Professional Compression for DVD

[toilinthelight]

Hello,
I am outputting a project shot on a DVX and edited in FCP 4.5. I have tried outputting an mpeg-2 for DVD using Compressor 1.2 and am not happy at all with the quality.
I have a couple of questions:
1) Would it be worth it to go to a pro DVD compression and authoring service company? Are their compressors that much better than the one in Compressor?
2) Is the mpeg2 codec in Compressor 2.0 any better than in 1.2?

Thanks

[Ming]

Compressor should be able to do the job just fine. What settings are you using?

Here's a good reference.

http://www.lafcpug.org/Tutorials/basic_export_files.html

[Demistate]

1) Most professionals are using CCE , which does (theoretically unlimited passes) Most of them do 6-pass encoding, so YES paying a professional to do it this way would yield better results. ASK what encoder they do, and how many passes they do when encoding

Worth it? Well...concidering that CCE costs $2,000USD, yeah I would say that the encoders you have are worth sticking to

Just remember to dig into the settings and try to tweak it for what you're doing

(I'm assuming 23.976 Progressive scan material at 720x480)

Set the quality meter to the highest, this is for how much time the CPU should analyize for each frame.

Make sure you are encoding it at Progressive, Do not encode a file that has IVTC in it at 29.97. You're just wasting bits that could be used for better stuff

do a 2-pass VBR, at about 6-7MegaBits per second, peaking out at 9.1 Megabits per second. This should get you about 1 hour of video on a dvd-5, if you need more, lower the numbers.

MAKE SURE your audio is DOLBY DIGITAL, and not PCM. PCM takes up alot of space, and with the bitrates I gave above, you'll go over the dvd standard of 9.9 and you wont be able to play it back properly (assuming it will even burn!)

After you re-do the settings for better encoding, step back and look at the product from a consumer viewpoint: Is this quality good enough for 95% of consumers?

I don't have the knowledge answer question #2

Hope that helps.

[Login418]

I get great results just using Compressors defaults for Best Quality 90mins. My Problem is when DVDSP muxes the files (build disc) and produces the files for the DVD ( all the files in the VIDEO_TS folder) I get additional compression artifacts like blocky color sampling. What gives? Does DVDSP have quality settings?

[Bayne]

Sorry to Hi-Jack but i dont want to double post. IM exporting to DVD with 24PA footage in PP2 to Encore DVD. I have used the AME and tried everything up to a 13-15 VBR 2 Pass MPEG2-DVD. I have set the frame rate to 23.976 on the output. Once i get it into Encore it has to transcode again to make the ISO. After this happens the video has terrible ghosting on an Interlaced tube.

Any info I can get to just get a solid looking output?

[Demistate]

Sorry to Hi-Jack but i dont want to double post. IM exporting to DVD with 24PA footage in PP2 to Encore DVD. I have used the AME and tried everything up to a 13-15 VBR 2 Pass MPEG2-DVD. I have set the frame rate to 23.976 on the output. Once i get it into Encore it has to transcode again to make the ISO. After this happens the video has terrible ghosting on an Interlaced tube.

Any info I can get to just get a solid looking output?

In encore you need to make sure your video and audio are seperate streams, not meuxed into a mpeg file (so m2v + AC3) .

I believe Encore 2 will always try to transcode again even if you have a PCM wav file.

[Bayne]

Update. So i export the full movie as Microsoft DV AVI (24p Advanved setting). Then run it through CCE on a 7-9mb VBR 6 Pass and it come out crystal clear.....love it. No ghosting, no nothin.

Bayne

[Andrew Brinkhaus]

When you say you run it through CCE, are you referring to a compression software? What is the full name?

[moonlitnite]

Cinema Craft Encoder, $58 for the basic, or a mere $1950 for the standard vesion
http://www.cinemacraft.com/eng/index.html
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=85