I was hoping someone could help me. I may even be in the wrong section of the forum. I do not know much about creating DVDs, so I'm hoping that someone can walk me through this with the software that I have. I have a bunch off episodic tv shows on VHS that I am trying to get to DVD. I am using my Canopus converter to digitze media into Avid DV Xpress Pro. I create the sequences I want and everything seems fine. In attempting to create my DVD, I export the sequence as a quciktime reference. I do not have many options as far as export settings with quicktime reference. I have heard that AVID exports an odd field first which I am told can be problematic when trying to author DVDs (as a newbie at this, I don't know the details). The only way I can control my export settings is if I export the sequence as a quicktime movie. Avid only gives me a 2GB file limit, so it is impossible for me to export an hour long TV show. I take my quicktime reference and run it through Sorenson Squeeze 3.1 (the only compression software I have). I want the best quality I can possibly get seeing that it is VHS source which does not look great. I choose an elementary data stream with MPEG-2 video (bottom field first). I bring my data rate up to 9800 and use a variable bit rate. I don't know what i frame rate is, but I've used 12 and 18. The audio is not a problem, so I will leave it out of the discussion. When it finally squeezes and I bring it into Adobe Encore for authoring, it looks noticeably worse than my original quicktime reference. The blacks look completely crushed and the overall image is a definite step down. I was just wondering what the best way to create DVDs is with the software I have (Avis DV Xpress Pro, Sorenson Squeeze 3.1, Adobe Encore). I bought a lot of this hardware because i was told that this was a great way to bring VHS and TIVO'ed material to DVD, but I am disappointed with my results. If anyone could give me insight into this, I would greatly apprciate it.
If AVID Only gives you the Option to Save as a Quicktime File or a Quicktime Referance file then I would Suggest that you not use it and Maybe try Captureing your DV AVI files useing a Freeware DV Capture Program Like "WinDV" or "DVIO" and then after you capture the DV AVI files you can do any Cut and Paste editing useing something like the latest version of "Virtual-Dub" (Make sure you capture to DV AVI Type-2).... Then you can encode the DV AVI file to Mpeg-2 useing something that is better than Sorenson like even "Tmpgenc" (Free for 30 Days) which will do a High quality encode of your Edited DV AVI File to Mpeg-2 format (Tmpgenc is very Good at encodeing DV Formated Files) and after you have your Mpeg-2 file you can Load it into "Adobe EncoreDVD" and author the Files to DVD..... If you are going to be doing a Lot of Captureing from your "Canopus ADVC" and doing a Lot of Editing in that Format then i suggest you get a Video Editor that has More export options Like "Sony Vegas Video 6" which has pretty Much all of the editing Options of Avid but it can export your Edited files in Any Format even to High Quality Mpeg-2 Files and Dolby 5.1 audio Files which are the best for DVD authoring...Also it is very easy to use and is a Professinal Level Program..... There are also other editing program that are Just as Good But are Much cheaper...if you would Like more Info on Different Video editors that would be more Suited to your Needs then PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you some Suggestions with some Links....I work as a Video editor so I have a Pretty Wide Knowlege of Different editing programs for different Needs.... Cheers
