Hi Ron

While PD9 will produce very good quality AVCHD 1920x1080 files which play on the PC and
also on HD Media players, I find that the standard DVD quality it produces is way below
what you would expect.
I do realise that to produce a standard DVD the AVCHD file must be re-encoded at 720x576,
but the resulting DVD is of very poor quality, especially noticable on still photos that are part
of the video production.
While using PD8 I was initially using a Std Definition camcorder and the so-called upscaled
results were very good, until burned to Std DVD.
A year ago I upgraded to a 1920x1080i HD camcorder that then gives me the problem of
interlace artifacts. To try and combat this I have now invested in a 1080P camcorder but
have not yet done any editing or production of the files. (Only aquired it last week.)

I recently purchased a competing Software that does a better job of re-encoding the HD
AVCHD PD9 files and burning them to standard DVD, so that is my current route if I need
to make a Std DVD. I personally do not use standard DVDs but they are useful for friends
or family that do not have BluRay Players.
There have been numerous remarks about this deficiency starting with PD8 and continuing
with PD9. I am led to believe that PD7 did a very good job of burning standard DVDs, but that
was before HD cameras became the norm. What Cyberlink have done to their encoder that
causes this loss of quality is a mystery.
However with HD and BluRay now becoming cheaper I suppose it will not be a problem for
much longer, as standard DVD will become a thing of the past, much the same as Analogue TV.

As an HD Editor PD9 is certainly up there with the best in its price bracket, and is definately
easier to use than its competitors, I have tried a few.

From one grandad to another, Good luck in your endeavours. PatC

Thanks Pat,

The endeavours continue.

Incidentally the video I've been editing (The School Play) was shot on the 'new' Panasonic SD 900 in the 1920 x 1080 HA Mode because I wasn't sure how well Cyberlink could deal with 1080/50p. AND the play was scheduled for two or three days after we acquired the camcorder.

I have to say that PD9 dealt with everything I could throw at it in the edit, and indeed right through to the 'PRODUCE' files.

Regards,

GR

Grandad Ron,

I have also experienced a poor conversion from HD content to a standard DVD.

I never solved what I ran into, but I did a work around, I had a standard Def recording of the same content and used that for creating the DVD.

The thing that happened to me was a 16x9 pillar boxed video (A 4x3 image in the middle of 16x9) would not burn to a DVD in full screen, it came out Window boxed. The image was just a small box in the middle of the picture.

I think I tried just about everything. The one thing I may not have done, is uncheck the Hardware Acceleration.

I don't remember if I tried to produce a MPEG-2 file. Maybe I did and it was Windowboxed also.
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.

Hi Carl,

I haven't had the problem you refer to but then I haven't attempted what you were trying.

I did uncheck the CUDA button and the hardware acceleration button (separately) but that didn't to make any difference to the authoring or burning of a standard DVD from the HD original -AND that is the only real unsolvable problem I've had with PD9 - AND I still hope to actually solve THAT.

Regards

GR

Today I came to the forum to find out about exactly the same thing. I have 1080p/50fps footage (that I will burn to blu-ray) and the couple whose wedding it was need DVD. The trouble is that the DVD comes out DARK with high contrast which makes it a bit rubbish. Pretty disappointed with this because it makes a mockery of all the colour and lighting balancing I have done in the edits. Hoped that an HD to SD converter should really at least preserve the light balance of footage. Shame AMD Phenom II X6 1100XT
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PowerDirector Ultra 13

Hi Ron

Snap ! Its the Pana SD900 that I just aquired also.(Great minds think alike)
I bought it to use on my Holidays in a week or so.
On initial testing PD9 handles the footage well but time will tell.
I will try to set up the custom produce for 1080P as per directions
from this forum and see how that works out.
I see that you refer to Cuda/Nvidia, while I have an ATI/AMD graphics card that doesn't
fair too well when accelleration is turned on.
I am inclined to think that NOT all the problems we face are the fault of Cyberlink.
In my case I feel that Windows 7 64bit and ATI/AMD are not entirely blameless when
it comes to system lockups and other quirks, its just that PD9 is the only program we run
that really pushes the system towards its limits....

It is very encouraging to hear that you were able to get the School Play edited and through
the production stage, but then thats how it should be! There's light at the end of the tunnel....

Regards PatC

Hi Guys,

I'm not sure that I'm in a position to advise anyone about what's what but I have edited and burned around 100 hours of movies on PD 8 & PD 9, since 2009, and produced 60 or 70 DVD's (and one Blu Ray), mostly from Hi 8 video tape family videos and like my exploration into the photo edit programme PhotoShop and the audio edit programme from Tracer Tech I do know what I know - and of course I am always finding out what I don't know.

I haven't experienced most of the problems I read about on the Forum, with stuttering and stalling and all the other events where Cyberlink actually fails. I wonder if much of that is to do with the amount of memory in the computer - since I have moved to a desktop with 6gb of RAM, everything is different.

A recent message from Berto refers to a problem with a dark background and high contrast on a DVD burn (which I have not experienced) and I would ask if the PRODUCE file he was attempting to burn was OK.

I am still of the opinion that if the PRODUCE file is OK and the Blu Ray Burn is OK, all the problems must be in the authoring/conversion/transcoding - or the burn - to DVD. And to remind you and myself I burned a perfect image on a DVD-DATA burn - by accdent.

I do believe I will solve it and I would be delighted to describe how.

Regards,

GR

Carl,

Solution to your pillar box problem might be to start a 4:3 project, import the 16:9 file (PD9 will complain, but keep 4:3 aspect ratio) then clip/trim away the pillar box.

then produce DVD format.

starting with HD resolution, you will still be better than DVD resolution after the trims. Might lose a little crispness when PD resizes to DVD, but not much

the pillar bars are probably actually part of each frame, that was why you could not get rid of them, trimming will convert to a frame with just the picture content 4:3 information. RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6
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Granddad Ron,

If the "produced" file was for BlueRay, then it in HD h.264 format, interlaced which is the standard.

Try importing that file into a fresh project, then producing a HQ (highest quality MPEG2) file to disk.
See how big it is. Youi might need to create the menus and burn to a double sided DVD (about 8.7 GB size).

burn it to disk (i do not use smartfit ... looses to much quality), then use freebee ImageBurn to reduce file size to fit 4.7 GB (single sided) it does good job.

I hope you realize that DVD stores only about one quarter the info that a blue ray does (1960x1080) vs (720x480) NSTC standards, Hollywood processes the video 3-9 times (encoding passes) to get the best quality for a commercial DVD, with unbelievable encoding/optimizing algorithms to get that crispness any old Blueray gets for nothing. It is unfair to expect a under $100 software to do it in one pass.

PD9 is fantastic editor, but has a few small limitations. RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6
(2 NVME 2TB, 1 SSD 2TB, 3SATA 18TB )
PD18 ULTIMATE 64bit
WINDOWS 10 PRO 64 BIT
GIGABYTE X570 AORUS PRO WIFI MB
RYZEN 7 3700X 8-CORE , 64 GB DDR4
ORSAIR HX1050 watts PSU

Rocket-Scientist,

Carl,

Solution to your pillar box problem might be to start a 4:3 project, import the 16:9 file (PD9 will complain, but keep 4:3 aspect ratio) then clip/trim away the pillar box.

then produce DVD format.

I did try that, still did not work. I have since finished that project and mailed out the DVD.
You are are right about PD9 complaining, PD9 tried to switch the project back to 16x9 and then it hung up.

As is said, I had a Standard Def source to the exact same video and burned the DVD from that.
DVD turned out as good as can be expected for a DVD.

I have been fine with burning a DVD from a HD source.
Works in PD9 if the Video fills the frame. That video was a 4x3 transmitted on a 16x9 channel, so it was pillar boxed.

Strangest response I have seen.
No matter what I did to the Video, Cropping did not work, doing a 16x9 dvd did not work, changing the project to 4x3 just made the 16x9 video Window Box.

The Standard Def was in normal 4x3 format, burned to the DVD perfect. 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.

Hi Rocket Scientist,

Having read on the Forum that BluRay produced better results from MPEG2 I did 'PRODUCE' my nearly 2hour BD from the MPEG2. It came out at over 24gb and only fitted onto the disc with a 100mb or so to spare.

To my old eyes it was as good as the original, or maybe -just as good as it gets.

I will sacrifice another BD to test out PD9's MPEG4 and H264 'PRODUCE files.

I have to remind myself that the original was not 1080p but was Panasonic's HA 1920 x 1080.

I also have to keep reminding myself that all the 'PRODUCE' files out of PD9 have been terrific, that is except 'AVI',
so it's the 'CREATE' (AUTHORING & BURNING) end of the spectrum affecting DVD's that's causing me to have sleepless nights.

AND I've tried 5 other BURN programmes and sacrificed dozens of test DVD's

But I will get there !

GR