How do I get best capture results with Nero

[cpeterson3]

HI. If someone is familiar with Nero, I have a question for you. (Steve: hheeellllpppp). I use a Canon Elura 85 digital camcorder to record videos on mini-DV of my son's school musical events. It's a nice 'consumer' camcorder and does a pretty good video job, AND it has a firewire port for downloading. I have for many years now used NeroVision 3 (from Nero Ultra 6) to do my conversions and editing to produce DVDs of those school events. I often camcord the video in 16:9 format, and I have come to use Nero's Custom mpeg-2 conversion when I capture the video from the Canon into my PC, which is a somewhat gutless 1.5 gHz Toshiba laptop with a firewire port and 256mb memory. I've tried some of the other selectable formats, like AVI and DV type 1 and 2, but they didn't handle the 16:9 well and often would drop frames and make a mess. Mpeg-2 was more successful, (settings: NTSC, 16:9, 29.97fps, 720x480, etc.). From that mpeg file I would add in a higher quality audio track and make a DVD of the results. My editing needs are really minimal. The results were usually OK, but not great. My issue is that the first mpeg-2 captured (in realtime) from the camcorder has real quality limitations. That is, the camcorder original, if played directly to a video device, was much better than the mpeg-2 that was created. The mpeg-2 compression process (I think) would add these 'JPG like' ghostly edges and images and squirrely smoky artifacts to the video, especially in areas with low color saturation, like shadowy floors, etc. You didn't notice them that much at when viewing the DVD at 1/1, but if you zoomed into a DVD video just a little, you could see them right away. Then you knew that even at 1/1, the view wasn't great. Even though a dark floor would be a constant shade or color, if you watched the DVD video play, you would see compression ghosts moving around in those areas. They appear to be caused by the capture compression that was done, and once there, these artifacts were in any subsequently edited video. And the mpeg file would be larger (mb) because of these ghosts. I think my camcorder and even Nero can do better than that. I think the realtime mpeg-2 capture that is done to get the video off the tape and onto the PC creates this stuff, and I wonder how to avoid that. I have purchased Nero 8 (with NeroVision 5) but I haven't used it yet, and I'm not even sure how to set it up for the best result. Should the mpeg be progressive or interlaced? Why can't I improve encoder quality for a capture (greyed out)? I want 2-pass better quality encoding, but 1-pass is set and greyed out. It seems like my best shot would be to somehow be able to bring in the exact data that exists on the mini-DV tape (only as fast as the PC can handle it and not in realtime) and THEN let Nero do a two pass, best result compression on it. But I find that really high quality, high density data will choke the PC and frames get dropped all over the place. Is there any way to get the capture conversion/compression done at the speed the PC can handle, rather than running at realtime speeds? I also have a desktop 3gHz PC with 1.5gig memory and 80 gig HD, but it doesn't have a firewire port. The bottom line is, how can I get the best possible video from the mini-DV tapes that I have? What settings in Nero would be best, and do I need more memory or speed? And why does AVI insist on making my 16:9 into a squished 4:3? I just want a decent DVD. Thanks.

[Chuck Engels]

I will jump in with a few thoughts if you don't mind

MiniDV captured over firewire should be captured as DV-AVI, not MPEG. I also would highly recommend Premiere Elements 4, it would be ideal for your needs if your equipment was up to the task. Personally I don't see how you have gotten along this far, the laptop is really not capable of video work at all. Your desktop is in much better shape for video except for the disk drive, 80gb is a bit small. With what you have I am sure you are getting as much out of it as possible.

One tip would be to make sure that absolutely all of the background processes are shut down and you aren't doing anything else on the computer, no screen saver, no anti virus, no internet connection, nothing. There are a few sites available on the internet with tips on how to optimize your pc for video. You can start with videohelp.com or videoguys.com, they both have some great stuff.

[Paul LS]

I agree with Chuck that your laptop is not really up to it. Your drop frames on capturing DV-AVI type 2 (which is the format you want to capture in) could be because of issues capturing the high data rate of DV-AVI to your laptop harddrive (hardrive is probably only 5400rpm). MPEG files are much smaller and the conversion is "done on the fly" by your processor so less data to be written to the harddrive.

You cant have two pass for capturing as in two pass the encoder accesses the video on the first pass and encodes on the second pass... obviously if you are capturing in real-time it is doing a direct conversion to MPEG in one pass.

As Chuck says, turn off all background processes and try capturing to DV-AVI type 2. this will give much better results when finally encoded to DVD.

[cpeterson3]

Paul and Chuck,

Actually, I just use the laptop to capture because it has a firewire port, and my PC doesn't (currently). Sounds like I should try getting a firewire card and perhaps an external USB/Firewire harddrive. So the story is to use AVI-DV2 for the captured file. I can try that. If I get a firewire for my desktop, perhaps I won't drop frames. But I also seem to have a problem with the 16:9 aspect ratio of my recorded video. Should the AVI-DV2 take care of that automaticallyl, or how do I avoid the 'squished' 4:3 result that I have gotten? And does Nero 8 (NeroVision 5) bring anything to the table? Is it better than the previous versions? Why is AVI DV-type 2 preferred over type 1. A Mac friend of mine said the same thing. When I select AVI (DV) for capture in NeroVision 5, I am not allowed to set the video at 16:9. It automatically sets it for 4:3. Or I can go through the Custom AVI setup, but it still limits me to 720x576, even though my camcorder is delivering 720x480. If my original is 16:9, how do I get it unsquished? When setting NeroVision 5 up for AVI, I can choose from many codecs, including: Cinepak Codec by Radius, Intel 4.2.0 Video V2.50, Intel Indeo(R) Video R3.2, INtel Indeo Video 4.5, Indeo Video 5.1, Intel YUV Codec, Microsoft MPEG-4 VIdeo Codec V2, Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Codec V1, Microsoft RLE, and Microsoft Video 1. It's a little mind boggling. How does one choose? Again, thanks for any thoughts.

[Chuck Engels]

I don't know anything about Nero, you wouldn't have the aspect ratio problem with Premiere Elements though.

[cpeterson3]

Another good, general question that would be of interest to all: Is DV-AVI actually the binary video data exactly as it is stored on the mini-DV tape? Or is there some compression that occurs on it when it's gathered off the camcorder and put on the PC? It appears to be about 4 times as large (mb) as my mpeg would normally be, and I almost thought it should take even more space than that.

Craig

[Bob]

Is DV-AVI actually the binary video data exactly as it is stored on the mini-DV tape? Or is there some compression that occurs on it when it's gathered off the camcorder and put on the PC?

All digital video uses compression. DV-AVI uses an intraframe compression in which each frame is individually compressed. That makes editing very easy for the software to handle. The video is already compressed on the tape.

[Steve Grisetti]

And, yes, the beauty of the DV codec is that, when you bring it into your computer over FireWire, what comes in is EXACTLY the same data that was in the camcorder (It's just been packaged into little AVIs). That's why miniDV is the preferred format for video editors; the camcorder and computer speak the same language and can transfer the video data back and forth unchanged.

[RJ Johnston]

The best quality capture in Nero from my NTSC miniDV camcorder is recording straight to disc as a DVD+VR or creating an editable DVD (DVD+VR) from DV-AVI. You need a DVD+RW or a DVD+R in order to be compatible with DVD-Video. I haven't been able to get Premiere Elements to create a comparable DVD-Video from DV-AVI. Of course you can capture to disc just as you can in PE, then use the DV-AVI to make an editable DVD in Nero. In Nero you can make a DVD-Video from DV-AVI, but even that isn't as good as creating a DVD+VR from the same DV-AVI in Nero. The bright colors are brighter and match the DV-AVI colors better.

[Ken Jarstad]

The bright colors are brighter and match the DV-AVI colors better.

What is the make and age of your DVD burner? Might be time for a new one?

I had problems with my old DVD burner (Pacific Digital) and a new, major brand (BenQ) made a considerable difference, both in reliability of the disks and the brightness/contrast of the images.

[RJ Johnston]

I have another dvd burner I can try, but I don't think it's the burner. I'm using the same burner to burn a disc in PE and in Nero. I get the same results over and over. The colors are fairly even, except when there are bright reds, oranges, and yellows. There's more "voltage" in those colors, and it makes a bigger difference on TV. PE seems to reduce the saturation and luminance during encoding of MPEG.