I routinely capture videos in .ts form that have outstanding quality. When I use DVD Author 4 to make a DVD to produce a DVD I find that the quality of the video has degraded somewhat becoming slightly fuzzy – not terribly fuzzy, but quite noticeable when compared to the original .ts file.

How can I preserve the high quality from my original file and still make the needed DVD files?

Alpha1

What degree of compression and bit-rate are you using? (e.g., howmuch material is on the DVD)? How are you viewing the source material and the DVD?

DVD is SD, Are your .ts files HD? If so, expect the DVD to look softer. Try keep the amount of material on the DVD under 90 minutes.

What degree of compression and bit-rate are you using? (e.g., howmuch material is on the DVD)? How are you viewing the source material and the DVD?

DVD is SD, Are your .ts files HD? If so, expect the DVD to look softer. Try keep the amount of material on the DVD under 90 minutes.

I’m using .ts files that are recorded at 8000 bps, and having DVD Author use that same rate for its Authoring process. I’m not recording off a DVD; these are quality captures from a 1080 TV signal using a Hauppauge Colossus video card with the captured files having always had exceptional clarity and definition. With the problem being that DVD Author degrades those properties during its conversion to VOB files. Incidentally, I have DVD Author use the .ts file directly as 4XP also softens (degrades) the video quality.

I definitely don’t want the video to look softer – that’s the problem now. I want to retain the crispness and clarity of the original .ts files.

Files range from 3.8 gigs to as much as 6.7 gigs to be authored for a Double Layer disk (8.5 gigs). But the lessening quality can be seen immediately when viewing the generated .VOB files. It doesn’t matter which viewing software I use, there is always noticeable degradation of the video quality between the .ts files and the .VOB files regardless of which video player is used.

Are you saying that neither 4XP nor DVD Author can convert the files without quality loss? I was hoping the .ts frames could be split into .VOB units directly with the .IFO and .BUP files generated as need without losing quality.

Will TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 retain the quality of my original .ts files?

You say you're capturing from a 1080 signal but it's still not clear what your .ts file's resolution is. Can you open it with MediaInfo and post the info here?

Like dp said, if you're going from a 1080 HD video to DVD, you're going to get quality loss no matter what; you can't expect to retain all of the details of a 1080 video in a 720x480 DVD.

If you want to retain the full 1080 quality and sharpness, you need to move to BluRay. AW4 should fo a nice job for you there. (HD-DVD lost that battle a few years ago.)

DVD is not 1080, it is SD (480 in the case of NTSC), and there is nothing you can really do about that. (Well some BD players can play HD files from DVD media, but that is different.)

Quality DVDs file can look darn good on a HD set if played on a quality upscaling player, but that is not the same as native 1080.

Using VMW5 can produce a somewhat better MPG2 file for a DVD than yuouget in the native AW4 conversion, but the difference is not huge, and you can apply a bit of sharpening filter in the process if that helps.

The bit rates are 8776 bps, the resolution is 720x480 for the captured .ts file. All of these .ts files have excellent clarity and resolution – no softening of the edges of objects, etc with the current settings.

I don’t expect to have a 1080 clarity; although these 740x480 .ts files are very close, all I want is to retain the clarity and crispness of the 720x480 .ts files I am getting. The Hauppauge card is doing the resolution change from the 1080 signal down to 720x480 for the .ts file output so I wouldn’t think it’s rocket scientist work.

Again: Will TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 do a better job of retaining the quality of my original .ts files?

>I’m using .ts files that are recorded at 8000 bps, and having DVD Author use that same rate for its Authoring process. I’m not recording off a DVD; these are quality captures from a 1080 TV signal using a Hauppauge Colossus video card with the captured files having always had exceptional clarity and definition. With the problem being that DVD Author degrades those properties during its conversion to VOB files. Incidentally, I have DVD Author use the .ts file directly as 4XP also softens (degrades) the video quality.
>
>I definitely don’t want the video to look softer – that’s the problem now. I want to retain the crispness and clarity of the original .ts files.
>
>Files range from 3.8 gigs to as much as 6.7 gigs to be authored for a Double Layer disk (8.5 gigs). But the lessening quality can be seen immediately when viewing the generated .VOB files. It doesn’t matter which viewing software I use, there is always noticeable degradation of the video quality between the .ts files and the .VOB files regardless of which video player is used.
>
>Are you saying that neither 4XP nor DVD Author can convert the files without quality loss? I was hoping the .ts frames could be split into .VOB units directly with the .IFO and .BUP files generated as need without losing quality.
>
>Will TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 retain the quality of my original .ts files?
>

My experience tells me never let DVD Authoring Works 4 transcode or convert video to the DVD standard. It's always best to convert your source videos to MPEG-2 before importing them for authoring.

TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works would be a good choice for doing your conversions beforehand. There are of course other alternatives but TVMW has a very good MPEG-2 encoder which will produce DVD-compliant output.

I have Hauppauge's USB WinTV HD encoder that captures in AVC format, and believe the Colossus uses the same. Just load your .ts file into TVMW5 and convert to a DVD-Video standard MPEG file. You'll get much better video quality and Authoring Works will 'smart render' the file because it's already DVD-compliant. Many of the conversions I've done are from a 1080i source and the quality is excellent.

Another alternative is to take your 1080i encodings and create an AVCHD disc. If you don't have a Blu-ray player then of course don't bother. If you do have a Blu-ray player, then make sure it supports AVCHD. The AVCHD format is a way to put HD content on standard DVDs. You can take your Colossus encodings and put them to AVCHD without any conversion whatsoever. And you won't need TVMW5 to do this: multiAVCHD 4.1 (shareware) would be a good choice, or use tsMuxeR (free). Output to a folder on your hard drive with any of these programs and then burn it with ImgBurn.

Yes, TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 will do a better job of retaining the quality of your original .ts files.

As an adjunct to my previous post, AVCHD also supports 480i, so if you do things right an AVCHD disc would be absolutely 'lossless'. Mind you this might be a moot point if you don't have an AVCHD Blu-ray player.

I should also add that TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 occasionally chokes on some of my Hauppauge encodings. By that I mean the program crashes and hangs when attempting to load a file. I've never determined what causes this. My solution is to use VideoReDo (the H.264 [AVC] version of course) to generate a new lossless version of the encoding, in which case TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 will load it just fine.

Unfortunately, the Hauppauge Colossus video card is considerably more sophisticated than their USB WinTV HD plug in. “Colossus” is a much more complex video card.

I initially tried using 4XP to start with and found the degradation in quality, so I then tired using DVD Author to author the .ts file directly. However, the output is the same as when using 4XP first.

I have an acquaintance that has TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works so I’ll send him an iso of the raw .ts files and see what he can do. If it works I’ll buy it, otherwise I’m moving on to something that is more state of the art, quality wise.

I’ve used Pegasys products for a long time and was always satisfied; but it appears they just haven’t kept up with the state of the art in video rendering.

Your criticism of TMPGEnc Authoring Works is duly noted, and somewhat warranted, but the basis for most DVD authoring apps is that the source files be imported already DVD-compliant. You'll save rendering time and there'll be no surprises with quality.

If your files do load into TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works -- and I think they will -- you'll get excellent MPEG-2 rendering quality for importation into Authoring Works.

Slightly off-topic...

>My experience tells me never let DVD Authoring Works 4 transcode or convert >video to the DVD standard. It's always best to convert your source videos to >MPEG-2 before importing them for authoring.

>TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works would be a good choice for doing your >conversions beforehand. There are of course other alternatives but TVMW has a >very good MPEG-2 encoder which will produce DVD-compliant output.

So you're saying that the MPEG-2 encoder shipped with Authoring Works 4 is different from the one used by Video Mastering Works 5? That's news to me! In addition this is odd because...

>If you want to retain the full 1080 quality and sharpness, you need to move to >BluRay. AW4 should fo a nice job for you there.

...this is definitely not true as long as the source files are already Bluray compliant MPEG-4/AVC, because Authoring Works 4 will always convert them to MPEG-2. Given, that - as you suggest - the MPEG-2 encoder of AW4 produces comparatively low quality together with the fact that AW4 only produces MPEG-2 Blurays, actually makes Authoring Works 4 useless for Bluray authoring!

Just my thoughts,
Indy

.ts files are DVD compliant. They're a version of the mpeg-2 files format and meant mostly for HiDef recordings. The frames are more complex - BUT - all the information is there to condense them to a 720x480 frame. You can't take a 720x480 frame and "blow it up" to a high quality HiDef frame and gain quality; but reducing the .ts file to a high quality 720x480 doesn't mean that you should lose the contrast and crispness to any real degree. Example, I've seen screen shots of output from a "Cyberlink" software that seems to accomplish this convertion very well. I guess the draw back to that software is that using it is quite frustrating, or so the comment was made.

If the .ts files are DVD compliant, they should use smart rendering and not be re-encoded.

How are you importing the files? Try using the Source Wizard's "From a DVD, BD, AVCHD, etc..." option.

Indy... me bad... I was basing my experience with transcoding in Authoring Works on its default settings which is 'Automatic (Smart rendering prioritized)'. That of course means only 1-pass encoding which is why the quality was so degraded. I should have set the encoder mode to 'Re-encode all videos as below' and set the rate control mode to 2-pass, and set the tracks not to be transcoded by ticking the 'Do not adjust this track size'.

I do admit that my normal routine is to import pre-made (smart-rendered) MPEG-2s to match the project size (single- or dual-layer), so the transcoding tests I did do in Authoring Works were obviously not optimized for quality. I missed a very important setting!

Alpha1... I'm still confused by the format of your files. Like tkrave says, if your .ts files are truly DVD-compliant they'll be smart-rendered with no loss of quality. When you import them you'll see a blue 'SR' icon (smart rendering) in the 'Source' stage; if they're not DVD-compliant you'll see a red 'FR' icon (full rendering). Load your .ts file and then go into 'clip properties' and select 'video properties' -- report the results here. It sounds like they're 1080i and you want to "condense" (your term), i.e. resize them to 720x480 for DVD. Right?

My impression is that AW4 uses the same transcode used in the previous TMPGenc4 and not the new MW5 engine.

In any case, is the .TS file wrapped around a H.264 encode rather than a DVD-compliant encode? The Haupauge on-line data implies external encoding is needed to get a DVD compliant file "(Note: the video input format determines the recorded format. For example, 1080i input records at 1080i, 720P records at 720P, etc. Any other format conversions needs to be done with the MediaConvert program... )".

I strongly suspect there are issue beyond the AW4 conversion to DVD in play here.


[Quote].ts files are DVD compliant. They're a version of the mpeg-2 files format and meant mostly for HiDef recordings.[/Quote]

Not always or everywhere. And in any case DVD is not HiDef.

Alpha1, just get the video info for your .ts file using MediaInfo so we can truly see if this is DVD-compliant or not. The details you've given us are still very murky.

I have a project with two separate tracks: #1 is the main film and #2 is the film's trailer. When the film ends the trailer plays, yet I have the 'Track playback end action' set to "Display the top menu'. I know why it's doing this -- I've renamed the play button as 'Film', but the play button is actually 'play all'.

So how would I have a top menu with three buttons like this: Film (plays just track #1), Trailer (plays just track #2), and Chapters (enters the chapter menu). But when the film (track #1) ends I want it to go to the top menu instead of playing track #2 afterwards.

In a nutshell, I want the Play button in the top menu to play only the film, not both tracks.

Thanks for any help.

When I finish all works, I found this helpless error. " Invalid subtitles language code."
The "Track 1" Track's audio language code is invalid.
Save your project file and contact our user support service. The "Track 1" Track's subtitles language code is invalid.
Save your project file and contact our user support service.
Tell me how can I solve this. When I see preview in the software both audio and subtitle are ok. But when I click simulation or make an output file, it comes up.

Version 4.1.2.19 & Windows 7 64bit. At completion of Authoring Works the DVD doesn't eject like it should from the DVD/Blu-Ray drive. Can manually eject, though. The created DVD will play ok in a computer with Windows Media, but won't play in any of my DVD or Blu-Ray players.
A DVD that does eject ok at Authoring Works completion, will play ok in all devices.

Uninstalled and reinstalled, checked all options, can't change this behaviour of created DVDs. All used to work fine, for many years...
Thanks. Wayne.

FWIW: I've had better success if I write to the DVD as a separate step rather than allowing the progrm to move directly to write the DVD after transcoding. My work flow is to write a DVD image file, and then as a separate step to write the DVD.

Is there a way to have more than 15 chapter thumbnails or text links on a menu page? 15 seems to be the highest number in the default template collection. Projects I work on sometimes have more than 15 chapters and it would be nice to have them all on one menu, albeit the font would have to be pretty small for them all to fit.

Use the custom menu option and you can select more than 15 thumbnails/text links per page. The max is 32 for DVD but it warns you that that might exceed the allowed number of links for the project type. I'm not sure if that means it's not compliant or what.

At 32 thumbnails, everything is pretty small though.

I could swear that the most I saw was 15 using the custom menu option but will check again when I get home tonight.

Hmmm...not seeing a 32 thumbnail(s) option in either the "Top Menu Layout List" or "Track menu layout List". How do I get it so that I can choose 32 thumbnails/text links?

This is interesting. It looks like with a 4:3 menu, you can have up to 32, but with a 16:9 menu, you can only have up to 15.

That is odd...you'd think it would be the other way around, being that 16:9 provides more screen area.

I have a project consisting of sixe pairs of clips. Each pair is in a separate track. Regardless of whether I opt to link or unlink the clips when the first is played, playback continues to the second. Is it possible to force the program to return to the Track menu at the end of each clip in the track?

Unfortunately, no. The only way to get it go back to the menu is to put your clips in separate tracks. That means you'll have 12 tracks in your case.

Clip linking isn't what you think it is.

Trying to get Pal export on mpeg-4 at 1280x720.
Question - Is their a way of setting up a custom templete for this.
I'm not in an ntsc Country and moving the video into other editing programs that need pal for the workflow.I know about my generic 720x576 pal,its the 720p for working in higher resolutions.My choices are mpeg-4 and avi for my programs.

I found the Avanced MPEG output button which is only to do with detail settings
for your current codec choice mpeg-4 720p where you can change it to pal.
The GUIs for various programs can be so different,that secondary box on the left was only a advanced settings output box.

I've always struggled with creating even a basic menu in TAW. Here is what I have and what kind of menu I would like using TAW4:

Project contents:

2 tracks, and each track contains several chapters

Menu desired:

The first menu displayed when the DVD is loaded would contain hyperlinks to each of the track menu pages.

Then, each track menu page would list the chapters contained in that track.

So, in the end, I have a total of 3 menu pages:

1. Top Menu which has hyperlinks to each track
2. Track 1 Menu containing track 1's chapter titles
3. Track 2 Menu containing track 2's chapter titles

So, the top menu would be like this:

Track 1 --> Track 1 page which shows each chapter in that track
Track 2 --> Track 2 page which shows each chapter in that track

Can you walk me thru the steps needed to create a menu system like this?

Thanks!

After many "trials and errors", I've finally got what I wanted. The menu creation process could use some improvement, that is for sure!

To my thinking AW4 menu creation works on a subtractive model, a somewhat different apprach than many other programs. You select a menu structure with all features you may need in any of the menus, then delete the parts you don't need. (Many other progam work by adding the thigs yo do need.) It works, but takes a but of adjustment tot eh thinkignprocess.

I am having pretty much the same problem that Bob had. I am simply trying to build a basic menu that you'd find on most retail DVDs. That would mean the disc loads and you are given the options of play, set-up (audio and/or subtitles), special features, and scene selections.

If I try to do it all on the track page (with no top menu), all of the chapters appear on the first page, which defeats the purpose of having a chapters page in the first place. I have tried workarounds including creating a bunch of phony chapters and then trying to make the thumbnails tiny and delete the chapter names, thereby making the second page the actual starting point. That way I can just change the button that says "next page" to "scene selections." Of course, that creates a problem if I'm using a 16x9 menu, as you are limited to 18 items on a page. But even if I were using a 4x3 menu, I'd still have a whole bunch of pointless, tiny blank buttons that I'd have to navigate around to get to the actual buttons I want to use.

Of course a lot of this could be solved if I could create my own links within a menu page. In other words, I'd like to have custom buttons that I can link to pages within the menu, instead of relying on the choices TDA4 has already made for me. That way I could just create a top menu and link to each page, with no workarounds needed. Is this possible? All I'd need is one button that I can name and add to the title page within my single track.

Or is there a way to simply delete the thumbnails on a page? I know I can delete the text, and have no thumbnails visible, but I'd still like to see the visuals of the chapters, not compromise because of finicky software.

I'm fine with keeping the special features in the same track as the feature film so I can have all the audio and subtitle options in the same track. Of course the only foolproof way to do that is to treat the special features like extra chapters, making sure that they get their own page by choosing the correct template that corresponds number-wise to your total chapters. But is there a way to access a second audio track from a non-audio page (other than while playing the actual movie and doing it on the fly), much as a you would if there was an audio commentary listed in the special features section?

I have taken some screenshots, which you can see below, of some rather basic attempts to almost remedy the situation, though as you can see, I am always one button short.



Track page 1 with no top menu or title page.

http://s10.postimage.org/lu2y4jvon/menudamage1.jpg


Title page with no top menu.

http://s16.postimage.org/eg1ho1bxv/menudamage2.jpg

Hi,

I am using DVD author 4 on a win XP (SP3) system with an assortment of AVI video clips. All the Author settings are as they come straight out of the box.

When I make a DVD I add the clips as individual tracks. On playback I find the skip forward button is inactivated (little red circle with the line through it), the skip back button brings me back to the beginning of the current track.

The previous generation of Author had no such issues with the chapter skip working as expected whenever I made up a DVD.

Did I miss something in the settings?

Thank you,
Steven

Sounds like you didn't create chapter marks.

You can add them manually or use the Chapter Tool to create them automatically.

You automatically get one chapter - at the start of the clip. Put a chapter point at the end of the clip to enable skipping to the end of the clip.

I recently upgraded to TAW4 (from TAW3) and am really appreciating the new 'Transitions Editor' functionality.

Specifically, I have a very large clip of a live music concert which has minor edit points in between each song. I am using the Transition Editor to place a 1 or 2 second crossfade at those edit points. First though, I have to duplicate the original clip and then locate the starting and ending frame for each song and "cut edit" the clip so that the song becomes an individual clip. So, in the end, I have as many clips as there are songs and each clip has a 1-2 second crossfade transition into the next clip.

What would be nice is if there was a way to not have to duplicate the original clip for each song and instead be able to insert a transition between each song. Perhaps in a future release?

I wanted to add that I created the original clip using TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 (converted from FLV format). I wonder if there is a way in it to create these crossfade transitions between each song rather than doing it in TAW4?

To make things easier, use the split clip function to split your clip into multiple clips. That way, you don't have to keep editing the original clip for each song.

TVMW5 can do transitions as well, so you could do it then if you wanted to. It works in the same manner as TAW4 if you are in Normal Mode.

Thanks! Sounds like the split clip function would be a lot easier than the way I do it now and will also insure that I don't cut out any frames, which I do not want to do because I am using a remastered WAV audio file extracted from the original clip using TVMW5 as the audio source.

No problem. I find myself using the split clip function more and more in lieu of cutting because it's easier to add back sections that were "deleted".

Only annoying thing is that it limits it to 30 splits per "session". What I mean is that once you hit 30 splits for a clip, you will have to confirm the splits, which takes you back to the Edit stage, then you can open up the clip again to continue splitting past 30 splits.

Got home and tried the split clip function.

I did not remove any frames from the original clip, I just set 22 different split points, one before each song start, basically speaking. Then I inserted a 2 second crossfade transition in between each clip and also a 2 second crossfade on the last clip.

What I noticed after doing all that is that now the total time of the track is 2h 31 min 37 s instead of the original (unsplit) clip time of 2h 32 min 19 s. That is a 42 second difference, which coincidentally is 21 x 2, so I got to wondering if perhaps the total time now does not include the transitions. So, I removed a transition and sure enough, the total time increased by 2 seconds. So, it appears the total time of the track does not include transition times.

Can you confirm this observation I made, tkrave? I'm only concerned because of the possibility that I may now lose synch with my alternate source WAV file, which is also 2 h 32 min 19 s.

Just another little detail...I also confirmed that the transition time on the last clip has no affect on the total track time.

You got it a little backwards, your total time DOES include transitions, it's just that transitions subtract from your total time because your videos are "overlapping" during the transition.

The transition on the last clip doesn't affect total time because there is nothing to transition to. Transitions are added at the end of the clip, and since there is no clip after the last one, there is no overlap and thus, no time loss.

As for your WAV file, I would make that the audio source before you split the clip into multiple clips. That way, the WAV file should be split along with your video and should stay in sync even with transitions.

Yes, I did get backwards...thanks for correcting me.

As for the audio, yes, my WAV audio source was attached to the track before I split it up. I burned a copy of my project where I put all this to use and it all seems good. I did notice a few very minor audio blips near the transition points that I want to check to see if they are in the WAV audio source, but other than that all was good.

I downloaded and installed free templates from the official site, and it seemed to be installed, but when I tried to upload them they don't appear. When I look at the folder, they are there, but won't appear to load them into the program. Is this a bug or do I need to change some setting?
Thanks in advanced for your help.

In the template selection window, make sure the correct template type is selected in the left column. Choose "All the templates" or "Additional templates" to view downloaded templates.

Thank you so much for reply tkrave. Yes, I "All the Templates" is selected. I have also tried uploading by "Other Templates" choice (I created a new folder and copied them into it), but it won't work, the original templates are loaded again. Is there something else I am missing?

What do you mean by "upload"? You shouldn't have to load the templates from within TAW4. When you install the template .exe file, it will put the files in the default template directory and they should appear automatically in the template list.

If you installed TAW4 in a directory other than the default (c:\Program Files\), then you will need to move/install the template files to that directory.

By default the template files should be located in C:\Program Files\Pegasys Inc\TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4\Template.

Yes, I have installed them and as I said it seemed to work, and I can also see the ".tda4mt files" installed in the directory you mention (C:\Program Files(x86)\Pegasys Inc\TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4\Template), but they don't appear automatically in the "All the templates" nor they appear (sorry for the word upload)by using "Other Templates" choice. Any other thing I need to check?

What language version of TAW4 are you using? Templates are language specific, so templates downloaded from the English site will only work on the English version of TAW4, for instance.

Ok, that could be the explanation, I downloaded and installed free templates in spanish. Last question, only out of curiosity, how can they be specific, being the file extension the same? I also tried to change the "_es" for "_en" in the file name but it won't work. Anyway thanks so much for your help.

I'm not sure how they work, i just know they won't. I've tried downloading the Japanese ones in the past and they never worked on my English version.

Is there a way to change the permanent filter list?
I mean every time you add a new subtitle to a file you need to edit the filter list so to add the subtitles filter. If you got many files this is getting annoying.

Thanks/

Yes. Create your filter list with your preferred filters. Save it as a filter template.

Then in the preferences-->Clip editing-->Clip default settings, you can select your filter template as the default filter list.

Note that any filters and settings active when you save the template will be active by default, so save the template before you make any changes to the filters.

Thank you.