Video card vs finished DVD video quality outside my PC

[JFrancisco]

Every time I seek help from Ulead Tech Support, they ask me to list my video card... Why? What difference does the video card make to the final "burned" DVD video quality? I've had a MATROX G-400 like for ever in my PC. I'm very happy with what I see on my PC monitor; my problem is, when I try to view the same DVD on my TV, the video quality like goes away big time (Pixelation, I believe it's called)... Why??? My video capture, edit, and burn is Ulead Media Studio Pro/Movie Factory4 and I import my VHS video into my PC with a Canopus ADVC-100 through a Fire-Wire card.

[Brian Ellis]

I would say they would want to know ALL your hardware set-up, o/s, version of MSP, the steps you take to encode your DVD, your mpg video/audio bitrates etc. I suspect the latter may reveal your problem. There are many set-top players that baulk at DVD±Rs recorded with high bitrates, usually with glitching but sometimes with other effects.

Give us all your details and we may be able to help you. Otherwise, we can only guess.

[JFrancisco]

Thanks for the quick reply Brian, but I'm at work right now (it's my lunch hour) and will not be able to post all those details here until I get home tonight. Thank you for your kind offer to help.

[JFrancisco]

OK Brian, I'm back with the info: I encode all my video clips the same way, NTSC drop frame (29.97fps) Microsoft AVI files. 24bitw, 720x480 - lower field first, DVD encoded Video Type-1, DVD audio NTSC 48000khz, 16 bit stereo. I never convert to MPEG; I use the same AVI files when I burn my project to DVD and I set my MovieFactory4 selections to "not convert MPEG compliant video", with Variable Bandwidth targeted to 6000.

[JFrancisco]

Brian, I thought I'd add more info to help you see what/how I go through the process of making a DVD... It might well be that I don't know as much about it all. Let's forget for a minute about the software/hardware I use, and talk about the steps I follow: 1_ I capture video. 2_ The captured video ends up becoming an .avi file, NTSC, type-1 uncompressed video , 29.97fps, 720x480, 24 bits. 3_ I edit the .avi file. 4_ I open my DVD burning program. 5_ I load the edited .avi file(s) into the screen where the program call for them. 6_ I set the parameters for burning the DVD (select "Not convert MPEG-compliant files, set the Bit-Rate to Variable/6000). 7_ I burn the DVD. I do not, as separate steps, "encode" or "decode" anything; I just follow the steps in the Ulead's software instructions, and any "conversion" that might take place, I assume it's done automatically by the software. Does a DVD Burn software typically include the steps to convert my .avi files into MPEG files within its internal processing, prior to burning them? Is there a school, or training I might attend, that would teach me the "inner details" of what I'm doing?

[KRSESQ]

I encode all my video clips the same way, NTSC drop frame (29.97fps) Microsoft AVI files. 24bitw, 720x480 - lower field first, DVD encoded Video Type-1, DVD audio NTSC 48000khz, 16 bit stereo. I never convert to MPEG; I use the same AVI files when I burn my project to DVD and I set my MovieFactory4 selections to "not convert MPEG compliant video", with Variable Bandwidth targeted to 6000.

I assume you mean you are capturing Microsoft DV type-1 .AVI files. These are NOT DVD-compliant. Likewise the PCM audio that is interleafed with the video at 48000x16 is closer to .WAV format than any of the DVD audio formats. Both need to be converted to DVD-compliant files.

Info on Microsoft DV video type 1 & type 2.

DVDs are encoded in MPEG2 video format, so yes, the Ulead software is encoding the AVI files to the correct format but I cannot speak for Ulead's encoding quality as I do my encoding using Tsunami's encoding software prior to importing into Ulead DVD Workshop. THEN I select 'do not convert MPEG-Compliant files' and set the bitrate HIGHER than what I encoded the video at.

(link to TMPG encoding tutorial).

If you are capturing VHS tape recordings at 720x480 then you are probably just wasting hard drive space and encoding time because VHS quality is around 352x240 at best, even if you are going through an ADVC100. If you are seeing nasty aliasing (the stairstep effect on diagonal lines) this is probably the reason and can be corrected for only so far, depending on the encoding software. Blocky patches in the encoded video can usually be corrected for by playing with the encoding settings until you see satisfactory results (again, within the limitations of the lower VHS quality).

Try dialing down the capture resolution on your VHS caps and see if that helps first. Then try out the Tsunami demo to see if there's an improvement.

At any rate, it will ALWAYS look better on your monitor than on your TV. You could try previewing it by setting your screen resolution to 640x480 and then playing it back fullscreen, but even this won't be entirely accurate.

Kevin