Question of best burn disc setting.

[tommytucker]

I have always been burning DVD designed for TV playback as DV 4:3. My question is that I have a 52 Samsung 720p or 1080i plasma that I tend to view most of my creations on. My Digicam is a JVC FR-D72U so I am not shooting in 16:9 or in HI Def. My Phillips DVD players does upconvert standard DVD into Hi Def though. What is the best burn setting then for playback on my plasma? I don't have a Bluray or HiDef burner, but want to make sure that if I am going to view the project on a pretty nice set like this, that I should be staying with DVD 4:3 or some other output setting.

[Ken Berry]

The only consideration is ever going to be: how big is your project? The only way to get the highest quality settings is to increase your bitrate (to 8000 for the highest quality setting). But that of course means that you can fit less video on a single layer DVD. So with your highest quality setting with that bitrate, it means you can only burn about 1 hour to a DVD, or a little more if you use Dolby or mpeg layer 2 audio. If you project is longer, then you reduce the bitrate -- and the qualilty -- accordingly (6000 = 90 minutes; 4000 = 2 hours). There's no magic involved.

But just be aware that even using the highest quality settings, and with a frame format of 4:3, and even with a bit of upscaling in the Philips, your standard definition DVDs are still going to look pretty ordinary in a widescreen 16:9 high definition TV, especially one that large if it is set to 1080i. It might look a bit better if set to 720p...

[tommytucker]

I am only interested in burning smaller projects and don't think most people would watch over an hour or what I made anyway. So best quality for playback and viewing short of having a Hi Def Digicam is what I am looking for here. I just noticed that you can apparently output to WMV HD and such and did not know if burning that kind of content to a standard DVD even upconverted would be a help. Sounds like just stick with DVD 4:3 since I do not shoot in 16:9 and keeping video bitrate at 8000 is the best setting here? I will look into setting my TV to 720p instead of 1080i.

[Ken Berry]

A video DVD, by international standard, can ONLY use standard definition mpeg-2 (and lower quality mpeg-1 in some circumstances). So if that is your intention, you have no choice but to use the highest quality standard def mpeg-2 settings. If the DVDs are only going to be for your own home consumption, you could run a test and increase the VBR to a max of, say, 9500 kbps. But just be aware that the usual max of 8000 kbps is what is usually given because many stand-alone DVD players will start behaving erratically, skipping bits of video, or even stopping dead, when they are trying to play a DVD whose video component has a bitrate of much over 8000...

Now if you had a Sony PlayStation 3 or other Blu-Ray rated player, you could burn AVCHD files to a standard DVD in high def format, and play them back in high def on your big screen. Or with the PS3, you could burn HDV, AVCHD or WMV HD files as data files to a DVD in a folder labeled 'VIDEO' in upper case, and put them in the PS3 which would detect the data and play it back in true high def. Or you could network the PS3 and play the high def files directly from your computer to the HDTV...

But as you don't have such a player, we are left with the single standard def option already described...

[tommytucker]

as the format wars are over, BluRay is possibly on my gotta get list so for future reference that will be noted.

[Gisela Richter]

I will look into setting my TV to 720p instead of 1080i.[/quote]

I would be very interested to hear whether your DVD's look OK on your television. As it is a 720p set they should be OK if my hunch is right. On a 1080p set they would be awful! I know because I've tried it.

You can't "upgrade" a standard DV. Any messing around trying to get more out of it than what's in it would only make it worse.

[Black Lab]

I would be very interested to hear whether your DVD's look OK on your television. As it is a 720p set they should be OK if my hunch is right. On a 1080p set they would be awful! I know because I've tried it.

I think that is a pretty general statement. A lot of different things factor into it, including the quality of the DVD, as well as the TV. Not every TV displays things the same way. When I was picking out my LCD TV some were far superior in their HD display, but their SD display was not. Since I knew I would be watching both HD and SD I picked a TV that seemed to be the best at both (and still within my price range). It's not the best at HD, nor is it the best at SD, but shows both pretty well. My SD DVDs produced with VS look pretty good.

[Gisela Richter]

[quote=" It's not the best at HD, nor is it the best at SD, but shows both pretty well. My SD DVDs produced with VS look pretty good.[/quote]

You don't say what sort of TV you have. Is it a 720p set or a 1080p?
I agree with you entirely about the quality of the TV set, particularly what the French call "traitement video" which means the software or whatever in the Tv set that does all the converting etc. Sony does it with "Bravia", Philips with "Perfect Picksel". According to the reviews Philips seems to be reliable for this all important job of handling the different formats.

[Black Lab]

My TV is a Vizio

Supported TV Formats
1080i, 720p, 720i, 480p, 480i

[Gisela Richter]

My TV is a Vizio

Supported TV Formats
1080i, 720p, 720i, 480p, 480i

Thank you Jeff, it confirms my hunch. Your TV is what the French call a 720p set, which, as I have suggested elsewhere is probably the best compromise if you have a lot of standard video recordings that you want to continue to enjoy. They will look awful on a 1080p set, as Kenn also points out, unless perhaps you have a set with very good format treatment. Whether you lose much in HD viewing as compared to the higher resolution 1080p, depends, I would say on the size of your screen and your viewing distance. With a 37" or smaller I doubt that you'd notice any difference. The bigger the screen the greater the difference will proably be. But the only alternative to this compromise would be to keep your old TV if you have room, or satisfy yourself with viewing your old DVD's on your computer screen.

[tommytucker]

started offering 1080p. But the contrast (blacks) in the Plasma just blew away the LCD I was looking at...for the price point anyway..at the time. I think DISH network set my set for 1080i, the Phillips DVD upconverts to something like HD, Standard Netflix and VS10+ made DVD look full screen and very detailed on 52 Samsung. I hear what you are saying about just keeping the VS project as DVD Mpeg and go for higher 8000 bitrate until I ever move to true HD Bluray.

[etech6355]

tommytucker,

If you capture in HDV format it should be very high quality.

In your situation because you don't have a high def player BUT you do have a dvd player that performs up conversions then simply batch convert or convert your HDV to standard dvd mpeg2 video w/Dolby 5.1Audio @448kbs (High Quality)
The higher the bit-rate the better the quality.

Under VS Preferences (F6 HotKey) make sure to select "BEST" as the re-sampling quality, the default is "GOOD"
Project Settings should match HDV (same as source)

Suggestions for High Quality DVD's made from AVCHD OR HDV HighDef mpeg2 Source Videos:
Framesize = 720x480 (NTSC) / 720x576 (PAL)
FrameRate = 29.97 (NTSC) / 25 (PAL)
Fielding = Upper Field First (match sources)
Aspect Ratio = 16:9 (match source)
Compression/Quality = 100%
Video Bit Rate = Variable 9000kbs - 9500kbs ( 9500kbs is best )
Audio = Dolby 5.1 @ 448kbs

A PS3 will playback this DVD with excellent results. Using a PS3 with the DVD up converting set to "NORMAL". In this mode the PS3 will up convert the non-copy protected dvd to match the PS3 settings that are setup for the HDTV., which of course depends on the HDTV, either 720P/1080i/1080P.

An up converting dvd player should yield similar results when playing back on a HDTV. You will have to play with the setup adjustments on the upconverting dvd player.

The videos should look excellent if encoded at a high bit rate and then up-sampled through a player and displayed on a HDTV.

They even look great on a standard 480i TV, and excellent on an up converter dvd player -> HDTV..

[Gisela Richter]

[quote="etech6355"]tommytucker,

If you capture in HDV format it should be very high quality.

I'm afraid you have misunderstood, etech, Tommy does NOT record in HDV.
He only has a standard DV camcorder.

[etech6355]

Oops, Thanks for pointing that out, missed that part, better use lower field for DV.

I'll leave the post as is because those are good settings anyway as long as one uses the correct fielding.
Sorry.