Video Quality of DVD?

[FlyingVee]

Hi - new user of VideoStudio here. I'm probably like most people with something new, I wanted to get started right away and use it without really learning about it.

I had three .MP4 files (Canon Vixia VC) combined around 40 minutes that I was able to pretty quickly render to DVD with titles, etc. Question: The video quality when watching the DVD is not good. Is it possible that I missed making some settings during the process that would have upped the quality of the DVD?

thanks for any insight.

[asik1]

well, you know that DVD is only SD, do you?
and your source? HD ?

[FlyingVee]

OK. But when I directly burn the .MP4 files to a DVD (not using VideoStudio) the quality is much better on playback.

More details here, I'm only able to fit one of the 2 on a DVD this way. Sorry, original post is wrong I combined 2 files with VideoStudio and rendered those to 1 DVD.

[Ken Berry]

But when I directly burn the .MP4 files to a DVD (not using VideoStudio) the quality is much better on playback.

More details here, I'm only able to fit one of the 2 on a DVD this way.

Can you tell us which program you used to burn the MP4 files to a DVD? And can you also tell us whether you played that DVD back on a Blu-Ray player as opposed to an ordinary standard DVD player? When you look at the structure of that disk on Windows File Explorer, does it show a STREAM folder, or a Video_TS folder?

I ask because it sounds like you might have burnt that one mp4 on a blank DVD disk but burnt it as what is called either an AVCHD disk or hybrid disk. That is burning high definition mp4 (which is what AVCHD is) to a DVD disk but in high definition Blu-Ray format (which stores the video in a STREAM folder). Such disks have much higher quality than standard definition DVDs, but can only be played back on Blu-Ray players. Moreover, using default settings, you would normally only be able to burn about 20 to 25 minutes worth of such video onto a single layer DVD blank disk. Your saying that you could only fit one of your videos onto the disk seems to support my interpretation.

The problem is, as asik suggested, that for a standard definition normal DVD, you have to down-convert your high definition mp4 to standard definition mpeg-2. That is because the international DVD standard will only accept standard def mpeg-2 on a DVD. Your original mp4 probably has a bitrate of at least 16 or 18 Mbps or perhaps even higher. A higher bitrate means higher quality. But the international DVD standard says that it can only accept a total bitrate of both the video and audio of no more that 10 Mbps. Normally this means for the video, it can only have a bitrate of 8 Mbps, and this is of course half or less than half of the original bitrate, and thus half or less than half the original quality. But that bitrate will allow around an hour of video to be burnt to a single layer DVD in the best quality a DVD is capable of (which is not as good quality as you get on a Blu-Ray or hybrid disc.)

[aljimenez]

Why are you creating DVD's? Can you use a flash drive to share your videos? Or use Vimeo or Youtube? DVD's will disappoint now that we are getting used to 4K video.

[FlyingVee]

Thanks for the replies and help. I'll give more info here.

I downloaded the 2 .MP4 files from the video camera to my computer hard drive. I then just used Windows Explorer to burn each file to 2 separate DVD's. So it's just like I am archiving and saving data (I do have external hard drives which I use to archive). So, there is no STREAM folder or anything else, they are just files on the DVD.

#1 .mp4 - 2,680,100 KB
#2 .mp4 - 2,829,688 KB
total is 5,509,788 KB.

I get the fact that they both won't fit on 1 standard DVD. Why do I want to put the video on DVD? Because I want to give the footage to family members to play on their DVD players, and I want to be able to play on my DVD player. I have a combo DVD/DVR which I use for other purposes so I'm not willing to go to a Blue-Ray at this time. The .MP4 files just copied to a DVD will not play on my DVD player; they WILL play on my computer fine. They will not play on my DVD player just converted to MPEG-2 or any other format. I can convert them to MPEG-2 and put them on a memory stick and insert into the USB drive on the TV. But again, I want them to play on a DVD player.

Back to my original question. I get it that it's not magic, and to fit the video of both files on a one DVD using VideoStudio, it MUST downgrade the video somewhere. Or does it? That's what I don't know. The quality that I got from using VideoStudio was not very good, so I'm wondering if I missed some last step setting before I pressed the button for VS to start the burn. (I want to add that I really liked using VideoStudio to put titles etc. on the video, effects between scenes and things.)

I see on the DVD VS created that the actual video looks to be on .VOB files, but I don't recall choosing that format or indicating any desired quality. Or maybe I don't have the option to do any of that. That's what I'm asking!

Thanks,

FlyingVee

Can you tell us which program you used to burn the MP4 files to a DVD? And can you also tell us whether you played that DVD back on a Blu-Ray player as opposed to an ordinary standard DVD player? When you look at the structure of that disk on Windows File Explorer, does it show a STREAM folder, or a Video_TS folder?

I ask because it sounds like you might have burnt that one mp4 on a blank DVD disk but burnt it as what is called either an AVCHD disk or hybrid disk. That is burning high definition mp4 (which is what AVCHD is) to a DVD disk but in high definition Blu-Ray format (which stores the video in a STREAM folder). Such disks have much higher quality than standard definition DVDs, but can only be played back on Blu-Ray players. Moreover, using default settings, you would normally only be able to burn about 20 to 25 minutes worth of such video onto a single layer DVD blank disk. Your saying that you could only fit one of your videos onto the disk seems to support my interpretation.

The problem is, as asik suggested, that for a standard definition normal DVD, you have to down-convert your high definition mp4 to standard definition mpeg-2. That is because the international DVD standard will only accept standard def mpeg-2 on a DVD. Your original mp4 probably has a bitrate of at least 16 or 18 Mbps or perhaps even higher. A higher bitrate means higher quality. But the international DVD standard says that it can only accept a total bitrate of both the video and audio of no more that 10 Mbps. Normally this means for the video, it can only have a bitrate of 8 Mbps, and this is of course half or less than half of the original bitrate, and thus half or less than half the original quality. But that bitrate will allow around an hour of video to be burnt to a single layer DVD in the best quality a DVD is capable of (which is not as good quality as you get on a Blu-Ray or hybrid disc.)

[lata]

Hi
First if we burn a DVD Disc the files will be burnt as Vob files, these are effectively Mpeg2 files.
A disc holds 4.3 Gb of data, each Vob being 1 Gb.
The Mpeg2 files have to be lower than 4.3 to fit to disc.

As a guide the data rate controls the size and quality of the video
At 8000kbps will allow for 75 minutes of video to a disc, assuming using Digital Dolby audio.
Using 6000kbps will allow for 90 minutes of video?
4000kbps for 120 minutes ( VHS quality)

The question is how long are your two movie files? That will determine the data rate.

As they are MP4 they will use frame base rather than interlacing
Using Share Mpeg2 choose the option

MPEG-2 (720 x 576, 4:3, 25p, 8Mbps) for Pal
or
MPEG-2 (720 x 480, 16:9, 30p, 8Mbps) for Ntsc

Oh before continuing go to F6 – Preferences – Edit tab and set Resample Quality to Best.

Render each of your videos to Mpeg2
Play to check quality
Start a new project
Share -- Disc DVD – opens the burner module
Add your video files here.
On the final page choose to create a disc Image, the iso file can then be player using VLC media player to check quality
If ok burn the iso to disc

[FlyingVee]

Thanks for the tips.

I need so clarification: I created a VideoStudioX10 project, imported the 2 .mp4 files, created text overlays, etc. and saved it as a VS project file. This is what I then called up on the Share tab/DVD burn step. Are you saying that rendering the 2 files separately and THEN calling those up on the Share step would give better quality?

Both videos total around 45 minutes together.

[canuck]

If you first render each video to mpeg2, you can check the quality before burning and don't waste DVDs

A properly created video DVD (playable on all DVD players as well as a computer) should have a series of files with the extensions ifo, bup and vob

[FlyingVee]

What if I want to create text overlays, transitions between scenes? I think I'm missing something. Or are you saying the quality will be the same as if I burn the VS project?

And here's a question, what if the quality isn't good, do I have any recourse?

If you first render each video to mpeg2, you can check the quality before burning and don't waste DVDs

A properly created video DVD (playable on all DVD players as well as a computer) should have a series of files with the extensions ifo, bup and vof

[Ken Berry]

To repeat what has already been said above, you cannot produce a standard definition DVD and expect its quality to be anything like the high definition original mp4 video it came from. As I for one said, as did lata, bitrate governs quality. Your original mp4 will have a bitrate of at least 16 to 18 Mbps and possibly even higher. But in the process of producing a video DVD (rather than a data/archive DVD as you have done) the high def mp4 MUST be down-converted to standard definition mpeg-2, which will have a maximum bitrate of 8 Mbps -- that is to say half or even less than the original mp4, and thus also half or less than half of the original quality. It will still be good quality for a DVD, but nowhere near as good as the original or as good as it would be if you produced a Blu-Ray disc.

With two clips totaling around 45 minutes you would have no trouble at all adding overlays, music, voiceovers, transitions and titles and still be able to use the 8 Mbps (that's 8000 kbps) bitrate to get the best quality it is possible to get from a DVD. But to say it once again: you just can't expect the quality of a DVD to look as good as the quality of your original high definition mp4.

[FlyingVee]

OK thanks guys. I'm slowly getting it. I have no experience with video and scant experience with processing photos. I'll keep learning and experimenting with VideoStudio.