VCD using P2E beta 2 and Pinnacle Expression

[Joy]

As the title suggests, I have created a few vcds using P2E and Pinnacle Expression. I know nothing about Pinnacle. It was a freebie with my PC. Well the vcds are terrible. Photos are blurry and distorted. I don't think it is the fault of P2E since others seem to be getting good results.

WinXP, P4 2.5G, 1GigRam.

[Joy]

anyone have any comments for me? why do some of you convert to mpg? I am missing something i guess.

[LumenLux]

Hi Joy. As far as I know, there is no reason to convert to .mpg if you only want to play your shows on PC's. If you want to play them on a DVD player (as DVD or CVD or SVCD), then you have to convert them to other formats. I think .avi files must be converted to .mpg before they will play in a DVD player. Igor's latest innovation produces the .avi file if you select the process. Then external software can take the avi file into mpg formats that are then burned to disk for DVD players. The .mpg file is also considerably smaller than .avi. (I hope this is all correct. )

[Joy]

Hi LumenLux. Thanks for the reply. I did not have to convert the P2E avi file to mpg to create a vcd. I have tried the new P2E beta2 and produced a vcd using Pinnacle Expression but the result is terrible. It plays on my DVD player, but the quality is far below what I see on my PC (as an exe). I'm just curious if this is because of Pinnacle or if I am doing something wrong. I create the file in P2E, then choose to create AVI and open the temporary P2E file in Pinnacle. The CD burning goes very smoothly with no problems, but when viewed on my DVD, well as I said TERRIBLE. My DVD player will play jpegs on it's own (no transitions, of course) and the same photos shown that way are good. The vcd creation seems to really degrade the jpegs.

[pip]

Joy

Just posted my findings, after a few days of trial and mostly error! It is correct, the avi must be converted to mpg before it can be read by your DVD player. Don't know Pinnacle, but it must be doing the converting. I must say, I burned a bunch of noisy, jittery shows with all of my tests before getting it right. You might want to give my method a try!

PIP

[Joy]

Thanks pip. My vcd file created with Pinnacle did view on my DVD player. The photos just looked terrible. So are you saying converting the avi to mpg first will improve the quality? I am not using a DVD burner, just a CD burner.

[Danabw]

Joy:

The problem is the VCD format, not PTE or Expression.

If you are going to view slideshows on your DVD player you either need to make SVCDs or DVDs. If you only have a CD burner you can make SVCDs from Expression. Click the wrench icon at the bottom of the Expression screen and select S-VCD from the Settings dialog, and select Best Video Quality (only 32 minutes will fit on a CD in this mode, but should be enough for a slideshow!).

Give that a try - you will see improved results, but remember that a slideshow on your TV will not be as sharp as one on your monitor - the TV resolution just isn't as high as a PC monitor.

Dana

[Michel]

a slideshow on your TV will not be as sharp as one on your monitor

In theory you are right. But in practice it's different:

to consider the fact that you look at your TV at a distance of 3m with a 82 cm screen(PC monitor at 50 cm), you will find that the resolution is very good, especially if you look morever on a 100HZ TV.

All my slide shows (SVCD) are very excellent on my TV.

[Danabw]

a slideshow on your TV will not be as sharp as one on your monitor

In theory you are right. But in practice it's different:

to consider the fact that you look at your TV at a distance of 3m with a 82 cm screen(PC monitor at 50 cm), you will find that the resolution is very good, especially if you look morever on a 100HZ TV.

All my slide shows (SVCD) are very excellent on my TV.

I find mine excellent as well - but it's not theory - they simply are not as sharp as the images viewed on a PC.

I prefer DVD slideshows regardless... :-)

Dana

[Joy]

Thanks Dana, I successfully created SVCD.