Artifacts Durring Action Scenes

[dkrumes]

Hello,

I have recently downloaded movies on the internet. The movies play great on my computer using PowerDVD, Windows Media, etc.

However, when I burn these movies to a DVD-R (using Nero or Image Tool) and play in on my DVD player I get allot of artifacts during any fast movement on the screen. The weird thing about it is if I take the DVD-R I burned and play it in my computer it looks fine. The DVD player I have has no problem playing DVD-R movies that were backed up from original store bough ten DVD's.

My burner is only a 2x LG drive which I have had no problem with. The media I am using is FUJIFILM DVD-R 8x, which until now I have also had no problems with.

[jmet]

The pixel ratio and/or resolution on your computer monitor and your TV are totally different. You will see artifacts/pixelazation more on your TV than you do on your monitor. You have to understand the amount of compression that was first used on the films.

[UncasMS]

You will see artifacts/pixelazation more on your TV than you do on your monitor

it's just the other way around for me

the tv does not at all have a sharp images like a monitor and a lower resolution thus normally the monitor should reveal artefacts whereas the tv might slightly hide them

[BSpielbauer]

jkrumes is 100% correct, above. Remember that any video that you have downloaded off the internet has been compressed, and that the amount of compression varies according to who has encoded it, re-encoded it, shrunk it, transcoded it, and zipped and rar'ed it. Some of those people along that pipeline may not give a rat's bottom about image quality, while others may not understand how badly the amount of compression they choose will damage the video. Others do care, but feel they must compress it to get it small enough so that those with slower speed connections or bandwidth limiations will be able to handle it. Still others might be watching on a 19" 15 year old television with a fading CRT, while you try to view it on a 65 inch high definition calibrated monitor.

The faster the action (the more movement on the screen), the more you will notice artifacting like this. This is always the case, and it is how people who review DVDs professionally check for lousy compression rates. A slow pan across a static landscape will not reveal a bad compression issue. A light saber fight from Star Wars will, and you will begin to see some pixellization, or parts of the image breaking into a bad case of the "blockies," or jagged edges on some shapes.

And, like jkrumes said, a TV will usually reveal this before a computer monitor, although someone with a lousy video card or an incorrectly set up video settings, or lousy video drivers will sometimes see problems that have little to do with the amount of compression.

You can always check the toital file sizes, and then compare that to the total file size on a typical recent commercial release, to help guage how badly compressed a film is. A major release of a two hour film today on DVD would fill most of the space of a typical DVD, often at between 8 and 9 GB. If a film you acquired from the web is two hours in length, and it is less than 5 GB total (for all of the files that make it up), you know you are compromising the picture. Probably not horribly, though. If it less than 3 GB, then that is only 3/4 as big as an older DVD5 -- more compressed than it would have been had it been released on DVD back in 1999. If it is less than 2 GB, we are talking some serious noticable artifacting. Especially if your TV is a higher quality one (they will show the flaws better than a lousy set), and if your viewing screen size is larger than 36 inches. If that film is less than 1 GB, watch out! Expect terrible quality, especially in any action scenes. And, if it fits onto a CD-R or a CD+R, OUCH!

-Bruce

[VinceUTAH]

If your TV screen is much bigger than your monitor that could also be the reason.

Also are you watching these videos on your PC in fullscreen or a smaller mode? The smaller the picture the less you'll see pixelization.