DV -> MPEG1 - looks very crappy !!

eman wrote on 9/17/2003, 4:12 PM

I want to convert my DV footage to MPEG1 to share it online. MPEG1 is the format of choice as it's favoured amongst web surfers and it's compatible with virtually anything. I'll also be using WMV, which looks great. The raw DV is also great.

However, from my tests, which ever way I try to export MPEG1 it looks really crappy (choppy and has some severe noise). I want to note that I do'nt believe noise is due to bitrate pixelation as I use 1300kbps for the MPEGs.

I have tried every method possible that I could come up with:

DV -> TmpegEnc
DV -> AviSynth -> TmpegEnc
DV -> AviSynth -> Vfapi -> TmpegEnc

DV -> AviSynth -> CCE
DV -> AviSynth -> Vfapi -> CCE

DV -> MainConcept
DV -> Avisynth -> MainConcept
DV -> Avisynth -> Vfapi -> Mainconcept

DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> Mainconcept
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> TmpgEnc
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> CCE
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> MainConcept
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> AviSynth -> TmpegEnc
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> AviSynth -> CCE
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> AviSynth -> MainConcept
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> AviSynth -> Vfapi -> TmpgEnc
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> AviSynth -> Vfapi -> CCE
DV -> VegasVideo Editing -> FrameServer -> AviSynth -> Vfapi -> MainConcept

I am at a loss why it looks so crappy. Some DVDs that I encoded to MPEG-1 via CCE and TmpegEnc looked very good. Is this a DV -> MPEG-1 issue ?

Please help!

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/17/2003, 11:28 PM

I've made great looking mpeg-1's. Use a lower res (320x240). That will put more of the bitrate into the picture.
Also, what are your mpeg settings for vegas? Maybe you have a setting messed up somewhere.

AZEdit wrote on 9/18/2003, 12:05 AM

Not a DV issue. I generate MPEG 1 files all the time for bizcard CD's. These MPEG's look excellent...320 x 240 or 352 x 240. I use the VCD NTSC template... they look fine! I have compared the Vegas MPG1 to TPMGEnc MPEG 1 and to Panasonic's encoder my partner has- Vegas looks just as good if not better. However, we have the CCE encoder on our Discreet Fire system- I transfered the DV AVI to this system to use the CCE encoder, and depending on the filters used and the motion setting- the CCE looks substantially better- but at the price it costs- not that much better! I would have to say it is your settings that may be causing your bad video