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Rendering to DVD training suggestions
Hello there,
I’ve been creating DVDs for a local theater company using a multi-cam edit in Sony. It looks crisp and clear in Vegas, but not so much on the DVD. I’m 99% certian I’ve got settings wrong in size and frame rate due to the fact I don’t think I fully understand them.
Could I get some suggestions for books/websites/tutorials on frame rates/image streams and size? I think it’s something really basic that I’m missing…
I’m loving this software and having way too much fun, but I’d like to do a better job with the final product.
Thanks so much!
Dee Skinner
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7 Replies
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Frame rates on DVDs are fairly simple. They are either NTSC at a fraction under 30 frames per second (29.97), or PAL which is 25 frames per second. Similarly, the sizes supported on DVD are very limited. If you look at the DVD Architect default rendering templates you will see that there are basically two choices for both NTSC and PAL which are standard and widescreen. If you click on one of these in the rendering window, and then click on “Customize Template”, you will see the standard pixel sizes for these formats.
The most significant thing in producing a crisp and clear video image is the number of bits used to describe each pixel of your video image. Up to a point, the more bits you use, the better the image will be. So, how do you find out how many bits you can use? A common recommendation in this forum is to use Mark’s DVD Bit Rate Calculator. It will tell you how many bits you can use, and still be able to fit your video file onto a DVD. If you search the forum for bit rate calculator, you should find many discussions and recommendations on this subject.
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Dee, what’s your source footage? If it’s HD, there will be a drop in quality as SD is only 1/6 the size of HD (total pixels).
Bob’s suggestion about using a bitrate calculator is right on the money. I just discussed using this the other day.
How many minutes of MPEG2 onto a DVD5
Here’s another long thread I wrote some time ago about authoring a stage play.
DVD scene selection markers as in comm. DVDs
Let us know if you have any questions after you digest these threads. -
[Dee Skinner] “‘m 99% certian I’ve got settings wrong in size and frame rate due to the fact I don’t think I fully understand them.”
Without knowing what setting you are using it’s hard to determine what you’ve done and what you can do to improve it. I can guess that if you are messing with frame rates you are probably doing it wrong because you should have to do anything but use the built-in templates provided by Sony.
Start with using the built-in templates and see if you like those:
Render Video with:
File | Render As… | MainConcept MPEG2 | DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream
– or –
File | Render As… | MainConcept MPEG2 | DVD Architect PAL Widescreen video streamDepending if you are in an NTSC country or PAL country (which you also didn’t tell us)
Render Audio with:
File | Render As… | Dolby Digital AC-3 Pro | Stereo DVD
Give these files the same name just with the .mpg and .ac3 extensions respectively. Then use these in DVD Architect to author your DVD.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thank You!!!
You’re right, I am going to have to chew through this a bit, but it is exactly what I needed!
I’ve been wanting to be able to have scene selections but hadn’t figured out how to do it. And the source footage is HD. (I have fun toys…;) So I suspect it is not going to be as sharp in the DVD as it is in Vegas. However, between these two suggestions, I suspect I can improve it a bit.
Thanks so much!
Dee Skinner
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Thank you!
This will help quite a bit and was exactly the pointer I needed.
Thanks so much!
Dee Skinner
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Hi John,
Thank you, this is the system that I’m using, it’s just the DVD isn’t as sharp as the video that I see in Vegas. I haven’t changed any of the settings….due to the fact I don’t think I understand stuff well enough to try to change anything. I’m just going with defaults.
That’s why I think it’s something really basic that I’m doing wrong. The DVDs work, people are getting a nice copy of the shows, I just want it to look better if there is something that I can do to improve it.
Thanks!
Dee Skinner
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[Dee Skinner] “… it’s just the DVD isn’t as sharp as the video that I see in Vegas.”
And it never will be. DVD only has 1/6th the information as HD. It pales in comparison. At 720×480 it’s barely 1/3 megapixel! 345,600. Compare that to 1920×1080 which is 2,073,600 over 2 megapixel and it’s pretty obvious why it isn’t as sharp (i.e., 0.3 MP vs 2.1 MP) A Mike said, HD has 6x the information of SD.
You can add a Sharpen FX on the Master Video bus if you want to sharpen it a bit but you just don’t have enough pixels to show the details you’re seeing on the timeline in Vegas.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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