Hi i have a panasonic aghmc 150 camera. it shoots avchd. i am having trouble with burning dvd's. I compress them with h.264 setting and the video looks great and stunning quality after the compression, but when i burn to dvd the quality is absolutely terrible. I know that to get full quality i would need to burn to blue ray disc. I am primarily filming snowboarding, my question is when i watch a normal dvd it may not be hd but the quality still is very clear and looks good. When i watch many of my standard def snowboard videos they are not hd but the quality looks so clear and shiny that you almost think it is hd, but they play on regular dvd players. So Why when i burn a dvd that looks stunning quality on my computer does it look terrible on tv after it is burned? I have tried Idvd and roxio toast but both give me poor results, everything looks very grainy. almost vhs quality. somebody please help me im going crazy. thanks

-danny

Danny -

1. How are you getting your footage to DVD Studio Pro? Are you editing in Final Cut Pro, then exporting directly from the timeline to an MPEG-2 and AC-3 file via Compressor? Are you creating a self-contained QuickTime movie then bringing it into Compressor? What compression settings are you using in Compressor?

2. If you are using Final Cut Pro to edit, how are you bringing your footage in? And what are your sequence settings?

3. What are the specs of your original footage? Frame Size, Frame Rate, Progressive, Interlaced, etc..?

If you can answer these questions, and maybe even upload a screen shot of your sequence settings, that would help us diagnose your issues. The more information and specifics you can provide, I think the quicker we will be able to help you solve your problems.

Best

In answer to your questions. I am editing my videos in final cut pro, then exporting using compressor. In compressor i used the quicktime h.264 setting. After the compression the video looked stunning, it was great quality i assume it was full quality, but im not sure. Either way it looked awesome. The sequence setting was apple proress 422 1080 X 1440 60i. I originally filmed the footage in 1080 60i, but my camera is capable of 1080p. So i'm not sure if it is filming in progressive or interlaced. Does it have to be filmed in 1080 30p to be progressive?

Anyways i haven't been burning my dvd's in dvd studio pro, i have been using idvd and roxio toast. I just don't understand why when i burn a dvd the quality is garbage, even if i'm not burning blu ray hd quality, shouldn't my finished dvd still have great standard quality playback? When burned the dvd's look grainy and the colors are blown out, but this isn;t the case with the playback of the same compressed file on my computer.


For example, if i watch any regular movie on my standard dvd player, the quality isn't hd but it is still vibrant and looks quite good. Why wouldn't my dvd's look this way. Also i have tried downcoverting my video in compressor using the dvd best quality setting rather than hd dvd. The setting is mpeg 2 6.2 mbps 2 pass. But this setting still gives very grainy quality. Should i do something else?


Lastly my friend has a panasonic avx200 p2 camera. Mine is aghmc 150 i thought they were very similar. HE uses the same h.264 setting and his video look great on dvd. There colors are so bright and vibrant i'm surprised it is not blur ray disc. He burns on standard dvd's and plays on a standard player. Any suggestions? i really need help i just bought my camera about a month ago and still have lots to learn.

thanks, danny

So when you are burning to iDVD, what Quicktime File are you dragging into the iDVD project?...the HD H264 file that you exported out from Final Cut Pro?

From your explanation above, it sounds as if the bottleneck, or the quality reduction issue is happening within the iDVD encoding processes. If the footage isn't brought into iDVD in a specific way, your chances of it looking good are slim, even then, iDVD gives you much less control on how the video is encoded. With the type of footage you are dealing with it seems like your best option will be to encode with Compressor, and burn with DVD Studio Pro. But I still need some more information from you.

Can you right click on the QuickTime Movie and Get Info, or hit "Commmand I" while the master QuickTime Movie you are dropping into iDVD is playing, and post the frame dimensions, frame rate, and type of codec used (ie, H264, Pro Res, ect.) for the clip. Again, the clip I am referring to is the clip that you are dropping into iDVD for encoding and final burning.

When i am burning i am dragging the HD H.264 file into idvd. The same file i exported with compressor out of final cut pro. The dimensions are 1920 x 1080. The codec is H.264 Integer (Little Endian), Timecode. I can't find the frame rate with get info or command I. All that it tells me that seemed similar to frame rate is the bit rate and FPS, but i don't even know what the FPS is. The FPS is 29.97 in value though.

thanks

Here's where your issue is. You're letting iDVD do your MPEG2 encoding and it sounds like it's set to the lowest setting. Let compressor do the job it was designed to do. Use it to encode yur MPEG2 using the DVD presets. Use the highest quality one you can find. THEN you can drop that in iDVD.

Also, check your preferences on iDVD. Make sure that the Quality under the Project tab is set to professional.

Or just ditch iDVD all together and kick the whole thing up to DVD Studio Pro. That gives you better control of your encoding options. The you can just match DSP's encoding to what you just used in Compressor, and it won't re-compress you file.

DSP also has some real easy templates if that's your fear.

~Dave