I just got a Samsung SC-D353 miniDV camcorder and began using it to create home movies. I just started creating DVD's on my computer. I am using Ulead Videostudio 9 to do editing and use a HP dvd200e burner to burn the disk. I am also using expensive blank DVD+R disks. The problem arises after I put the burned DVD into my home player. The DVD shows up slightly pixilated (sometimes choppy... just not as clear as it should be) and there is sometimes a short delay in the audio. The menu appers very clear however. I know it's not the camcorder because when I plug it in directly into the TV with the audio/video cables it is very clear. Is it Videostudio 9, or rather, a setting I need to change? If someone could please help me I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
You talk about pixilated. I assume that you mean to what is usually reffered to as "blockiness": the image seems to be build up by small squares. This can specifically be noticed in areas with lots of detail and subtile motion (e.g. rippling water). This is caused by poor encoding (the process of going from AVI to MPEG-2 which is used for DVD). In your program yous should be able to change some quality settings for the encoding process. Most important one is the bitrate which should be at least 6500kbs but preferably between 8000 and 9000kbs.
You're using Ulead to do the encoding of the video also, right? Ulead is great for transfer and editing, but the built in encoder sucks. Use a separate program to convert to MPEG-2 linke TMPGEnc or Main Concept. You also need to make sure you're bitrate is set correctly. IF you are doing an hour or less per disc then you can go with a constant bit rate of 8000 and with a good encoding program any normal person shouldn't notice a difference between the original footage and the DVD. If you're going over an hour per disc you need to calculate the exact bitrate you'll need. I use this online calculator: http://dvd-hq.info/Calculator.html
