Poor Results with DVDA

Derm wrote on 12/16/2008, 12:40 PM
Hi,
I rendered a project form Pro 8 using a DVDA template setting.
When I burn the disc in DVDA, the mpeg2 is compressed and the resulting picture on disc is not great. The audio breaks up quite a bit and is occassionally distorted. I have tried burning on different systems and have had the same results. The audio is unusable and the picture is average at best, any clues about what is happening here?
Thanks
Derm

Comments

DavidMcKnight wrote on 12/16/2008, 1:44 PM
You might need to take a little more care with the settings used to render files for DVDA. Which version of Vegas, and which template? Are you rendering two files, one mpeg2 for video and one ac3 for audio? <edit> ah, I see you're on Pro 8.

While the project is in Vegas check the audio levels; it should peak or at least average around -6 dB. (Yeah I know, I go higher too, but that's the "rule of thumb")
There are settings in the ac3 template you should check - do a search on this forum for "dialog normalization". Also search for DVDA and bitrate. The higher the average bitrate, the better the quality. You should be able to go as high as 8,000,000 or 8,500,000.
rs170a wrote on 12/16/2008, 2:14 PM
As David said, DVD creation is more than just using the stock templates.
I just finished burning a 90 minute Christmas show that I shot last week and the DVD looks and sounds (almost) as good as the source footage.
I say "almost" because the average viewer won't be as picky as I am.

Mike
johnmeyer wrote on 12/16/2008, 3:12 PM
You should get near-perfect results if you use the stock templates. However:

1. Do NOT use the "default" MPEG-2 template. It will create terrible video.

2. DO use the appropriate DVD Architect template, such as "DVD Architect NTSC video stream." If the MPEG-2 template name does not have the word "Architect" in it, do not use it.

3. Do NOT use the "Custom" button in the Render As dialog to alter ANY of the DVD Architect template settings. The one exception is that you can alter either the "Constant Bit Rate" or the "Average (bps)" (if you use variable bitrate encoding).

Finally, some of what you describe could be caused by using lousy media when you burn. Have you tried first playing the result by simply playing the DVD files using a DVD player on your computer, such as PowerDVD or WinDVD? This is a good troubleshooting step because it eliminates your DVD burner, the media, and your set-top DVD player. If the video and audio looks lousy after you have prepared the files with DVD Architect, but before you burn and then play a DVD disc, then you can narrow down the cause of the problem much more easily.
rs170a wrote on 12/16/2008, 6:22 PM
You should get near-perfect results if you use the stock templates. However:

John, this is one time that I will respectfully disagree with you.
The Christmas show that I mentioned earlier could have been encoded using the stock DVD Architect NTSC video stream template.
However, I chose to modify it for a few reasons.
First of all, Sony's VBR default Min value of 192,000 is, IMO, way too low.
Next, this show had a wide range of lighting and on-stage motion to deal with (not to mention the pyro FX!!).
Lastly, I always do a custom template for anything over 70 min. long as I feel it gets "more" out of the footage.
In this case, I did a 2-pass VBR with values of 8,000,000 / 6,500,000 / 4,000,000 (using Mark's DVD Bitrate Calculator) and I think the DVD looked pretty good.

Mike