Hi Mark,
I suppose I differentiate between 'professional' and 'consumer' and between ' technical' and 'pragmatic'.

Technically any video rendering/conversion (unless completely lossless) acts to 'reduce' quality, so re-rendering sub-project videos, when assembling a final project, may reduce quality - depending on the codecs, software, hardware etc. Professionally, the technically best solution may be the one of choice.

However, my pragmatic approach works along the lines of "can I see a difference?". This, of course, depends on my playback kit, my input video quality, my output file format, my mother's/sister's/friend's TV etc etc.

For 'consumers', set against any perceived loss of quality, is the ease (or not!) of production.

Using consumer camera hardware, it is becoming common to deal with HD video but the processing and graphics power required to edit and produce HD in a relaxing and pleasurable way is often beyond some of us.

So, rather than suffer the frustration and extended time scales, freezes, crashes etc that are commonly the subject of posts here, the judicial use of smaller sub-projects doesn't (subject to many variables, I know) necessarily result in a perceptably poorer final product and may make a video editor's life a bit more bearable.

Given that I'm 56, really grumpy, 5 grown up but still around children, dislike working, need the money etc etc - there are times to compromise

Cheers
Adrian



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Mark,

I'm dealing with this issue now. I have nice, clear VOB source files but the video quality of my finished product (MPG) burnt to DVD is pixely and just not good.

I'm trying to get CyberLink costumer support to provide tips (change settings?) to enhance the quality but all they keep telling me is that my display driver isn't updated (and it is).

Any help from the forum would be greatly appreciated!!!

I was having the same exact problem and they kept saying the same things to me too and not listening. Of course my video driver and video card is up to snuff If I can view them in quicktime or the previewer with 100% quality. But once they are put into a project, the quality drops noticably. They kept saying the same stuff, check your card, your drivers, etc. And I'm like, "ARE YOU LISTENING???". These are all fine, so what is PD's problem with killing my quality. Did I buy HD for nothing?

Shane wrote:

But once they are put into a project, the quality drops noticably.

Placing ANY file into a project(Timeline) will result in poorer quality in the PREVIEW window. That is what happens. Power Director is showing you a representation of the placement of your editing items in a preview only. The reason for this is that a lower quality preview will reduce the need for dedication of precious CPU resources that are better used for editing. You can INCREASE the preview quality to "High"...default quality is "Normal" the button becomes active after placing assets on the Timeline.....located below the preview window...white rectangle(with white border). Select High Preview Quality. Be advised that now playback MAY become less smooth depending on the Hardware specifications of your specific PC system.

Starchild you wrote:

I have nice, clear VOB source files but the video quality of my finished product (MPG) burnt to DVD is pixely and just not good.

What is the resolution of your VOB video files? Is it High Definition? 1920X1080? What is the bit rate of the source footage? 17,000Kbps? 24,000Kbps? Which DVD profile did you select? High Quality? Did you use "Smart Fit" when burning your disc? Did you play it back on a Computer? On a TV...what size was it?

If you start with 1920X1080 source video and burn it to a DVD, the NEW resolution is now 720X480 (NTSC) or
720X576 (PAL). So a drop in quality is to be expected. Hollywood movies are encoded with a VERY expensive video encoder and the quality is superior to a "Consumer based" encoder.

The ONLY way to maintain quality when creating a Disc is to use the same resolution and bitrate as the original. So IF you are working with High Definition footage then you would need to create either AVCHD discs on DVD media(playable only on Blu-Ray players) or create Blu-Ray Discs using a Blu-Ray disc burner. Otherwise you could create High Definition video files and play them back using a High Definition Media player or playback on a PC using the created HD files themselves connected to a High Definition TV or monitor.

Although in my case, I have made DVD's for friends who don't have Blu-Ray capabilities and the source footage was 1920X1080 @ 17,000 bit rate. I selected the High Quality DVD profile and the entire project fit unto either single layer DVD or a Dual layer DVD. The quality was fine and the friends thought the quality was excellent. Probably because they NEVER saw the original High Definition Original footage.

Providing screenshots and examples can assist others in determining what your level of quality compares to their own.

Regards,

Kevin
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Quote: Shane wrote:

But once they are put into a project, the quality drops noticably.

Placing ANY file into a project(Timeline) will result in poorer quality in the PREVIEW window. That is what happens. Power Director is showing you a representation of the placement of your editing items in a preview only. The reason for this is that a lower quality preview will reduce the need for dedication of precious CPU resources that are better used for editing. You can INCREASE the preview quality to "High"...default quality is "Normal" the button becomes active after placing assets on the Timeline.....located below the preview window...white rectangle(with white border). Select High Preview Quality. Be advised that now playback MAY become less smooth depending on the Hardware specifications of your specific PC system.

This was a very helpful answer. Thank You

why is this not explained anywhere else?