Very poor quality DVD/Blu-Ray

[sunnyr83]

Hi. Im new to the forum and video editing aswell, so in need of a couple of answers.

Ok, im a wedding photographer who has ventured into videography.
I recently shot a friends wedding with a Sony HVR Z1e camcorder. All went well, got great coverage but im now kinda stuck on the editing side.

I transfered the footage from the camcorder to my hard drive via Video Studio Pro X2, i captured in HDV and transfered in DV (i was told to do this).
Done all my editing and soundtracks well with no issues.

The problem im having is the quality once i have burnt it onto DVD, its very poor, flat colours and not sharp, face of the people standing around the wedding couple are near enough blurry.. Nothing compared to how it looks on the camcorder LCD screen.
Here is what i done... Edited my movie > Clicked on share > Create video file > Same as project setting > Rendered > Burnt the dvd. ( quality is very poor)
So i tried to burn directly to Blu-Ray.... Clicked on create disk > Blu-Ray > Burnt ( quality is still poor)
I didn't change any setting in the menus.

How can i get the same quality that i recorded and see on my camera onto DVD or Blu-Ray. Please explain in a step by step guide.
I have since bought Videostudio Pro X5 so i will be using that.

Thanks in advance, Sunny.

[sunnyr83]

Any help or advice would be appriciated.

[lata]

Hi

Apologies---the forum has been experiencing access /internet problems, I have been unable to use the forum for the past 48 hours. I know Ken in AU is having similar problems.

Please be a little patient, I am sure you will receive replies.

Just a couple of thoughts.

X2 is not fully compatible with Windows 7, have you installed all patches for X2

If You have recorded to HD I would have thought you should transfer the footage as HD not DVD. However I do not use HDV so the DVD option may be correct.

After editing create a new video file. The Same as project Properties may not be what you want? What are the project properties? (Create Video File DVD)
Then use the new file to burn a disc.

For DVD if you create a DVD folder or Disc Image instead of burning a disc you can play to check quality before committing to disc, saves on those coasters.

If you are intending to burn to Bluray you must capture to HD not DVD.

[skier-hughes]

Hi. Im new to the forum and video editing aswell, so in need of a couple of answers.

Ok, im a wedding photographer who has ventured into videography.
I recently shot a friends wedding with a Sony HVR Z1e camcorder. All went well, got great coverage but im now kinda stuck on the editing side.

I transfered the footage from the camcorder to my hard drive via Video Studio Pro X2, i captured in HDV and transfered in DV (i was told to do this). Who told you to do this? As Lata says, best to stick with HD until you need to produce your final movie.
Done all my editing and soundtracks well with no issues.

The problem im having is the quality once i have burnt it onto DVD, its very poor, flat colours and not sharp, face of the people standing around the wedding couple are near enough blurry Are the wedding couple in focus? What is in focus? if you play the video direct from the cam into a tv is it the same as the dvd? .. Nothing compared to how it looks on the camcorder LCD screen.
Here is what i done... Edited my movie > Clicked on share > Create video file > Same as project setting > Rendered > Burnt the dvd. ( quality is very poor)
So i tried to burn directly to Blu-Ray.... Clicked on create disk > Blu-Ray > Burnt ( quality is still poor) You started with HD footage, then lowered the resolution, thus quality, by going to SD, you cannot then get that quality back by making an HD blu ray disc, so if the SD is bad the HD from that will always be bad.
I didn't change any setting in the menus.

How can i get the same quality that i recorded and see on my camera onto DVD or Blu-Ray. Please explain in a step by step guide.
I have since bought Videostudio Pro X5 so i will be using that.

Thanks in advance, Sunny.

Capture as HDv from the cam using firewire.
edit the video as you did before.
Now is the time to decide on format, are you making a dvd or a blu ray?
Whichever you decide save a movie file to your hard disc in either HD or SD.
Start a new project, import the newly made video file into it and now make your dvd or blu ray disc.

For testing, try short sections of video, so pick a section that gave you grief in your first try, the out of focus bit, capture a bit of movement, some low light stuff etc. Then when you come to make your dvd make some dvd folders on your hard drive and play them through your pc dvd playing software to see what the result is like. Saves burning discs to try.

Also bear in mind that if you make an SD dvd then play it via an HD tv quality will suffer slightly as it's expanded back out to fill the screen size etc.

[sunnyr83]

Thanks alot for the replies.

A guy at work who used to be a videographer told me to transfer from my camcorder to hard drive in DV although i shot in HDV, i was a bit hesitant but went along with it as he seemed sure.

Could this be the problem then? as i said it is super clear when i play it on the camcorder LCD screen.
I will play it directly through my TV aswell, didn't think of that.

Am i doing everything else right in terms of burning. at first i did save it as project settings and made a VSP file, i then used Windows dvd maker to burn which resulted in poor quality.

I know the qualities there its just a matter of finding it.
I will transfer 20min or so off the dv tape from the camcorder to my hard drive in HDV mode and see if that works.

I know have VSP X5 uploaded so will be using this from know on.

Again thanks for taking the time out.

[skier-hughes]

I'd use the authoring part of VideoStudio to make and burn the dvd, better quality than dvd maker.
Make a full blown video file, not a VSP project file to make your dvd from, as per my instructions in the post above, otherwise you're good.

[lata]

Hi

Once you have the HDV video clip on the pc, import to the VS timeline.
Right click the clip and select properties, what are they?

Take a screenshot of the window and create an image to attach to your post, or type in the details.

The frame size will be 1920 x 1080 for HD, when you downscale for Standard Definition it will use 720 x 576 and that will reflect in the quality, even so should be very good.

[sunnyr83]

Thank you. Will report back with outcome shortly. Great help.

[Ken Berry]

Most of my video is shot using my Canon HV20 and so is HDV, so I know whereof I speak! One of the quirks of HDV camcorders is that they film natively in HDV, which is Upper Field First 1440 x 1080 25 Mbps mpeg audio. But if you download in DV format, then by some magic, it uses Lower Field First.

However, if you then use 'Same as Project Properties' and use the default VS Project Properties for a DVD, you will find that by default it uses Upper Field First. So your resulting video will not be good -- with some blurring and jagged edges on vertical lines or in panning shots.

So like the others above, I would strongly suggest to capture in HDV format, edit in HDV format, and only then decide what to do with your project according to the type of product you intend making. If like me you want to produce both Blu-Ray discs and DVDs for family members and friends who don't yet have a Blu-Ray player, then I would make two output products. The first would be to convert my HDV project into Blu-Ray format (which is a bit different from HDV format). And I would also separately convert the project to DVD-compatible standard definition mpeg-2. This latter will involve a quality hit since you are obviously going from high def to standard def, but the quality should still be good for a DVD.

Best of all, both processes avoid any chance of changing the field order, with Upper Field First being maintained throughout.

Last but definitely not least, try to avoid using 'Same as Project Properties' unless you are absolutely sure what those properties are and that they match what you are wanting to produce. A great failing of all recent versions of Video Studio is that the Project Properties can only be set for standard definition projects, and not high definition ones. So beware -- there be dragons!

[sunnyr83]

Bit of an update...

I have now transfered the wedding tapes over to Pro X5 in HDV mode and done a 6min test video onto dvd which resulted in a much better, sharp quality dvd as it should be.

Can someone please confirm what to do once i have done all my editing and im ready to burn onto Blu-ray disk.

Do i...

Create video file - as project settings - start new project - create disk - load saved file and burn as blu-ray.

Again thank you for all the help given, much appreciated

[Ken Berry]

NO!!! If you are wanting to burn an actual Blu-Ray disc from your HDV project, then NEVER use "Same as project settings". That is what I said above. Project settings by default are usually standard definition and made for, mostly, DVD production, not Blu-Rays.

So for the latter, you have your HDV project in the timeline, do your editing, then select Share > Create Video File and then select Blu-Ray as the output. That will, obviously enough, produce a Blu-Ray compatible file. Then you do as you suggested -- namely, start a new project to clear the timeline, then select Share > Create Disc > Blu-Ray, manually insert the Blu-Ray file you have prepared, build your menu, then proceed to burn the Blu-Ray disc.

[sunnyr83]

Ok understood now Ken, Thanks.

[sunnyr83]

So know that i have managed to sort out 1 problem i had, another has come up.

When i attempt to creat DVD/Blu-Ray and go to load the videofile i get this error message pop up...

The program has encountered an unspecified error and has stopped functioning.
Please contact Corel Technical Support and send the dump file for analysis.

C:\Users\AppData\Local\Temp\vstudio_15.1.0.34_20130107_21583.

It then closes the program, Whats going on here??

[Ken Berry]

I'm not sure -- but first I would go to that temp file and delete everything there. There might be something there which clashes with a main VS file....