I have created H.264 video files and burned them to a DVD using the AVCHD setting in Power2Go13. The video quality is as good as Blu-ray. However, the DVD can only be played on a Blu-ray player. I have been able to play 25 to 30 minutes. If you want to play longer videos, it probably will not be possible. Also, the AVCHD format will not reincode the files so there is no loss of quality. However, Cyberlink Support has stated that if you want to burn a Blu-ray disc it does reincode the video.

I tried another experiment today - I used an MPEG4 file instead of an MPEG2, but I still got the same poor quality video when burnt to DVD. PD18 also requires almost double the disc space that AVS Video Editor uses and the end result is so much worse. I cannot understand this - Powerdirector has been around for a long time, so why am I getting inferior results?

The settings I am currently using are shown in the uploaded image.

BrianE - Are you willing to share, say the VTS_01_1.VOB file created with the AVS Video Editor and the one created by PD18 from the same files... Would like to check to see the difference. One Drive or Google Drive may be used and you can make the file shareable to users willing to check and test them.

Quote BrianE - Are you willing to share, say the VTS_01_1.VOB file created with the AVS Video Editor and the one created by PD18 from the same files... Would like to check to see the difference. One Drive or Google Drive may be used and you can make the file shareable to users willing to check and test them.

I'll give it a go, but it may take me a day or two to organise this.

Something not often told is that all DVD's are not created equal. The disk will come from a pack that has a burn rate specified, eg 16x for a standard DVD, 6x for blu ray. And programs to burn disks default to a MAX rate (whatever that may be). If you try to burn it faster, the cache feeding the burner gets overwhemed (re-loaded with more data before the burner has emptied the previous feed) and the result on disk is poor: you called it blockiness, others including me just generally call it pixelating. Essentially, corrupted data. Often, when played the disk locks up in the player.
So, when you load the disk into the burner, note the rating.
In the burner program make sure you choose the same or next lowest rating for the disk (if for example its an 8x disk, and there isn't an 8x choice, choose the standard 6x setting in the list).

Quote And programs to burn disks default to a MAX rate (whatever that may be).

Not really, concerning PD burn capability and/or most burning utilities, it will default to the rated speed of the disc in use. If you use 16x it will default to 16x and allow you to select slower burns. If a 8x disc, it will default to 8x and allow slower. PD never defaults to some whatever MAX rate, it always reads the inner hub coding on the disc and offers rated speed (default) or manually slower options. Using a slower speed on a quality disc often will not change anything.

As tomasc points out, seeing encoding specifics in the two files could shed some insight, however, there are substantially better MPEG2 encoders available than what PD provides so OP quality observation may/may not be abnormal.

Jeff

Quote

Not really, concerning PD burn capability and/or most burning utilities, it will default to the rated speed of the disc in use. If you use 16x it will default to 16x and allow you to select slower burns. If a 8x disc, it will default to 8x and allow slower. PD never defaults to some whatever MAX rate, it always reads the inner hub coding on the disc and offers rated speed (default) or manually slower options. Using a slower speed on a quality disc often will not change anything.

As tomasc points out, seeing encoding specifics in the two files could shed some insight, however, there are substantially better MPEG2 encoders available than what PD provides so OP quality observation may/may not be abnormal.

Jeff

I've not been able to reproduce the problem since the weekend. The only real difference I am currently noticing between DVD's burnt using AVS and PD18 is that the latter requires substantially more disc space.

Quote I've not been able to reproduce the problem since the weekend. The only real difference I am currently noticing between DVD's burnt using AVS and PD18 is that the latter requires substantially more disc space.

If you could share the VTS_01_1.VOB as tomasc suggested that would help a lot to understand.

Substantially more, well, ~20% more. One thing to keep in mind, your prior screen shot showed you are using LPCM audio in PD, that is significantly more bit expensive than say Dolby Digital. You might verify what you are using in the other product or use MediaInfo on the VTS_01_1.VOB files.

For your ~50min of content, that audio change alone would be ~15% increase in space out of the ~20%.

Jeff

Thank you for the screenshots. The PD18 dvd is 18.9% larger than the AVS dvd. That is probably because of the uncompressed (LPCM) audio on the PD18 created disc. You can do a File explorer/Properties/Detail on the VTS_01_1.VOB on each to find out both the video, audio, and total bitrate for each.

Glad that you are not seeing any problems with the PD18 creation now. Use Mediainfo(freeware) to see more details with the .VOB files. It is possible that the frame rates of the two DVDs are different and the one created with the AVS is closer to the frame rate of the original files used. You would be able to determine that with the right utilities like with mediainfo.

EDIT: Jeff answered first while I was still typing.

Quote Thank you for the screenshots. The PD18 dvd is 18.9% larger than the AVS dvd. That is probably because of the uncompressed (LPCM) audio on the PD18 created disc. You can do a File explorer/Properties/Detail on the VTS_01_1.VOB on each to find out both the video, audio, and total bitrate for each.

Glad that you are not seeing any problems with the PD18 creation now. Use Mediainfo(freeware) to see more details with the .VOB files. It is possible that the frame rates of the two DVDs are different and the one created with the AVS is closer to the frame rate of the original files used. You would be able to determine that with the right utilities like with mediainfo.

EDIT: Jeff answered first while I was still typing.

Here's the PD18 VOB info:

General
CompleteName : D:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
Format/String : MPEG-PS
FileSize/String : 1 024 MiB
Duration/String : 18 min 35 s
OverallBitRate_Mode/String : Variable
OverallBitRate/String : 7 701 kb/s
Video
ID/String : 224 (0xE0)
Format/String : MPEG Video
Format_Version : Version 2
Format_Profile : Main@Main
Format_Settings : BVOP
Format_Settings_BVOP/String : Yes
Format_Settings_Matrix/String : Default
Format_Settings_GOP : M=3, N=15
Format_Settings_PictureStructure : Frame
Duration/String : 18 min 35 s
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate/String : 6 012 kb/s
BitRate_Maximum/String : 8 300 kb/s
Width/String : 720 pixels
Height/String : 576 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String : 16:9
FrameRate/String : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
ColorSpace : YUV
ChromaSubsampling/String : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String : 8 bits
ScanType/String : Interlaced
ScanOrder/String : Top Field First
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Bits-(Pixel*Frame) : 0.580
TimeCode_FirstFrame : 00:00:00:00
TimeCode_Source : Group of pictures header
Gop_OpenClosed/String : Open
StreamSize/String : 799 MiB (78%)
Audio
ID/String : 189 (0xBD)-160 (0xA0)
Format/String : PCM
Format_Settings : Big / Signed
MuxingMode : DVD-Video
Duration/String : 18 min 34 s
BitRate_Mode/String : Constant
BitRate/String : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)/String : 2 channels
SamplingRate/String : 48.0 kHz
BitDepth/String : 16 bits
StreamSize/String : 204 MiB (20%)
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Quote


Here's the PD18 VOB info:

General
CompleteName : D:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
Format/String : MPEG-PS
FileSize/String : 1 024 MiB
Duration/String : 18 min 35 s
OverallBitRate_Mode/String : Variable
OverallBitRate/String : 7 701 kb/s
Video
ID/String : 224 (0xE0)
Format/String : MPEG Video
Format_Version : Version 2
Format_Profile : Main@Main
Format_Settings : BVOP
Format_Settings_BVOP/String : Yes
Format_Settings_Matrix/String : Default
Format_Settings_GOP : M=3, N=15
Format_Settings_PictureStructure : Frame
Duration/String : 18 min 35 s
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate/String : 6 012 kb/s
BitRate_Maximum/String : 8 300 kb/s
Width/String : 720 pixels
Height/String : 576 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String : 16:9
FrameRate/String : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
ColorSpace : YUV
ChromaSubsampling/String : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String : 8 bits
ScanType/String : Interlaced
ScanOrder/String : Top Field First
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Bits-(Pixel*Frame) : 0.580
TimeCode_FirstFrame : 00:00:00:00
TimeCode_Source : Group of pictures header
Gop_OpenClosed/String : Open
StreamSize/String : 799 MiB (78%)
Audio
ID/String : 189 (0xBD)-160 (0xA0)
Format/String : PCM
Format_Settings : Big / Signed
MuxingMode : DVD-Video
Duration/String : 18 min 34 s
BitRate_Mode/String : Constant
BitRate/String : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)/String : 2 channels
SamplingRate/String : 48.0 kHz
BitDepth/String : 16 bits
StreamSize/String : 204 MiB (20%)
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And now for the AVS VOB info:

General
Complete name : D:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 1 024 MiB
Duration : 21 min 51 s
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 6 547 kb/s
Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings : BVOP
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Duration : 21 min 51 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 200 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.598
Time code of first frame : 00:00:00:00
Time code source : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed : Open
Stream size : 968 MiB (95%)
Audio
ID : 192 (0xC0)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Duration : 21 min 51 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 224 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 41.667 FPS (1152 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 35.0 MiB (3%)
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Looks like you have your answer on size difference and it was as described. PD18 using PCM audio at 1536kbps while your other is using basic MPEG audio at 224kbps. Video differences rather negligible at 6012kbps and 6200kpbs.

So the burned size differs between the two by 20% because of the audio encoding utilized.

Jeff

Quote Looks like you have your answer on size difference and it was as described. PD18 using PCM audio at 1536kbps while your other is using basic MPEG audio at 224kbps. Video differences rather negligible at 6012kbps and 6200kpbs.

So the burned size differs between the two by 20% because of the audio encoding utilized.

Jeff

OK, thanks for that. What difference would I expect to notice between the two audio variations? If so, have you any recommendations which option to choose? Neither option in PD18 seems to make any difference about the size of the output to the DVD though (see below).

Quote OK, thanks for that. What difference would I expect to notice between the two audio variations and also, do I have any control of that with PD18? If so, have you any recommendations which option to choose?

Really depends on playback system, audio content, and the age of the ears. PCM will be higher quality, but the aforementioned items depend if it's real for you.

PD18 only offers LPCM and DTS (always 5.1), both of very similar bitrates so you have no real other option. PD used to have Dolby Digital 2 channel which offered substantially lower bitrate, 256kbps vs 1536kbps, at reasonable quality but CL removed the capability.

For audio quality, typically, PCM, DD, MPEG.

Jeff

I'm cautiously optimistic that I've found the answer to this at last. It seems to be the option to "Enable Intel Quick Sync Video". I tried various options yesterday evening, including DVD+R and DVD-R Verbatim discs, but all ended up as coasters until I switched off the above option. After that, I was able to make two DVD's without any blocking/pixelating or whatever the correct terminology is.