I have lots of AVI files, all around 350mb in size. I want to convert them to DVD (which I can do with many different programs) but convert them with the best possible quality, so I can watch them on my stand alone DVD player and see a nice picture. What program do you recommend I use to give the best quality and what settings in the programs should I use? I tried using WinAVI and using the quality setting, the speed of encoding is impressive but there are lots of squares appearing when watching them on my stand alone DVD player. From just looking at the settings in TMPGenc, the best setting I can come up with when converting an AVI file to MPEG 2 is... - Variable bitrate, maximum bitrate 8000, quality 100 What should I set the minimum bitrate too? 8000?
Tmpgenc is Far better than (Like WinAvi or Super Video Converter) Most encoders accept that it is a little slow.... I think your problem isn"t really the encodeing but probably that your AVI files use a Low resolution and you are encodeing them to Mpeg-2 at a High resolution and when you do this it totally destroys the Quality and there is absolutly nothing you can do about it accept to Not resize the resolution to the Standard DVD Resolution.... It could also be that your AVI files are Just Bad Quality but you would know that more than i would..... why don"t you Post back with the Resolution of your AVI files and then I will tell you what DVD resolution to use so you don"t have to resize too much and Ruin the quality..... When encodeing Good quality high resolution AVI files to Mpeg-2 for DVD i can fit 2 full 90 Minute movies on a DVD with DVD quality so you shouldn"t be haveing quality problems especially at such a high bitrate unless your AVI files were Low Quality/Resolution .... Cheers
Thanks for the replies Most AVI files I want to put on disc are 512x384/576x432 in resolution and have around 800-1000 bitrate. Hope this is enough information for you to help me out. Many thanks
Well that is Strange cuz at that resolution the Video should Still Look Fairly good when resized to DVD Resolution... Like this Frame here was From a Video file of the Same resolution as your Files (512x304) and encoded to Mpeg-2 at full DVD resolution But at a pretty low bitrate as this is with 3 Hours on a DVD... So unless your AVI files are Really low quality like they were movies shot on a CamCorder or something I don"t know why you are getting Pixelations..... Maybe Try a Different Mpeg encoder Like Maybe "Canopus Procoder" or the "MainConcept Encoder" and see if you get better results..... Good luck
Could it be something to do with the minimum and maximum bitrate? Like I said above, I set the rate control to constant and maximum bitrate to 8000 but I left the minimum bitrate to 0 because I didnt know what to put there, should I put 8000 for the minimum?
You should set the Minumun to say 2500kbs and the Max to 8000kbs and put the Quality slider up to 85% and that should Produce Pretty Good Quality..... Cheers
If you set the Quality to 100 then the Encodeing will not be very VBR but will be Closer to CBR which will not really give you any Better quality but it sure will increase the File size.... The Frame I posted above was only encoded at a Average Bitrate of 3000kbs which is way Lower than you are useing so you don"t need an extremely High Bitrate to produce Good Quality if your encoder is Good..... You could also try encodeing useing the 352x480 resolution as Opposed to the standard 720x480 resolution which would mean that you would not have to resize the resolution as Much so you should get better quality at a Lower Bitrate..... Good Luck
Minion, If you are planning to capture video from a Mini DV camcorder how do you assure yourself that you will get "good AVI resolution"? Is it all the camera or is it in the settings on whatever program you are using? I think my camera is fairly good. It's a JVC GR-D270U. It cost around 400 bucks. Thanks,
I have allmost the exact same Camcorder accept Mine is the JVC GR-275U and it was about $550 Canadian..... MiniDV Camcorders record Video in Full D1 Resolution (720x480 NTSC or 720x576 Pal) which is the Same Resolution used in standard DVD"s so the Resolution of the Captured DV AVI files is the Correct Resolution for a Standard DVD so you Just need to encode the File to Mpeg-2 at the Same resolution and then author the Mpeg-2 Files to DVD useing your DVD Authoring Program..... Cheers
I was wondering if you guys could post a little more on this subject. I have a JVC GRDV500 Mini DV Camcorder I bought last year for about $600. I had actually videotaped a wedding and used Windows movie maker to edit the video and I got very bad pixelation during DVD playback even when I saved the file at the maximum settings, which took up tons of harddrive space, some of the sound was off on the dvd but looked good in movie maker. I then used Roxio Easy CD and DVD creater to burn the movie I created to DVD. I tried about everything I could, and tried to look up some answers, but didn't get far, and I just seen this post and wanted to ask for some help, as I had all but given up hope before I seen this. I have this camcorder that sits here and collects dust, because I was so disappointed with the quality I got. I bought my DVD burner, specifically so I could transfer my mini DV tapes to DVD. A little I can remember is that I used a firewire to transfer the tape to Windows movie maker, and I tried many of the settings to capture video. Can anyone help with good programs to use for editing the video (that don't cost alot) and for burning the file to DVD with good playback without all the pixelation. Even just a pointer to the right forum or topic would be greatly appreciated, as I am new here and am very unskilled in this process. Thanks in advance!
Well the Pixelation you are seeing is Generally due to either Encodeing at too low of a Bitrate or Just Plain Bad Quality encodeing or a Combination of the Two..... Your First Mistake was useing "Windows Movie Maker" because the Format it makes you render to is WMV format and that is Not a good Intermediate Format for makeing DVD"s because it is a extremely compressed format..... The second Mistake was useing Roxio to encode the WMV to DVD because Roxio uses a Terrorable Quality encoder which is Part of the reason why you are seeing pixelation..... I would suggest getting an editing program that can capture from your DV Camcorder and edit the Captured Video and render your Edited project as a DVD Compliant Mpeg-2 file, Then all you need is a DVD authoring program so you can add your Menu"s and Chapters and scene selections and Burn it all to DVD...... Most editing programs with these Features are pretty expensive but I recently Found an editng programs in the $50 Range that has all of these Features Pluss Can author to DVD and it is Called "MagiX Movie Edit Pro 2005".... You can check it out here: http://site.magix.net/english-us/home/video/movie-edit-pro-10/?no_cache=1&version= Cheers
I had the same problem with pixelation/ mpeg-2 compression artifacts. Try using Adobe premiere pro and adobe encore DVD, available as trial downloads at the Adobe website. I did and found that I obtained a perfect copy of my sony camcorder's minidv -- absolutely no artifacts. At least that way you know that your hardware (hard drive write speed, firewire card, and quality of minid dv) is correct. Now, I'm still on a quest to find something reasonably priced.
