poor quality DVD what am I doing wrong?
 

OK so I have a canon XH-A1 and am using 60i HD footage,I really would like to use only Vegas 8 to work on my projects to keep it simple. My project Properties are set at Template- HDV 1080-60i (1440x1080, 29.970fps)
Frame rate- 29.970 (NTSC) Pixel Format-8-bit and Deinterlace method- Blend Fields

So I work these clips on the timeline and am ready to render, so I render as save type- MainConcept MPEG-2 Template-DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream.

I put these clips into DVD architect and the finish product is pretty bad. Any suggestions would be helpful, remember I just want the best looking 16X9 DVD quality. Also would deinterlacing the footage produce better results, and if so, how? I have some slo-motion stuff. Thanks for any suggestions, Tony

Hi Tony,

I use the same camera as you and it was very frustrating for me to get the best DVD quality that I know you are talking about.

This is what I did and I am very happy with my end results.
You may like it or not!!

I used the HDV 60i a smy work property in the timeline.
Rendered in AVI
NTSC DV Wide
In the custome setting I selected Best
selected 920000 for all three fields
two by pass

and then I burned the DVD in ULEAD VIDEO PLUS which I personally think is by far better than DVD Architect.

Hope it works out for you
Good luck.

Matthew

There are some "gotchas" in the production of your first DVDs in Vegas/DVDA. It would probably help you if you read Edward Troxel's series of Vegas Newsletters from jetdv.com.

Gotcha #1: You follow instructions and create an MPEG2 file using the correct template out of Vegas. It's too big a file, DVDA takes your already compressed MPEG2 and recompresses it again with substantial quality loss.

Is it possible that this happened to your project? The datarate on the compress out of Vegas may need to be adjusted if the project is over 70 minutes. See the chart Edward prepared in one of the newsletters... and rerender out of Vegas.

The easy way is to render a standard def AVI in the DV codec out of Vegas, and let DVDA select the compression settings. However, this doesn't give you the best quality.

Note that in all cases where you are changing resolution as you render, selecting "best" in the custom settings dialog will give you better quality.

I used the HDV 60i a smy work property in the timeline.
Rendered in AVI
NTSC DV Wide
In the custome setting I selected Best
selected 920000 for all three fields
two by pass


Mathew so when I go to the render as screen, I save as: video for windows (avi) template: NTSC DV widescreen, as far as the custom settings I'm still a little lost, I choose BEST for render quality, and as far as 920000 for all three fields two by pass, I am completely lost.

Tony,

I don't have access to Vegas right now, after clicking the custom tab.

Select BEST for your render quality, then click Video advance tab which is at the bottom change the bit rates to 920000 for all three fields, check off the Two By Pass and that set.


Matthew

Hi Tony,

Sorry for the confusion,

This what you have to do!!

1. Edit your project in HDV 60i timeline
2. Render the project as Mainconcept: AVI
3. Template: NTSC DV WIDE
4. Click the custome tab select BEST for Quality
and then just save the project.


I've been playing around with Vegas for a while that I forgot the bit rate is for MPEGs.

Sorry for the confusion.


Matthew

Those settings will certainly give you a good MPEG2, however, if your project is too long (at 9.2Kbps that would be less than 60 minutes), DVDA will recompress it so that it will fit on a DVD. Which is a huge step backwards for quality.

See "gotcha #1" above.