How do I get better quality DVD's

[Kiser Sosey]

I'm capturing my videos using WMM2, and then burning them
to DVD using Sonic My DVD. When I veiw my project thru
WMM2, as well as the end product burned to a DVD, it is
choppy, and pixelated. I need some sugestiosn to increase
the quality. It looks great if I plug my camera into my
TV. Why can't I achieve that quality making DVDs?

I'm using a USB cable to capture the video, could that be
the problem? If so, why?

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Yes, USB is a much slower connection than firewire, so info is dropped and
quality suffers.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

The problem might be the USB connection, but only if it is USB 1.1. This
because USB 2 is actually faster then firewire. Firewire is a pretty good
way (almost the standard way) of capturing from a DV camera.

The reason for the bad capture though may have nothing at all to do with
the capture cable. When you mention a pixilated image, is it always the
same level of pixelation all the way through, or does it come and go. If
the pixelation is intermittent it is likely you have a data flow
bottleneck, that would also be supported by the condition of being choppy,
by which I assume you mean small stops and starts in the picture
(intermittent freezing of sections or the whole picture), that condition
will most likely be computer related or Hard drive related.

Possible causes therefore reduce to

1) Using the wrong cable type for connection to computer.
2) Low on resources and CPU time
3) Badly fragmented Hard Drive

If your camera is Firewire or iLink capable, that's the cable you should
use for video. If it has that capability then the USB connection is almost
certainly meant for the capturing of still images.

Issues 2 and 3 above are dealt with in the FAQ's and Tutorials on my web
site.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Graham Hughes, MVP Digital Media]

Although usb2 is faster than firewire, slightly, it is not designed for
continuous movment of data, as in large video files, it's sustained data
rate is in fact slower than std firewire. Firewire was designed for video
transfer, so I would use it as both have said previously.
This will make a big difference in the quality of the video on the pc.
The next problem comes with making the dvd.
For best results you need to have the movie at under 1 1/2 hours, nearer to
1 hour will be better. This is because, when you author the dvd, you convert
the avi file to a compressed mpeg2 file. If you compress too much the
picture becomes pixelated and blocky and the more to fit on the disc the
more compression has to take place. One hour of avi is about 13gb, this has
to be compressed down to 4.3gb to fit on the disc!!
The better the quality of encoder and the better the settings you choose,
the better the results. I don't use sonic, so am unsur of the detailed
settings, but if you use presets, choose the very best option. Otherwise,
choose a combined data rate of 8,000, generally audio will be about 384kb so
video will be in the region of 7,616 max. If you have lots of movement then
a variable bit rate will work best, particularly if you can have a 2 pass
encode. If you can then chose ac-3 audio, which is better for compression,
quality and compatibility, though I don't think sonic will have it.
Have a search for tmpgenc, a good encoder, but slow, with lots of settings
to choose from, a link can be found here,
http://www.simplydv.co.uk/simplyBB/viewtopic.php?t=7704

Graham