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#1 2008-06-28 00:52:24

The Avatar of Time
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Registered: 2008-01-11
Posts: 226

Advice on making a DVD movie.

Hello all,

I am working on making a DVD movie.

I have a DV camcorder that I am capturing from with IEEE 1394.

Originally I was using ManDVD to edit the video and make it into a DVD. In which case I was capturing the camcorder footage in .avi type 2 (with Kino) since ManDVD does not handle Raw DV.

Now that DVD would play in a stand-alone DVD player but the quality of the video was awful. It was choppy and extremely shaky. I assumed at first that it was an interlacing issue (which I assume could cause the choppy/shaky behavior if not done properly?), which I suppose it still could be. But I double checked that I had it interlaced and in NTSC format. NTSC is the right format for me, and I am using a 'normal', non-LCD or HD, TV so I am under the impression that the video HAS to be interlaced.

When capturing from Kino I use 'full interlaced frame' though when rendering in Cinelerra (which I will get to in a bit) I use 'bottom field first' for the interlacing, which from what I have read seems the proper choice. I would assume that whatever interlacing choice that I make in Cinelerra would override the option in Kino? I would have captured in 'lower field first' but I had read somewhere (and forgive me, I don't have links to all the guides I have used) that 'full interlaced frame' was a fine option for Kino.

So after double checking that nothing obvious (to me at least.....) was wrong I decided that either capturing in .avi or ManDVD itself was somehow killing the quality. Note that if I hook the camcorder up to the TV with RCA cables the quality is very nice. I also have a stand-alone DVD burner and if I use that to record the camcorder video to DVD the quality is fine as well.

So now I am using Kino to capture it in Raw DV. Is this a good idea or should I be using .avi (type 1 or 2)? I am under the impression that Raw DV provides the highest quality to work with, is this correct? Also is dvgrab from the command line any better than Kino? In terms of quality-or anything else for that matter? I have plenty of spare hard drive space (2TB) so the sizes of files are of no concern to me, I am only concerned with quality.

So I decided to do the editing with Cinelerra, which is much better for my needs in terms of editing effects and so on. I am using Cinelerra-CVS by the way (I only mention this because I don't think that regular Cinelerra can handle Raw DV). I would use Cinelerra to capture the video too, but I can't seem to get that to work, so I have stuck with Kino.

I manage to get the Raw DV video loaded into Cinelerra just fine and perform all of my editing trouble free as well. Yes, I realize that is no great accomplishment wink I am just trying to be thorough.

Now comes the rendering. This is where I get all mixed up over the different choices. I am not sure what the best way to go about it is. It has to be playable in stand-alone DVD players, and in NTSC format. The interlacing or lack thereof must work on 'normal' TVs, ie. not LCD or HD (though I want it to work on those as well if possible.).

From what I have read it seems that rendering the video through YUV4MPEG Stream and the audio through AC3 is what I should do, please correct me at any time smile.

However on the video I have the option of using 2 different pipes: mpeg2enc or ffmpeg. The one guide that I read said to use ffmpeg, however I had a friend tell me that ffmpeg is the poorest choice. Which should I be using?

I would prefer to use something that rendered audio/video together, is that possible?

I tried ffmpeg and then recombined the audio and video with:

mplex -f 8 myvideo.m2v myaudio.ac3 -o video_audio_file.mpeg

That worked fine (except that the lips didn't match up with the audio, I have to sync it by 500ms to get it to work right, I did this later in ManDVD) but try as I might I couldn't get anything made that would play on a stand-alone DVD player (without using ManDVD that is. I was trying to avoid using it and work from the command line instead), so I took the 'video_audio_file.mpeg' and ran it through ManDVD (needed to make menus anyway, though once I find a menu-making app I hope not to use ManDVD at all) and burned it to disc.

That played but was even worse quality than my previous attempts using only ManDVD and .avi type 2 captures from Kino. This disc added a rather blurry and pixelated element to the already (and still) shaky/choppy result.

I have read many different articles on this topic and have made several attempts now to produce a decent video with no luck, so I am at a complete loss here.

I apologize that I don't have this post in better order. Every time I reread it to tidy it up I end up adding more stuff. I barely know what I am doing when it comes to video editing so I am sure some of my terminology is off. If anything is unclear just ask and I will do my best to clarify.

I suppose my questions would be:

What is the best app for capturing my camcorder video and what format should I capture it in, is Raw DV correct?

Should I capture it in 'full interlaced frame' or 'upper field', 'lower field', or 'deinterlaced linear blend'?

Should I be trying to render to .mpeg and .ac3 from Cinelerra or what format I should be using?

Is there a way to render the audio and video together that will work with stand-alone DVD players?

If I am supposed to be rendering to .mpeg should I be using ffmpeg or mpeg2enc?

What interlacing option should I use in Cinelerra when rendering? Bottom field first?

Is this the proper command for putting the audio and video back together:
'mplex -f 8 myvideo.m2v myaudio.ac3 -o video_audio_file.mpeg'?

What could I be doing wrong that causes the audio not to match up to the video properly, or is it normal to have to sync it later?

Once I have a fully rendered .mpeg (or whichever format I should be going with) and have the audio and video put back together what steps am I missing to make a playable DVD movie? I would think that making the file into a .iso with 'mkisofs' would take care of it (assuming that I didn't want menus of course).

And if anyone has preferences what menu maker app would anyone recommend? I am looking for something as 'fancy' as possible.

Is ManDVD a low quality app or is it simply that I am doing something/everything wrong that causes the poor quality? I nearly forget but the quality is fine while I am editing it and even at the end of the ManDVD process where I can preview the finished product before making an .iso and burning it to DVD. I have an LCD monitor so I can see the interlacing lines, but the video isn't choppy/shaky/blurry/pixelated at all. I also forget to mention that the internal DVD burner that ManDVD has never works so I use the 'Burn with K3b' option in ManDVD.

Any advice on this will be greatly appreciated. I really have put alot of time into reading up on all this. Apparently it's going right over my head wink. Thanks for any help!

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2008-08-18 10:45:34)

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#2 2008-08-18 10:44:36

The Avatar of Time
Member
Registered: 2008-01-11
Posts: 226

Re: Advice on making a DVD movie.

Hello all,

I am still curious about this. I haven't had much time of late to work on it though, so I don't really have any update news.

I am planning to go ahead and rip all the DV tapes that I have (about 30 of them) to the computer any day now.

Using Kino I do want to capture to rawDV and not .avi, to get the best quality, and to cut down on the amount of times the video gets converted correct?

What reasons would there be for capturing to .avi instead? Lack of space? Just to keep the files on the computer as .avi's?

Also what interlacing option would you recommend?

Thanks for any advice.

*** I think I am gonna go ahead and go with rawDV for the captures. Also I just noticed something. I don't think the interlacing option in Kino is relevant to how it is captured, simply how the preview is played while it's happening. Is this correct? In which case all I have to worry about the interlacing on is the final version that I export to DVD from Cinelerra?

Last edited by The Avatar of Time (2008-08-18 22:41:18)

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