU usuage would be up around 68%-82%. Capturing in AVI/DV it was at 50% or below the whole time. So I can afford to go a little higher quality without dropping frames or stressing the CPU too much. I will let you know if that helped any.

One question: Under capture formats to choose from "AVI" doesn't have "Dolby Digital" next to it. Does that means the final outcome will not be in Dolby and will have a lesser quality sound than if I had chosen MPEG?