Dvd poor quality when played on TV

stilltrying wrote on 4/8/2005, 12:27 AM

I am a new user to Vegas Movie Studio & DVD. I have just completed a project - worked beautifully & all previews are great, but when I burned the DVD & played it on the DVD player it was very por quality. The quality is good when it is a still picture, or the video is still on a subject, BUT as soon as the camera pans around or moves to another subject, there is so much "jitter & sort of blurring" that you can't watch it. ( I am mindful of not moving the camera quickly, so it is not that.) I am using good quality DVD-R discs.

Following is a history of what I have done since the first poor quality disc to try & elimate any problems:

Disc 2: I deleted all the rendered files etc & went back to Movie Maker & checked that the project properties were PAL (they were) & rendered the project again & when in Arcitect made sure it was set on PAL & changed the bit rate to 6 in Optimize (I thought a slower rate might help). I then used a burn speed of 1x. Result was the exactly the same as the first time.....poor!

Disc 3: I then thought the problem might be the DVD player( a new JVC) or disc, so I used the ULEAD VideoStudio 8 editing program I had been using before I bought the Vegas one, & the same brand DVD. I put a video file, a few still photos & a music file on it ( same original files I had used with Vegas, but I didn't edit it properly). I rendered it & burnt a DVD. The QUALITY OF THE VIDEO ON THIS DVD IS PERFECT., so that rules out a problem with the DVD player or the disc. The only thing I did differently with this one was the music file, as the original project had a MPEG4 audio file & Ulead wouldn't accept it, so I used a .wav one instead.

Disc 4: I then thought that maybe it was the music file that was the problem, so I went back to the Vegas Movie maker & deleted the music & replaced it with the same .wav audio files I had used in Ulead. I rendered it again & went to Arcitect etc & made another DVD. I left the bit rate in Otimize at the default 8. The quality is exactly the same as Disc 1....jittery & unwatchable

Disc 5: The only other thing I could think of was that the Ulead program used a burn speed of 4x ( you couldn't alter that), so i tried another disc using Vegas with a burn speed of 2x ( it only gave me the option of 1x or 2x). This was even worse & even the audio at the end of the disc was distorted. Maybe all the rendering has now stuffed it up.

There is a HUGE difference in the video quality between the DVD produced using Vegas & the disc produced using Ulead 8. I just don't know what to do next. Hope someone can help??????
I have a Panasonic MiniDV NV-DV99 Camcorder. I have been unable to capture in Vegas MS as I can't get it to find my camera (have it connected from the i-link on camera to computer using a PCI Firewire & 1394 controller card). I foundI could capture using my old Canopus EZDV editing program & firewire connected to the Canopus card, & then I was able to load the .avi files into Vegas, so I am editing .avi files & Vegus is producing a VF file(don't know what that means or where you chose the output file it produces when it renders your project). Hope that makes sense...I am learning quickly!!

I am new to editing & don't understand the diferent formats & what they mean. I have used ULEAD VideoStudio8 a little & made a few DVDs.....they all worked & were great quality, but I found the program limiting , which is why i bought the Vegas product.

I made the project in Movie Studio4, then clicked on 'Make Movie' & chose 'Burn DVD'. The project then rendered & took me to MSArchitect which seemed to automatically load the files. I chose 'Prepare & then Burn. I checked that the properties were set to PAL, as I live in Australia.
I have just looked at the video & audio files in Architect & this is what it says:-
Video:
File type: MainConcept MPEG-2
Video 720x576x32 25,000fps Stream 1
Length: 00:41:02:11
Audio
File Type: wave(Microsoft) Stream 1
Audio 48,000Hz 16 bit, Stereo
Maybe I should have rendered the project to a different format & then imported it into MSArchitect2?????
Sorry for all the silly questions!! I just want to edit all the family video files we have & put them on DVD's, so they can be enjoyed.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 4/8/2005, 1:47 AM

Stilltrying,
The VF file is just a project file, used to store the information about what you've done with the video in terms of editing, lengths, filters, etc. It stands for Video Factory, which is what Vegas Movie Studio used to be called years ago.

In Vegas Movie Studio, render your file as an avi. (make movie, save on hard drive)
Then, in DVD Architect Studio, import the .avi, and let it do the rest. That should give you good finished vid. If your vid is 41 mins in length, you should get a pretty good encode/compression to MPEG from DVD Architect Studio. I'm wondering if somewhere in all this, you're recompressing an MPEG file twice. That's a bad thing, usually.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 4/8/2005, 6:03 AM

> The quality is good when it is a still picture, or the video is still on a subject, BUT as soon as the camera pans around or moves to another subject, there is so much "jitter & sort of blurring" that you can't watch it.

This sounds like a field-order problem. You say you are capturing with the Canopus DV codec. Is it possible that Vegas Movie Studio may be misinterpreting the field order in the file (causing it to reverse) and Ulead is interpreting it correctly? DV video is lower-field first. When you have your video on the Vegas Movie Studio timeline, right-click on it and select Properties.... In the Video Event Properties dialog, press the Media Properties button. Under Field Order: it should say Lower Field First. Does it?

The first thing I would try and fix is why your camera is not seen by Vegas Movie Studio. I believe if you capture with the Vegas DV codec, your problems will go away. When you plug you camera into the firewire port, does windows acknowledge that it sees the camera and offer to load an application (with Vegas Movie Studio in the list) to capture video? This is what should be happening.

There is a forum dedicated to Vegas Movie Studio in which you’ll probably get more help since people who have this program and use it every day hang out there. Not that you’re not welcome here, but people here mostly use Vegas (not the Movie Studio version)

~jr

stilltrying wrote on 4/8/2005, 6:39 AM

Thanks Johnnyroy.
I checked the video file & it says Upper Field first. The PAL DV template is Lower Field First, so that could be the conflict. I found you could change it to Lower field First when in Media properties........would that work??

I will look on the other forum...I thought this one was it . Sorry for all the "dumb " questions, but am on a steep learning curve!

Re- the camera. I am using windows XP Prof. Nothing happens when I plug the camera in. I have tried all the suggested Help in the manual. Panasonic were of no help when I rang them as they said the newer editing programs don't support the older cameras....mine is only 5 years old. Windows found the 1394 Firewire when I installed that, but not the camera. Where do i find the Vegas codec file? I did download a pdvcodec file that I was told might help, but it didn't.
Thanks for your help...I really appreciate it.
Helen

B.Verlik wrote on 4/8/2005, 1:35 PM

Lower field first is most common, but not universal. You want to change your render to match what the video is. Once you get your firewire to recognize your camera, it should come in as lower field first, but I don't know the details of your camera and your camera may be set to upper field first.
Ironically, one of the reasons I stopped using Ulead for video editing is because my field orders would get switched around all the time and I would never know until I burned it. (my early days of video editing) If the field order is reversed, when ever the camera 'pans' it will look very 'jagged' and jerky. If nothing is moving, it looks great.
I can't explain your firewire/PC recognizing your camera problem. Mine has always worked from day 1. Be sure your camera is in playback mode, and you should see a picture in your capture screen. I know if I didn't have a signal feeding into the computer, it would suddenly find an error and shut down the capture altogether. Plug in your firewire with the camera off, then start playback just before you open the capture screen. Let the tape run and see if it gets recognized. You may also do a search, as it seems like I remember other people claiming that the 1394 firewire ports tend to be picky once they recognize a certain function. Meaning, they don't like to share the same 1394 port with other products. I'm not certain of this though.

stilltrying wrote on 4/8/2005, 3:01 PM

Thanks TheGR8Steve.

"If the field order is reversed, when ever the camera 'pans' it will look very 'jagged' and jerky. If nothing is moving, it looks great.".....that is exactly what is happening, so it must be a Field Order problem.

I tried my camera again exactly the way you suggested but VegasMS still says- Please Connect Device & at the bottom of the screen , it says No device detected. Unknown resolution. My camera is a Panasonic MiniDV NV-DS99.

Would it work if I right-clicked the video file in the timeline of MovieStudio, selected Properties, then Media Properties & changed the Field Order to Lower Field first from the drop-down list???

stilltrying wrote on 4/8/2005, 8:54 PM

Thanks again The GR8Steve, I have just burned a perfect DVD. I tried changing the field order to Lower Field First in the capture file properties, by right-clicking on the video file on the timeline. It made it "flicker" so I figured that it had "done something". I then rendered etc & the result is good. I also saved the project as an .avi file on the hard drive & then imported it into DVD Architect Studio, but I think it was probably mostly the field order conflict that was the problem.
Still haven't resolved the camera capturing issue, but at least I can use it now.
Thanks again...I wouldn't have worked that out in a milion years.

craftech wrote on 4/9/2005, 5:30 AM

Panasonic MiniDV NV-DV99
===================
I did a search and I cannot find that model anywhere on the internet. The only electronics I found with that model number was a Pioneer Home Theater System.

John

stilltrying wrote on 4/9/2005, 3:22 PM

Sorry craftech, a typo!!! Should have been Panasonic MiniDV NV-DS99. I bought it just over 5 years ago - was one of he first small digital Camcorders on the market. I am in Australia.

craftech wrote on 4/10/2005, 7:13 AM

You may be having the same problem many others have had with Windows XP SP2 and firewire devices.

Check this Microsoft Knowledge Base article. Download the patch.

Some people have also replaced the SP2 drivers with their old SP1 drivers and had success.
You can find the method here.

John

stilltrying wrote on 4/11/2005, 5:28 PM

craftech wrote on 4/12/2005, 5:26 AM

Hi John
Thanks for your help. I have downloaded the patch, but unfortunately it didn't make any difference. I haven't changed the drivers - not quite game!!! Do you think doing that would make it work?
Helen
===========
Depends. Did you ever try the camera using SP1 or did you recently buy XP and go directly to SP2? Also, what is the model of your firewire card and have you tried someone else's video camera to see if Windows will recognize it when plugged into the firewire card? Have you tried another firewire cable?
Have you tried this?:
Don't turn on the camera. Start windows. Shut down any unnecessary processes that aren't necessary such as quicktime, virus scanners, print monitors, mouseware, etc. (unplug the computer from the internet). I only have Systray and Explorer running on mine, but I prefer and use Windows 98SE. Windows XP won't allow you that luxury, but you can still shut down unnecessary processes (most of them). THEN turn on the camera and watch to see if the mouse pointer turns into an hourglass momentarily. If it does, the camera was recognized. Alternately, try unplugging the firewire cable from the camera, go through the motions I just mentioned. Then plug in the firewire cable into the camera and turn it on.

John

stilltrying wrote on 4/14/2005, 4:18 AM

Thanks John. I have used my camera with the Canopus EZDV program on my old computer & Windows 98 & I am able to still capture using tha tprogram on this computer & XP SP2 - I haven't tried it at all with SP2 as this computer already had the upgrade.
My Firewire card is new & I have returned it & got another incase there was a problem with either the firewire or the card. It is an St Lab PCI Firewire 1394 Controller Card...F-132 PCI 2 + 1 Port 1394a Card.
I haven't tried your other suggestions yet as have had visitors, but I will tomorrow.