Friday, June 20, 2003
Created 1.6 hour home movie dvd
Started a project for all of the May family footage a while back on a prior Studio beta. Had to abandon it after audio out of sync problems and due to being too busy several weeks ago.
Picked it back up and generated an AVI with Studio, used TMPGENC to encode at a little under 6KMbps video, 128Kbps mpeg audio, and created DVD file with DVD Complete. Looked pretty good when I got done. A little fuzziness in some areas (faces) during complex images (like rose bushes in background) that I haven't noticed at higher video bitrates. I bet the studios have equipment that permits them to tell the encoders to better encode the faces or whatever focus of viewer attention the producer deems appropriate. I told TMPGENC's wizard to adjust the video VBR so that it would consume 99% of the DVD-R.
When I got done creating the VIDEO_TS dir with DVD Complete, I had 300M left to put digital still images. I used RecordNow to create a DVD with my still image archive (raw image files). Unlike my previous production, I did not put the stills in the DVD video footage since I didn't want to degrade the overall video quality.
I guess Studio is out until they fix known mpeg audio OOS problems. I would love it if it would work. At least it can create AVIs and does not crash as much as it used too.
M
Picked it back up and generated an AVI with Studio, used TMPGENC to encode at a little under 6KMbps video, 128Kbps mpeg audio, and created DVD file with DVD Complete. Looked pretty good when I got done. A little fuzziness in some areas (faces) during complex images (like rose bushes in background) that I haven't noticed at higher video bitrates. I bet the studios have equipment that permits them to tell the encoders to better encode the faces or whatever focus of viewer attention the producer deems appropriate. I told TMPGENC's wizard to adjust the video VBR so that it would consume 99% of the DVD-R.
When I got done creating the VIDEO_TS dir with DVD Complete, I had 300M left to put digital still images. I used RecordNow to create a DVD with my still image archive (raw image files). Unlike my previous production, I did not put the stills in the DVD video footage since I didn't want to degrade the overall video quality.
I guess Studio is out until they fix known mpeg audio OOS problems. I would love it if it would work. At least it can create AVIs and does not crash as much as it used too.
M
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Created 2 home movie DVDs (Studio bites)
Created two DVD's over the last few days. Spent several hours with the Pinnacle Studio (8.7.23 beta) importing and reviewing footage as well as creating a sitcom-like intro clip with "Starring..." titles. When I burned the DVD, I found that Studio had botched the audio sync. Luckily I was able to recover the work by having Studio output an AVI, which I subsequently encoded with TMPGENC and created the DVD with DVD Complete. Studio has great titling, audio management, scene transitions, etc., but is it too much to ask to actually create a dvd with the audio in sync? What is the point if it cannot do that? Studio needs a reverse feature in addition to its slow motion and fast motion capabilities. I made one clip where we slid "up" a big blow-up slide by running the video camera backward while capturing, but it had many artifacts in it.
For the second DVD, I used microsoft windows movie maker to create the AVI. I really like MWMM.
I might have squeezed both onto one dvd, particularly since I ended up using TMPGENC anyway. But, I was concerned at a possible lack of quality for permanent storage of these home movies if I had the average bitrate at half the max (4mbps). I don't mind 6Mbps, but anything lower for permanent storage is below my comfort zone since I reuse my tapes.
I had room left to archive the originals of the 300+ digital still pictures on one of the DVDs. I also put all the stills in the dvd content for ease of viewing by non-techies.
Latest cheapest 4X DVD-R with white labels - 50 pack at Americal for $72 (including ground shipping). esbuy.com lost at $88 (with ground shipping).
My DVD Authoring Page
For the second DVD, I used microsoft windows movie maker to create the AVI. I really like MWMM.
I might have squeezed both onto one dvd, particularly since I ended up using TMPGENC anyway. But, I was concerned at a possible lack of quality for permanent storage of these home movies if I had the average bitrate at half the max (4mbps). I don't mind 6Mbps, but anything lower for permanent storage is below my comfort zone since I reuse my tapes.
I had room left to archive the originals of the 300+ digital still pictures on one of the DVDs. I also put all the stills in the dvd content for ease of viewing by non-techies.
Latest cheapest 4X DVD-R with white labels - 50 pack at Americal for $72 (including ground shipping). esbuy.com lost at $88 (with ground shipping).
My DVD Authoring Page
