Video playback is "pixeled"

[webcombo]

I hope this is the right forum for this question, but I have burned a DVD photo montage video using just scanned images that I have on my hd. The pictures come through crystal clear. But I also used 2 types of movie clips. One was recorded from VHS to my mini DV camcorder, and then uploaded to the computer using my IEEE firewire. The other was uploaded the same way, but was video I captured on my camcorder (I am talking home movies here). When I play the DVD on my stand alone, the quality looks, well, worse than when I connect the camcorder to the tv. The image is somewhat pixelated (if that is a word). I am sure there is a way to have there be little to no loss of video quality, but I am not sure how. I am just using the video card that came with the computer. Compaq Presario bought Jan 2004. Could it be the video card? I am using Roxio Easy Media Creator basic DVD home that came with my Plextor burner. I also dowloaded a trial version of Ulead Video Studio 9 and so I created the same "montage" with this and the video seemed to improve. But by being a guy that looks at quality, I want to make sure that when I transfer over my 30 some mini-dv tapes, that I don't lose quality, noticeable to the naked eye. Please help me!!!!!

TIA

Rob

[reboot]

What you're seeing is probably macroblocking. The lower the bitrate, the worse it can get.
You can sometimes filter this out, by using virtualdub with a macroblock filter/temporal smoother, and then frameserving.
The encoder you choose can make a huge difference in quality, and Roxio wouldn't be anywhere near the top of my list.
Video card has nothing to do with a DVD played on your standalone, UNLESS you are using video out, to the TV from the computer.

[jmet]

Also in addition to what reboot said.

If your backup freezes, stutters, skips, or has some pixelation, it is more than likely due to poor quality media being used. Cheap media is poorly manufactured around the edge of the disc, hence the reason why it mostly skips toward the end of the movie. The two main things to consider first are:

• Is it cheap media that you are using? (ie. some off brand you bought at a local computer store/fair, even a store like Circuit City or Best Buy sells cheap low quality media.)
• How fast are you burning? - Burn no faster than 4X, might have to go down to 2X with really cheap media.

Also, are you using adhesive labels on your back ups? If so, try removing the labels (if you can) and playing them again. Go here for more info on why not to use labels. - http://forum.digital-digest.com/show...threadid=28604

[webcombo]

Thanks guys. Reboot, could you go into more detail about your post. I have read a lot about virtual dub, but don't exactly understand it's purpose. If I were to connect my camcorder to the computer, and get the pop up that asks me what I want to do, would I then choose the virtual dub icon, and then capture my video that way. And if so, would I then copy it into my timeline if I were making homemovies using the software that I use? Would I at any point need to change the file so that it is compatible to burn on dvd. Or is that already done using virtual dub. If there are any settings that I need to be aware of, could you let me know that as well. Thanks a ton. I hope to be able to get to the vids soon!!

PS I am having this problem with Verbatim, Value Disc, Sony dvd-R, It doesn't matter the brand.

[reboot]

Virtualdub is basically a video editor. It allows filtering and cutting, but nothing fancy like transitions.
It will demux avi's, resave avi's using different compressions (codecs), and remux video and audio to avi.
As a bonus, it also includes a frameserver client, as well as a video capture portion.
It does NOT output mpeg-2 files, ready for DVD directly.

When you connect a camcorder to a computer (usually via firewire) you are simply transferring the video, not capturing it.
Virtualdub will usually work, allowing you to filter the video, before saving it to your hard drive. Only a limited number of filters can be used though, in order to maintain the data rate needed.
You would hook up the cam, cancel the popup, open virtualdub, select File, Capture avi, then select your device (it should be listed automatically).
You will be allowed to then choose a compression (if desired), filters (if any), and path to save the video.

What I was previously referring to, is a slightly different approach.
You would transfer the video to your computer just as you are now. Then open the video in virtualdub, apply whatever filters you want, and then start the frameserving client. This sends the video signal to an encoder, without having to save another, intermediate, avi.
This way, you can apply any filters you want, sharpness, macroblock remove, levels, HSV adjust, RGB adjust, resize, letterbox, whatever... start the frameserver, and encode the video to mpeg-2.
This speeds up the process, because the encoder doesn't have to do any editing/filtering.

For DV sources, I always use "Sharpen" (at about 20, but NO MORE THAN 20, or it gets ugly), usually "HSV adjust" to tweak the colour up a bit for washed out stuff, or down a bit for oversaturated stuff), and "Levels" (to get just a bit more contrast into the video, without affecting brightness....FAR better than the Contrast/Brightness filter), then frameserve it to Canopus Procoder.
You can just as easily frameserve to Mainconcept, CCE, or Tmpgenc.

(To the know-it-alls, Yes, I'm aware that avisynth does all this too, but we're dealing with a beginner, so vdub is a good place to start)

[webcombo]

I hope I don't sound too dumb, but I don't think I quite understand what "encoding" is. Based on your post, which by the way thank you so much for the detail, I was curious as to the benefits of doing the second thing that you mentioned. If I capture the video the way I always do it, and then open it in virtualdub, what would be my reason/purpose for doing this. I understand the parts about macroblock, levels, resize etc, but do any one of them make the quality of the video play better on the standalone.
When you say "washed out stuff", what exactly are you referring to.
Also, is the the best route to go when recording from VHS to minidv to computer. Or is there a better way that might not relate to this topic.
Thank you so much for all of your time spent with me. I just want to make sure that if I do this for other people, that they will have a good quality dvd. Not a pixelated one.

Rob