[fastpuma]

at last! i have finally managed to make vcds out of my mini dv recordings! i want to say a big thank you to all that gave me advice on the problems that i was having with my sony dcr pc 106. After so many emails that i sent to sony i was'nt getting anywhere, I mean they should tell consumers in the instructions manual what is required to make vcds or what we need use to transfer our recordings over to pcs, the usb cable that they supplied was absolutely rubbish! they might as well not include it in the box. But anyway thanks to all the people in the forum for helping me.

Hello,

Which Tool you used to make VCD. Is the quality was good exactly as tape. Could you give me some information on what stuffs you used to make VCD right from the Cature till to the end (VCD making)

Thanks,

John

[fastpuma]

john! i used pinnacle studio version 9, i think you must know that , its better to use a firewire cable rather than the usb cable! the usb cable can just go back in the box and let it collect dust because its no use to you at all whatsoever! once you get a firewire cable you can just capture your recordings on to you hard drive then you can edit it then burn it on a cdr, though i must say that the quality of the vcd isnt that great, get a trial version of pinnacle if you hav'nt got one already, then its really simple after once your firecable.

Hello,

I've captured the footage from my DV Camcorder and the format is Avi, the quality is superb and then I converted to MPEG using some Encoder and quality becomes again Good . Now the problem is when I convert the MPEG file to VCD the quality drops a lot. Can any one suggest how to get the good quality VCD as same as MPEG. I am using Nero for burning.

Thanks,

John

[GrahamC]

Can I ask why are you burning VCDs, would it not be better to burn DVDs. This is just a general curiosity question and I wouldn't now the camera if you hit me over the head with it.

[emocean]

The easy explanation for the quality difference between your AVI file and your finished VCD is to check the file size of the AVI and then compare it to the amount of data that you can get on a CD. Your average CD is 700mb so unless you are copying small AVI files there will always be compression of your video file. Your captured video comes in at about 1GB for 4 minutes which means that even a ten minute video needs compressing to 25% of its original data to fit onto your VCD.
The best analogy I can think of is that when you used to record in Long Play on VHS, twice as much run time is squeezed onto the tape and the picture quality suffers a 50% degradation.
DVD discs have 6 times more storage than CD so far less compression is needed to fit your movie onto the disc.
Now the software that we use to compress our movies is very clever and does not compress every bit of the movie, it tries to work out what has changed frame by frame, pixel by pixel and store the relevant data in the new file type. However, if like me you shoot above and underwater it can get confused and you get pixelation. You will get far more on a VCD as it has to be compressed much more than a DVD.
If you cannot burn DVD's try SVCD which gives you better picture quality but shorter run time per disc.
I hope that explains things for you. I am sure that someone far more knowledgeable than me could give a far more complicated explanation but I have tried to keep it simple as I start to struggle when it gets complicated
Matt

[MarkE19]

OK, the technical bit them

AVI is approx 14Gb per hour and is recorded at 5:1 compression ratio in the camcorder.
VCD is MPEG-1 compression of an AVI file and will get around 1 hour onto a 700Mb CD
SVCD is MPEG-2 compression and will get around 15 minutes onto a CD. Many DVD players will not play a SVCD disc.
DVD is also MPEG-2 compression, but can hold around 1 hour of video at betst quality. By adjusting the level of compression you can easily get video at nearly as good quality of around 2 hours on a DVD.
DIVX is MPEG-4 compression and can have the compression setting adjusted to go from excellent quality all the way to ok quality but very small file sizes.

So with all the above compression systems available you have to choose between file size and video quality. You then have the choice of recording to the small CD-R or to a much bigger DVD-/+R discs. DVD & VCD will play in the majority of DVD players, but SVCD wil only play in a limited number of DVD players - check the specs of your player to find out what it will play.

Mark.

Ok ! Give me more technical tips for my queries as below,

Now I am going to make DVD from .AVI file. Can this DVD be played in all countries DVD player. Please shed some light.

Thanks,

John

[MarkE19]

When creating a DVD disc from your own footage you would not normally put any region coding onto the disc. Therefore the disc will play anywhere in the world.
Only the higher end DVD authoring programs normally have the ability to add region codes to your discs, but as you are not a major film company (are you?) you are not concerned about restricting the distribution.

Mark.

Hello Mark,

Thanks for the reply. One more query as follows, I have a AVI file wich has a file size of 8 GB (Roughly). When I convert this file to DVD ( 4 GB), will the quality drops when it tries to Fit in to tht DVD.

The reason why I ask is I want to write a entire tape (60 mins) to a single DVD. Could you please give me some suggestions.

Thanks,

John

[melliott1963]

Just thought I'd join in here.

You should have no problem putting an hour's tape onto DVD. Any quality loss will be small enough as not to be noticable.

Using variable bit rate for compression, I've been able to push this to about an hour and a half onto DVD without any noticable quality loss.

[MarkE19]

Agree, the quality loss when compressing an AVI file to MPEG-2 to get it onto a DVD is going to be minamal. Anything up to around 2 hours should still look very good as long as the MPEG encoder used is good. A bad encoder can make the picture quality look poor at any length.

Mark.

Ok ! I agree.. I am gonna to use Ulead video studio to let it make my DVD from AVI file. Will that ulead do a good job or should I have to encode first using some special encoders. Can you please share your good experience (From AVI to DVD) ,like what steps you have follwed to get the good DVD quality here.

Thanks,

John

[MarkE19]

I've not used Ulead Video Studio as my editing is done in Adobe Premiere, but I do use Ulead DVD Movie Factory to create my DVD's and would assume it uses the same MPEG encoder.
IMO the Ulead encoder does a very good job, at a good speed, for a cheap (ie MF is only £30) software package. I think you should be happy with the results you get from it.
My advise for getting the best quality (as stated above, have not used VS, but assume will work the same as MF) is to adjust the bit rate until the footage you are trying to get onto the DVD just about fills the disc. This should make sure the final PQ is as good as can be got with the length of video you are trying to fit on the DVD. If just useing the presets you may find a low bit rate is selected and then leaves a large section of the DVD unused.

Mark.