[GamblinMan]

Greetings!

I have been successfully using what has come to be known as the "Dan302" method now for a period of several years to create DVD's, with excellent results. I don't claim to understand all the video parameters that the usage of this software entails, but it sure has worked great now for a long time! Many thanks to Dan and all other contributors!!!

I had a Standard Definition TV and was recording everything at "Medium" resolution on the TiVo, then making my DVD's, and playing them back on a similar Standard Def TV using a Progressive Scan DVD Player.

I now have a newer HD TV (61" Samsung DLP) that accepts all resolutions up to and including 1080i. I have a Sony DVD Progressive Scan Carousel that has "upscaling" functionality built in and I output it's best "upscaled" signal to my 1080i HDTV.

The video quality is greatly reduced when viewed on the HD TV. I understand this (somewhat!) as I have more lines of output resolution now then with a SD TV. Basically, I now have a HD TV but have not increased the resolution or method I am using to create my DVD's from TiVoToGo.

I have seen reference to a program called "gui4ffmpeg". I am wondering if either some post or pre-processing via this tool (and appropriate parameter adjustments) combined with having TiVo record at either "High" or "Best" quality and still using the "Dan302" method would yield any better viewing results on my new HD TV.

Or if anyone has any other ideas to improve the video quality by presenting me other processing options I'd appreciate it (other than purchasing a HD DVD Burner for my PC and HD DVD Player, as I'm not ready to absorb that expense yet!).

Thanks for any input anyone has, I really appreciate it!

Tim

 

[Dan203]

Recording at "Best" is your best option. (no pun intended) Any sort of "processing" would require reencoding, which in turn would eliminate all the benefits of my method. The main one being speed.

However be warned that even at Best quality SD recordings are not going to look that good on a 61" HDTV. You're basically taking a 480x480 picture and stretching it into a 29"x38" square. That's roughly equivalent to a 15dpi photograph. And if you use your TVs "zoom" mode to fill the screen then you're taking away 1/3 of those pixels making it look even worse. Now your DVD player, being an upscaler, does do some processing to try to make the picture look better, but there is really nothing it can do to make it look too much better given the source.

And if you're wondering why commercial DVDs look so much better, there are a couple of reasons... The first is that they are encoded from a pristine source, and not a grainy cable signal, which makes a huge difference right off the bat. The second is that animorphic DVDs are actually encoded at full screen 720x480 resolution, while broadcast programs are only 480x480 and then letterboxed on top of that. No amount of processing is going to make a picture with 1/3 less resolution look as good as a commercial DVD.

That being said... With Best quality encoding and a good cable signal booster to eliminate noise you can still get a very watchable DVD out of your TiVo using my method.

Dan

 

[GamblinMan]

Thanks for the response! I'll give "Best" a try........I've been using "Medium" since I used to use Nero years ago and was trying to avoid the transcode! Using "Medium" seemed to minimize or eliminate the transcode in Nero (can't remember which it did, but it definitely helped my old PIII machine!)

Now that I have a newer Core 2 Duo machine, time isn't much of an issue anymore! Anxious to try "High" quality now!

Thanks again and sorry for me transposing your "handle". I don't know why I thought it was "Dan302"!!!

Take care,

Tim

 

[Dan203]

No problem. I actually didn't even notice you transposed it.

Dan

 

[Soapm]

Link us to your guide Dan???

 

[GamblinMan]

While I don't have a link available, I can easily place the info here:

1). Edit the file in VideoReDo and output it as a .vob file
2). Change the file extension on the output file to .mpg
3). Load the file into DVDStyler and design a simple menu for it
4). Output it to an ISO image using DVDStyler
5). Burn the ISO image using DVDDecrypter

I can attest that this method is quick and reliable. I have generated very few coasters in the last couple of years with this methodology!!!

The only software that costs anything is VideoReDo (the video editor). It was $50. For that, I got a simple & powerful video editing tool plus the ability to create "batch" files to edit out commercials for me automatically! I then just confirm the "commercial deletions" and batch output to .vob files and create my DVD's! Once you get the hang of "training" VideoReDo's Commercial editor (Ad-detective I think it is called), I have found it works very well at flagging all the commericals in a .mpg file!

Works great and hope this helps someone as much as it did me!!!!

Tim

 

[chiko]

Why is DVDDecrypter used to burn the CD? DVDStyler seems to have the burn capability built-in.

 

[greg_burns]

Why is DVDDecrypter used to burn the CD? DVDStyler seems to have the burn capability built-in.

I don't have DVDStyler installed anymore, but IIRC its "burn" menu just created the DVD .iso file. Does it actually burn the disk as well now? I would also mention ImgBurn is a little simpler to use than DVDDecrypter.

Also, since this thread was posted there is another option to use VideoReDo TVSuite. :up:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=366484

I have been successfully using what has come to be known as the "Dan302" method now for a period of several years

My how time flies!