VS X4: changed bitrate and DVD quality

[lezardsouffle]

I've just upgraded from VS 10 on an XP SP3 to VS X4 and Win7 Pro.

I take .TS videos from my cable box, convert it with VideoReDo to MPEG2, and edit/burn the resulting MPEG2 files to standard DVDs with VS. (Basically in VS, I use the cropping filter to black out the noise at the top of the screen, then add chapters, and burn without a menu.) Windows (File Properties, Details) always tells me that the TS and converted MPEG2 files have a variable bitrate max 15000kbps, and VS X4 says the same about the TS files, but it sees a MUCH lower max bitrate on the MPEG2s, often variable max 2000-4000kbps. (The shows recorded are standard def.)

On my old system, even though I always had the "Do not convert compliant MPEGs" box checked on the Create DVD Properties window, I guess it was always converting them anyway, because the green disk size indicator at the bottom would show that anything over 1 hour 20 minutes would need to be shrunk to fit on a single layer disc. But on my new system, even MPEGs that are 1 hour 50 minutes long are shown to only take up a third of a 4.7GB single layer disc (and only take about 15 minutes to render and burn vs. at least 45 minutes on my old system). Granted, my new system is a big step up from the old in terms of processing power and RAM, and if it was just the burn time that was different, I'd say, "Great." and leave it at that. But the DVDs I'm burning on the new system seem lower quality to me (lots of pixellation on pans/motion, etc.) than with VS10 on my old system, and I'm wondering if VS10 was somehow upconverting those low bitrate MPEGS to 8000kbps and X4 isn't. Ideas?

If I uncheck the "Do not convert compliant MPEGs" box, the green disk size indicator looks a lot more like it did on my old system -- filling a disc with 1 hour 20 minutes of content. Do you think if I burned discs with the "compliant" box unchecked and let it "fill the DVD" so to speak, I would get better quality DVDs like I did in the old days?

The MPEGs are the same, so I can't figure out why VS10 never saw them as "compliant" but X4 now seems to -- to the detriment of my discs.

Thanks for any insights.

[lezardsouffle]

No responses, so let me shorten this query:

What are the advantages/disadvantages of unchecking the "Do not convert compliant MPEGs" box when burning a standard DVD of a compliant (yet very low variable bitrate) MPEG2 file?

Thanks.

[Ken Berry]

The advantages of ticking the box are twofold. First, it saves time in producing your DVD. Second, it would normally preserve all the properties of your original video, including the bitrate and thus, the quality. But that doesn't seem to be working in your case.

Not ticking the box means that the video will be re-rendered with new properties. As it is mpeg, it is lossy, so ever new render means some loss of quality -- though ironically, it sounds as though, in your case, that the quality may improve. And the second disadvantage, if you can call it that, is that a render takes more time.

But at the end of the day, only you can tell whether you are getting better quality one way or the other. And you don't have to waste a disc in trying. On the final burn page, untick the Create Disc box, and tick instead 'Create DVD Folders' box. This will convert your project into a Video_TS folder that you will find on a burned DVD, and you can play it back on any software DVD player to gauge its quality for yourself.