Video Quality Degradation (Colors & skin tones too brigh

[virg2673]

Enjoyed your Julie Andrews line Ken. Thanks for your light hearted response. I certainly need a few chuckles while working on this project, and besides, it helps me to deal with my emabarrassment that it is taking me so long to get up to speed for using VideoStudio effectively.
Your explanation regarding the naming of an new project was perfect, and I got it to work, and hence got rid of the "untitled" label. Also got much further into my test before encountering a discrepancy, from what I think you are advising me to follow.
1. Started my Share/Create Disc workflow; >Share >File >New Project (to get an empty timeline) and then >Create Disc (to insure that "Do not convert compliant mpeg files" was ticked. However, when I did that check, the Project Settings pop up box also indicated "Lower Field First." Each time that I see this, I change it to "Upper Field First" and click OK, so I can't figure out why it would come back as "Lower Field First" now. Any thoughts as to why it continues to resurface, and am I correct in thinking that it shouldn't matter as long as I selected, "Same as Project Settings?"
2. At the end of my Share workflow, as I was preparing to burn my DVD, I selected >Disc burner. The resulting Create Disc pop up included 2 or 3 windows. The upper one, labeled Output Settings, showed "Record to disc," and the Recording format was listed as "DVD-Video."The lower window was labeled Disc Burner, and allowed me to change the drive to my Sony DVD/CD Rewritable Drive, by its' address. Immediately below that drive selection was Recording Speed, and gave the options of MAX, 40x, 32x, 24x, 16x and 12x. I selected 12x and then it recorded at "16x 22,160KB/s" if I recall correctly. I would of course prefer, thanks to your advice, something much closer to 4x. Any suggestions on how I can get a lower burn rate?
3. Regarding DVDs, I have been using Verbatim 4.7GB, 120 min, 16x certified DVDs from Walmart. Do you recommend using a more expensive name brand DVD like Sony or whatever?

[Ken Berry]

1) The project settings box in the Options icon of the burning module only reflects the default settings for Video Studio (unless you change them manually). But you can safely ignore them if the 'do not convert' box is ticked. You have already made a DVD-compliant mpeg-2. And you have, by ticking the box, told VS to use the properties of the mpeg-2 rather than the default properties. In other words "Video Studio -- do not convert what is already DVD compliant'!! Yassuh!

2) I am at a loss to explain this. Do you already have a blank DVD in the drive when you see these speeds. I repeat, they are clearly associated with CDs and not DVDs.

3) Verbatim discs are fine.

[virg2673]

Apparently, the issue of my not getting an option to select a slower burn speed was a function of my not allowing sufficient wait time between inserting the DVD and my attempt to find the burn speed option window. After reading the appropriate section of the manual for my Sony DVD Rewritable Drive, I found that one should "allow an adequate amount of time for the host system to recognize the media after inserting a DVD or VHS Tape into the drive." I gave it a full five minutes and then progressed through the final steps of my Share/Create DVD workflow, and had no problem getting the option to select a burn speed of 4x.

My mini test worked, and believe it or not, I think that I see a light at the end of the tunnel. No train whistles, please! I plan to do a full project DVD tomorrow. Thanks again Ken.

[virg2673]

My efforts to complete an hour long DVD from the first half of a captured VHS tape were successful from start to finish, and concluded with the desired three identical copies. The video quality, thanks to your patience and help, is significantly better than my earlier attempts. Even my family members agreed that the video quality is now more than acceptable. The final DVD product is divided into 6 chapters with transitions and a completed chapter menu with individual chapter titles.

Things went equally as well when I started the project for the second half of the captured VHS tape, until I encountered what I hope is a minor problem during my edit workflow. I was able to select start and end frames for each of my first five chapters. And as before, the opening frame of a chapter would appear in the Multi-trim time line as soon as I selected the desired last frame and clicked on the "end" arrow.

However, when I repeat the identical process for my sixth and final chapter, it does not appear on my Multi-trim time line like it did for the first five chapters. The individual chapter numbers and their length are also displayed on the time line, and it clearly indicates that there are only five "clips," not six. I repeated the process very carefully several more times, but can not get the sixth chapter on to my time line. The length of this project is one hour and seventeen seconds long, which is very close to the length of the first project, which went to smoothly.

I'm clueless as to what I am doing wrong, but then I repeat myself.

[Ken Berry]

Hopefully someone more conversant with multi-trim will jump in here with a suggestion, as I do not use it.

But I wonder whether you are using the word 'chapter' in the same sense I do (and VS intends). When you say that your project has six chapters, do you process each of these as a separate project in the timeline i.e. produce a separate mpeg-2 for each 'chapter'? If so, they are in fact 'titles' which can then be sub-divided into chapters.

Anyway, if that is the way you are doing things, have you tried pulling the original video into the timeline, and then simply going to the point where the sixth 'chapter' starts, and making an actual cut with the scissors icon. Then highlight the sixth part and go to Clip > Saved Trimmed Video. This will create a separate file of the sixth 'chapter' in the Library pane. You then delete both parts of the cut main video from the timeline, and instead drag and drop the new file there for editing.

[virg2673]

You surprised me by saying that you don't use the Multi-trim function, as I had thought that was the standard way of dividing one's video into separate segments or chapters.

In answer to your question, "When you say that your project has six chapters, do you process each of these as a separate project in the timeline, i.e. produce a separate mpeg-2 for each 'chapter'?"

No, I simply divide my project into 6 segments or "clips" as I think I recall VS refering to them. I then add transitions in between each of them on the timeline and then go to >Share, >Create Video File, >Same as Project Settings, and then >Save. The rendering of my DVD-compliant mpeg-2 file begins. About an hour later, this resulting file contains the 6 chapters with transitions and I go to >File, >Save As, to name my new mpeg before clearing my timeline to start my main and chapter menu Title process.

[virg2673]

Tried another test to divide my same hour long Project #4 into segments or Chapters using the Mult-trim function provided in Edit. I had used this function successfully before on my Project #3 to divde a very similar length video into six chapters. But fearing that VS was refusing to accept my sixth clip onto the timeline because there was something wrong with the frames at the end of my captured video, I divided the hour long video file into only 2 clips, not 6.

I took all of the footage, that made up the first five chapters on my earlier failed attempts, and combined it into one clip or chapter. I then selected the same starting and ending frames, that I had attempted to use earlier for my sixth clip or chapter, and made it my second chapter for this test.

As soon as I selected the ending frame and clicked on the "End" arrow, it displayed this clip on the timeline. In other words, it worked perfectly, just as it had for my Project #3. I then previewed it and it most definitely included the footage (for the last clip or chapter) that it would not accept when I was trying to divide the same video project into six chapters, not two.

Therefore, I must conclude that there is nothing wrong with the captured video. I have no idea why it won't accept the same last clip onto the timeline when I try to divide the video into 6 chapters. It went so smoothly for my Project #3, but not Project #4, and the two projects are so very similar in original source, video length, capture methodology and Edit workflow.

[virg2673]

1. In an effort to find out why VideoStudio wasn't recognizing my last (sixth) chapter, I repeated the same Edit workflow process described in my previous post. I repeated it five times. But each time, instead of selecting the very last frame available for for the "End" frame of my sixth chapter, I selected the frame that preceded the frame that I used on the previous test.

As a result, on my fifth test, I selected the frame that was five frames in front of the very last frame on my video file. VS accepted it for my "End" frame, and displayed the marker for this last chapter on the Multi-trim timeline.

Do you normally recommend that one should not try to save every good frame that is captured? Or perhaps the VideoStudio god's are just messing with my mind.

2. After the above editing, I included transition breaks in between each Chapter. Then, >File, >Save, >Share, >Create Video File, >Same as Project Settings, >Save, and rendering started.
Upon completion, I selected >File, >Save As, to name and save what I thought was to be my new DVD-compliant mpeg-2 video file.
I then started my Share workflow with >Share, >File, >New Project, to get an empty timeline, followed by >Create Disc, >Do not convert compliant mpeg files, >OK, >Add Video, to enter the file that I just created.
But my newly created file did not have ".mpg" after it. Instead, my file name was now followed by ".VSP" and would not open. The message stated that it could not open because of a, "File format mismatch."
Help.