How to Optimize Quality of DVD Video using Premier 6.5

Question

I am looking for some advice how to get the best video quality on the MPEG-2 DVDs I create. I capture my MiniDV video into Adobe Premiere 6.5 in AVI format using a D-Link (at least 2 years old) 1394 fireware card. I set my default projects settings to Microsoft DV Compressor, Frame Size 720 x 480, 16x9 aspect, 29.97 fps, depth millions, quality 100%. Once my editing is done, I export using Adobe Premier 6.5 MPEG encoding (I have the latest 1.3 update). I typically pick the DVD 16x9 High Bit Rate setting. My DVDs look OK. The Canon ZR30 MC MiniDV Camcorder I have been using recently died; it was about 5 years old. I just replaced it with a 3CCD MiniDV camcorder from Panasonic (PV-GS320) that should help in terms of the source video quality. I am not ready for HD. Too expensive to upgrade my PC and disk subsystem in particular and my preference will be an HD camcorder with no spinning hard drive or moving tapes. We are very close to this. I imagine many folks are in my boat in this in-between stage where we get to watch HD on our LCD TVs but must work in the stone ages with our DVD video editing software and equipment. I would appreciate any suggestions how to get better performance either by upgrading to newer software from Adobe (provided this will really help), buying a better capture card, changing my settings in Premier. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

>typically pick the DVD 16x9 High Bit Rate setting
I will qualify this by saying that I (used to) use Premiere 6.02 and the MPEG output added by a Pinnacle Dv500 card's software, so I don't have any direct experience with Premiere 6.5 and the MainConcept coding engine
But, I am
switching over to Premiere Pro
which also uses MainConcept, so I have some experience with settings
For a video up to one hour, your current settings are probably the best you can do
For over one hour, you should look at 2-pass VBR settings
In Pro, there is a place to adjust the 3 individual components, and I used a MINimum bitrate of 3 and MAXimum bitrate of 7 (see below) and would then play with the TARGET bitrate to have the highest setting where the software would say there was enough space (on a DVD) to export the project
That "play with" consisted of adjusting the target bitrate a tenth at a time (6.5 6.4 6.3 etc) until the status message would change from insufficient space to READY... at which point I knew I had the best quality the software could give
If you want to try a different product, visit Vendor site CCE Basic
MPEG coding program
Download site for
CCE Basic Demo or Purchase
And, some general information about burning DVD's
To
Burn Error Proof DVDs (Well, close to error proof!)
Use the SLOWEST possible burn option your burner will allow in Encore, since it is much better to take a bit more time burning the disc than it is to burn "fast" and have a disc that won't play
Set the VIDEO portion of the transcoding options to a Maximum of 7,000 so your burned disc will have a better chance at playing in desktop players (which support burned discs, if at all, only as an "after thought" of the DVD specification)
Use AC3 or PCM audio transcode settings for best player compatibility (some discussion of MPEG audio not being supported by all players, especially for NTSC discs)
Buy and use Taiyo Yuden (or Verbatim?) brand blank discs
Read this
ENTIRE message
Concerning Replication
And this one
About Authoring and Playing a DVD
Discussion of
Peak Bitrate
Here is one
Bit Budget Calculator