I was wondering if anyone has any experience using Pinnacle Studio 9. My wife got me a Studio Movie Box DV for Christmas so that I could convert all of my old wrestling VHS to DVD. I am also capturing live TV and trying to burn that as well.
The problem that I am having is that the quality of the DVD playback is awful and way too pixelated. It doesn't matter if it's a 2hr and 40min VHS PPV or Sunday Night Heat. It still looks bad. I edit the commercials out of RAW and SD each week so it's only about 1hr 30min of video. More than enough room for a standard DVD, still no good.
I have lowered the quality of the video caps to 6000 kbs/sec.
When I go to Make Disc, my settings are as follows:
Output Format: DVD Burn Option: Burn Directly to Disc Video Quality/Disc Usage: Usually Automatic I also do Custom at 7000 Kbits/Sec
I have NO IDEA what the 4 other options in this area are VBR (came checked), CBR, Draft Mode & Filter Video
i first tried this with Adaptec VideOh! PCI with MyDVD software and got pretty good results as long as it was at 2hrs or under. I got a number of DVD's from a guy on ebay and he said that he uses the Pinnacle Systems Movie Box DV and Studio 9. That was why I told my wife to get me it. I am so frustrated with this I Could scream. Any help you guys can give is appreciated. Thanks as always!!!
I am using a Movie Box with Studio 9 and get very good results. I too was getting really bad results when I captured from a VHS or 8mm if I tried to capture @ 720 x 480 resolution. The quality of tape is limited to 352 x 480. So you might want to try using a custom setting, MPEG2 at 352 x 480 and a Data Rate of 6000. Then don't go above the capture data rate when you set the video quality for burning the dvd. You can't have a better output than input. I have burned at a rate slower than the capture and gotten very good results. At 352 x 480 you will get a very watchable movie.
My father-in-law had a lot of his "old" (from 1943) 8mm moved to vhs several years ago and I just moved them to dvd a month ago. They came out great, I even went in and added mp3 music to the entire movie(s).
The "VBR" stands for Variable Bit Rate and "CBR" is Constant Bit Rate. With VBR, the bit rate will change with the scene - high action/movement will use a higher bit rate. CBR will keep the bit rate constant - high action/movement scenes could be jerky, depending on the capture and burn rates. Some dvd players, such as my Panasonic DVD-RV31 does not like VBR discs that I have recorded, but will play the CBR discs.
The "Filter Video" is supposed to help smooth video that was recorded at slower bit rates, I always leave it marked. I don't know how well it works, but it hasn't hurt me that I can tell.
I have had trouble if I try to capture at some odd capture rate, i.e. 4300. I try to stay at 6000 or 4000 capture and then lower the burn if needed to get it all on to a single dvd.