silly question but.......

[zombienation]

I have recorded captured to pc etc etc

the file is in .AVI approx 37min the quality is the best

when i convert it to mpeg1 or 2 the picture is c**p

what do i have to convert the avi file to for it to be dvd quality

im using adobe 6.5 + adobe mpeg converter
as well as main concept 1.4

any help would be cool

[FlipNautix]

coverting to mpeg1 literally means you're changing the video to a VCD compliant file. And I don't think it matters what converter you use, the quality is bound to be decreased. As well, from any resolution that your .avi was in before, it'd be reduced or reformed to 352x240 (or somewhere around there) -- which can potentially screw up your aspect ratio.

For DVD however, you'll have to ask around, I'm not sure about the .vob file conversion process.

[sfheath]

Converting to mpeg2 will make your file DVD compliant. I don't know the Adobe software but you should get a good quality mpeg2 picture. what is your source?

[zombienation]

my source im screen recording with Camtasia Studio 2

and a cheap Winfast capture card quailty picture in AVI

Its a tutorial on recording with Cubase SX and how to master with CD Architech 5. for a school project.

[pieroxy]

Conversion to MPEG-2 are best done with TMPGEnc or CCE. As I don't know the latter, I'll talk here about the former.

You can try to open your AVI in TMPGEnc. If that works, try to encode a small portion to make sure the sound is in sync with the video. If that works, you're all set.

If that doesn't work, try to open your file with VirtualDub, and you can frameserve to TMPGEnc easily. I would recommend this way anyways, as VirtualDub has some pretty nice filters (like resize) that you will probably need.

[pieroxy]

Ooops, I submitted too fast....

Well, to answer your other question about the quality, everything depends on what you want to do with the resulting file:

1. Make a VCD. You will need MPEG-1 with a pretty low bitrate and resolution. That will look bad
2. Make a SVCD. You will need MPEG-2 with a reasonable bitrate and resolution. Quality will be OK.
3. MAke a DVD. You will need MPEG-2 with a more than suffucient bitrate and a good resolution. Quality will be excellent.
4. Make a .mpg file to play on PCs. I would recommend MPEG-1 (as this is built in virtually every media player on every OS). You can increase the quality (bitrate and reso) as you see fit.

For all purposes (except 1), I would suggest you use a 2-pass VBR method in TMPGEnc, since your focus is on quality.