Best settings for episode movies?

[mo24]

I have the full Babylon 5 DVD set i'm planning to backup. So far, my results have not been so great. The DVD i'm testing is almost 8GB, with very little of that belonging to extras or other things I could edit out.

For some reason, all of the sample clips I encode end up having extremely jerky video when there is any movement at all taking place, whenever I play them with my dvd software, PowerDVD 6.0. It's a real eye sore. I thought it might be the encoder acting up until I played the clips in windows media player and all of it was gone (as well as some of the quality since powerdvd is a better dvd player).

The original clips played fine in PowerDVD without a hitch.. it seems powerDVD doesn't like something that the encoder is doing to it and as a result, is not playing it correctly. I tried both HC015 and QuEnc, and both had the same results. Has anyone else had this problem with powerdvd and know of a fix or workaround for it, besides using different software?

edit: topic changed since I found out the problem was with PowerDVD alone

[UncasMS]

where do you want to playback the files, mo24?

you dont want to play them on your pc, do you?

for episode dvds and the huge amount of data/playing time you may be better of applying some sort of a smoothing filter to help compressing a little better

moreover, numerous episode dvds are VERY noisy and thus applaying smoothers like fluxsmooth can be more than useful

still this does not have anything to do with your initial problem: the crappy playback

you said "jerky" as in stuttering or what exactly does it look like, when you play the files?

since the original files play fine it may be you used some setting that had a negative effect

did you use an option like *deinterlace* by chance?

[mo24]

Yes stuttering is probably a better word for it. I slowed the playback to 0.5x mode and paused it a few times and caught the part that is the source of the problem. It looks like there are small lines through the entire moving portion of the scene. I wish i could post a screenshot of it but when I try to capture it the frame changes and it disappears. The lines seem to happen every few frames during moving video, and distorts the video, making it appear to stutter. From looking at the various problem frames it sort of looks like, from the color of the lines, that it is leaking through from previous frames if that makes any sense? I can upload a 12mb sample of the m2v clip later if it helps, having some problems with my broadband and on dial-up atm.

I haven't changed any options from default yet on dvd-rb and the encoder, at least not intentionally. I double checked though and HCencoder shows in both settings and arguments passed: no interlace, and DVD-RB doesn't have deinterlace selected in options.

[Taelon]

It's a TV series, it's an interlaced source. If you look close enough you'll see it in the original source as well. As to why you only notice it in PowerDVD I'm not sure. I guarantee if you load it into VirtualDubMod or VirtualDubMpeg and step thru the frames you'll see the interlacing in the source.

Oh, and if you watch the encoded video on a TV you won't see it.

[BR7]

I wasnt aware of this its very helpful I had the same problem with the Sopranos.

[mo24]

Shouldn't dvd-rb mention it in the prepare log when it's interlaced? And shouldn't HC Encoder in the config window?

I assumed it wasn't because there was no mention of it... I also figured the original would show the same problem when played with PowerDVD, but it doesn't..

Are the deinterlace options in dvd-rb / encoder very effective for making it playable with dvd software?

edit: sure enough, used deinterlace with DECOMB option in dvd-rb and it erradicated most of the distortion... video quality seems worse too but it's a fair trade off i guess.

[mo24]

I found a better alternative to deinterlacing when encoding. In the configuration options for PowerDVD6, in Video -> Advanced -> Smart Deinterlacing Mode, it's normally set to auto. I selected manual instead and tried out the different settings for it. If 'How to perform deinterlacing' is set to 'Based on bitstream analysis' and the 'De-interlacing algorithm' is set to 'Bob', the playback after encoding is very similar to the original, with no sign of the distorted lines like before.

[Taelon]

@mo24; Glad you found a solution.

For anyone else wondering what all this talk about Interlacing & deInterlacing is about I recommend reading this guide: http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/interlace.htm