MPEG-1 poor quality after edit

Eug7 wrote on 6/18/2002, 6:55 PM

I've used the trial version of PowerDirector Pro and VideoWave 5 to edit an existing MPEG-1 400MB file. Just editing out some parts with bad language. After edit then render/burn to VCD to inferior video quality from the original file. I have been told that the rendering process is a recompression to MPEG-1 again thus the poorer quality. Is there a program that just removes the unwanted material without the recompression process preserving the qaulity of the original file?

Comments

randy-stewart wrote on 6/18/2002, 9:34 PM

Eugene,
My experience has been that MPEG-1 quality is a very low quality source file to start with especially if you need to re-encode it. If possible, try to start with DV (.avi) files before burning to VCD. Otherwise, your quality will be grainy and may show artifacts. Sorry.
Randy

BillyBoy wrote on 6/19/2002, 9:10 AM

First download the demo of either Video Factory or Vegas Video. Forget about Video Wave. You may also want to grab a copy of VirtualDub(free) which does a few things the SoFo products don't.

Now as to your problem. I've made lots of VCD's and SVCD's with MPEG-1 as the source files and gotten good results. What you want to avoid at all costs is recompressing a file that is already compressed or at least limit it, otherwise you start your slide down a slippery slope with each render being worse than the last.

What I did was "arrest" the quality of the source file by first converting to a lossless format: making a AVI file. This will NOT improve the quality of your source file, however it will prevent it from getting worse. I know, a long time consuming process and the file will be huge, maybe twenty times or larger then you source file.

Now do all your editing with this created AVI file. Once you're happy with it and are sure you're not going to change anything else render it to MPEG-1 to make a VCD or better MPEG-2 for a SVCD using the appropriate templates.

Results vary. If you use the included FX filters if you can't correct some things you can at least coverup a lot of stuff and get a decent looking result. Hint: try color curves, levels for starters if you're trying Vegas Video. Because with this method you only compresses the file once, the quality should be noticeablly better then the method you used.

Patricks wrote on 6/21/2002, 4:51 PM

Eugene,
I am doing the same thing, I want to edit out bad language. I just bought Video Factory 2.0 to do this, I hope. Please let me know how it goes with your video editing, if you find an easy way to do this. thanks...