DVD Writer quality + D/L questions.

[Cupid]

Good morning all,

This is my first post! Yah! You guys have a lot of great info here and I appreciate it....Seriously, thanks!

Anyway, on to my questions. I have a Sylvania DVD recorder capturing my services in addition to a DVC-Pro tape recorder. The quality of my DVD recorder is not so great. Even on the highest quality setting. My first question is, does the brand of DVD recorder correlate to how great (clarity) your picture quality is?

If so, what are you guys using for good quality DVD recorders?

Should I look at investing in a dual layer DVD recorder? I'm looking at this option because I want to decrease the volume of DVD masters that I have to store. My goal is to get high quality recordings on one D/L DVD-R. Think this is possible with a 4 hours of service time per week? (1 week of services on 1 DL DVD-R)

I also thought about Blue Ray. I haven't found a lot of info on them. Anybody use this technology?

Thanks.

[dmerchen]

Blu-Ray might be overkill for your application, it's really geared towards the HD market, but it would offer far greater recording capacities. You'll also see a dramatic increase in cost, blu-ray burners are still rather expensive, same applies for the actual media. You might consider ingesting the video in a hard drive based solution. As for recording decks, I'm not too well informed on the topic, so I'll leave that for someone else.

[Paris MkVI]

Numerous things could impact the quality of your DVD recordings. DVD standards are pretty straightforward, but not every recorder may use the same spec for each compression option they offer.

What compression do you normally use on the Sylvania? Are you recording at "SP" for example? What time does that give you per disc? Or are you using a "one hour" recording setting?

The DV codec at the foundation of your DVCPro is a great one. Even at 5:1 compression, DVCPro (and the miniDV and DVCam cousins) are great for SD video.

I have used a variety of DVD recorders, from very early Philips units to JVC and assorted Sony's. I have found they worked pretty much the same in terms of image quality. It mostly depended on signal quality what went into them.

[Cupid]

Thanks guys. What i'll do is post my equipment string and settings when I get home tonight. I can also place a sample on an ftp site or something. That way you can see exactly what i'm talking about. I imagine it is a combination of things, such as my compression.

[tedanderson]

What I find is that the compression is very noticeable on wide shots when the DVD is recording in SP mode or something with a longer play time. I call that the "Super Mario" effect in citing the similarity to the older 8-bit Nintendo system where the image is blocky and not very well defined until he jumps on the mushroom that makes him bigger. You might have to make most of your shots from the waist up unless you record in XP mode.

[Cupid]

We run three Sony Cameras connected (12-pin component) to a Sony DFS-300 DME/Switcher. Each of the cameras has a remote CCU-M5 which are all on Auto. We’ve tried manual color, but our lighting is not the greatest so we stick with Auto. We may have to adjust the Iris or Gain, depending on where we are shooting within the sanctuary. (White balancing perhaps?)

I can’t give you a definite until Wednesday night, but I think:
From the switcher the signal (BNC) is then split to a DVD Recorder and a DVCPro tape Recorder. From the DVCPro the signal goes into a Blackmagic Design Multibridge Pro which connects to a MAC Pro via a PCI Express Connection. Audio is fed to the bridge via the sound board.

I would think we’d need to come directly to the Black Magic from the switcher, then split the signals out to the DVCPro Deck and the MAC. This assumes that we can shoot directly to the MAC Pro (which is my ultimate goal) and not need to pull from the DVC Deck, rather use it as a secondary back-up to the DVD-recorder.

Software is FCP. I have seen team members capture video via playback from the DVC Pro, but that footage wasn’t the best either.

Keep in mind, I have only been in this position for about a month. I’d rather ask all of the questions now to bring myself up to speed, than suffer from not knowing (or worse spending unnecessary $ on) something later.

I like to work smarter, not harder. J

[Paris MkVI]

A big question - how are those splits accomplished? If you are using T's to split those signals, it could be part of your problem. You want to be using video DA's to accomplish the task of feeding multiple sources from a single output. Let us know how that is being done.

I am not a Mac user, but you might be able to take the output from your switcher and sent it to a video DA. Send one output each to your DVCPro deck and DVD recorder. Take a third output and feed an A/D converter (like the Canopus we use) and take plain ol' Firewire into your Mac system. Tap audio from somewhere that is synced with your composite out and feed that to the Canopus as well, and you should have synced AV into the Mac.

[Cupid]

Okay...

Unfortunately I have to write the "post of shame". We got in there last week (thank God for the Thanksgiving break), and took everything apart and started over. We did have some inconsistencies in the way things should have been hooked up.

Long story short:
-The Black Magic Multibridge Pro was hooked up incorrectly.
-The DVD Burner set for 4 hour recordings

Outcome:
-We are currently shooting directly to the MAC
-DVD Recorder is set to 2 hour recordings. The resolution has drastically improved

Unintended consequenses:
-Shooting to MAC is killing my harddrive. Using the Deck Control, capturing 26 minutes of uncompressed SD video = 20 Gig of harddrive space!!! Uhhmmm...yeah....that's not going to work. I need to get with the BlackMagic folks to find out if there is a way to compress as i'm shooting to MAC. Another thing about the Deck Control is, as soon as the application looses focus, I loose audio. Basically, when i'm shooting, the MAC is useless.
-I have Premiere Pro CS3 so i'm going to experiment with that to see if it can help me out

Question:
-Anybody have any of my problems?

[Paris MkVI]

No need for shame - we've all been there at one time or another. I celebrate the fact you dug into the system and learned valuable information! Now you can take steps to eliminate these errors in the future, and your church benefits from your determination and dedication. Not to mention the fact you probably put a smile on the face of Jesus!

The first thing I would consider is taking a DV input to the Mac instead of uncompressed. If your final product is SD DVD's or the web, I do not think any of your end users will know or care whether your acquisition signal is uncompressed or not.

Even if you are producing for local broadcast, DV compression is not going to hurt your final product significantly.

That would cut down your file size a good bit. I think you still don't want to be doing anything else with the computer while you are digitizing, regardless of the software you're using. I know I wouldn't.

[[Admin] osborn4]

Originally Posted by Paris MkVI

No need for shame - we've all been there at one time or another. I celebrate the fact you dug into the system and learned valuable information!

What he said.

There are no experimental failures. There's only more data! (Bryce Lynch in Max Headroom)