OK. I have a 2 part question for anyone nice enough to answer. I have a Panasonic PV-GS15 MiniDV Camcorder, firewire etc. I have used various capture software to capture the video from the camcorder to my hard drive, including Roxio 7, Ulead DVD Movie Factory etc. I convert the transfered file using TMPGEnc 2.524.63.181. I have two problems: The first problem is that when I try to use any DVD authoring software such as Roxio or Ulead, and burn the finished project to DVD, the sound on the DVD is WAY too loud, to the point of being distorted, regardless of using the volume features of said DVD authoring software...in other words, even though I turn down the volume and save the project prior to burning the DVD, the volume reverts back to it's original level. I am using MP3's for background music in the menus, and they are compliant with the volume settings I choose. Even avi or mpeg files that I select to include on the DVD and have NOT been captured using my MiniDV are compliant with the volume settings I choose. It seems to me that the volume cannot be adjusted for files captured from a MiniDV camcorder...is that right?? My second question is about brightness. I am wondering if there is any way of adjusting brightness and contrast of video transfered from my camcorder to my hard drive, and if so, should I do it before I encode of after, because it seems to me that after you encode the file, software like VirtualDub doesn't open those files. Thanks in advance for any help I recieve, and I hope I am not asking a repeat question(s) which I have a feeling I am. I searched the forum but came up with nothing regarding my problem. mocaso11
I don't know if I can solve your problem, but here's some info for a better understanding and some advice to locate the problem. When you transfer DV through Firewire you cannot change the volume; it is a digital transfer. So, the volume gets pumped up somewhere along the process. Check the volume after encoding with TMPGEnc so see if that is OK. If that is still OK it must be in the authoring process. Try to save the DVD structure as files on your hard drive and play it from there (not all software DVD players can do that, but the latest versions of WinDVD and PowerDVD can do it). Next, see if the volume on the DVD is too loud also when played on your PC rather than on your stand alone player. About brightness: any decent video editing program can do it and best to do it before encoding, since many programs do have difficulties editing MPEG-files.
