Still Disappointed . . . What Are My Doing Wrong?

[oka]

My concern is the quality of the end product after writing the DVD.
First of all. I will tell you what I use for video.

Source: Digital reception from the cable provider (Converter).
Medium: Sony Wega (This is a very supper quality flat screen picture)
Capture: AverMedia UltraTV 1500MCE
Views: On both TV and computer, picture is very crisp.
Editing: On my compter, picture is still very crisp (Also at preview).
Recorder: Micro Advantage & Toshiba DVD writers.
DVD Medium: I have tried DVD+, DVD-, on Fuji, Verbatim, & Value Disk.
Software: Video Studio (Trial)
Setting: 8000 kbps. Rendered to image before writing on DVD.

PROBLEM: The recorded video is not as crisp as on the TV & Computer.
I expect to have a digitally recored video from a DVD (and not to look like from a good analog source).

Would the problem be the type of disk or drive?
Does anyone get the same image quality on DVD as captured?
Please help. Thanks.

[GeorgeW]

What is the exact version of VideoStudio you are using? Is it a bundled version that came with your capture device? Have you checked the capture manufacturer's site for any updates to drivers and/or software?

when you capture, what are the properties of your captured videos? (mpeg-1, mpeg-2, bitrate, resolution, frame rate, etc...)

When you crete your disc, what are the properties of your project (in addition to 8000kbps) -- mpeg-1, mpeg-2, resolution, etc...

What sort of editing are you doing to the video (applying video filters, titles, etc)?

And when you create your image, is the program taking a long time re-rendering, or does it go by pretty fast?

[WhiteMoose]

I'm having the same problem .... quality of the pic looks great on TV and on the comp. but it's terribly grainy after making the DVD. I'm using a sony digital 8 video camera ... TRV-350

I was working off a laptop, but recently paid big bucks for a tower designed for digi video editing with 250gig memory / 1 gig ram / dual 3.0 processors .... etc ... H.P.

pretty heavy machine .. but still the grainy images...

I'm using video studio 6 and have picked up the patches .. but nothing changed ... Thinking about upgrading to VS 9, but want to make sure it will make it all better.

You mention 'resolution' in the properties section .... where would I look to see if its set at the highest resolution?

I'll watch the forum to see if anyone responds ...

Joel

[sjj1805]

I'm using video studio 6 and have picked up the patches .. but nothing changed ... Thinking about upgrading to VS 9, but want to make sure it will make it all better.

Why not download the 30 day trial? If you like it you can go ahead and buy it, if not....

[oka]

George W (you are not from the White House, are you?) this is for you:

Sorry I did not mention the version of VS Trial I am using - Video Studio v9.0 Trial
I downloaded it from the Ulead site.

The capture card I use work fine (I have all the neccessary updates). As I mentioned in my post,
the captured video looks crisp on the cable DVD recorder's drive, and on my computer also. In VS9
it looks same, very crisp. All looks good until after writing on a DVD.

I write to ISO file with a DVD - NTSC setting. The picture after writing does not make a difference if it was
just a thirty minute video at over a 8000kbps. The frame setting is automatic for DVD - NTSC default setting, so the resolution and frame rate is not my problem.

I don't do any editing to it. Both the ones I did editing to or not does not come out to my satisfaction. Some videos I remove the commercials and some, just straight recording where I only remove the begining and ending unwanted parts and I save the file. When ready, I insert the project name and voila I write to an image.

Yes the writing takes about four to five hours to write to an image - for a 70-minute video. I was told that was normal.
Time is not my problem, my goal is to have a good quality video like I view it on the computer after capturing.

I have the feeling it must be the rendering or the type of disc. I am not comparing me with the movie manufacturing, but I expect
to have something better than I am getting now - technology has gone far enough to have a good DVD quality home videos.
Before the DVD tech came out, it was the excitment about the new medium. What I get not is not better than if I would view
a VHS rented movie. I am still very disappointed.

[heinz-oz]

I assume that your captured video is already in mpeg format and when authoring to DVD gets compressed again. There is not much advice anyone can give without knowing the source format, project settings and final render settings.

More details please.

[oka]

I think I have provided more than I should. If there is no answer to my issue, I guess the answer will be that it is not possible to have a "crisp" home recorded DVD. I don't have any more information to give.
Thanks for all your time(s).

I will try another user board with a different software for solutions.

[heinz-oz]

@ caxtin

good luck with that, you may need it

[sytyguy]

Geeze caxtin, how do you expect to get any help with that kind of attitude?

I am a NOOB here, but when I saw your first post, my first thought was, "what is the source filetype"? Without that info, there is no helping you, and it appears you may not get any help with that attitude, anyplace.

Now, one thing that I am VERY good at is DVD formats, and the tools to backup those formats, so I was hoping to see your answer to the filetype, so perhaps I could help.....because as I indicated I am not much help on VS9....being a noob with it.

Good luck,

Rich

[sytyguy]

WhiteMoose,

I had the same problems except with VS9, very grainy. After much guidance here on this forum, I finally decided I should follow very closely the sticky at the top of this forum, on how to get VS9 to work to my satisfaction. Guess what, the final output was as good as my original video.

Download the trial version, and see how it works for you, you might like, I did.

Good luck,

Rich

[oka]

SYTYGUY (SOFTWARE)
If you read my report then you will really find out why I write the way I wrote. Even you complaining about me
did not read my write-up fully well. Excuse if I have an attitude. My first post said " Software: Video Studio (Trial)" then on Sept 27, GeorgeW asked me what version I use. The next day, the 28th, I replied I use the Video Studio (Trial) which I downloaded from the Ulead site. Now your post on the 29th, you don't feel I use VS9 (Trial).

SYTYGUY (SOURCE FILE TYPE)
Also, on my first post, the source filetype is the thing I explained most - Cable, Capture, bite-rate, DVD and more.
To my knowledge, all DVD formats are standard. All DVD files are in MPEG-2, or would I say I use the default DVD NTSC (4:3) and I have tried NTSC Mpeg2 (720x480) 29.97 fps. All these are default DVD formats.

SYTYGUY (DOWNLOAD TRIAL VERSION)
On my second post, I metioned I use a downloaded version of Video Studio 9.

SYTYGUY (STICKY AT TOP)
Sytyguy, I have read the "sticky at top". I guess I may have to read through it again, maybe I missed something.

HEINZ-OZ (SOURCE FORMAT)
Please explain to me what you really mean. Since English language is not my first language, maybe my so called "attitude" may come from not using it very well. What exact information are you looking for besides what I wrote in my first and second post. Please help me here. I capture into MPEG-2 (crisp video), edit in MPEG-2 (crisp video), and write to an ISO image file that gets written to a DVD medium - I have tried minus and plus formats.

Conclusively, no one has answered the question I have on my first post on "Would the problem be the type of disk or drive?" No one mentioned what make of DVD disc they use. I am sure the type of disc would have good effect on the final output. I remember the ever first DVD disc I bought from CompUSA (X1), were very poor in any format, this was then. I changed to a known name, Fuji and Verbatim, still the same. So SYTYGUY what make disc do you use and what format?

Regardless, thanks everyone.

[Ken Berry]

The one thing you still have not told us is perhaps one of the most important things: what Field Order was the original capture in? Upper Field First or Lower Field First? I think we are all assuming that you captured direct to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 format because you said you had not done any editing. But it would be nice to have that confirmed. In Video Studio, point your mouse at one of your captured files and right click on it, then select Properties and tell us exactly what is said there -- in English if possible, though there are people on this Board who could help with other languages, I am sure. (I can read French, Spanish and Portuguese very well, for instance...)

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about your AverMedia UltraTV 1500MCE card or device. I therefore don't know whether it can capture to DV/AVI format, or whether it has a hardware encoder to mpeg-2 or what Field Order it uses. Normally a capture device will correctly set the Field Order automatically for the source it is capturing from, but occasionally they do make mistakes. If you can find out how to set the Field Order, you could try capturing using the opposite Field Order to the one currently set, and try burning the new captured video to a re-writable RW disc so you don't waste anything if it does not work.

As for your discs and your burner, I can't really comment. I use a fairly cheap brand of discs from Taiwan called Princo which cost me about US$13 for 50 4x single layer discs. Of more than 1200 which I have burned to date, only 4 have been defective. I use both a Pioneer 108D 8x DVD+/- burner and an LG 16x +/- burner. I very occasionally use Maxell discs, which I find excellent, and another little known brand Shintaro. For RW discs I use both Maxell and Imation, all with good results. But I accept that some discs work better with certain types of recorders and might not work so well with others.

And as a lot of people on this Board will tell you, certainly you can get excellent high quality DVDs which are an almost exact copy of the quality of the original DV tape when you capture video from a digital video camera.

P.S. I think when sytyguy was asking about the version of Video Studio, he was asking Whitemoose, who had just posted a similar problem, and not you.

[sytyguy]

caxtin,

Well, all DVD files I have ever worked with are defined with folders that are named "AUDIO_TS" and "VIDEO_TS", not MPEG-2. If you do not believe me go look at a store bought movie DVD through Windows Explorer, and I believe you will see that is true. Like I said, I am a NOOB at VS9, but from my understanding and very little experience with VS9 it converted my files from AVI-MPEG-DVD format, which were accomplished. rather well, IMHO. However, I believe it will convert from MPEG to DVD format (SEE ABOVE) very well, and that rendering should be much more simple.

You might want to try DivxtoDVD (FREE), I believe it will convert MPEG-2 to DVD format (SEE ABOVE). You should be able to download it from afterdawn.com, sorry I do not have the link. Oh, in case you didn't get it, the output from DivxtoDVD will be in the format that I mentioned ABOVE (DVD format), do you GET IT?

Best regards,

Rich

[Ken Berry]

Rich, you are pretty well correct, but I'd like to add this. All video files on a DVD are mpegs. They may have started life in some other format, such as DV or AVI, but to burn to DVD, for the moment they have to be converted to mpeg format. The most common format is mpeg-2, and this will have different size frames depending on whether it is PAL or NTSC, and will run at just on 30 (29.97) fps if NTSC and 25 fps if PAL. The Field Order may be Upper Field First (Field Order B) or Lower Field First (Field Order A). The audio used on DVDs can also vary between the rock standard LPCM, but can also include MPEG audio and Dolby AV-3 two channel or 5.1 (or even higher) stereo.

I should also note that you can use mpeg-1 for DVDs, though the quality is not great, and you can also use smaller frames etc, but again the end quality will usually be less. You can also use certain mpeg-4 formats, which are much smaller though the quality can be excellent. Some video cameras are now available which shoot direct to mpeg-4, I believe, and there are also some players which will play DVDs burned with mpeg-4, but their number is still very small.

The purpose of programs like Video Studio is to convert whatever format you start off with to DVD-compatible mpeg. Usually that is done with your project in the timeline, and you have done all your edits, and then go to Share > Create Video File > DVD, and this will produce your DVD-compatible file. You can then close your project and select Share > Create Disc > DVD to open your burning module. You insert your DVD-compatible file and you must remember to click on 'Do not convert compliant MPEG files' in the Options icon in the bottom of the screen. You already have a DVD compliant file, so you don't want to waste time, and risk producing errors, by going through that conversion step again. What will happen then is the creation of your menus, chapters etc, and the audio and video will be multiplexed.

At this stage, you are correct when you say that in effect what is produced is a Video_TS folder which has inside it a variety of files, some small, some large, which have extensions like .BUP, .IFO and .VOB. But the thing that is important to remember is that the VOB ones are in fact the DVD-compliant mpegs you produced earlier. Indeed, you can download them back to your computer from a DVD, and simply change the extension from VOB to MPG and they will play as they are in a computer DVD player. All DVDs still have an AUDIO_TS file but they are just about always empty these days as the audio is multiplexed with the video in the Video_TS file.