Nick White
Forum Replies Created
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OK.Both the TV and the computer show wash-out.
What about the MediaInfo I asked for, for the wmv file that is good? What bitrate does it show? And also, what bit depth? That can also be a factor.
The washout is a matter of the data for the DVD not being enough to handle the dynamic range of the problem shots. Compression will lose data. As I said, you will have to back them off for the DVD. That can be done in the source still, or using Levels in Vegas. I would suggest that you could do it in Vegas by isolating that bit of video in the project as a single clip, then adjusting only that shot, until the DVD output can handle it.
Nick
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You could well be right! This was why I was suggesting that maybe the source material will have to be backed off a bit in the shots that give trouble.
Unfortunately for me (and I don’t know about Darrin)Vegas Studio does not have the quantifiable Levels adjustment that Pro does, and nor the visual representation of levels, so Studio users can’t set that accurately.
Nick
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Hoping to clarify, Darrin.
Bitrate is like jpg quality in stills: the better the quality the higher the bitrate and the larger the output file. So for a given frame size, say 720*480 for an NTSC DVD, the idea is to set the bit rate as high as possible (best quality) without having too much data and overflowing the DVD. The chances of over-reaching a DVD with an actual slide show of still is so unlikely that it is not considered, so quality is the main consideration.
Nick
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Talking of players.
What player do you use to play thew wmv? The DVD file? If you find the interim pg file,what plays that?
Nick
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OK. Whether it’s a wmv or an avi is immaterial.
Incidentally I am a togger myself, and I know how careful you have to be and how important it is. I also understand the transition from still editing ti video making, and all the new problems that occur. There are FAR more layers in this process and each one can stuff you right up.
Because I have only JUST been doing this long enough the TRY to help.I can also be very patient when you don;t”get it right”. Been there done that and it’s daunting when you get hammered for it.
I cannot promise that you will not lose quality. IN fact I can promise you will.
So. You had a heap of jpgs to get to a slideshow.There was no source video file.You made your own.
(1) Does it have to be in DVD -player compatible format?
(2) What programme did you use to get the jogs together as a slide show?
-What file type did that put out? (wmv?) I assume that was the good one with no white saturation?
– we need a MediaInfo of that file.
(3) Then did your mate use the DVD Architect method WITHIN VEGAS to produce the interim file?
– THAT will put out a file with extension .mpg. WHERE it has put it I have no idea. What its NAME is I of course have no idea 🙂
– we need a mediainfo of that.
-you also need to view that file. In that way you can see if it was the mpg output from Vegas that caused the quality loss.
****Sadly, what it MAY come to is that you will have to post up small snippets of each video (no more than 5 seconds that show the problem) to ensure that PLAYERS are not causing trouble….welcome to the cowboy circus of video 🙁
(4) We already have the mediainfo for the actual DVD file. That looks pretty normal to my only moderately trained eye.All I can do at the moment is to try to ID the source of the difference between your wmv that you were happy with and the DVD that you were not. Then we (or somebody) can start to diagnose.
In the end, I have to say that as a togger, you may have to accept that you take any shots that cause trouble and “blandify” them:lower saturation, back off here and there. You may simply be overdriving the DVD quality envelope. You know how compression works in jpgs etc. Well with video it’s pushed even further.
Nick
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Whether you can get as good an image is impossible to tell. DVDA limits bitrate to 9800KB/s, but that is still pretty good quality video. Going above that seems to have a law of diminishing returns.
However I just looked at the bit rate of an original file from my vidcam, and it’s _25_000KB/s.
So in answer to your question, if you have a source that is very high quality and was originally in high quality (rendering a low quality video to a higher quality will get you nowhere), then a DVD will _never_ give you the same resolution or clarity.
Still interested in the washed out bits though.
Nick
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Rats! I meant to say that you need the Mediainfo of the actual file that Vegas put out to feed to the DVDA.
Nick
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Just a note. The data for the DVD looks pretty good for a DVD. It has a solid 9500KB/s max rate and a good average of nearly 7000KB/s. But that is no indicator of the DVDA input file’s quality.
Nick
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Well I have not _helped_ much yet, but yes I am interested. 🙂
However. This is the data for the actual DVD file, from what I see and unders5tand. Right?
Now _that_ would not have been rendered by Main Concepts in Vegas. Main Concepts would have been used to render the file out of Vegas, which is then taken into DVDA and prepared for burning. THAT file needs looking at, to see if it is the same as the DVD. The Main concepts does an MPG file.
I cross posts as I type. You are saying to Bob that the DVD is not as good as the original AVI. Was the avi one you created in Vegas, or the actual source AVI right from the start?
Nick
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Grab a little app called MediaInfo. It’s free (although I have donated).
Install it and use it on both the avi that looks good and the DVD file that looks bad. If you install it OK, you should just be able to right click on the file and the MediaInfo option will be in the context menu.
In each case, ask to View/Text from the MediaInfo menu. Select all, copy, then past into a message here. That way we can at least get an idea of what sorts of parameters were used for the files: bitrates etc. You don’t have to know all the settings that were used.
It’s a good start.
Nick