what the hell??

VegUser wrote on 5/1/2004, 6:27 PM
Ok, so I got the canopus advc-50, got the video in and in v4 I rendered the .avi to mpeg2 (mainconcept2).
The audio file setup for the orig .avi capture was a 16bit, stereo, 48khz pcm .wav.
i ALSO rendered a stereo audio track only (48khz, 16bit stereo .wav) as a "just in case".
I placed markers along the .avi where I wanted chapters to start.

Quickly learned DVDA1 and how to prepare a DVD. Ok - fine.
It's one loooong mpeg2 file with chapter markers (not separate files).

How come in DVDA, the mpeg2 file contains (I assume compressed) audio along with video in the mepg2 file...but I can't use\have my preferred 16bit, 48khz, pcm .wav file for the audio instead?
I just wanted a 16-bit, 48khz, stereo pcm file. Where in DVDA1 do you place the audio track?. It's just video.

But when I rendered the .avi to mpeg2 in vegas (as suggested to help speed things up) it combines the audio and video?
Should I have MUTED the audio track with the .avi in v4 before rendering to mpeg2? If so...where the hell in dvda1 do you insert the audio track (pcm wav)?

JetDV reccomended that I render to Mpeg2 and AC3 for the audio in V4 (before going to dvda1 to set up a dvd). But rendering an mpeg2 with the mainconcept takes both audio and video...so how am I supposed to render an AC3 file separately?
And.....why in the hell am I rendering in V4, when it just does it again in DVDA1? How is this saving time? Maybe it is but I don't get it.

I'm sure I misunderstood something here, please help?
I just want the quickest way to get soem VHS lessons on DVD. I'd like the audio track to either be the best quality AC3 file or a 48khz, 16-bit stereo, .wav pcm file.
How is this done?

I'll also post in the DVDA forum.

And...how come the quality is so bad with the mainconcept mpeg file.
It's near unacceptable, the vhs looks better. Are there better quality settings?
What do you suggest if so?

thanks so much guys

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 5/1/2004, 6:39 PM
First, understand that you can render an elementary stream, just as JetDV suggested. In the Render As dialog, choose DVDA video stream. Then you'll render that. It might take a while. Use the default, don't touch anything.
Then you'll render the audio as an AC 3 file.
If you render them to the same folder, same name with the only difference being the file extension, DVDA will do the rest of the work for you.
If you use different names or differnt folders, then in DVDA you'll specify the audio in the Properties window on the right hand side.
Avoid PCM, because of the size. If the audio is mostly studio recorded audio, music, in stereo, you might like PCM better as it's uncompressed. But it's huge in comparison to a 192kpbs AC3 file.
Make sense?
HTH
jetdv wrote on 5/1/2004, 6:43 PM
What preset are you using? If you use the DVDA presets in the MPEG encoder, you should simply need to adjust the average bitrate (depending on length) and the rendered MPG file will NOT have audio.

Then you render the audio to the EXACT SAME NAME.

When you have both of those files, the ac3 file should be automatically picked up by DVDA. If it doesn't, you can just add the ac3 file manually.

If the ac3 file and MPG file are valid for a DVD then DVDA will NOT re-render them.
farss wrote on 5/1/2004, 7:38 PM
To clear up one mystery for you, yes the mpeg encode using the DVDA template does include an audio stream. That stream is not used in DVDA though. I'm not 100% certain why it's there, posibly to provide placeholders for the real audio stream that'll be muxed in during the prepare phase.

The VHS may indeed look better. If it was noisy VHS to start with and your not encoding at a very high bitrate then it sure can get a lot worse, in fact with a very noisy scene even at the highest bitrate it can look woeful. The answer is to get rid of the noise. Reduce all non image motion, noise, line jitter etc. Musch of this is better achieved in the analogue domain also. I use the ADVC-300 for capture from VHS and I can get very good results going to DVD but most of the work is done before the video hits the digital domain.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 5/1/2004, 8:56 PM
> how come the quality is so bad ... Are there better quality settings?

I run all my analog captures through VirtualDub using the Border Control and Dynamic Noise Reduction 2.1 filters. Then I edit them in Vegas. Border Control is great for masking analog noise along the edges of video. Even though they can’t be seen on a TV, they are in the AVI file and steal bits away from more important information. Dynamic Noise Reduction is a temporal filter that does a great job of removing the constantly moving noise that’s inherent in analog tapes. I use these two on every analog tape I capture. There are other filters for VirtualDub like flaxen VHS that might also help. These tools cost nothing and they really help clean up the video so that you’re not wasting bits on encoding the noise.

The bottom line is, if you want clean MPEG encoding, you need to start with clean source.

~jr
VegUser wrote on 5/1/2004, 10:08 PM
Hey thanks again for the replies by all.

Ok, so I didn't choose the DVD Architect NTSC the last time (I chose DVD NTSC - oops). So now I'm doing another lesson tape and chose DVD"A" ntsc.
Rendering should be done sometime next fall (;) I only have a P3 800, but the HD's are fast).

Next I'm going to render the audio to AC3...but...
Do I MUTE or delete the video track when doing the AC3 render? Or does it automatically disregard the video?
Can I choose 256kbps for better audio, or should I stick with the default 192kbps for compatibility reasons?

I stumbled through learning DVDA1 but I got a nice working DVD first try.
Alright!!

All this is so cool. I'm preparing myself for my little side venture of providing a music lesson dvd that covers a ton of stuff the rest never touch on.

And, thanks for the help.


stormstereo wrote on 5/2/2004, 5:39 AM
It automatically disregards the video. AC3 is an audio only format. Stick with the default 192kbps. DVDA likes it that way.
Best/Tommy
JJKizak wrote on 5/2/2004, 5:54 AM
Another cog in the noise machine is the signal to noise ratio in the VCR. The brand and quality make a huge difference as I have found out.

JJK