Very poor quality result from editing HD video

[johngross]

I trust this the right place to raise the issue I'm having, and that I haven't missed any useful threads in my searches.

I am trying to produce a DVD for private use only from a recording of a free-to-air TV one-off program. The program was recorded by my PVR set-top box that we use to convert the digital (HD, I *think*!) signal for our old analog TVs.

After quite a lot of work - due more to my lack of expertise than anyhting else - I have a VideoStudio project that seems to play quite nicely on the PC.

However, when I burn a DVD, the result is very jerky and flickery - to me, it seems as if the frame speed is too slow.

On one attempt, I noticed that the final .VOB file was only about 2GB - 51 minutes of video - and I decided to try increasing the video bitrate (I think that's what it was). The new .VOB file was a little over 4GB, so I expected the quality to be better.

Not so! In fact (without being able to play the two DVDs at the same time) I think it might be even worse at the higher bitrate.

Can anyone suggest what I might be doing wrong... or, possibly more to the point, what I am not understanding?

[Ken Berry]

What we need to know first off are the Properties of the video you are editing. Please right click on one of the clips in the timeline or library windows, and copy ALL its Properties here.

[canuck]

I trust this the right place to raise the issue I'm having, and that I haven't missed any useful threads in my searches.

I am trying to produce a DVD for private use only from a recording of a free-to-air TV one-off program. The program was recorded by my PVR set-top box that we use to convert the digital (HD, I *think*!) signal for our old analog TVs.

After quite a lot of work - due more to my lack of expertise than anyhting else - I have a VideoStudio project that seems to play quite nicely on the PC.

However, when I burn a DVD, the result is very jerky and flickery - to me, it seems as if the frame speed is too slow.

On one attempt, I noticed that the final .VOB file was only about 2GB - 51 minutes of video - and I decided to try increasing the video bitrate (I think that's what it was). The new .VOB file was a little over 4GB, so I expected the quality to be better.

Not so! In fact (without being able to play the two DVDs at the same time) I think it might be even worse at the higher bitrate.

Can anyone suggest what I might be doing wrong... or, possibly more to the point, what I am not understanding?

VOB files in a Video_TS folder on a standard DVD are limited to about 1GB in size according to the DVD specifications. How did you create VOB's larger then 1GB?

Also if you convert HD video to standard mpeg video you may well lose some quality.

[X5learner]

As a finger in the air, 1 hour being roughly half the length of a film, 2GB would be a reasonable figure. If you're not seeing an increase in image quality with a higher bitrate then that suggests that bitrate isn't the issue. What format and resolution is your source material? If you watch your source in something like MPC-HC you'll be able to see the properties for it and these will tell you its dimensions and also the bit rate it's using for video. Put simply, if you drastically exceed the bitrate of your source material you're not doing anything but taking up extra disk space.

[johngross]

Thank you all for your responses.

I'll be away from home for two weeks starting today, but I will look at your suggestions when I get home.