Burning DVD's...question for the community

Rex Oates

Newbie Location: Edmond, Oklahoma Joined: Aug 09, 2014 13:48 Messages: 22 Offline

Solved by

Dec 21, 2015 23:21

Wondering why it is that when I create my MPEG-2 to burn onto a DVD, the quality of the video degrades. Does anyone else have this problem?

I just did a big project where I burned more than 20 DVD's of a choir concert. I did NOT create an MPEG-2 file for the burning process, instead using the AVCHD files directly onto the burn. Since there were several instances where, because of the really poor lighting used during the show (I mean when the kids were on the risers, they were standing under car headlights as the stage lighting for cryin' out loud), I had to apply a lot of fixes and modifications to the shots to try and make them look halfway decent. While the video files looked okay (not great but passable), when they are burned directly...or produced into an MPEG-2, they come out grainy and of much poorer quality.

In addition to the poor video quality, I'm now hearing that the DVD's themselves are skipping, freezing and going blank at various points in the show. Is this a result of burning the AVCHD files into the MPEG-2 format? I tried burning an AVCHD disc, but after 8 hours (for a 59-minute video), I gave up...

I have since created the project into an MPEG-2 and burned that, but the video quality is still an issue. I am planning to reproduce all of the DVD's already delivered, but I need to make sure to up the quality if that's possible.

I understand that it was a mistake on my part to try and burn AVCHD files into an MPEG-2 format...but even creating an MPEG-2 file for burning is not giving me the desired results. The grainy shots and the noticable reduction in sharpness have shown up in this format. I also understand that burning DVD's is quickly going the way of the dinosaur, but my clients still demand them and I, obviously, want to provide them with the best quality possible.

What do you all do when it comes to burning DVD's? "Love one another." -- JC

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Dec 22, 2015 00:25

Pd14 allows you to create that avchd disc on dvd at the resolution ,bitrate, and framerate as close to your original. You don't need to produce a mpeg-2 file at all. You must have a lot of color and exposure correction applied to have >8 hours to create a 59 minute avchd disc.

Skipping and freezing on a dvd could mean that the particular dvd player has a hard time reading the data on the disc. That can be remedied by selecting a slower burn speed to create a more defined burn on the disc.

If video noise (grain) is the problem then there is Fix/Enhance/Video Denoise that can be tried.

Longedge

Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline

Dec 22, 2015 04:24

Quote: I have since created the project into an MPEG-2 and burned that

I stand to be corrected here but I don't see any difference between burning a DVD or producing to MPEG-2 and then burning a DVD from it. That's the format for standard DVD's and therefore it is the file format that would be created anyway assuming that you encoded to a file using the appropriate profile for a standard DVD for your area.

I know there is still a place for DVD's but MP4's created with the H264 codec are more useful to me nowadays. All recipients (family and friends) of my offerings can view them and I can still burn them to data DVD's to send out to anyone who can't download them when I provide a link.

It's an alternative to think about. Try burning an MP4 to see if it gives better results.

p.s. I always produce to 1920x1080 much better than 720x480 for NTSC (720x576 PAL in my case) of a DVD

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 22. 2015 04:29

CS2014

Senior Contributor Location: USA-Eastern Time Zone Joined: Sep 16, 2014 16:44 Messages: 629 Offline

Dec 22, 2015 10:31

I wonder if you are realizing the inherent nature of the standard DVD resolution?

The 720x480 does indeed, to me, look quite 'un-sharp' and thus I realized that I needed to upgrade to BluRay a few months ago. To do this I needed a burner in my computer that would burn BluRay sorts of resolution and then I needed to get a player to connect to the TV.

I'm making nice high res videos - produced OR burned to BluRay discs - WITH PD13 now.

Are you possibly coming to this realization like I did here a few months ago?

CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive

TonyL

Newbie Location: Nr. Coventry, UK Joined: Oct 10, 2015 04:07 Messages: 46 Offline

Dec 23, 2015 07:11

Whilst BluRay has higher res and disks' greater capacity it's main drawback for me is that none of my family and friends have BluRay players. So it doesn't matter how sharper the picture might be, they can't see it. Hence I stick to old fashioned DVDs.

I've just completed a DVD for a invalid friend and his wife (they aren't www connected and don't have a computer). It contains a menu with two YT videos. The videos were .mp4 so I first converted them to DVD Video (MPEG-PS) using the free version of AVC (Any Video Converter) - that roughly doubled their file size.

I then, for the first time, tried to create a menu and an ISO file in PD14 but after many attempts unfortunately gave up. PD's Menu Designer looks good but isn't friendly in real use and PD showed a huge DVD file size (presumably it needed to convert the MPEG-PS). So using the MPEG-PS files I authored my DVD with Sony DVD Architect and burned it using ImgBurn to a DL disk (another first).

Yes the resolution on TV isn't high def but it's still a very good upscaled picture.

The understandable reluctance of consumers to buy into BluRay means that people that want to share their videos with others must stay with DVD. It remains the most widely usable and available portable format.

TonyL Self build Xeon W3690, 12GB RAM, 850EVO SSD, Asus 2GB GTX960, Win10H 64bit, PD14
iMac 27" Retina 5K i5, 24GB RAM, Radeon M295X 4GB, Bootcamp Win10H 64bit