Hello (DVD quality?)

[Yugoman]

I have been using VS 11+ for a little while now and I am over some of the initial Headaches however, I have never been 100% happy with the final sharpness/quality of the finshed DVD when played back on a TV compared to the quality that went in from my camera.....is there some easy explanation as to what might help improve the quality.

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forums!

But I am afraid that before anyone can help you, you will need to give us more information. What kind of camera did the video come from? How did you capture it? Right click on one of the captured clips inside Video Studio and copy down ALL its properties here, please...

Also, what editing did you do, and what properties did you use to burn the DVD? Indeed, after editing, did you first produce a DVD-compatible mpeg-2 (Share > Create Video File > DVD)? Or did you jump straight to the burning module (Share > Create Disc > DVD)?

[Yugoman]

Thanks for the reply, this is obviously far more involved than I understand at the moment and in most cases I use the default settings.

I am using a Samsung VPD230 (and when plugged directly in to a tv produces great picture quality) video was captured by "firewire" not sure about properties to burn DVD (default settings) I usually create a video file first.

Properties of a clip: Microsoft AVI files-open dml, file size 313,274,25000 frames per second,data rate 3515.63, video compression dv video encoder type 1, attributes 24 bits 720x576 , 4.3 Does this help ?

[sjj1805]

Like everything else in life, everything is as good as the weakest link.
You appear from your post to be doing things correctly - attaching the camcorder to the computer with firewire and using DV (avi), full screen 720x576 pixels. You then create a video file before authoring a DVD.

What we need to consider is where things can go wrong and then you have to eliminate them.

1. Is your TV 4.3 or is it a wide-screen TV?
If you have a wide-screen TV then firstly check your camcorder to see if it can record in 16.9 mode and then do all your work in 16.9.
This will prevent your video from being stretched when you later watch it on your TV.

2. When you create the Video file before moving on to the authoring stage, work out what the best bit rate settings are. If you only have a hour or less video then you can use a high bit constant rate of 8000 kbps.
If it is longer - perhaps 90 minutes or 2 hours then you need to lower the bit rate. You can also use an audio format that uses less hard drive space so that more room is left for the video, in which case the video can have a slightly higher bit rate.
<Link> What Bit Rate Settings etc Should I use? <Link>

If you use a variable bit rate then use 2 pass conversion rather than the default 1 pass conversion. It takes longer but the result are better.

When you render a video, under the options facility, drag the quality slider up to 100%, it defaults to somewhere around 75%

3. Having created your newly edited MPEG2 file and you then go to the authoring stage, you don't want it rendered a second time so make sure you select "Do not convert compliant MPEG Files".

4. When you burn the DVD to disc do not use a high burning speed.
Ideally a burn speed of 4X provides good results. some combinations of blank disc and burner will not go that low so simply select the lowest available such as 6X.

5. Avoid heavy editing. The more you edit, the more the video gets changed from its original quality. By this I mean the addition of overlays, Titles, Transitions and anything of a visual nature.

I am sure our members here will throw more suggestions into the pot.