new user with a DVD issue..please help

[Lucky19th]

I am using MF 6+ to make DVD's of home video taken on Sony DCR-37 DV tape camera. (using firewire)

Everything works well to the point that I Burn the DVD with menu etc. However, when playing back the DVD I notice that the movie is jerking. This is very noticeable when I am paning a landscape, it is not smooth. It seems kind of jittery (skips a tiny amount), and generally I notice my eyes feeling the strain watching the DVD as a whole. (on PC and DVD player)

I also notice this on the created mpeg file that is generated on the hard drive too. Even though the original captured avi file is fine. So it is not a DVD burning issue, or a capture issue. Could you advice how I can remedy this issue. otherwise I am very happy with the product.

Could having the avi files on an external USB2 hard drive have anything to do with it ? Or is it an encoding issue?

The environment is a Dell Pentium 4 2Ghz PC, 1 Gb RAM, 40 Gb internal Hard disk, 400 Gb (external) USB2 Hard drive for avi file storage.
Your help will be most appreciated. Let me now if more information would help.

[sjj1805]

Whilst it is possible that it can be caused by using an external USB hard drive it is unlikely. The three most usual reasons for a jerky effect when panning sideways across a landscape is

1. Wrong Field order set.
The field order is determined by the source of the video and not by your intended output. Some users still think they have to set the field order according to the TV standard such as PAL or NTSC - this is untrue.

Normally (like every rule there are exceptions) video that originated from
a. A Digital Source such as a Digital camcorder is Lower Field First.
b. An analogue source such as a TV card is upper field first
c. Photographs and scanned or drawn material is frame based.

Add to this the method that the source material entered your computer, it is possible that the field order could get reversed during this stage.
Items brought into your computer via firewire are normally lower field first. Items imported off a DVD disc could end up either way round - here you would need to right click the video within MovieFactory to establish its field order.

2. Bit rates set too low.
This can occur if perhaps you try to squeeze too much onto a DVD, anything over 3 hours on a standard 4.3GB disc is possibly pushing the boat out too far.

3. Burning speed set too high.
Tests have shown that where a DVD disc has been burned at higher speeds such as 12x or 16x - many standalone DVD players either do not play the discs at all, or if they do play they do so badly. The recommendation of our forum is to burn at speeds such as 4x or the lowest available with your burner/disc combination. The discs I now purchase will not burn at less than 6x but give pleasing results.

[Lucky19th]

Thanks for your reponse sjj1805.

Field order: I didn't even know of such a thing, being a newbie. I will check on that tonight and report it

Bit rates too slow: The video was just a hour long on the 4.3Gb (4.7gb) disc. I remember using the SP option for (120min/4.7Gb) for the compression rate.

Burning Speed to high: I initially thought it was something to do with the burning. But then I notice the same problem on the MPEG files that were created by MF when finalising the project which are on my local disk. Hence, my suspicion of it being a encoding or location of the files issue.

Regardless, I am trying number of permutations and combinations myself. Which include the compression rates being used, location of the original avi during encoding, might even try another package or something like TMPGEnc, but having spent money on MF, and it's good Menu tools, it would be great to sort this out too.

BTW, can I ask 3 simple questions that baffle me
1) How do DVD manufactuers squeeze in 2hr+ film a single DVD at such high quality?
2) I am getting approx 1Gb of avi for 5 min of footage, is this normal?
3) What format to use to archive the footage at high quality without needing Terbytes of storage. (i.e If it doesn't have to burned to DVD)?

[DVDDoug]

1) How do DVD manufactuers squeeze in 2hr+ film a single DVD at such high quality?

- Most commercial DVDs are dual-layer.
- They start-out with high-quality film, shot by experts with expert lighting.
- They have better MPEG encoders.
- They use multi-pass MPEG encoding. (We can use 2-pass encoding).
- They know how to tweak their MPEG encoders depending on image content. They may even use different settings for each scene, so that a high-action scene might use different settings than a scene with lots of detail. And, I'm not just talking about tweaking the bitrate. They can tweak settings the we don't have access to and that most of us wouldn't understand.
- If there are special features, they will often use a lower bitrate for these, leaving more "bits" for the main feature.

2) I am getting approx 1Gb of avi for 5 min of footage, is this normal?

Yes. A MiniDV camcorder uses DV compression and uncompressed LPCM audio, which is 13GB per hour. When you download this "data" to your computer, it gets re-packaged as an AVI/DV file. The actual DV data is not altered. Not all "AVI" files are DV. AVI is a container format, and it can contain anything from DV to DivX.

3) What format to use to archive the footage at high quality without needing Terbytes of storage. (i.e If it doesn't have to burned to DVD)?

All video compression schemes are "lossy". The only way to preserve the true-original quality is to keep it in DV format, perhaps on a DV tape. High-bitrate MPEG-2 may be "good enough", but that's up to you to decide. (You could split-up a long, high-bitrate, MPEG-2 file and save it on two or more discs, if necessary.)