Ulead VideoStudio 9 Blurry MPEG encoding

[kevinluigi23]

I have been editing and rendering 720 x 576 16:9 videos in Ulead VS9 to MPEG2 format. I have used the default PAL DVD profile for 16:9 and have also played around with the quality settings, the variable/constant bit rate settings of around the 8000kbps mark, upper lower field first and 2 pass encode, however I keep getting the same results on the output file. All of the output files image appears blurry/slightly smudged in comparison to the sharp quality of the original file which was a DVD Rip to MPEG format. I am wondering if there is anything I can try to resolve this or whether it is just a flaw of the Ulead MPEG Encoder or all video editing software. I know there is some loss during compression but I wouldn't have thought it would be this noticable.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Bigmango]

Yes the ulead mpeg2 encoders (as well as many others) have always rendered very poor quality for me too (especially at lower bitrates).

What I do now is encode the mpeg2 with Canopus Procoder 2 (or CCE aka Cinemacraft encoder, you can get the basic version for about 50$) and then import it into ulead, telling it "not to re-encode compliant mpeg2 files".

If Procoder 2 o CCE are too expensive for you, the free HC 0.21 encoder has improved a lot, many even say the quality is as good as Procoder 2 and CCE. I have not tried it myself, but it is highly respected on these forums.