I can't choose the output resolution

[gmorissette]

Hi there ! I imported an avi (divx) video and with a resolution of 350X250. Ulead wants to resize it to 720X480. I want to keep the standard resolution, I don't want to change it. There's the problem : I can't click on "user-defined" It's grey. Also, The video is about 350mb. When Ulead converts it, the final result is about 1000mo, but the quality is lower than the first video. How ? I hope someone will post for my two answers. Thanks a lot !

Gabriel

[sjj1805]

DivX is not DVD compliant and must be converted to an MPEG2 format.

[DVDDoug]

....but the quality is lower than the first video. How ?

Try using a higher bitrate for the DVD.

Since you didn't tell us the playing-time of your 350MB/1GB files, I can't guess the current bitrates, or tell you what bitrate to use. If your program is 1 hour long, your 1Gb MPEG-2 file is way too compressed (too low of a bitrate).

At a bitrate of 6000kbps, you can fit about 90 minutes of high-quality video and Dolby audio on a single-layer DVD. (With LPCM audio, you'd have to use a lower video-bitrate to fit 90 minutes on a DVD.)

Here's a Bitrate Calculator.

Any time you convert from one lossy format (DivX/MPEG-4) to another lossy format (DVD/MPEG-2) there will be some quality loss. In your case, the DVD has 4 times as many pixels as the DivX, but only about 3 times the bitrate. And, MPEG-2 is not a efficient as MPEG-4. Something's going to "give".

Any time the video is decoded and re-coded, you go through an extra lossy compression process. It's something like making an analog copy or a Xerox of a Xerox... the copy is never as good as the original.