MiniDV to DVD

fixler wrote on 5/24/2004, 12:05 AM
Hey Guys...quick question>>

I had a MiniDV tape that I captured to MPEG-2 using DVD Workshop (no hardware conv.) in 8000kb quality.

Then I export that file to DVD Architect 2 and brun to DVD.

The quality is preety shotty....WHY? I understand it could be a thousand things but a few responses would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

fixler.

Comments

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/24/2004, 4:24 AM
Could be because you need to use the template in Vegas "DVD Architech NTSC video stream" rather than MPEG2 for DVDA.

J--
BrianStanding wrote on 5/24/2004, 5:57 AM
I would guess it's in the capture method. I don't know DVD Workshop well, but I would guess that If you're capturing directly to MPEG-2 through a (real-time?) software converter, that you're sacrificing quality.

Try capturing the DV tape into Vegas over firewire, and then converting it to one of the DVD Architect templates.
Spot|DSE wrote on 5/24/2004, 7:32 AM
DVD Workshop (you didn't specify which version) uses an older format of Main Concept's encoder. Encoding via capture without using a hardware converter such as the ADS Instant DVD device, means that you relied on the CPU to do the conversion on the fly. Not only does this *generally* mean dropped frames, but it also *generally* leads to lower quality due to the hit on the proc trying to keep up.
If you want to capture as MPEG, get a hardware converter. For the most part, these hardware devices do a better or equal job to encoding via software while saving tremendous time. You can take MPEG 2 files from Workshop directly to DVD Architect 2 without reencoding. They do not need to be DVD Architect-template files from Vegas to use this.
fixler wrote on 5/24/2004, 10:57 PM
Thanks Spot...understood.

Im using DVD Workshop 2 by the by. Just another quick question...Technically if I captured as AVI from MiniDV then let DVD Architect 2 reencode them I should get close to prefect results....right? Or at least better than what I'm getting at the moment.

Thanks to all who responded...
craftech wrote on 5/25/2004, 5:27 AM
Thanks Spot...understood.

Im using DVD Workshop 2 by the by. Just another quick question...Technically if I captured as AVI from MiniDV then let DVD Architect 2 reencode them I should get close to prefect results....right? Or at least better than what I'm getting at the moment.

Thanks to all who responded...
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DVDA 1.0 did a lousy job re-encoding and I suspect DVDA 2.0 does just as poorly.
Keep everything uncompressed if you have the space until after all editing etc is done then use VEGAS to encode to Mpeg 2 setting the variables in VEGAS. Encode using the NTDC DVDA template for video only (no audio), then encode the audio and store them in the same folder. When you open up DVDA and start a new project DVDA will match the audio with the video to create the project, but it will not re-compress the video and depending upon the settings you chose in Vegas it will give good results when authored.

John