dvd creation

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sean90291

Veteran
So, thanks to a lot of help from you guys, I got my new edit suite going, and things seem okay. Now I've used Sorenson Squeeze to create an MPEG-2 file (NTSC DVD Large) and burned my Avid 24P timeline/project to a DVD (shot with the DVX100A). Seemed to work wonderfully...except for a very serious loss of colour and resolution from the digital cut. If I play the digital cut (directly from a miniDV tape) it looks quite beautiful. But the DVD just looks terrible. I know there's serious compression happening, but geez... And so I tried burning a DVD using my DVD Recorder hooked up to my TV (by playing my digital cut right through the unit and recording as I went)...and I could swear I got a much better quality picture on DVD that way. Given all the technical mumbo-jumbo with squeezing and compressing DVD's, I'm surprised I haven't heard more about "my" technique (copying straight through a DVD Recorder). But how do you get a truly great DVD copy of your Avid projects? Maybe I have to pay a pro to burn me copies at $100 a pop...

cheers.
 
Copying straight through to a DVD recorder is a very viable option, and if you've got the hardware and are happy with the results, then it's a more simple process than encoding / authoring. Part of the problem is that playing out to a recorder means that you lose some control over the MPEG-2 and you can't really create an original menu for the DVD.

When you exported your sequence from Avid, how did you do it? Quicktime Mov? Quicktime Reference? Do you notice an issue with color at that step? Did you tweak the MPEG-2 encoding settings in Squeeze or just use a template? After you have an MPEG-2 file do you see the color problem on it or do you just see the color problem after authoring? What application are you using for authoring?

That info might help me find a problem or be able to make suggestions to you. :)
 
I exported a QT Reference file from Avid and used the Sorenson "DVD Large" template (no filters, no changes to the template whatsoever). I guess I have to go back to tweaking things to see if I can improve it, huh? (Note it's a 24P timeline in Avid, and I gave up trying to burn a 24P DVD...so I leave out any of the 24P filters or settings...I was getting really awful MPEG-2's when I tried to burn a true 24P DVD -- real jerky...and I was using all those steps set out in the 24P article by that expert dude too).

And I burned with Ulead Movie Factory...admittedly not exactly a premium product. I'd be willing to spend a couple hundred bucks on good quality DVD creation software if I found one that worked! (I certainly don't like TMPEG's).

I'll have to look at the MPEG-2 I created to see if there's serious color loss there...or if the loss is in the burning process. That's a good point. But it's hard to tell, because in viewing the MPEG-2 I'm looking at it on a computer screen...though I guess I should hook my computer up to my TV and see what it looks like. That's a good idea, to test where the "problem" lies.
 
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Unless Ulead is re-encoding your MPEG2 the loss is happening BEFORE it hits that... and certainly not happening in the actual burn process.

It's worth checking to be sure that Ulead is just taking your Sorenson encoded file and not messing with it after the fact.
 
Also, with Squeeze you have to tell it NOT to deinterlace your material. You do that by creating a new filter and changing "Deinterlace" to none. That wouldn't cause color issues, but it probably does account for the jerkiness you described.

Let us know if the MPEG-2 files looks good or if it's screwy too.

And for authoring programs, DVD-Lab is just about tops in my book for the PC. $100 for the standard version and $200 for the Pro version and it has more options than most $1,000+ software options. Download the demo when you have some spare time. :)
 
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