Best DVD quality from PD9

Peter Ilyk

Newbie Location: Australia Joined: Jan 18, 2011 07:15 Messages: 27 Offline

Solved by

Jan 26, 2011 04:19

I've recently finished a project in PD. In the "produce" tab I then created a MPEG2 file and an AVI file to test the difference.

I then went to "create disc" and created a DVD in PD - using what was on the timeline (which I assume is in MPEG2). When I played the disc, the video quality was OK - not really good - but OK. But the problem was that the audio kept dropping out every several minutes (the video kept playing =- but the audio dropped out). I tried this a few times - and always the same result.

I then decided to try try to create a disc using the MPEG2 and AVI files I created in "Produce". But this time I used Movie Factory 7 and tried both files. The DVD created using the MPG2 files was about the same quality as the PD created DVD - BUT there was no problem with the audio - it played beautifully all the way through. I then tried creating a DVD using the AVI file - also in Movie factory 7 - this took a while to render and produce (about 80 minutes for a 35 minute movie)- BUT the video quality was significantly better than that produced using the MPG2 file - and the audio was flawless as well.

Does any one know why this is so? Why is there a better quality DVD using the AVI file - when at the end of the day a DVD uses MPEG2 files (so I understand) ? And why is there a problem with audio using PD to create the disc - when there is no problem using Movie factory. From what I can see, Movie factory creates much better DVDs than PD9 - but not sure why this should be the case. Are there particular settings that have to be tweaked on PD in order to get a high quality DVD?

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience and has been able to overcome it in PD - as I'd prefer to work in PD - not have tp switch to Movie factory 7 to produce the final DVD. Peter Ilyk

James Dotson

Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline

Jan 26, 2011 18:26

As far as quality, a lot depends on what the original video format was. AVI in PD is an uncompressed format, so the quality could be much better than that of MPEG 2, but the original video must have been of higher quality to begin with.

I don't have an answer for the audio issue, but some have reported issues when using Smart Sound. Your problem could be related to that. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Peter Ilyk

Newbie Location: Australia Joined: Jan 18, 2011 07:15 Messages: 27 Offline

Jan 27, 2011 03:06

Jaime-esque

Thanks for the response. The original video was mostly (standard) DV (90%) - shot on an Panasonic DVC 30 camera. There were also a few clips from a JVC camera - which uses MOD files -- which I understand are just MPEG 2 files with a different extension. Peter Ilyk

Compiler

Newbie Joined: Feb 03, 2011 12:29 Messages: 1 Offline

Feb 03, 2011 13:56

Hi Peter Ilyk

What you said about PD's video quality in its DVD production is true. If you creating DVD with a timeline over 90mins, it is best you create a DVD9 (8gb) folder on your hard drive and use NERO 7.8 to shrink it to DVD5 format without losing much video quality. In summary, it is best you use PD to produce a MPeg with best quality and use NEROVISION to render it to DVD5 format on disk

Philly Bill

Member Location: Philadelphia, PA Joined: Dec 28, 2010 20:26 Messages: 57 Offline

Feb 03, 2011 21:11

Is there a difference in quality between an MPEG-2 file "Produced" in PD9 versus the same project made straight to DVD in PD9? For example if I view the MPEG-2 file on my computer (in any viewing program) versus the same video on a DVD (created using highest quality settings) on the same computer and also in any viewing program, it appears that the MPEG-2 file has better resolution than the DVD. The original video is AVCHD shot on a Panny SD9, 1080i at 30fps.

I guess the real question is: is DVD a lossy medium?
HP Pavilion Elite 410f. AMD Phenom II 1045T (six core), ATI Radeon HD 5570 Graphics Card w/1GB, 8GB memory, terabyte HD, generic multi optical, LG BD burner, both Lightscribe, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Formerly used Ulead/Corel VideoStudio.

Robert2 S

Senior Contributor Location: Australia Joined: Apr 22, 2009 05:57 Messages: 1461 Offline

Feb 03, 2011 21:22

Quote:

I guess the real question is: is DVD a lossy medium?

Quick answer Yes, especially if you are starting with HD video. Lossy is really the wrong term, DVD's cannot display HD resolution video unless........

If you want the same HD quality on a DVD you can use AVCHD which will allow you to burn HD movies to a standard DVD......however you can only play that DVD on a Blu-ray player or a computer.....Don't you just love video formats.....NOT My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Philly Bill

Member Location: Philadelphia, PA Joined: Dec 28, 2010 20:26 Messages: 57 Offline

Feb 03, 2011 21:36

Robert, that's not what I meant and I think I should have been clearer. I'm not talking about the loss from AVCHD to DVD. Regardless of the original file format, I meant simply the raw MPEG-2 file viewed from my hard disk vs that same file burned to DVD (not a data DVD; a DVD for a player). HP Pavilion Elite 410f. AMD Phenom II 1045T (six core), ATI Radeon HD 5570 Graphics Card w/1GB, 8GB memory, terabyte HD, generic multi optical, LG BD burner, both Lightscribe, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Formerly used Ulead/Corel VideoStudio.

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Feb 03, 2011 21:55

There is a slight difference between a MPeg2 and a DVD.

A DVD uses a format called .VOB. VOB files are similar to MPEG2, but not the same.

You can not import a VOB file and just change the extension to MP2. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.