MiniDV to MPEG2 to DVD (render question)

laffTrax wrote on 12/22/2003, 9:01 AM
hi. I'm trying to put MiniDV footage onto DVD. I edit in Vegas and then render (MainConcept) to MPEG2. I then import the MPEG file to DVD Architect and burn. Works - but i'm not to happy with the video quality. Here's my question. When I'm in the custom menu for rendering - what can i do to increase my file size and have better quality video? It seems to be compressing it TOO MUCH. Or, where can i find detailed information on using all the number options in the customize menu, rendering, and compression? Any info is totally appreciated. Thanks!

Comments

JJKizak wrote on 12/22/2003, 9:30 AM
What quality don't you like? Mpeg2 (main concept) tends to reduce the
color saturation very very slightly and may add some pixelation on scenes such as water, leaves in a woods, and if your doing any panning it makes it worse particularly vertical pans. If your original videos have a lot of noise thats not good. Its best to stick close to the defaults with maybe the quality set to 31 and lower field first (default).
Also what are you viewing the final product on? A tv set that stinks is going to show DVD that stinks. If your DVD player is progressive scan make sure the switch is set to 480I and not 480P as it will blur the video regardless if your tv is capable of progressive scan. You must render your video to progressive scan to view it properly with a progressive can DVD player and a progressive scan tv. Make sure you are using lower field first for the mini-dv stuff in interlace. What are you capturing with? What preferences are set? What does the video look like on the timeline and monitor? Are you using firewire and what card?
As you can see there are a few things to consider.

JJK
Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/23/2003, 5:14 AM
There have been others threads here about this. If you'll do a search, you'll find plenty of reading material.

As I understand it, the bottom line is cameras that record direct to miniDVD have already compressed the video once. Taking that compressed video into Vegas, editing it and recompressing again it is what's causing your problem.

J--