Conversion settings for Wondershare Converter; export settings for Pinnacle

[avz10]

I made a big mistake with my conversion settings when creating a wedding DVD and need assistance.

This was my first attempt at filming on an SD card, using Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate for conversion, Pinnacle 17 for editing and then I need help to export the edited video as an mpeg stream/file, so that I can create a DVD.

Two JVC cameras were used (one set at AVCHD and the other set at MP4) I must say, this was a last minute request. I will never do it again.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/Image31_zps9974a672.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/Image31_zps9974a672.jpg.html)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/Image32_zpsd26da72b.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/Image32_zpsd26da72b.jpg.html)

I converted both videos to MPEG 2 with Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate, but did not notice (forgot about) the bitrate and other settings.

I then spent hours editing in Pinnacle:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/Image22_zpsd9603b16.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/Image22_zpsd9603b16.jpg.html)

When I wanted to export last night, I saw that the settings were all wrong:
Frame aspect 4:3; Bitrate 4000; FPS 29.97 (we use 25)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/Image23_zps8b5c97de.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/Image23_zps8b5c97de.jpg.html)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/Image30_zps139e3c1d.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/Image30_zps139e3c1d.jpg.html)

This would have been the initial settings in Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/Image28_zps88085410.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/Image28_zps88085410.jpg.html)

These are the options for high quality:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/3_zps1f21ff33.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/3_zps1f21ff33.jpg.html)

High Quality

Video Encoder: Smart fit or MPEG 2
Frame Rate: 25 fps

Audio: Smart fit or MPEG 2 Audio; AC3
Sample Rate: Smart Fit; 44 100 or 48 000Hz
Channel: Smart Fit/1/2
Bit Rate: 64/96/128/192/256/384 kbps

MediaInfo:

One camera:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/MTS1_zps85a7d42c.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/MTS1_zps85a7d42c.jpg.html)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/MTS2_zpsf7264b13.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/MTS2_zpsf7264b13.jpg.html)

Other camera:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/MP41_zpsf6f43043.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/MP41_zpsf6f43043.jpg.html)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/MP42_zpsc9dcce32.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/MP42_zpsc9dcce32.jpg.html)

Now, how and with what settings, to export from from Pinnacle 17

Default settings on Pinnacle 17:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/2_zps71859fbe.jpg (http://s261.photobucket.com/user/avz10/media/2_zps71859fbe.jpg.html)

So, after a very long post, three questions remain:

What conversion settings should I use in Wondershare
What settings can I use to export from Pinnacle
What program should I use for authoring/ creating the DVD?


I would appreciate any replies- I promised the DVD would be ready tonight!!!!

[manolito]

Well, did you somehow manage to finish the DVD in time?

Anyways, your workflow does not look right to me. You are converting the original H.264 to MPEG2 twice, first by the Wondershare converter, then again by exporting from Pinnacle.

You should instead edit the original files directly (it does not matter if the format is AVCHD or MP4, in both cases the video is H.264). Any current video editor should be capable of handling H.264 video. After editing you should export the video using "Smart Rendering" which will only reencode the edited parts and leave the other parts alone.

To create your final DVD use something like AVStoDVD or DVDStyler. DVDStyler has more menu creation power, but for video reencoding it can only use ffmpeg in CBR mode. (AFAIK the Wondershare converter also uses ffmpeg.) AVStoDVD gives you fewer menu options, but it can use HCenc as your encoder which is very high quality.

Another thing I noticed is that in your Pinnacle export settings MP2 is specified as your audio format. This is only DVD compliant for PAL DVDs, but for NTSC DVDs MP2 audio is not allowed as the only audio track. Better use AC3.


Cheers
manolito

[ChickenMan]

Hi manolito, good to see you old friend. I thought you would have recommended the use of DVD2SVCD :) No not really !

I use TMPGEnc Authoring Works for all my Wedding video, you just load in the video from the camera, do all your editing within, add menus, still shots, etc and then one encode direct to DVD ready to burn out. Quality is as good as CCE/HCEnc IMHO, if not better.

[manolito]

Hey Chickenman,

glad to hear from you again... ;)
Your last post was from June 2010, I really thought that you had disappeared from the forum for good.

I had totally forgotten about TMPGEnc Authoring Works, this would be a real nice one-stop solution for the OP.

And believe it or not, I still use DVDtoSVCD regularly. It does not do everything, but what it does it does almost perfectly. I recently ditched QuEnc in favor of ffmpeg (I wrote a little wrapper for it), and right now the only thing bothering me a little is that I cannot upgrade AviSynth to a version higher than 2.57, because the preview doesn't work with 2.58 and 2.60.


Hope to hear from you more often...

Cheers
manolito

[ChickenMan]

Last post 2010, oh no! I do pop in here at times but not very often, but I rarely see anything I can help with. I should pop in more often hey :)

I dont do many conversions myself anymore and those I do all run through TMPGenc Authoring Works as it just does everything for me so easy and quick but more importantly great quality. I still have DVD2SVCD installed and ran it once last year just to see it work again :)

Cheers