Quality Of Tivo Dvds

[jethrodesign]

Hi, if anyone has ever used EMC 8 and SUCCESSFULLY created a DVD that can play in a standard DVD player, could you elaborate on the quality of the DVD compared to the original?

 

I'm having nothing but problems just trying to get EMC to burn TiVo files to DVD. But that's covered in other posts.

 

The closest I've come is that I get 1 of my 2 movies burnt without the menu I setup. I'm still trying to figure THAT one out!

 

But I tried playing the 1 movie that did get burnt to DVD, and the quality is not so hot. I had set the project up as 352 x 480 @ 4.6Mbps. This was as good as I could do to get two 1-hour shows on a DVD. The general quality of playback was slightly worse than original, but whenever there was movement or action sequences, there would be a kind of 'stuttering' or 'ghosting' of the images. Almost like seeing a bit of an image trail behind the movement. Hope that makes sense. Makes it hard to watch.

 

- Is this the best I can expect IF I can ever get EMC to actually create a proper DVD??

 

- Any other tricks to getting the files to burn correctly??

 

I tried converting the .tivo files to generic MPEG2 using Direct Show Dump. The end result is identical, though.

 

THANKS!

[Beerman]

Hi, if anyone has ever used EMC 8 and SUCCESSFULLY created a DVD that can play in a standard DVD player, could you elaborate on the quality of the DVD compared to the original?

 

I'm having nothing but problems just trying to get EMC to burn TiVo files to DVD. But that's covered in other posts.

 

The closest I've come is that I get 1 of my 2 movies burnt without the menu I setup. I'm still trying to figure THAT one out!

 

But I tried playing the 1 movie that did get burnt to DVD, and the quality is not so hot. I had set the project up as 352 x 480 @ 4.6Mbps. This was as good as I could do to get two 1-hour shows on a DVD. The general quality of playback was slightly worse than original, but whenever there was movement or action sequences, there would be a kind of 'stuttering' or 'ghosting' of the images. Almost like seeing a bit of an image trail behind the movement. Hope that makes sense. Makes it hard to watch.

 

- Is this the best I can expect IF I can ever get EMC to actually create a proper DVD??

 

- Any other tricks to getting the files to burn correctly??

 

I tried converting the .tivo files to generic MPEG2 using Direct Show Dump. The end result is identical, though.

 

THANKS!

There's been some discussion of the quality of MyDVD 8 compared to DVD Builder 7/7.5 but for, while the quality of 8 is not good enough for me, it's not awful. I've never tried Tivo files but I always set my projects for best quality and no matter what size the final project is, I burn it to an image file then use Disc Copier to burn to disc. If it's too large, DC will transcode to fit and I've never had complaints of the final quallity when DC has to shrink it to fit to disc.

4.6Mbps is not good enough for me at all. I personally never go below 6.5. Of course, you should try to stick to 1 hour for the absolute best quality but I've put 2 hours and still have been pleased with the final results.

[jethrodesign]

Hmm, so you feel that the transcoding in Disc Copier is better quality than in MyDVD 8?

 

I would like to put 2 1-hour shows on a DVD. One per DVD would just take up way too many DVDs. And I get commercial DVDs of full-season tv shows with about 4 episodes per DVD and they look great. What's the difference?

 

And the reason for the low bitrate (apart from keeping it small enough) is that the original files are only 3.5Mbps. I'm not sure if 'upsampling' will increase quality or not.

 

Does having a 'motion trail' on any motion sequences sound like a result of poor transcoding, too low bitrate, or something else entirely?

 

Thanks again!

[Beerman]

Hmm, so you feel that the transcoding in Disc Copier is better quality than in MyDVD 8?

 

I would like to put 2 1-hour shows on a DVD. One per DVD would just take up way too many DVDs. And I get commercial DVDs of full-season tv shows with about 4 episodes per DVD and they look great. What's the difference?

 

And the reason for the low bitrate (apart from keeping it small enough) is that the original files are only 3.5Mbps. I'm not sure if 'upsampling' will increase quality or not.

 

Does having a 'motion trail' on any motion sequences sound like a result of poor transcoding, too low bitrate, or something else entirely?

 

Thanks again!

I've had better luck using DC to transcode than MyDVD at lower bitrate or fit to disc.....don't know why and it just may be my imagination. I've taken files as large as 7.9 gb and let DC fit to disc and was still very pleased with the quality (on my 32" TV).

I've never been able to figure out what to call the 'motion trail' problem so thanks for giving me words that help to explain. It could be du to low bitrate and trying a higher bitrate would be a way to find out. I've seen jagged, pixelated like edges on low bitrate tv shows I've played with.

[bimicher]

Hmm, so you feel that the transcoding in Disc Copier is better quality than in MyDVD 8?

 

I would like to put 2 1-hour shows on a DVD. One per DVD would just take up way too many DVDs. And I get commercial DVDs of full-season tv shows with about 4 episodes per DVD and they look great. What's the difference?

And the reason for the low bitrate (apart from keeping it small enough) is that the original files are only 3.5Mbps. I'm not sure if 'upsampling' will increase quality or not.

 

Does having a 'motion trail' on any motion sequences sound like a result of poor transcoding, too low bitrate, or something else entirely?

 

Thanks again!

 

Commercial DVDs are produced using hardware/software costing thousands of dollars and cannot be compared at all to home-generated DVDs no matter what the ads say. Most commercial DVDs containing 2 hours or more of video are actually DL DVDs.

[jethrodesign]

Most commercial DVDs containing 2 hours or more of video are actually DL DVDs.

 

Hmm, that's something I don't know a lot about and was curious to find out about. What's the scoop with Dual-Layer discs?

 

- Can MyDVD burn a DVD project using these (and get twice the space)?

- Can a DL burned disc be played in most standard home DVD players, or do you need one with special abilities?

- What would be the disadvantages to using DL discs (apart from disc cost)?

 

Thanks. Maybe I can get better quality if I get a DL drive and use these.

[ggrussell]

Yes, MyDVD supports dual layer media although some have reported trouble using DVD-R DL media. Any DVD that you create in MyDVD , even DL, should play back fine on most home Players. I don't know of any disadvantages other than cost.

[bimicher]

Hmm, that's something I don't know a lot about and was curious to find out about. What's the scoop with Dual-Layer discs?

 

- Can MyDVD burn a DVD project using these (and get twice the space)?

- Can a DL burned disc be played in most standard home DVD players, or do you need one with special abilities?

- What would be the disadvantages to using DL discs (apart from disc cost)?

 

Thanks. Maybe I can get better quality if I get a DL drive and use these.

 

Yes EMC 8 will burn DL discs and you will get twice the space. As to quality, yes you can get better quality on a DL disc but only because you have more space available.For example a 90 minute movie will not fit on a 4.7GB DVD at best quality but it will on a 8.5 DL DVD. On the other hand a 50 minute movie at best quality will be identical on both DVDs.

The big disadvantage (at the moment) is the much higher cost of DL DVDs. For the price of one DL you can buy several regular DVDs. To me, DL DVDs are just not worth it at the moment.

[bcpalmer]

Jethrodesign,

 

Check out my post about your Stutter/Ghosting issue and see if this clears it up.

 

Stutter issue.

 

Good luck!

 

Brian Palmer

[jethrodesign]

Jethrodesign,

 

Check out my post about your Stutter/Ghosting issue and see if this clears it up.

 

Stutter issue.

 

Good luck!

 

Brian Palmer

 

Thanks for the reply Brian. I will give that a shot. But is your home DVD player Progressive Scan? Mine is not. But maybe I'll still try it out.

 

- BTW, what other settings did you find to work decently with your TiVo files? (what resolution & bitrate).

- And did you convert your TiVo files to DVD standard format before using Roxio, or just let EMC do all the work?

 

Thanks again. If you've actually got TiVo files backing up to DVD fairly decently, you are definitely in the minority.

[bcpalmer]

jethrodesign,

Sorry it's taken me sooooooo long to reply as I have not visited the forum lately. I haven't done too many DVDs yet with Tivo files (only about 5). Usually I am creating DVDs that are close to 2 hours and I let MyDVD pick the bit rate and such. The quality is usually decent mind you. I start off with Tivo files that were recorded with either Good or Best quality. I let Roxio do the conversion to DVD format. My DVD player is progressive scan but my TV will not handle progressive scan output so I do not turn on the progressive scan output on the DVD player. Don't know if this matters or not. Hope this helps a bit.

 

Brian Palmer

 

Thanks for the reply Brian. I will give that a shot. But is your home DVD player Progressive Scan? Mine is not. But maybe I'll still try it out.

 

- BTW, what other settings did you find to work decently with your TiVo files? (what resolution & bitrate).

- And did you convert your TiVo files to DVD standard format before using Roxio, or just let EMC do all the work?

 

Thanks again. If you've actually got TiVo files backing up to DVD fairly decently, you are definitely in the minority.

[sutcac]

I have had the same problems and tried to get a refund only to be put on hold forever paying for long distance tolls to Canada. Not worth the time and am just giving up and sending them a big e-mail complaint. I spent many hours on this group and trying all kinds of solutions. Bottom line, it just doesn't work well if at all. Found the best way to watch archived Tivo files is just to play them directly from the computer with Media Player and just send this out to the TV from the video card via S-Video. Not an option for everyone I realize but wish I had figured this out before dropping $70 on this clunky program.

 

One thing I can't understand is that the original TIVO file for an hour long show at high quality is just under 1GB but when you import it to burn to DVD Roxio increases the file size more than 8x which then doesn't even fit on a DVD.

 

 

 

Hi, if anyone has ever used EMC 8 and SUCCESSFULLY created a DVD that can play in a standard DVD player, could you elaborate on the quality of the DVD compared to the original?

 

I'm having nothing but problems just trying to get EMC to burn TiVo files to DVD. But that's covered in other posts.

 

The closest I've come is that I get 1 of my 2 movies burnt without the menu I setup. I'm still trying to figure THAT one out!

 

But I tried playing the 1 movie that did get burnt to DVD, and the quality is not so hot. I had set the project up as 352 x 480 @ 4.6Mbps. This was as good as I could do to get two 1-hour shows on a DVD. The general quality of playback was slightly worse than original, but whenever there was movement or action sequences, there would be a kind of 'stuttering' or 'ghosting' of the images. Almost like seeing a bit of an image trail behind the movement. Hope that makes sense. Makes it hard to watch.

 

- Is this the best I can expect IF I can ever get EMC to actually create a proper DVD??

 

- Any other tricks to getting the files to burn correctly??

 

I tried converting the .tivo files to generic MPEG2 using Direct Show Dump. The end result is identical, though.

 

THANKS!

[bimicher]

One thing I can't understand is that the original TIVO file for an hour long show at high quality is just under 1GB but when you import it to burn to DVD Roxio increases the file size more than 8x which then doesn't even fit on a DVD.

 

The TIVO video file is highly compressed and has to be uncompressed to be able to be burned to a DVD standard. In general 1 hour of best quality video fills up a DVD. File sizes of your sources have nothing to do with creating DVDs, its simply the timelength and quality you want that determine how much video you can burn to a DVD

[Guest ivanatrox]

352 x 480... I don't think you will get a really good quality video on your TV with this resolution...