Mini-DVD to Standard DVD loses quality

[Gatorboy]

I have a Sony DVD camcorder which records on mini-DVDs. I take my finished mini-DVDs and edit them onto a standard DVD using Disc Creator 3. However, the quality of the finished product is worse than the nice crisp original mini-DVD.

I have my settings on HQ, and sampling on Best.

One odd thing is if I have the option to not convert compliant MPEGs checked, the program bombs during the rendering stage -- but with it unchecked it will render to the end with no crashing.

I would think that the digital files from the original (mini DVD) to the standard DVD should look identical when played on the TV. The quality is lost somewhere during the process.

Any ideas?

[GeorgeW]

Hi,

Are you using the Full or Trial version of DMF DC?

Have you applied the most recent patches?

Do you do any editing (cuts or adding text)? Try it without any edits to see if it does any better.

George

[maddrummer3301]

Even on my system if I combine the original clips which are
dolby audio (sony desktop recorder) and the output is set for
dolby the program hangs.

This only occurs if I choose to re-render the clips together.
If MF3 doesn't re-render and only multi-plexes for the video_ts
folder no problem.

If I change the "Project Settings" to Mpeg audio 256kbs MF3
combines the clips (The resulting Dvd will or course be Mpeg audio).
Works good.

If the source files (another capture device) are Mpeg audio and
the "Project Settings" are for "Dolby" no problem re-rendering
clips together.
Works good.

On my system I can go from:
Dolby to Mpeg audio.
Mpeg to Dolby audio.
Mpeg to Mpeg audio.
All the above conversions work with the latest patches.

MF3 Hangs on a dolby to dolby conversion.

Have also applied the latest updates.
The dolby formats on the source files are 2/0 and the same
of course for MF3's output ( 2/0 Stereo ).

MD

[Gatorboy]

Are you using the Full or Trial version of DMF DC?
Full Version

Have you applied the most recent patches?
Yes

Do you do any editing (cuts or adding text)? Try it without any edits to see if it does any better.
I am doing editing (joining, cutting portions, text, etc.) ... I'll try a small test using unedited clips. This though sort of defeats the purpose of editing the raw footage to generate a better final DVD.

I set the audio to LPCM instead of Dolby or MPEG -- not sure that changes anything or not as far as video quality.

[Gatorboy]

Try it without any edits to see if it does any better.

Well, I did a small test. If I take the RAW files from the Mini-DVD and make NO EDITS, the final product looks identical to the orginal. Also, if I JOIN the scenes together and make no other edits, the result is perfect as well.

As I earlier stated, if I have the option to not convert compliant MPEGs checked, the program bombs during the rendering stage -- but with it unchecked it will render to the end with no crashing. Now, if I make NO edits to the raw files, this option will not crash the program any longer.

So, there MUST be a BUG in MF3 in that if you edit a clip (marking a start/stop; multi-edit) using THEIR program, it will crash during the OUTPUT stage.

I hope a patch comes out to solve this problem -- I hate having to render for 2-3 hours when it really shouldn't be necessary (because I must make it convert compliant MPEGs).

Oh, one final result of the test -- if I make it convert the compliant MPEGs, the final output is not as good as the original.

[saintjoe69]

I recently read an article that said that the MF3's compression codec is not the best available. I usually use Premiere 6.5 to export to .AVI and then import that to use in MF2/MF3. Make sure you have the setting "Do not recompress MPGEG compliant videos" checked. Hope that helps.

[GeorgeW]

I recently read an article that said that the MF3's compression codec is not the best available. I usually use Premiere 6.5 to export to .AVI and then import that to use in MF2/MF3. Make sure you have the setting "Do not recompress MPGEG compliant videos" checked. Hope that helps.

Hi,

Was that a published article somewhere that I can read? If you have a link, please post it. I am insterested in seeing what factors helped them make that determination...

Thanks,
George

[htchien]

Ulead MPEG.Now Encoder actually is from the same encoding technology as Premiere uses, which is called MainConcept, but Ulead has modified it to have better quality.

Hope this helps.

H.T.

[saintjoe69]

Hi,

Was that a published article somewhere that I can read? If you have a link, please post it. I am insterested in seeing what factors helped them make that determination...

Thanks,
George

The link is found right on ULEAD's site on that particular product. Here is the link to the article, found on dvdcreation.com.