Keeping Clear Picture Quality

[dazuk1972]

Why is it when I run my home movies through any editing software, the software ALWAYS damages the picture quality? People have done this and kept 100% picture quality so why does mine always go wrong where it looks worse than watching a VHS?

Many thanks.

[blutach]

You're gunna need to be more specific about your techniques, software (and settings) and quality of source material. However, if you are re-encoding, start with upping the bitrate and making it VBR (many home movies are encoded at CBR).

Regards

[dazuk1972]

You're gunna need to be more specific about your techniques, software (and settings) and quality of source material. However, if you are re-encoding, start with upping the bitrate and making it VBR (many home movies are encoded at CBR).

Regards

I use Cyberlink Power Producer and Windows Movie Maker 2 and they both save used two different file types but they destroy the picture quality. I simply import the footage, edit and then save to my PC and then I find out the picture quality has been destoryed. I believe it's because they shrink each frame of film down and when they are watched on a TV screen the frames look bad because they are enlarged with computer graphics everywhere.

I really need to get this sorted becuase I've spent too long betting home movie right. They only copy OK in my DVD recorder but DVD recorders have bad editing tools such as where each cut is, the movies pause slightly and give away each cut. Not to mention they don't have a tool for a title squence and end credits and you can't add sound effects and music to spice them up. I want to do all that in my PC but the picture quality is always horrific after doing a movie.

Many thanks.

[blutach]

What's the source? DVD files off a DVD camera? I wouldn't use those packages. All popular transcoders would be better than them.

Clearly, you're gunna need to keep the same resolution as original and up the bitrate.

Regards

[dazuk1972]

What's the source? DVD files off a DVD camera? I wouldn't use those packages. All popular transcoders would be better than them.

Clearly, you're gunna need to keep the same resolution as original and up the bitrate.

Regards

This happens from camcorder footage. I wondered if it was my camcorder footage so I did some tests with DVD quality clips from the internet. When I saved the clips from the internet through Cyberlink Power Producer and Windows Movie Maker 2, the picture quality with those two came out bad with playback. It's as if Cyberlink Power Producer and Windows Movie Maker 2 filter out good picture quality.

I remember converting some of my home movies from DVD to AVI and the picture quality was perfect except the file sizes were way too big. One half-hour home movie was over 4GB's and a test of a one-minute peice of footage was almost 900MB's. This was because I kept the original screen size and when I ran them through the two editing softwares mentioned above, the file sizes compressed smaller to normal but that was when the picture quality went bad on those as well. The file sizes were made smaller because the screen sizes were shrunk to a miles smaller size but way too small for TV viewing.

I'm not going to mention this site and I did stop using it. I remember downloading a film under the AVI file type and the film was 90 minutes and it was about 700MB's with DVD picture quality. This means people can get this done for home movies. If I make a 90-minute home movie it would be about 5 or 6GB's with DVD quality picture. No good of course. Cyberlink Power Producer and Windows Movie Maker 2 don't have many setting and Cyberlink Power Producer have many greyed out that I can't use.

Many thanks.

[blutach]

I'd take your original footage and run it thru DVD Rebuilder using HCEnc (i.e. leave it in DVD format - that way, it will play anywhere and let's face it, DVDs are dirt cheap these days). You can also consider encoding in 1/2 D1 with a lower bitrate (say 2.5-3 Mbps), if you're really stingy about room.

Other packages which use pretty good encoders (if you want AVI output) would be SUPER or AVIDemux.

Regards

[r0lZ]

It is always preferable to avoid reencoding, as the picture quality is always degraded.
If your original material is already in DVD-Video format (VOB files), I suggest doing the edits with Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD. It can do clean cuts, fades and a variety of transition effects, and you can add or modify the audio stream, create chapters, add simple menus, etc... Only the parts that need to be reencoded are reencoded, so, when using simple cuts, you will not see any difference and the file size will not change.
The bad news is that WMVWD is not free!

[dazuk1972]

Many thanks for the help.

Something else I need to ask. I have DVD Rebuilder but it's asking me to install Avisynth first because it's not detected in my PC. What is Avisynth? I want to ask because I don't like installing things in my PC that I don't know about.

Many thanks.

[r0lZ]

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page#What_is_AviSynth.3F

[blutach]

Just get the DVDRB installer - it installs AVISynth, if it doesn't detect it.

Regards

[dazuk1972]

Just get the DVDRB installer - it installs AVISynth, if it doesn't detect it.

Regards

Do you know a direct link to where I can download DVD Rebuilder? The reason why I'm asking is because when I went to the site and click on one download icon, all it keeps doing is sending me to another page and when I click on a link there I sent sent to another page and another. I feel as if I'm surfing their entire site instead of downloading the software.

Many thanks.

[paglamon]

http://dvd-rb.dvd2go.org/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=14

[dazuk1972]

http://dvd-rb.dvd2go.org/modules.php...ownload&cid=14

Thanks.

What does the Pro version have that the free one doesn't?