Re: grainy, unsharp poor quality idvd burning

Hi

I am a wedding videographer struggling with the quality of my final product.

my issue is:

I use a Sony Z1J HDV camera and up to now i have been recording in dvccm 50i but recently tried 1080i50i to try and improve the quality of my final dvd, but unfortunately the quality of the end product is still the same.

As i said i use a Sony Z1J, then i capture the footage in to Final Cut Express HD ver 3.5.1, i then merrily edit, add transitions, AIFF music, livetype credits etc and it all looks great in my canvas. I then export to quick time movie then burn dvd using idvd then when i play my films back on a dvd player for tv the footage looks grainy, blurred and out of focus. i have even had combing issues where now i need to deinterlace my footage before exporting.

Am i doing something drastically wrong?

Sorry for the long winded story but its all getting me down.

You shot with a close-to-HD format (HDV) and recently with an HD format -
but your delivery format is still in SD: DVDs can only supply MPEG2-files in standard definition.

There could be a slight improvement by certain criteria (better lens, color transfer or whatever) using a higher quality HD camera, but you cannot overcome the limited resolution of SD of the disk.

Cheers

Dear Gypaetus

Thank you for your response.

Just wondering if i go down the line of purchasing a Sony PXW X70, and purchasing Final Cut Pro X i would still need to burn the finished movie on to a DVD. Would i get better results with the new camera and software?

What would you recommend?

Regards

David

To think about differences between HD-related cameras is rather obsolete as long as you (have to?) stay with DVD as your medium for delivery.

On the other side it is quite obstaculous to find an HD equivalent.

BluRay could be an obvious solution, but is full of inhibits. There is a rather strict copy protection system which prevented this otherwise good solution to reach the easy usability of DVDs. For years it was not clear if this would be possible one day in an easy practicable way, there is no equivalent of iDVD vor BluRay, also not for the more professional application DVDPro;

authoring is to a certain amount supported by the Windows system, but Apple does many things to bring customers away from any disks, forcing them more or less into their download on demand enterprises. But this cannot cover private films or small business such as wedding coverage.

There were several posting by people her who know much more about this problem; I myself have not succeeded yet to reach here a viable workflow - I present my films usually from a hard disk, having at least a second one ready as a back-up.

One could use BluRays as a data disk, this is much easier to make, as it does not need authoring - but this would not play back on commercial BR-players. At least it would offer some way to distribute your program, but one would need a computer to play back.

A similar distribution way, which is sometimes used, is to sell / distribute our work via USB sticks. At least a USB3 item should be speedy enough to playback the program directly from the stick. Again you need a computer to watch, despite some BluRay-Players have also an USB Plug - but here I have no eperience if this runs just photographs - or also (HD) movies.

In any case this HQ (=HD) distribution opens the door for loss-less pirate copies - which means a slight plus towards the lower quality of DVD (here you give not away the full quality for any illegal copying).

Good luck - perhaps some other people can share here better experience with you.

Cheers

If you are going to deliver your program on dvd then you should shoot and edit in SD. I have never been disappoints in my dvd quality.

Imhp
David

Never try to post here using your iPhone with spell check. (see my post above)
DD

Thank you so much Greg

I do think now though, the Sony Z1 is not up to the job anyway (i plugged it in to a TV and even that result was grainy), and Final Cut Express is dated, thats why i thought i should upgrade.

Using all apple devices, i guess i would need some plug in for burning on to BD and a BD drive as well, also i would much prefer to offer my productions on USB so would hope that Final Cut Pro x would have the facility to do this? Would i need compressor as well.

Sorry for all the questions, but i just want to give my clients the best quality i can.

Kindest regards

David

Hi David, glad to help.
You don't say what Mac you have and what OS version you use. This does make a difference as software changes and requires various system specs.

I would really encourage you to try out FCPX. There is a free 30 day trial, but in all honesty, I no longer use FCP7 for older projects, I simply convert using the app 7toX and use FCPX. Best $300.00 USD I have spent.
I am re-editing(finishing) a project I did years ago, and after having to get it ready to transfer, I remember why I prefer FCPX. So that is a start.
The latest version of FCPX needs a fairly new computer, so check the technical specs to see if you current computer is up to the task. It also requires at least Yosemite(? I believe). It is so much faster and easier to edit in X than in legacy.

As to cameras, these are always changing. 8K Red maybe;-p

On to Blu-ray. Apple support of BD is very limited. Steve Jobs said it was a "Bag of Hurts". Apple sat on the BD standards group but was opposed to the DRM methods employed. However, Macs will "Burn" plain Blu-rays via Disk Utility, Finder and FCPX, but you need to buy an external or internal(for the legacy MP towers) R/W BD drive in order to make the disk. The DRM only applies to viewing commercial discs and not to burning your own. Roxio Toast Titanium also offers BD creation as an add on or in their "Pro" version of Toast.
No iDVD will not work for BD discs and really I haven't found a great app for creating the navigation, chapters etc that you can in iDVD. But for simple BDs, you can create them in FCPX and then burn in DU or now Finder by right clicking on the image file. There are many "Automator" scripts available too. Automator is a built in app in your Utility folder.

In Toast, you use the Copy>Image File tab after exporting(share) from FCPX.
The whole issue of licensing does not apply except to commercial BD viewing, so no problems. If you just want to view BD discs, then the free VLC has BD add-ons that will allow you to view them. There are other apps available as well.
FYI, DVDs or BD you burn do not have any copy protection.

As far as USB sticks, this can be a "World of Hurts" too. There are no standards and not all viewing devices will work no matter what. The ones that do, all have different requirements. Players, TVs, computers all use various formats. Just because it has a USB port does not mean it will work. The most universal format is ExFat. Macs, Windows and Linux can play ExFAT drives. If going only to Macs, better to format to GUID MacOS Journaled. No easy universal answer that anything will always work, you need to read tech specs for every device it is going too, Yipes.

In all honestly, the most universal way now to view video is streaming via Vimeo or YouTube or another service.

Apple (at least in US) also now has "Mail Drop" that allows up to 5GB file transfers, so that may, but most likely won't, be another possibility for limited distribution.

Well, not what you want to hear, but I hope it helps.
Happy editing, Greg

Hi Greg

i have OS X Yosemite ver 10.10.5.

I did download the trial version, but 30 was not long enough to tinker with... may do it again using a different email address.

My real frustration is that i have (what i thought was) a good camera, an ok editing programme incurring hours of hard work only to have a below average end result.....

I have used you tube to embed videos on my website, but think Vimeo might be better? my competitors video samples (at least on their websites) look glossy, sharp and how you would expect it to be versus mine not as good.

I have 2 samples on my website www.davidalanphotography.co.uk under sample videos, perhaps you might take a look.

Again in the canvas window of FCE the movie looks fantastic, but changes once i export using QT movie.

Sorry if i am babbling on....

Hi David
Both YouTube and Vimeo recompress videos when you upload them. It is much better to send a Master file not a compressed DVD version to those services. In general, best not to recompress twice, and DVD is a very compressed format. You most likely need to export different versions for different formats/destinations. I typically create 3 or 4 versions for every project.
Both Vimeo and YouTube sites differ slightly in what formats will work the best for their compression schemes. Vimeo at least also has various plans for its Pro users. Really not up on all of the latest. Vimeo IMHO tends to be a little better quality and they are vastly more lenient in what gets posted re audio i.e. more likely to get taken down on YouTube if you only have a snippet of copyrighted music. Still best to only use music you have full rights to use.
You should also be aware that streaming sites will also send out different stream rates of video when internet connections are bad. For your own sample videos, you may want to see if your ISP and hosting company will support video streaming directly, but having video available on streaming sites is good advertising. Having to tell your sites visitors to Not Use Full Screen is not good advertising either, so you need great quality for your website. Have no knowledge re: UK streaming, ISPs, website hosting.
No matter what you do, DVD standards just are not that great in Today's world, but is still necessary.

Best of Luck,
Greg

Thank you Greg.

Best regards

David