I don't think your video card is causing the playback problems. I have a integrated ATI 4200HD video in my home theater PC and I do not have any problems playing MPEG2 files. My camera is a Canon HG20 which records in AVCHD 24 Mb/s and 17 Mb/s and regardless of the MPEG2 quality settings I use in PD I have no issues. When you render these files are you using ATI Stream acceleration? Try disabling it and render with just the CPU an see what happens. I don't think that's the problem, but it's worth looking into. A faster video card will allow you to render faster, but I doubt there will be any improvement in playback quality of DVD quality MPEG2 video.

What program are you using to play your videos? I use Splash player. It's free to download and it will playback pretty much anything and use GPU acceleration for HD content. There are other software players you can try such as VLC, and Media player classic, but I like Splash the best for ease of use and picture quality.

Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

EDIT: James - we were posting at the same time... but I was doing a few other things at the same time.

Hi Allen -

Here's a little comparison with some other AMD CARDS http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3420

The video card is more likely to affect speed of rendering & quality of display, rather than the output quality when you burn a DVD.

Naturally, if you take an AVCHD clip from your Canon & scale it down in DVD burning, there will be some quality loss... but you shouldn't be getting the issues you've described.

Cheers - Tony
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James and Tony,
Thanks for the quick response and for saving me $175 on a new video
card! Its reassuring to know that mine isn't as bad as many of the
online comparison sites (and Windows Experience Index) labels it as.

I'll find out how to disable the ATI Stream Acceleration. I think I remember
seeing it either in the ATI Catalyst control center, or within the PD8
preferences tab.

Since my only projects for the next 2 months will be transferring AVCHD
basketball game clips to plain old DVD for the team to study, (no editing at
all), and I'm brand new to the entire video processing experience, this is
a bit frustrating. I didn't expect the DVD burn result to be crystal clear
like the source vid, but the output I'm getting is so cruddy, I'm scrambling
like mad to find an alternative solution using PD8 before the BBall coach
asks for the DVD tomorrow. If I can't get a PD8 solution in the next few
hours, I'll search the net for other options. I volunteered to do this to
help take some of the load off of another guy who video tapes the
games. He simply hooks up his HD Sony Camcorder to a box via USB
and burns the MPEG-2 DVD. It looks great in the DVD player. What is
it about those devices that make them burn DVD's so perfectly? I'd like
to find out what that "something" (a CODEC perhaps?) is and add it to
this P.C. to help out PD8.

James, since I'm new and don't have a need to do editing, the only
player I use is one of the stand-alone DVD players around the house,
since this is what the basketball team uses to critique their plays. But,
it was good to see that Windows Media Player does a good job of playing
AVCHD video inside of Windows7. IMO, that's the best improvement
windows7 has over Vista. Thanks again James. I'll follow your advice
now. Wish me luck! -Allen in Chicago

There are better MPEG2 encoders out there but you will will have to pay extra. What happens when you try to produce a file to your hard disk and play the file on your PC? Does that file show the video artifacts as well?

To disable ATI stream you can either disable it through preferences or when you produce a file uncheck the enable GPU acceleration box. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Hello Again James,

As long as they don't cost several hundred dollars, I'd be delighted to get
a better MPEG-2 Decoder.

I haven't produced a file and played it back through Windows Media Player
yet. Thanks for the suggestion!

But, here's one thing I just found that might shed some light. There's a little
sample MPEG-1 file that comes with PD8. It shows a flower blowing in the
wind and a squirrel with nuts...for 17 seconds.

I burned that little clip to MPEG-2 DVD and the DVD player output is almost
as clear as it looks in Windows Movie Player! Signs are pointing to a
weakness somewhere in the actual process of converting from AVCHD
to MPEG-2. Does this occur within the PD8 software, or is it a Windows
function?

Do you think I should continue looking for the switch to disable ATI Stream
technology? They (AMD-ATI) seem to be pretty proud of this feature in their
cards.

-Allen

This would be a PD function. It is PD encoder which is doing the conversion. What kind of camera do you actually have and what settings are you using? Please provide the camera resolution and the bit rate (if you know what I'm talking about) of the video. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

James,

It's a Canon HG10. (Hi-Def w/40GB Hard Drive) Purchased in December
2007. I have a program that came with the camera called Ulead DVD
Movie Factory version 5.6 SE. It burns MPEG-2 DVD's that are
acceptable, but takes 3hours20 minutes to burn a 1hour30minute
scene. PD8 is MUCH faster, but maybe a big loss in quality is the price
for the speed?

Anyway James, here's the clip info you asked for:

One clip that I'm working with is Bitrate 15,861kbps. (HXP Quality)
The other is Bitrate 7,399kbps. (SP Quality)


They both display very blockey chunks within the video when burned to
DVD as MPEG-2 HQ.

Thinking it's time get a new codec somehow. I really would like to keep
Power Director Eight Ultra. Looks like it has tons of potential once I feel
confident in it enough to commit to learning the program.

-Allen

-Allen

In my experience, playback problems like you describe are just that, playback problems. Find someone with a different DVD player, or even a Blu-Ray player, and see if it looks better. I have had MPEG 4 videos that looked terrible in a DVD player, but work beautifully in my PS3. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Quote: In my experience, playback problems like you describe are just that, playback problems. Find someone with a more expensive DVD player, or even a Blu-Ray player, and see if it looks better. I have had MPEG 4 videos that looked terrible in a DVD player, but work beautifully in my PS3.

Hello Jamie,
With all due respect, this is one of those instances where it is NOT a
playback issue. The MPEG-2 DVD vids made with the software provided
with my Canon HG10 look OK on the three DVD players in our home and
the one used by our son's basketball coach, who uses the DVD recordings
of the games to improve their playing techniques.

I purchased the PD8-Ultra at this point in time because the burning of the
DVD's was painfully slow with the Corel software provided with the
camcorder. PD8 is MUCH faster, but the quality is greatly reduced.

Thank-you for your feedback though, Jamie. Your help is always
appreciated.
-Allen