Horrendous quality drop when converting AVCHD to DVD

[Capricorn12]

Having used a Panasonic DV camcorder for many years and used an early version of Videostudio to edit the footage onto DVD I was relatively happy with the quality of the finished film. As the camcorder was getting old I got new Panasonic full HD camcorder and the image quality was amazing. Sadly this meant a new PC and new editing software so I upgraded to VS X8 Ultimate after trying various free and freetrial programs. Burning AVCHD discs has retained that quality but even these are not without problems as some make my Samsung Blueray player vibrate quite alarmingly though I can improve that with careful fiddling. Not everyone has a Blueray player and so I convert my AVCHD footage to standard DVD for those people. Sadly the converted footage is really bad in certain situations. I take a lot of country house and garden clips and anything with a fair amount of detail, trees and flowers etc, can be quite hazy. If you pan on these subjects the whole thing goes to mush and is worse than footage I initially recorded to VHS tape many years ago and later copied to DVD. Converting 1920px to 720px is never going to be easy as it is not just a case of dropping every other pixel. 1440px to 720px would be a much easier task but my camcorder does not have 1440px resolution as an option. Recording using MP4 at 720 resolution gives jerky images so that is out too. So my question is: what steps can I take to improve conversion to DVD? Any suggestions will be gratefully received. Most of my footage is taken in 1080i PH or 1080P. I have a wedding to take for a friend shortly and worry about guests who request a DVD version of the ceremony so am getting worried. Edited for typos

[lata]

Hi

Yes I agree that converting Avchd to DVD does reduce the quality.

First go to Settings – Preferences – Edit tab – Resampling quality set to Best
This does appear to improve quality?

Your original footage should be 25fps or 29 fps for ntsc, the standard frame rate for a Bluray disc 1920 x 1080.

Render the project to same as original video properties, that should create a Bluray compliant video file.
For hybrid Avchd you may have to reduce the data rate to fit to disc.

Using the Bluray compliant video convert to DVD.
You should control the data rate depending on the duration of the video.
8000kbps for 75 minutes of footage (max) using Digital Dolby audio.
I would also use Constant rather than Variable for rates above 6500kbps


Can you give us the properties of your video file, right click a clip and select properties, create an image of that window to attach to your post.

Otherwise you may have to use other software to convert the files, Format Factory seems to do a reasonable job, although converts to progressive.

[asik1]

Another problem is your screen size. DVD resolution is ~ 1/5 HD , viewing that on 60" flat screen will never look good.
but on 29" CRT it looks great.

[Ken Berry]

I'm afraid that going from high definition to standard definition says it all! You're going to more than halve the frame size and bitrate, and both of these will mean that you will be more than halving the overall quality of your video. And I'm afraid that's the nature of the beast. Nothing much you can do about it apart from observing the various suggestions Trevor/lata has already made.

Your original video is 1920 x 1080 and probably using a bitrate which is above 18 Mbps. To make a DVD, which is standard definition to start with, you will only be able to convert it to use a frame size of 720 x 576 (PAL) or 720 x 480 (NTSC) at the absolute maximum (the international DVD standard) and a maximum bitrate of 8000 kbps (depending on how much you want to burn to a DVD -- 8000 kbps will allow only around an hour or a tiny bit more on a single layer DVD; and if the video goes more than that, then the bitrate -- and thus quality -- will reduce further.)

[Capricorn12]

Thanks so much for your replies. I probably should have mentioned that I am in the UK so use Pal at 25fps. I actually am using all the settings suggested and have 'best quality' set. I use a 32" LED TV to watch the finished DVD on. What I found odd was that the worst offending video (I have several on one disc but the total space taken is less than 4gb) was shot at 1080 50i PH so had a bit rate of 21,710kbps at 25fps. Another clip taken at 1080 50P looks pretty good but was taken indoors with less detail in the image but the final result was quite sharp and a lot better than the old camcorder. Having done a bit of researching last night it appears that AVCHD whilst being a lot sharper than mini DV tape compresses a lot more frames than DV tape did so is not as good with motion as DV tape was. I will do some more in depth testing as to the best format to start with but am not too concerned as the wedding I am doing will have very little motion and I will use a tripod so I can turn off image stabilisation which helps. Having worked for 16 years in the design and repair of CCTV cameras and recorders I know how the image can be degraded by compression but am surprised at the quality loss in this instance. I will come back when I have done more testing and have more concrete results. Thanks again for all your help as I am 70 and the old adage 'new tricks and old dogs' still holds true. Malc

[lata]

Hi Malc

You could try converting the 1920 x 1080 50i to 720 x 576 25P to see if that retains quality?
How long is the project? what data rate is being used for the DVD.?

The quality issue has been discussed a few times a search of the forums should find those posts.
I found video converters seemed to do a better job than VS, although I have to say my last attempt looked ok, then I only viewed on the pc.

Keep us informed of your progress

[Terfyn]

If you can't find a simple solution then invest in a Blu-Ray player. My Panasonic version also has a slot for SD cards. Render to AVCHD rather than SD and you will find the quality is much better. Currently all my videos are in AVCHD on a SD card and they display perfectly.

[pepegota]

I convert from AVCHD to DVD and the quality is good. At 10-15 feet there is little difference. What's the Hullabaloo all about?
My viewers don't complain about quality, and that's viewing on an LG 60" screen. I think it's more in the mind than in the eye. I use VideoRedo for the conversions.

[Capricorn12]

Once again thanks for the replies. As stated most scenes are pretty good when converted but some scenes where detail is high and there is motion the images look worse than vhs tape. I do have a blueray player and do make avchd discs which look brilliant as most of my films are less than 30 minutes. I will probably invest in a blueray burner as there will come a time soon when I need longer time at full hd. I know I am critical but I have a wedding coming up and you only get one shot at that so I wanted to get things sorted BEFORE the day. My tests so far reveal that it is only panning on high detail scenes that the effect shows. After reading the full specs for avchd and dv tape I now know why this happens more with avchd than it did with dv tape. The outcome is that I now know how to film to lessen this effect and that nothing I do when converting to dvd can help the situation. I have no problem with avchd discs and am sure blueray will be fine when I get it. For instances when I have to convert to dvd I know it is the best I can do within the cost restraints I have.