best uqality for DVDs?

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BillHansen

Senior Member Joined: Jan 03, 2012 12:43 Messages: 178 Offline

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Feb 12, 2012 08:55

I'm sure this has been beat to death on the forum, so if someone will just point me to a tutorial or an earlier thread, that will help. I need to know how to maximize quality of a DVD which is *burned* using the DVD format.

Thanks to other forum members, I am now able to get good to excellent quality videos by burning in AVCHD, no matter what format I've *produced* the DVD in (awkward sentence, but maybe the idea comes through). Yes, of course the quality varies somewhat, but it's always within the boundaries of "acceptable". These videos will play very nicely on my higher-powered desktop computer and on the flat screen TV. But no video burned using any of the AVCHD formats will play on my low-end and low powered laptop computer, which is probably the equivalent of what my friends and family have.

Therefore, I'd like to produce "acceptable" quality vids by burning in DVD format, and I haven't been able to do that. I know they won't look as good as AVCHDs. Trouble is, my videos burned using "DVD" are all extremely noisy and lacking in detail. I can play them on my very underpowered laptop, which is a good test, but they look awful.

The best I've been able to do when a video is going to be burned using the DVD burning format is to add a hefty dose of video denoise and only a little sharpening. At least then, the videos don't look pixelated and the noise isn't the most obvious thing you see. But there's still very intrusive noise, and there's no fine detail left.

It could even be that my laptop is so puny that it can't play AVCHD, while most other laptops can do so, if the video was produced (rendered) in a lower-bitrate format, such as MEPG-2 or WMV. Mine is an off-brand laptop, so unfortunately I can't give the names of the components.

Is there a solution?

Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY USA Bill Hansen

All vodi

Senior Contributor Location: Canada Joined: Aug 21, 2009 11:24 Messages: 1431 Offline

Feb 12, 2012 18:13

Bill,

I have not had any problems with burning a good quality SD DVD from a high quality AVCHD footage (also on DVD) as long as I am selecting the HQ-DVD profile in the burn window.

With slower PC's you will not get very good results playing AVCHD DVDs. However, a SD DVD should play fine using Windows Media Player or similar software. Win 10, i7

playvideo

Newbie Joined: Oct 30, 2011 08:09 Messages: 20 Offline

Feb 12, 2012 21:09

PD, only the profile (DVD HQ), has the best quality.
Option (DVD SP) uses 352x480 resolution, I do not know why the Cyberlink has not done a profile (DVD ST) with 720x480 resolution.
The solution that I do, produce the MPEG2 file, then create another sofware, DVD-video.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 12. 2012 22:13

BillHansen

Senior Member Joined: Jan 03, 2012 12:43 Messages: 178 Offline

Feb 12, 2012 21:19

A few questions for you then - because if you're getting good results, then I have to be doing something very wrong:

(1) What format(s) do you use to Produce your DVD videos?

(2) Does the HD preview, or any of the previews, in the Edit page accurately reflect what your final burned DVD will look like? How about the final Preview in the Create Disc page?

(3) Can you give me an idea of how much sharpening you use, both in-camera (I keep in-camera sharpening turned completely off) and also in the PD Edit page? In PD, could you guess you use minimal sharpening,1/8th of the way along the slider, slight sharpening (maybe 1/4 of the way along the slider), moderate (about halfway up the slider) or more than that? Do you use video denoise in the PD Edit page? If so, how much denoise (again, slight, moderate, midway, or more than that)?

In my case, the HD Preview on the Edit page looks okay, far better than the final burned result. The immediate pre-burn Preview, on the Create Disc page, actually looks quite good - some noise, but nothing too intrusive, and acceptable detail. It's not AVCHD, but it's quite good enough to send to friends and family who don't have powerful computers and good graphic cards.

When burning with the DVD format, I've always selected "HQ-Best Quality" DVD burn. My DVDs will play on either computer (the powerful desktop one, or the low-end underpowered laptop with its uncalibrated LCD screen), but once they have been burned to disc or to the computer's HD they are completely unacceptable in quality, no matter what software player I use - WMP, Nero Show Time, Splash, VLC Media Player. That's true if they're played on the flat screen TV (BD player there), desktop computer, or the laptop.

I've had no trouble at all with burning in the AVCHD format. Those videos look really excellent - best if they're AVCHD to begin with of course, but very good even if they start as MEPG-2s.

I'm a bit puzzled by all this, because although the DVD templates available in the PD 10 program do have some video noise, their detail is very good and the amount of noise I see is far less than I see from the video clips I've produced (rendered) and burned with "HQ-Best Quality".

I'm hoping there is something I am doing wrong, or some tweak I could make during processing or burning.

Bill Bill Hansen

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Feb 12, 2012 21:51

Quote: PD, only the profile (DVD HQ), has the best quality.
Option (SD DVD) uses 352x480 resolution, I do not know why the Cyberlink has not done a profile (SD DVD) with 720x480 resolution.
The solution that I do, produce the MPEG2 file, then create another sofware, DVD-video.

What you can do in PD10 is create a custom MPEG2 profile in the "Produce" tab based on the default DVD-HQ profile. Since this profile has the 720x480 which you want, modify the bitrate to be 4000 avg, 4300 max, more inline with SD bitrates. Bring the produced mpeg back into PD10 and just create disc with your menu and chapters, no editing at all and use the DVD-HQ profile. Behind the scene PD will actually use SVRT and you will end up with a 4000 bitrate 720x480 VOB files on your disc or folder.

Attached is a sample MediaInfo file for the VOB created by PD10 with the process above, as you can see, a 4000 video bitrate and 720x480 resolution.

Another hidden gem of SVRT and the Create disc module.

Jeff

Filename	DVD_4000bitrate.txt	Download
Description	DVD created with 720x480, 4000avg bitrate
Filesize	2 Kbytes
Downloaded:	409 time(s)

playvideo

Newbie Joined: Oct 30, 2011 08:09 Messages: 20 Offline

Feb 12, 2012 22:10

WILHELM HANSEN G
Algumas perguntas para você, então -

If you have video in AVCHD suppose it's FullHD (1920x1080) resolution, but lower or higher than the DVD-Video which is a maximum of 720x480.
When you create a DVD from the HD or FullHD, has a loss of good quality and standard that has to change.
I put the best possible quality on the DVD, choose (DVD HQ) but it's only 1 hour.
As for the Preview, the image that you see, will not affect the image after rendering, this depends on your choice of format and quality in selected Producer.
----------
I created profiles in MPEG2 / Custon, 720x480 / 5200 kbps CBR, creates a file for 2 hours in a 4.7GB DVD.
Set the bitrate of the profile as the time of the video, exp. 90 min. 6000 Kbps bitrate.
With MPEG2 file saved, I create the DVD in Nero Vision it turns the SmartEncoder, which does not render the video that is already in MPEG2 compatible with DVD. (similar SVRT3)
Note: The maximum accepted N.V. 9000 kbps bitrate.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 12. 2012 22:27

playvideo

Newbie Joined: Oct 30, 2011 08:09 Messages: 20 Offline

Feb 12, 2012 22:24

The solution that I do, produce the MPEG2 file, then create another sofware, DVD-video.

What you can do in PD10 is create a custom MPEG2 profile in the "Produce" tab based on the default DVD-HQ profile. Since
Another hidden gem of SVRT and the Create disc module.
Jeff

You're right I did it, but in short video clip, presentations etc ... I like to use the maximum bitrate 9000 kbps CBR. in which case the PD10 does not activate the SVRT3 in DVD creation. I think the maximum is 8000 kbps.
Also for the case of progressive video mode

WILHELM G HANSEN
Great attention to this information the member JL_JL

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Feb 12. 2012 22:42

BillHansen

Senior Member Joined: Jan 03, 2012 12:43 Messages: 178 Offline

Feb 13, 2012 08:06

Playvideo -

Thank you very much for your reply. It's very helpful! I've been reluctant to create a Custom profile, but maybe with your new information I can do it, and have better quality DVDs.

I had not known, for example, that the max resolution of DVD video is 720X480, so that's a big part of the explanation of why DVD doesn't look as good as AVCHD. I knew the bitrate of DVD was lower than AVCHD, but that's all I knew. You're correct that I've been shooting, producing, and (usually) burning at 1920X1080 for my AVCHDs.

Of course I have always known that the preview doesn't affect the quality of the burned video. The surprise to me was that it didn't look much like the burned video. Why call it a "preview" if it is not an indication of what will come after it (the burned version)? That's not your problem or mine, of course - but PD might have done a better job of it.

When you create a Custom profile in the PD Produce page and set the bitrate at 5200 kbps, are you increasing resolution? I ask that because you said that you get 1 hour of video on a 4.7GB DVD at PD's "DVD HQ Best Quanity" setting, but you get 2 hours when you set bitrate at 5200. Since you can pack more video time onto a DVD disc at 5200, I'd have thought final quality was less at 5200.

You recommended "set bitrate of the profile as the time of the video, exp 90 min 6000 Kbps". I think I know what you mean there. If I don't need to put more than, say, 30 minutes of video on a single DVD disc, I can set a high bitrate - perhaps something like 8000 or 9000 Kbps, and get a better looking final result in the burned video?

Thanks again for your excellent reply. It's the first time I've had hope that I could bring my DVD videos up to a standard which I'd be willing to share with friends and family.

Bill

Bill Hansen

BillHansen

Senior Member Joined: Jan 03, 2012 12:43 Messages: 178 Offline

Feb 14, 2012 08:25

In the unlikely case that anyone is still watching this thread - I've got a solution which works for me when producing and burning DVD videos, as opposed to AVCHD videos.. It might not work for everyone, but it results in DVD quality which is "okay", and sometimes better than okay.

Here's the workflow:

Because I want to make AVCHD quality videos for my own use, I shoot at 1920X1080 60i and with all sharpening turned OFF in the camera. Turning off in=camera sharpening is important, because default in-camera sharpening is often too high.

Then I edit with the bare minimum of sharpening, usually about 30 to 40 % (30 to 40 along the slider line in the Edit/Color Correction/Sharpening path) and about 1//3 of that amount Video Noise Reduction. For example, if a clip can get by with sharpening at 30%, I'll add about 8 to 10 % of Video Noise Reduction. I think those settings are the key, for me at least. Keepin sharpening to a minimum is an absolute necessity, if horrible video noise is to be avoided. The addition of a moderate amount of Video Noise Reduction is also important.

Produce in MPEG-2 with the (HDV)MPEG-2 720p profile. (Though actually, the standard MEPG-2 DVD-HQ profile works almost as well as the HDV one.)

Burn in DVD format with HQ-DVD selected.

The resulting videos have a little bit of residual noise, but it's not too distracting. They have some detail, though of course not nearly as much as the AVCHD versions from the same clips.

I tried making a Custom profile for producing but as I expected, it was no better than the ones supplied by PF 10.

Final observation - the results are always much better when shooting in indirect sunlight, than they are when shooting indoors with artificial light, even when the artificial light is quite bright. I don't know why this is. Bill Hansen