Encoding Question

tsha222 · Post by **tsha222** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:56 pm

I am new to the forum so be gentle. I have Video Studio 11 Plus and I have a general question regarding the quality of project output. If I rip a DVD to my harddrive without compressing, I end up with a bit-for bit copy, (this is a NON COPYPROTECTED DVD!!!). Now I want to edit the ripped footage in VS11. After my edits, if I want to burn that back to DVD, am I losing any quality from my original. I am not thrilled with my project results so far but I am only about a week into the program so I know I will learn more as I go along. thanks guys!!!

For the record, I am dealing with STANDARD DVD editing here, not AVCHD (yet)

tsha222 · Post by **tsha222** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:37 pm

I have one followup question. The first project I did was flawless in terms of playback. - no studdering, or pixelization or anything. I have a brand new HP desktop that I bought just for editing. I have a 400gig hd internal, 2048 memory and AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processor. After I did my first project, noticing that video files take up alot of space on the harddrive, I purchased a 500 gig Personal Media Drive from HP that slides into the front of the computer. I moved all of my video files over to the new drive and subsequently added footage for a second project. I am doing these little projects for my church. (The actual VS11+ program is still on the main HD) On my second project, I started getting some weird artifacts. Any time I used something from VS11 that had to be rendered, I get a studder after the edit. I had a couple of instances of pixelization. Anything that didn't require any rendering plays back fine, but if I add an effect, fiter or speed up or slow down the speed of the clip, I get studdering. Does this have anything to do with my NLE being on one HD and my source files (audio, video and pictures) being on a seperate drive?? I don't think it should, but I didn't have any problems initially and the only variable between project one and two was the addition of the second drive. Thanks again!!!

Feel free to move this, edit this or anything it needs

I just need some help. (well I have needed help for a long time but that's neither here nor there)

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:09 pm

FWIW, I have all my clips on a separate HD.

What are the properties of the video clips and what are your project properties? Are you following the Suggested Workflow?

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:23 pm

I rip a DVD to my harddrive without compressing, I end up with a bit-for bit copy?

Yes. Most "DVD to MPEG" programs that I've tried will recode the video, but the Corel/Ulead programs can extract and re-construct the unaltered MPEG data directly from the VOB files.

Then when you get to the Create Disc screen, there is a check-box that says Do Not Convert Compliant MPEG Files. That will prevent your MPEG from being recoded when it's converted back to VOB files.

Now I want to edit the ripped footage...

In theory, you can "cut and splice" without degrading the video quality. However, any "real editing" (effects, color adjustment, cropping, transitions, etc.) will require the video to be decompressed and re-compressed. Since MPEG is lossy compression, you loose some quality each time it is compressed. If you enable Smart Render, the video will only be re-coded where required. For example, if you join two clips with a transition, the video will be re-coded during the transition. However, Smart Render can sometimes make the problems you are experiencing worse! So, try it both ways.

I started getting some weird artifacts. Any time I used something from VS11 that had to be rendered, I get a studder after the edit. I had a couple of instances of pixelization. Anything that didn't require any rendering plays back fine, but if I add an effect, fiter or speed up or slow down the speed of the clip, I get studdering...

Some of us have had trouble when editing MPEGs. This doesn't happen to everyone, or with every file, so it might be caused by some tiny corruption in the original MPEG data-structure. (I call it "sneaky corruption".) The most common problem is the "lip-sync" problem that inspired my tag line below, but other "weird problems" can crop-up too. I've even had some edited MPEGs that caused Video Studio (and the other Corel/Ulead programs) to crash!

I solved all of my MPEG problems by buying the Womble* MPEG editor. I still use Video Studio for other tasks. With a project like yours, I would use Video Studio for importing the DVD (to make an MPEG file) and to author and burn the DVD (after editing with Womble).

P.S.
I have another idea - Try converting your file to AVI/DV before editing. Then, allow Video Studio to convert it back to MPEG-2 for the DVD. This does require decoding & re-coding, but the quality loss might not be noticeable, and it should prevent your other weird problems (assuming it has no trouble converting the unedited file). There should be no noticeable quality loss with the first conversion from MPEG-2 to DV. (At 13 GB per hour, DV is much less lossy than MPEG-2.)

- Import the DVD, then go to Share and Save As AVI/DV.
- Open a new project and bring-in the AVI/DV file.
- For best quality, use a high bitrate for the final DVD. A higher bitrate means a bigger file, so the bitrate will be limited by the playing time. (Here's an online Bitrate Calculator.)

* The http://www.womble.com/ site was down when I wrote this.

tsha222 · Post by **tsha222** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:42 am

Thanks for the answers guys. I also have Womble and have played around with it. They are both great programs. I will try all suggestions. If anyone else has anything to add, please do.

Have a good one!

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:21 am

Chris,
Is the drive you added a USB connection type? I thought I saw this on the HP computers, if so then sometimes when you add a drive windows uses some different methods to access & update the drive. If the drive is setup for quick removal then there isn't any caching being done so the computer & programs have to wait for complete read/writes.
Anyway, you may need to activate caching by taking a look at the drives properties sheet. Under the properties of the removable drive there will be a tab with choices on how windows should use the drive.
I've found my external or plug-in drives perform much better with "Write Caching Enabled" and NOT setup for quick removal. When you want to remove the drive then use windows "Safely remove device" function.

That's the only thing I can think that could cause the pixelazation.
Also make sure your "Project Properties Settings" equal your source videos properties (this is important).

I purchased a 500 gig Personal Media Drive from HP that slides into the front of the computer.

I think these are usb drives so check the drive caching (enable it), and make sure the drive is operating at usb2.0 speed. Don't know if this is a BIOS setting or not.

tsha222 · Post by **tsha222** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:17 pm

Yes it is a quick remove drive. I have not set it up that way per say but I don't have to use the safely remove method, I just pull it out of the media bay. I will check the properties and change them. Thanks for that!

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:00 pm

but I don't have to use the safely remove method, I just pull it out of the media bay.

You can lose data or corrupt the FAT (File Allocation Table) if you don't use the safely remove method.
But if the drive is setup for quick removal then there isn't any write caching performed on the drive and you can do this. But, performance is reduced with write caching disabled, could be why your having problems when using the 2nd harddisk. Write caching enabled makes a hugh difference in performance.