best render settings for DVD

[Yossi Siegel]

Kinda late, but what he means is that mpeg-2 is the actual format that you use for DVDs: the only one with which you can make a DVD movie. It’s known to be of poor quality, but if you use the proper settings (try doing a search) you may come up with decent quality video…

[Mike Kujbida]

Yossi, I beg to differ on your comments about poor quality from MPEG-2.
As with anything else in the video world, the final quality is only as good as your source material.
If you’re using a cheap consumer camcorder under poor lighting conditions, the DVD can’t possibly look very good.
Light the scene properly and use a good camera and the difference is astounding.
I’m fortunate enough to shoot with what I consider broadcast-quality cameras (3 CCDs) with good lenses.
I shot a 2.5 hr. play last year that ended up on a regular DVD and it looked great.
The play was professionally lit, shot with a very good camera and had no extremes of contrast for the camera and subsequent encoding to deal with.

The other issue to consider is that any DVD you buy from the video store is produced using the same MPEG-2 files that we use in Vegas.
A typical Hollywood production is shot with a large crew, very expensive gear and the final encoding for DVD is done using tools that we can never afford 🙂

[Yossi Siegel]

That is indeed very true…But say you were to take the same high quality footage and render it…How high up on the quality list would mpeg-2 rank as opposed to others? That’s what I really meant by it. This is something I heard from an independent filmmaker/editor, so I cannot attest as to the reliability, in any case (sorry for not mentioning ^^).

[Jeff Vondungen]

Hey guys. So what is the best DVD rendering settings. I’ve done all kinds of tests with “upper field”, “progressive”, CBR, VBR, etc…

I make really kick ass looking vids that are perfect on preview and other formats (yes they look good as an MPG-2) but every time I render to DVD and have my DVD player up-convert it to my HD monitor it has a little pixelization EVEN THOUGH other industry dvd’s look brilliant.

Why or what can I do to smooth out the pixelization that DVD Architect/Vegas make that the DVD player notices.
This is driving me crazy… Thanks guys! ~J

[John Martinson]

I have the same issue and am looking for any info anyone can offer!!! Everything looks great on the Computer monitor, but on my Samsung 46″ 1080P, Pixalated(sp?)and grainy.

Peace,
J

[David Clark]

i’m trying to place 27.8 gb of video onto a dvd- i created it in vegas and rendered as an .avi i just got dvd architect 5.2 and have it set up to create- but i dont know how to save it as an .iso image file so i can later use dvd shrink to get it all onto the dvd. the reason its so big is that i wanted to keep my 720×480 quality at the least because i actually made it at 1920×1080 in vegas 10.

please help anyone

[Shao Lon bros]

I just got back from reviewing my dvd at a friends house. It was shot 24 fps and I have struggled getting a good quality video with an mpeg-2 – in wmv player as well as on youtube. So I found the thread, and rendered out the mpeg-2 as stated with the exception as keeping a CBR at 9.5MB instead of of 8. I have had decent luck with wmv files also as another guy stated.

Essentially, I had two dvds. One with the wmv conversion through dvd architecht and the other with the mpeg-2 with ac3 as I mentioned above. The quality was pretty well the same I noticed between the two. The file with the mpeg-2 was much smaller. However, in the middle of the MPEG dvd it starts to lag and I loose sound.

Not sure what’s going on. Is it the 8-9.5MB difference? I thought I would get a better quality out of a 13 min short film.

[Mike Kujbida]

[Shao Lon Bros] “Is it the 8-9.5MB difference?”

It very well could be.
Due to the inconsistencies of burned vs. pressed DVDs, the standard recommendation is to never exceed 8.5 MB for an encoding rate.

[Shao Lon bros]

You also mentioned encoding the ac3. Is this done through vegas or architect? My vegas doesn’t allow any kind of custom setting unless you purchase pro. It allows a default of dvd.

[Mike Kujbida]

[Shao Lon Bros] “You also mentioned encoding the ac3. Is this done through vegas or architect? My vegas doesn’t allow any kind of custom setting unless you purchase pro. It allows a default of dvd.”

I use Vegas Pro and it allows me to encode to AC-3.
I’ve never used any of the Movie Studio versions so I have no idea what your DVD authoring/burning options are.