How to share: AVCHD disc and MP4 of the same project?

[Raikku]

Hi
and thank you again. I will contact Corel Support and will report back, if there is anything to report.

[Raikku]

Hi Lata
Thank you for your answer. It has been a while but I have been away. Problem solved, though (I hope!)
I did contact Corel support but the main help came from Corel USER to USER Web Board as I happened to read this viewtopic.php?f=1&t=63549 .
Though the problems were not the same as mine ( I got even more problems later), otherwise what happened and how it happened seemed familiar to me. So I came to the conclusion that my problems are caused by a version collision, too.
I did the same as the he did. Removed both Corel VS 10 and 2018, executed all the clean-up tools three or four times, rebooted, then reinstalled VS2018. Now it seems to work fine. A have not had time to test it more but at least I got my latest project finished ok, nicely burned on a DVD-DL and as a M2t-file. Maybe I’ll be brave enough to start a new project with VS2018, too.

[Raikku]

As to the subject of giving the videos away to friends, I tried today to burn a standard DVD from my AVCHD .m2ts files by converting the footage to Mpeg4 first and then burning to the disc. The quality was absolutely terrible! Am I doing something wrong because I have the feeling that some time (2-3 years) ago the quality was still acceptable?

[Ken Berry]

The format required by the international DVD standard is mpeg-2 not mpeg-4. All MPEG files are lossy, so by going from AVCHD to mpeg-4 there is one degree of loss of quality, then the mpeg-4 has to be down-converted again during the burning process to mpeg-2. So that is another degree of loss of quality, added to the fact that down-converting high definition AVCHD to standard definition video is already involving a significant loss of quality.

In other words, you should convert your AVCHD video to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 and use that to burn a standard definition DVD. To repeat myself, the quality of video on a standard DVD, however, will never be as good as your AVCHD original video. The only way of getting that would be to burn the AVCHD onto a standard DVD blank disk but as a hybrid AVCHD disc. And as you know, you then have to have a Blu-Ray player to play such a disc.

[Raikku]

Well, that is what I did at first and tried to burn my project to a DVD. CVS then said “Convert step got some problems” and I thought, OK, that is not possible then, this must be the wrong way. Then I tried converting to mpeg4 instead…

[Ken Berry]

"Convert step got some problems" means that the conversion from AVCHD to mpeg-2 was taking place in the burning module and that something had gone wrong. This also means that you had the project in the Edit timeline, and when you finished editing you went straight to Share and chose DVD as the output. When the burning module opened, its timeline already had your project in it.

That workflow should work, but sometimes it doesn't. What is appearing in the burning timeline is the project file (*.vsp), not video. A VSP file is only a small text file telling VS what video is in the project, where it is stored, and what editing has been done to it.

What I am suggesting is that while still in the Edit module, after you finish editing, you go to Share and choose MPEG-2 as the output and not DVD. Depending on the size of your project, you might even be able to accept the default properties that appear when you choose MPEG-2. For a PAL project, these will include the standard DVD-compatible frame size of 720 x 576 (480 for NTSC), 25 fps (29.97 for NTSC), Upper Field First, a bitrate of 8000 kbps plus Dolby audio. If your project is 60 - 70 minutes long or less, then these properties are fine to produce a DVD-compatible mpeg-2 which will fit on a single layer DVD with the highest quality possible for a DVD (which as I said above will inevitably be a lesser quality than your high def original video.)

If your project is longer than 70 minutes, then go to Share > Custom and choose "MPEG files (*mpg)" as the output format. If your project is 90 - 100 minutes long, then the first set of preset properties -- the same as those in the previous para but with a bitrate of 6000 kbps -- will be fine. If your project is longer, up to two hours, then you will need to change the Settings (the white cogwheel icon to the right of the downward pointing arrow) to 4000 kbps. But note that this bitrate will give you a final quality no better than a VHS videotape. You may also want to change the default audio in these settings from standard LPCM to Dolby as this will give you an extra few minutes you can squeeze onto the DVD, though no more than about 10 minutes.

Then press start and wait while your project is converted to DVD-compatible mpeg-2. When it is done start a new project. No need to give it a name -- the objective is just to clear the timeline.

Then go to Share > DVD. When the burning module opens, its timeline should be empty. If there is anything there, delete it. Then go to Add Media in the top left of the burning module and navigate to where your new mpeg-2 file is stored, and add it to the burning timeline. Build your menu then burn. This time you should not get the error message, and you should get a final DVD.

[Raikku]

Hello Ken

Thank you so much. I had totally forgotten to check the frame size. Thank you for reminding. I succeeded in burning the DVD and now the quality is acceptable (but still pretty horrible but I can understand why).

The problems I had before in rendering are nearly gone (except the slight shakiness) but it seems like I have to reinstall CVS every now and the, because the problems seem to return if I do not. Unfortunately Corel support does not seem to be able to find a reason, why.