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which authoring software produces best results
hello,
im kind of new to dvd authoring and was wondering what people might think is the best dvd authoring software to produce the best results. or, if anyone has a solution to a common issue when burning dvds? ive been using sonic dvdit pro 6.0 and allthough it seems to be a good app the final outcome looks washed out. im exporting QT movies from avid xpress pro hd and then importing into dvdit. when i burn the project and view it on a tv it looks very washed out. im now trying to encode in procoder then import the mpeg 2 into sonic dvdit to see if that fixes the issue but its just taking soooo long. anyways, i know that this a common issue and was hoping to get some feedback from amyone who has found a good solution to this common issue?
thanks so much!
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7 Replies
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If you are meaning- how do I get my videos to look as close to the original footage as possible- that depends on the encoder. The more you spend the better they get usually. The Procoder will give much better results I suspect- though of course it’s slow.
-Noah
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ProCoder is pretty good, there’s also Cinemacraft.
Don’t fear the tiger, the Cow is near!
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This could well be a colour-space issue. Some NLEs (particularly Media 100 and I believe AVID) have their colourspace between RGB 16-235 whilst others such as FCP use RGB 0-255. A lot of encoders expect the input levels to be RGB 0-255 and so putting the other flavour of QT into it produces the over-bright, low contrast images you describe when viewed on a TV.
As a Media 100 user I face this all the time. You can try doing a levels adjust to correct the difference, or simply adjust the brightness, contrast and gamma in the encoder to taste. Alternatively look at Bitvice from Innobits. It is a good solid encoder that has a “Studio RGB” button that is designed to handle this colourspace issue.
Of course this may not be the problem you are facing, but it might be worth checking out just in case.
K
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thanks for your feedback!!!! i really appreciate it! i do have another question. so, using procoder to encode and then adding the “601 correction-expand color space” seems to have fixed the “washed out color issue” it could be better but this is much better than before. but it appears that now the image has more artifacts than just transcoding in sonic dvdit. my question is, how do i assure that once i import my mpeg2 file from procoder into dvdit that dvdit is not re-encoding the files? am i just to assume that because i imported mpeg2 dvd compliant files dvdit is not going to re-encode. i guess this question arrises because when i burn to volume or dvd from dvdit it takes a long time like if i were transcoding the files and also because the final outcome has more artifacts.
thanks for your help!
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I’ve never had a chance to use DVDit, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly with some answers.
In the meantime though, what are the artifacts like ? From experience of other users issues, artifacts can be caused by field dominance issues and by the software attempting to scale the files to fit its resolution. I’m just guessing though. Do the files look OK when played back on your computer before being imported into DVDit?
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hey Kieran,
thanks for the quick response! i dont think, its a field issue because i maintain lower field throughout the workflow. but the way these apps work, it may be a feild issue?? but the resizing point that you brought up is a good point. i am able to do a comparison from the output from my editing app and the dvd player just by swithcing to different input channels on my tv. the dvd image does appear to be slightly scaled up. im not sure why because i try and maitain the same aspect ratio, non square, field dominance, frame rate, etc throughout.
what software are you using to author?
thanks!
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Hi Tony,
Sorry for the delay. I’m using Media 100 – Bitvice – DVD SP as my workflow, mainly as I’m on the Mac. DVDSP takes m2v and ac3 files in and muxes them without altering them, which is good as I have to use Bitvice for the colourspace issue I mentioned.
I’m in the UK and work in PAL, but the scaling issue you mention may be because of slight differences in NTSC frames sizes (480 & 486 vertical I think, I may be wrong).
K
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