bad quality output

[imhal]

I am having problems with the quality of the DVD I am burning. I have a Sony cx160 which I have set to widescreen 720x480. When I play the video from the camcorder on my 46" TV , everything looks good , color nice and things are sharp. I save the video on a high speed SD card in the camcorder and transfer that to my computer. I then take these files and using PE10 convert them to DV-AVI files. When I edit the files I set the preset to DV 720x480 widescreen. Problem is when I burn to the DVD the quality is nowhere close to the original , it looks more like VHS that i copied once or twice. I have tried burning to a folder then using Windows XP , burning the DVD. I have tried going straight from PE10. My computer is a dual core with 4 Gig ram. I have tried just putting a couple files on the time line with no titles of transistions, same thing . I use verbetim dvd's . Any help would be great

[imhal]

It gets a little weirder for me anyway. I did the same thing using Roxio 2010 , just the clips from the camcorder and it looks way way better. I saved to a file and burned that.

[Steve Grisetti]

Your camcorder is an AVCHD hi-definition camcorder. If you're going to edit this video in Premiere Elements, you really ought to be shooting in 1920x1080 60i hi-def and editing it in a project set up for Full AVCHD 1920x1080i.

Your DVD will still be standard resolution, of course. But the problem is that Premiere Elements does not have the ability to work with standard definition AVC video. That's why you're getting such poor quality while editing it in a project set up for editing miniDV.

[imhal]

sorry , but i do not understand whats happening here. My camcorder will do what it calls Standard HQ , which is 720x480, MPEG2. I thought that I should convert this to DV-AVI which I do using PE10. due to the fact that that is the best format for PE10. So if i want to use this camcorder I need to upgrade to another computer because my Core2 machine will not handle 1920x1080i , is that correct ? And if i cannot upgrade , even using "Pure AVI" i cannot get close to the quality that i get playing back directly from the camcorder. wow , thats diasappointing.
Amy other help would be appreaciated
Hal

[RJ Johnston]

There is one thing we haven't determined, and that is the field order of the Sony MPEG-2, 720x480 clips. Is the field order progressive or interlaced. If it's interlaced, is it upper field or lower field dominance. If the field order is upper field first, then you will need to reverse the field dominance of each clip on the timeline before you share to DV-AVI.

To reverse the field order, you right-click a clip on the timeline, select Field Options from the pop-up menu, then select the "Reverse Field Dominance" option. You will have to do that for each of those MPEG-2 clips.

You can use GSPOT or MediaInfo to determine if the MPEG-2 clips are UFF or LFF. But you may want to try reversing the field dominance anyway to see if that makes it worse or better.

By the way, there is a project preset for the Sony HDR camcorders under NTSC > Hard Disk > 48K WideScreen. If you use that project preset, you should be able to burn a DVD without having to create DV-AVI's or using the "reverse field dominance" option. You'll eliminate one generation of degradation.

[Steve Grisetti]

As Robert and I are both saying, just because you're shooting in 720x480 doesn't mean you're shooting in DV format. There are very specific indicators and codecs at work in standard DV, and if your video file doesn't have them, you're going to get poor quality.

I agree with Robert. Before you do anything else, run one of your video files through Media Info or G Spot and see what it gives you for field order and codec.

If it's using the AVC codec, then follow my suggestion.

If it's using the DV codec but the field order is upper field first, follow Roberts.

Sorry. These hybrid cams can be a bear to work with in Premiere Elements.

[imhal]

Thanks guys , going to do the Mediainfo . Let me ask another question. I see you both have much more computer than I have. Am i wasting time trying to do this stuff on my Core 2 Duo , 2.00 Ghz with 4 Gig Ram ? Please be honest, if I am I need to know this and need to know what to do. I see in Steve's PE10 book that to do more than 720x480 a much stronger computer is needed. I do this as a hobby but I really want the quality of the final product to look really good. I have done editting for a long while and before this used Premeir 5.1 on my P2-500 with my Digital 8 camcorder and the final product , even though I had to put it back on tape and then copy to DVD , was better than what I am getting now. When I play back the footage directly from the camcorder I am blown away on how great it looks.Please let me know what you suggest doing.
Thank You
Hal

[RJ Johnston]

Hal,

I'm saving up to get a desktop PC with i7 and at least 8GB RAM and dedicated NVIDIA graphics card. With what I have now, previewing high-def video that I'm editing with multiple tracks and keyframming is impossible, and requires lots of time to render previews so I can see how it is going to look. Sharing to high-def video also takes a lot of time now.

A computer like the one you have shouldn't affect the quality of the output. I think something else might be going on that is affecting the output. Can you playback high-def movies on your computer with something like Cyberlink PowerDVD or Arcsoft Total Media Theater? I couldn't even do that on my computer until I put in the Nvidia GeForce 9400 - 1GB RAM.

[imhal]

Holy Poop Batman. This morning I set the camcorder for 1920x1080i and shot a small amount of video. Then made a DVD and a AVCHD disk of this using PE10. wow , the DVD is very good but the AVCHD is unreal , if there is a difference between it and the original that i played directly from the camcorder I cannot see it. So I guess to do real editting I need ti get a better computer. An i7 with 8 GB and a Bluray burner. You 2 folks have more than helped me understand what I need to do if I want to make super movies. Thanks a whole bunch and I suspect I will have more questions soon.
Hal

[Chuck Engels]

Welcome to Muvipix Hal