PE3 and DVD Quality

[rmcva]

I have now been successful in making many DVD's and the power of PE3 is excellent. The comments here are also very valuable and your book Chuck is excellent! Thanks.

My question - when I look at a store bought DVD (movie) the quality on my computer screen is excellent. However when I burn ANY content to DVD, the quality on my DVD is much less. For example (I understand the analog video is lower resolution so I understand that one - no problem with that) but if I have high digital quality images, I would hope I could create a DVD that has quality similar to store bought DVD's but that's never the case. Everything I've tried also has a much lower quality than store bought DVD's - they're more like an analog VCR type quality - even when using higher resolution pictures (I've also used various resolutions for the images as recommended).

If I output to other formats such as MPEG2 file instead of DVD, the quality is there but not in DVD format.

Should I be able to create high quality DVD's of images (slideshows), etc using PE3 or will everything be a lower analog type quality? Hope this all makes sense.

Thanks.

[Chuck Engels]

Thanks for the compliments, Steve had a lot to do with the book also, well his name is on it anyway

First, you will never create a DVD with Hollywood quality. It isn't possible with what is available to the consumer. Hollywood DVDs are not burned, they are Pressed from a Glass Master. The burned DVDs that we are so fortunate to be able to produce will not produce the quality that Hollywood can. The Glass Masters are created using software that uses multi pass VBR with as many as 4 to 6 passes.

On the other hand you should be able to produce a very good quality DVD. Sometimes quality is in the eye of the beholder, what looks good to me might not look so good to you. If your burned DVDs have at least the quality of a good VHS tape then I would say you are doing well.

How long are your videos? That is the only other reason for a lesser quality DVD. If you are burning more than 1 hour on a DVD the quality will be decreased. It has been proven that burning a DVD in Premiere Elements at 5.4 quality setting can produce better quality than burning at 8.0. Just ask RJ, he did the testing but that was version 2 and version 3 may not produce the same results.

[Steve Grisetti]

And I'm curious that you say MPEG2s that you output are great but your DVDs are not.

You do realize that the DVD files are MPEG2s, right? They're produced by exactly the same encoding system.

But I second Chuck's thoughts. You can't get million dollar quality on a $300 camcorder and a home computer. And there are a number of reasons -- from, as Chuck said, the quality of the disk itself to the quality of professional quality Panavision lenses and cameras and lighting to professional level transcoding.

But, standing on its own, you've got to admit that you can sure do some excellent work with a digital camcorder and a $1000 PC. Maybe not "Spiderman" quality, but almost as good as any video you see on TV.

[sidd finch]

That brings up a great point.

In PE3 I have movies that are 20 to 30 minutes in length. I am using a Sony HC1 that is downconverted. I would like the best picture quality DVD. I output to mpg II then use Moviemaker to create my DVD's

What MPEG II output setting should I use in PE3 to get the best video quality??

Sidd

[rmcva]

Thanks for the quick responses and kudo's to you also Steve on the book.

I just wanted to confirm if there was any way to get higher quality on DVD on our home equipment and with PE3. PE3 is great and I've used most of the other leading products. PE3 continues to be my favorite by far.

Since standard DVD is 720x480, I was curious if there was a way to get similar quality as commercial via various settings since we're using that same resolution. Appears the commercial equipment makes the difference.

I've tested DVD's with only a few slides and short video's using the max quality to see what it would do. The mpeg I referred to was exported to the highest HDV available, hence the higher resolution and better quality.

The DVD's I've created when shown on a standard TV are as good as I think it gets. The difference in quality is when viewing on higher resolution monitors, etc.

Thanks for the responses.

[Steve Grisetti]

Thanks for the kudos, rm.

Okay, so now that we know we were comparing apples (HDV MPEGs) to much smaller apples (standard DVDs), that certainly explains the difference in quality.

But it does bring up another issue. There are dedicated DVD authoring programs out there -- Sonic MyDVD, Sony's DVD Architect Studio, to name a few. Has anyone ever compared the quality of their output to the quality of Premiere Elements' DVDs? I know PrEl uses the Main Concept encoder, one of the best at this level of software, but is anyone else at this level doing it any better?

Just curious.

[Paul LS]

Sidd, the DVD standard limits the total bitrate for the DVD to 9.8Mb/s... that includes audio and video. So to able to have the highest video bit rate you need a low audio bitrate... in order of lowest bitrate you have AC3, MPEG and PCM... so you want to burn your DVD with AC3 audio. Regarding the video generally the highest bitrate you can achieve with audio is 9Mb/s... note PE3 burns to DVD at a maximum of 8Mb/s, so is almost at the highest quality. For a 30 minute video you will never fill a standard DVD as the maximum allowed bitrate would not allow it. So you just need to export to MPEG2 with the highest video bitrate at a constant bit rate (CBR). If you wanted to get more video on the DVD then you could use 2 pass variable bit rate... the default for PE3 burn to disc.

RMCA... only way I have been able to get near to hollywood movie standards is to burn HDV to a DVD (not downconverted to standard definition) and watch that on my HDTV. Also be wary if you are downconverting HDV footage to standard definition in PE3... it does a bad job of it. Better to downconvert in the camcorder and edit in standard defintion.

[Ken Jarstad]

The DVD's I've created when shown on a standard TV are as good as I think it gets. The difference in quality is when viewing on higher resolution monitors, etc.

The Standard Definition DVDs are as good as you will be able to get. Note, however, that viewing them on a hi-def display will often look worse than viewing them on a standard-def display. That's because the scaler circuitry is, with very few exceptions, not very good. Try upscaling with your DVD player in progressive mode to see if the images look better.

[rmcva]

My preference for PE3 is based on features. It provides about anything I need for making DVD's. It also provides better templates in my opinion. As far as quality of output, I haven't noticed much difference. Maybe PE3 is a bit better but it's close. However, a major difference in quality was seen with hardware when converting old analog video. Flat out no comparison between an All in Wonder vs ADS Pyro - the ADS Pyro far exceeds anything I was able to do with the AIW. If anyone wants to use analog, I definitely recommend using the ADS Pyro for best quality. AIW is good for having TV on your computer but did not provide me with high quality capture.

I use PE3 to create my DVD's, burn to a folder, then use RecordNow to control write speed to burn the DVD. So far this has worked fine.

Thanks again everyone.

[sidd finch]

Thanks Paul & Gang,

I will try to burn a test file as you said. It is not that what I have now is so bad, I would like to make sure that I try to burn to the best. BTW, I have noticed that my DVD's do not look as good on the plasma. I will also try to set to progressive scan.

Sidd

[KevinP]

......

How long are your videos? That is the only other reason for a lesser quality DVD. If you are burning more than 1 hour on a DVD the quality will be decreased. It has been proven that burning a DVD in Premiere Elements at 5.4 quality setting can produce better quality than burning at 8.0. Just ask RJ, he did the testing but that was version 2 and version 3 may not produce the same results.
.....

Chuck,
Could you expand on choosing the best Video Quality setting when burning a DVD. I'm assuming you are referring to using the Burn DVD dialog, Quality Settings, Video Quality? When should you use the "Fit contents to available space" vs. using the slider to choose a specific setting? I noticed on my short DVD (mostly slide show with audio, background music, and a couple of short video clips), using the "Fit contents to available space" seems to indicate it will use the 8.00 Mbps setting).
Thanks,
--Kevin.

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Kevin,
When using the automatic 'fit contents to available space' Premiere Elements will adjust the bitrate, slower = more compression and higher = less compression, and less compression = better quality.

If you have under 1 hour (give or take 15 minutes depending on the project) Premiere Elements will use th 8mbs bitrate/quality setting, once over 1 hour or so the quality setting will start being reduced.

Robert did a test about a year ago and pretty much proved that for projects burned at 5.4mbs the quality was better than those burned at 8mbs. So turning off the automatic 'fit contents' and setting the quality to 5.4 might give you a little better quality DVD. Give it a try with a short project and see if the results aren't an improved DVD picture overall.

This was tested with version 2 and Adobe may have addressed this in version 3 but no one has tested it in the latest version to my knowledge.

[KevinP]

Chuck,

After much ado regarding an error dialog coming up when I get to the Burn DVD setup dialog (see my "Premiere Elements crashes when trying to burn DVD to folder" post), I did manage burn a project set at 5.45Mbps. I don't yet have a 8Mbps version to compare to, but the 5.45Mbps version looks fine.

Thanks.

--Kevin.

[Chuck Engels]

Glad you got something burned Kevin

[Ken Jarstad]

Robert did a test about a year ago and pretty much proved that for projects burned at 5.4mbs the quality was better than those burned at 8mbs.

Proved?? Has anyone corroborated that? What mechanical/electrical law is being violated here? If this is indeed true in all instances then this querk ought to be prominantly heralded - say at the very top of this forum!! Sorry guys (and Robert) I'm sceptical.