MPEG2 to DVD - poor quality after conversion - mpeg2 is fine?

Need opinions out there!! I tried using a couple programs converting MPEG2 to DVD. The image quality is terrible? I download and convert and edit without a problem form old analog movies, but then when i use MyDVD or Nero, or DVDxCopy, The movie gets distorted. I looked at the MPEG2 Movie on my PC - and the quality is fine at that point? I also heard bad reviews about Pinaccle 7 & 8 ? Any Advice from the Experts?

 

If your Files is in Mpeg2 then it might allready be in the Correct Format for DVD and you Might not need to encode it at all...If it is a Low resolution Mpeg2 file and you are encodeing it to Standard DVD then you can Loose a Lot of Quality there From the Resizeing...But there are other DVD Formats you can use were you Might not even have to convert the Video to DVD cuz It could allready be in the Correct Format...Why don"t you Post the Specs of your Mpeg2 file like it"s Resolution, Frame rate and audio Frequency and Format and I can then tell you the Best way of going about putting it on DVD...Cheers

 

Thanks Minion, I'm really not sure if I'm converting anything or not - just making a DVD. But here are the specs:
Audio: 384 kbps, 48,000 Hz
Video: 29.97fps, 720x480, 8300 Kbps
Template (not sure what this is) - (NTSC - Better)
ligos MPEG audio/video Decoder (used Video Explosion Editor)
thx again,
Jer

 

Well if those are the Specs of your Mpeg2 file then it is DVD Compliant and there shouldn"t be any encodeing going on(you can tell if the Proscess of authoring takes like 2+ hours then it is Encodeing)..Which means that there should be No quality differance from your Mpeg2 file to your DVD .....

 

So can you recommend a better software program - I heard Pinnacle 8 had bad reviews? I've seen where tons of people are having the same issue's? Is there anything that works guarantee'd?

 

OOhhh ..You are useing Studio 8 to do your Project...If you are Captureing From an Analoge Source you should edit your Files and then Render them as a Low Compression AVI format and then use a High Quality Mpeg2 encoder to Encode your Files to Mpeg2 because the encoder in Studio 8 Sucks compared to high Quality encoders Like Tmpgenc or Mainconcept or Cinemacraft..then after encodeing you can then author to DVD with a good DVD authoring Program...If you want to keep it simple you can useing something like "Tmpgenc DVD Author" and if you want something a Little More Fancy then a Good One that I like to use is "DVD-Lab", They Both have 30 day demo"s that you can try at there web sites...I would advise you to even Not use Studio 8 at all because it only lets you use a Few proprietary codecs to capture to and to render your Projects to and these Codecs aren"t the best...Depending on what Type of Capture Device you have an what type of editing you are doing would determine what a Better captureing Program and editing Program to use...Cheers

 

Thanks again Minion - you can give up on me if you need to, but I was just Siting Pinnacle 8 as an example of another - I actually used the ligos Video Explosion above. If you know of problem with that let me know - Otherwise I will try your recommended DVD Authoring program: DVD-lab

 

I have never Heard of Ligos Video Explotion but I have Used the Ligos Mpeg encoder which was at One time considered a good Mpeg encoder But it Quickly Faded out when much Better encoders Came out...Any DVD authoring Program will Work As Long as it isn"t one of the Ones that Re-encodes your Files before Burning to DVD because if it does ,it will Just Ruin any Quality that you had...Good luck

 

sorry - I was using that for captureing to avi clips - then making a movie to MPEG2 - that part actually looks ok - It says ligos, but also on the help about it says www.novadevelopment.com.

Anyway, and sorry for my lack of DVD creation knowledge , I AM using Sonic MyDVD for Authoring to DVD (Version 3.0) which also has a tie to Nova I guess???

 

Wow - ok just an update on my findings - Thanks To Minion for the advice on a good authoring tool.
I used DVD-lab (free 30 day trial) and it worked much better than the authoring tools i used. I was using MyDVD 3.x though - i also learned there is a MyDVD 5.0 - I'd like to here about that one, as i do like the GUI better.

 

Yes DVD-Lab is Far supperior than Tools Like Sonic MyDVD, it doesn"t have any Video encodeing Features so your Files never get re-encoded and it will accept allmost any Mpeg2 file for authoring...I"m glad it worked out good..Cheers

 

i was reading thru all the questions and wonder if i can capture thru studio 8 then encode it thru another program lke dvd-lab

 

DVD-Lab does Not Encode it just Authors the Mpeg2 Files to DVD..You can capture to AVI in Studio 8 and then use an encoder like Tmpgenc to encode the captured file to mpeg2 then use DVD-Lab to put it on DVD....