Pixelated video in "2 hour" mode?

[sclarsky]

Hi,
I have a "captured" DV-AVI Type 2 video that I'm trying to burn onto a DVD. I have not edited this at all.
If I burn a DVD in "one hour" mode (VBR 6000 kbs?), it looks great in my Sony DVD player.
But, if I try to sqeeze 2 hours of video by changing to "2 hour" mode (VBR 2500 kbs?), I see an unacceptable amount of pixelation, especially when there is any movement in the video.
I've seen many others report problems with pixelation, flickering, etc., but no one has mentioned that the targeted data rate has made a difference...
Thanks in advance for any and all opinions!
DaveS.

[lwolff123]

This probably requires experimenting due to differences in methods of capture, etc. Use constant bitrate down at 2500 and see if it goes away - if not increase until it disappears.

lwolff123

[sclarsky]

Hmm, so you think it is something different about the capture? I thought that there were only 2 types of DV "capture", Type1 and Type2?
I did try CBR at around 2500, and it is still there. I can try increasing until it disappears, but then I won't get my 2 hour video on one DVD.
Any explanation as to why this is happening?
Is it a limitation of the ULead encoder, or will I find the same problem with any S/W?

[GeorgeW]

Hi,

The pixelation is probably due to the low bitrate you are using.

Try mpeg or Dolby Digital audio at 192kbps, and a CBR video bitrate of ~4800kbps (you could try 2-pass VBR also, but it will take twice as long to encode). Keep in mind that if you are adding motion menus, background music, and an extra data folder that you will need to adjust down the video bitrate accordingly...

Regards,
George

[T_Scheen]

If you insist on a 2500 kbit/sec Video rate:
Try to half the horizontal resolution in the settings when capturing/authoring. Meaning from 720x480 to 352x480 (NTSC). This still produces Mpeg2/DVD-compliant clips.

Thomas

[sclarsky]

I didn't think that it was too much to expect to be able to fit 2 hours of video onto a single-layer DVD, but maybe I'm wrong?

I like the idea of trying 2-pass VBR, but does DMF support this (I didn't see such an option)?

I could also try the suggestion of halving the resolution, but I'm afraid the quality will suffer, but maybe not. I'll try a short clip this way and see what I see!

By the way, I downloaded Nero last night, and will experiment with it's encoder. I think it can do 2-pass VBR..

Thanks for all of the input!
DaveS.