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Last Login: Monday, April 23, 2012 6:43 AM
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Hi, I'm trying to create a VCD from MiniDV Tape recorded by a Handycam. I'm using 1394/iEE Firewire cable to download the 'avi'. The Original 'avi' is very nice! Then I used both "Ulead Media Studio-8" and "Adobe Premier 1.5" (each indepedantly)to add music and converted to Mpeg-2 (for DVD) and Mpeg-1 (for VCD) using their built-in templates. The Mpeg-2 is reasonably good but the Mpeg-1 quality is really horrible. Then i converted another version as "DV AVI" with "none" codec and it was almost as the original quality (huge file size) but it can not be used directly for VCD, rt? I wonder how people are creating so high quality VCd's and DVD's? I hope I'm using the best program to edit. I think there are some procedures to be applied instead of using built-in templates. The same problem (loss of quality - more than 50%) I faced before also while adding text to an original rendered animation. (That time I managed by keeping it as 'avi' ) Could anyone plz advice me? I'm totally fedup. warm regards
Jerlin
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Last Login: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 10:13 PM
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I've only made VCD from Adobe Photo Elements (and only to try it for fun). So there may be better answers than this, but in short, I think you're facing the inherent problem with VCD: poor quality. Of course, the better the quality of the materials you start off with, the better the finished product. But I've personally never seen a good quality VCD. If they exist, I don't know how they do it. But I would guess that they shoot everything in professional quality video, edit it uncompressed, add high quality graphics, and then down-convert it for VCD using a professional application like Discreet Cleaner or MAYBE Sorenson Squeeze.
Your miniDV format for footage is not helping because although it may "look very nice" it is still a highly compressed image. And compressing a compressed image is when the quality most significantly degrades.
VCDs, if they are like DVDs, are great because the technology is out there where anyone can make these. But the truth is, that without professional-grade equipment from start-to-finish, you will not get professional-grade results.
So, what's the solution? Sadly, I'm not sure there is a good one for you in this case. If you can re-shoot the footage in a pro format, edit it uncompressed, and use a better application for compressing the footage to MPEG1--that should help significantly. Otherwise, make sure that in your workflow you're not recompressing the signal too many times: be sure you've only converted the footage from miniDV to digital (your firewire input) and never again compressed it until moving it to MPEG1; and in so doing, make sure that you max out all the settings for compression that you can. Sometimes maxing those options out will affect playability, but try it and see.
Ramsey
RAMSEY
videographer | editor | writer | producer DENVER, CO - USA
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Ramsey (1/17/2007)
If you can re-shoot the footage in a pro format, edit it uncompressed, and use a better application for compressing the footage to MPEG1--that should help significantly. Normally I'm making a direct mpeg output straight from my project (time line) (only one step) I've tried to save my project as DVavi format and convert to mpeg. (two steps) But i didn't find any difference excpet double time! But this test gave me a very good result in wma format! Unfortunately wma is not applicable for VCD and DVD, rt? Imagine if my input is a 3Dmax render 800 x 600 avi. I'm still getting very bad output after editing (adding titles, transitions etc). In this case what we need to do? ie. what resolution it should be rendered minimum? or what application commonly people are using to make simple rendered presentations. (mpegs) Simply saying, how can we keep the maximum quality of avi at a low file size? .......make sure that you max out all the settings for compression that you can.
Ramsey
Could you pls explain little more about those settings?
Jerlin
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Last Login: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 10:13 PM
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Unfortunately, as I said before, I really don’t know much about video CDs… and I have never actually seen one that looked good. And I am not using or familiar with the software you are using to make your VCD. As for resolution issues, I could probably help for DVD questions, but not VCD. 3DMax, in my opinion, should be rendered out at the same resolution and interlacing as the finished medium. For instance, if it is going to end up as a DVD, it should be rendered at the appropriate resolution of the DVD (which varies if it is widescreen, if it is HD, and if it is PAL, NTSC, etc.). It should ALSO be rendered with fields – which doubles the render time so it’s a pain. But most video on DVD plays back with fields.
“Simply saying, how can we keep the maximum quality of avi at a low file size?”
That is the magic question. In short, that is the trade-off… you compromise quality with small file size. Technology has not overcome that problem. However, as I said before, I think you might get better results from compressing the footage in a piece of software like Discreet Cleaner. It would certainly look better if you had a real-time compression card, but that would cost thousands and thousands of dollars (US) in both hardware and software.
“.......make sure that you max out all the settings for compression that you can.
Ramsey -- Could you pls explain little more about those settings?”
Again, I don’t use that software, I can’t help you. Simply look at your options when you compress the footage and make sure you have everything set to the highest possible quality.
Good luck.
Ramsey
RAMSEY
videographer | editor | writer | producer DENVER, CO - USA
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Last Login: Monday, April 23, 2012 6:43 AM
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| Thanks a lot Ramsey. After a lot of trials I found a software which give a better quality both for DVD and VCD. It is "Canopus". I was lossing quality at the time of capturing itself and canopus is keeping almost same quality of capture even after editing. See you soon with my next DVD project.
Jerlin
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