Comments

rmack350 wrote on 5/25/2006, 8:21 AM
You're asking for best hardware requirements to encode video in the mpeg2 format and then burn to disk.

Hardware won't make an awful lot of difference. You need a good mpeg2 encoder, and a bit of experience. The software-based Main Concept encoder included with Vegas and DVDa is supposed to be very good but others here may prefer another encoder.

A four year old PC could do the job for you, it'd just need more time. Hardware wise, if you were using a hardware encoder then you'd want to pay for a good one, and of course you need a good burner and good media. Generally, if the burner or media are bad you'll have unplayable or barely playable disks.

Rob Mack
Coursedesign wrote on 5/25/2006, 9:29 AM
I would guess you are comparing your output with DVDs of Hollywood movies shot with incredible production values.

The NTSC DV format especially has weaknesses, and the lenses on affordable video cameras have their own limitations.

This means that you have to know where these weaknesses are, and how to avoid them to the greatest extent possible.

Good lighting (not just "more" lighting) helps everything look better.
Using closeups more helps everything look sharper and richer, and there's lots more in production values that can be added inexpensively.

The MainConcept MPEG-2 encoder in Vegas/DVDA has long been ranked as one of the very very best. It might even be argued that for interlaced video, there is none better.

One nice cheat if you have fast disks with lots of space is to render your DV footage to a 4:2:2 (or even 4:2:0 similar to what's used in MPEG-2) codec (I think the Matrox DV50 codec is still available for free), and do chroma smoothing on the footage, preferably before any editing is done. There are several plugins and programs for this.
riredale wrote on 5/25/2006, 9:30 AM
To amplify on the previous thread a bit:

(1) Hardware will have absolutely nothing to do with the output quality. Older PCs will just take longer to render. As long as you meet the specs listed for Vegas, you're golden.

(2) The only exception to rule (1) above is, in my opinion, the DVD burner. Some burner/media combinations don't work well. I'm very happy with Pioneer and NEC burners. Others will no doubt have other opinions.

(3) DVD blank media makes a significant difference. I swear by Taiyo Yuden DVD-R media (available online for about $.35 per disc).

(4) Do a search on this forum for DVD burn settings. I don't use the MainConcept MPEG2 encoder included with Vegas, but have thet impression that the default settings leave something to be desired. If done right, your burned DVD video should look identical to the raw avi video.
Siby wrote on 5/25/2006, 10:11 AM
Thanks for the feedback. I am not familier with DV codec.

What it does I should have a DV codec already in my machine that came with Sony software right?.

If I install Matrox DV50 codec is that overwrite the one I have now?.

I am using an HP lightscribe RW dual writer.
Coursedesign wrote on 5/25/2006, 11:17 AM
You can have many codecs, they're all separate and show up in the list in the Vegas rendering menu, and yes, Vegas has a good DV codec built-in.

Using DV50, your videos will take up twice as much space as regular "DV" which is DV25 (25 Megabits per second).

Your DVD burner will do fine also, but I strongly agree on the Taiyo Yuden DVDs, they really are measurably better. Still, they can often even be bought for less than many mediocre brands. I buy mine at Supermediastore.

Note that better DVDs won't give you a better picture, just less trouble.