Figure 1: Original "Nurse no Oshigoto 3" Frame
Creating DVD's isn't usually as easy as making tapes, but it isn't as bad as it looks at first. You can take a simple or more complex approach; and this page describes the circumstances when I would use each approach, various tradeoffs, and everything you need with whatever approach you decide on.
I use a Windows PC, so all of the various tools described below are for this platform. If you are using a different OS, sorry, I don't know what's available for you. Hopefully this page will still be useful to you to determine what to look for.
This web page mostly describes a low-level view of how to make DVD's. To learn the high level details of what my DVD's look like, read Authoring a DVD page.
If you only have a few tapes, you're recording shows directly from broadcast, or your tapes are B- or better quality, I recommend you use a digital video recorder. (DVR's handle lower-quality video poorly.) Your results won't be as good as if you went through all the steps I describe below in the more complex method, but they'll be good enough.
If you make DVD's with a DVR, make sure to use the SP (2 hour) setting. There isn't a great deal of difference in the picture quality between the 1-hour and 2-hour settings, so it's not worth recording in the higher-quality setting. However, there is a substantial improvement between the 2-hour, and 4- or 6-hour settings. You can then store an entire 12-episode dorama in a multi-6 CD jewel case.
Spend the extra money to get a DVR that comes with a hard disk. These TIVO-like devices make recording and watching time-shifted shows much easier than VCR's or DVR's that only record directly to a DVD. They will also make it easier for you to remove the commercials from your DVD's.
Note: assuming you use the 2-hour setting to record DVD's, once you remove the commercials, you'll typically end up with 30 minutes of unused space per disk. Please just leave the space unused; don't try to cram part of an episode on one disk and the rest on the next. Splitting episodes between disks makes it very inconvenient for others to watch your disks.
I don't know if any particular DVR brands have better MPEG-2 compression than others. The easiest way to determine how good the video compression is is to pause the DVD in a frame that has a lot of motion. The fewer boxes or other digital artifacts that show up, the better the compression. The complex approach described below virtually eliminates any such artifacts, but a decent DVR with a decent quality video source shouldn't have too many. The introduction of The Complex Approach section describes other problems you might see, especially if you try converting C+ or worse quality tapes.
The other case in which you shouldn't bother with any of the steps below is if you want to convert your VCD's to DVD's. The more complex method won't give you a better picture when you do this conversion (unless you want to try applying filters). If you use a PC and have .NET installed, you can run SVCD2DVDMPG or SVCD2DVD to automate most of the steps needed to do the conversion. See The All-In-One guide for help. Alternatively, How to put VCD's on DVD gives you details on the steps involved using a different set of software.
On the other hand, if you have a lot of tapes to convert, you absolutely must have the very best quality, or the tapes are C+ or worse quality; you can use a computer to convert your tapes to DVD's.
To make a DVD from a tape, here are the steps you need to go through. In the following sections, I'll describe the tools I use for each step.
You can combine steps with some tools. For example, you can mostly combine steps 1 and 3 by buying a hardware card for a PC that converts analog video directly to MPEG-2 files. As described above, you can use a digital video recorder, and pretty much combine steps 1 and 3-5 all at once. You can use your DVD authoring program to directly burn the results onto a DVD, combing steps 4 and 5.
Generally, what you gain when you combine steps is time, and what you give up is flexibility and the quality of the result. For example, if you buy a card that converts video directly to MPEG-2, you will have a hard time doing anything with the video besides removing the commercials; i.e., you will be forced to skip step 2. Most programs will not allow you to do processing such as ghost reduction, noise reduction, color correction, frame clipping, video stabilization, etc. This processing has the ability to significantly improve your video: see the several before and after example screenshots in Step 2: Apply Filters to Improve the Video below. The worse the video is, the more likely filters can help substantially. On top of that, if you use real-time MPEG-2 converters, your video will be much coarser and you may be able to see many small rectangular "boxes" (you will certainly see these effects if you pause the video). Another example: if you use a digital video recorder, you will be very limited in how you can author your DVD, and you won't be able to make nice menus and such.
Also, if you convert directly to MPEG-2 or use a DVR, you'll probably be limited to a few recording speeds (1 hour/disk, 2 hours/disk, 4 hours/disk, and maybe one or two others). This limitation means you'll usually waste space on the DVD, so the picture will be more pixelated than you could have gotten with the separate steps. (Again, don't try to recover the wasted space by splitting episodes between disks; it's not worth it!)
However, as previously mentioned near the top of this page, if you have video that is B- or better quality and you use the 2 hours/disk speed (SP mode), you can use real-time MPEG-2 converters -- either via computer cards or DVR's -- and still end up with a fairly decent result from VHS tapes. Breaking down the steps will still give you better results, but video from the real-time MPEG-2 converters will be reasonably watchable.
On the other hand, if your video is C+ or worse quality, you will do a lot better if you separate the steps and use a computer to do the processing. I've looked at video from C+ and worse tapes made from real-time MPEG-2 converters, and found them hard to watch. The picture often looks grainy and dirty, the colors tend to be overly saturated, and there is a noticeable flicker that can show up in parts of the picture that are supposed to be a solid color (caused by different frames having different varying colors and different parts of what should be a solid block within a frame also having different varying colors).
Since I have a lot of tapes to convert and since the time-consuming steps involve the computer chugging along running software in the background or overnight, and don't require much work on my part; I've chosen quality over speed. It may look complicated or like a lot of work at first to digitize a video on a computer -- compared to making analog copies with 2 VCR's -- but, it really is quite easy. Initially, it may take some time to set everything up, familiarize yourself with the tools, and experiment with improving your video; but after making a couple of DVD's, you'll find it becomes a simple turnkey operation.
As with all aspects of making DVD's, you have a lot of choices and there really isn't one right answer on what tools to use. Though this page describes the tools I use, these tools are not necessarily the best ones for you. Hopefully this page will educate you enough that you'll be able to go off and figure out what you want to use to make DVD's, and which tools you like the best.
Before getting to the steps, there are several hardware items you'll need to make your DVD's. Described below is what you'll need, and what you should look for in the equipment you'll use to digitize videos. Because I'm asked a lot about what I use, I'm included that, too.
I don't discuss real-time MPEG cards here because I don't know much about them.
Surprisingly, the VCR you use matters -- a lot! If your VCR is more than a few years old, and you have a number of shows you want to convert, I recommend you get a replacement. Newer VCR's will play video with a lot better color, sharpness, stability, and with significantly less noise. In particular, you should get a VCR with Digital Time Base Correction: using this feature produces much cleaner-looking video. Also, you'll have less color bleed if you use S-Video cables -- even if you're using non-SVHS tapes.
Up until around 2001 or so, VCR prices had plunged a lot, so that good VCR's were very cheap. However, with people now buying DVD players instead of VCR's, good VCR's are getting expensive, though OK VCR's are still very cheap. Most electronic stores are now only grudgingly selling VCR's, and are unlikely to have anything except very cheap, OK VCR's. You can still find good new VCR's for sale at internet stores, but I don't think the price is justifiable unless you're going to transfer a lot of VCR's or you really, really want the best transfers. On the other hand, it shouldn't be that hard to find good used VCR's cheap on EBay or through local classified ads; if you want to upgrade to a good VCR, I recommend trying to find a good used VCR that is only a couple of years old. (A lot of those buyers of DVD's should be dumping their VCR's...) In general, if the VCR has the time-base-correction feature and plays SVHS, it's likely to be a good one.
I use a JVC HR-S9900U.
My general rules when buying computer equipment are that (1) faster is better, and (2) don't buy the very newest components because they're too expensive and too buggy for only slightly better performance. I generally buy the second newest components because I end up with a very fast, stable machine that is not too expensive, will take a long time to become obsolete, and can run the newest games and applications well. Although I'm including what I have in the descriptions, you can get by with a much lower powered machine that I use. Generally, if you've bought a midrange new machine in the last couple of years ago, you'll be OK. Here's what to look for:
One final caution: drivers are notorious for causing problems with applications. If you have a system that works fine, do not upgrade your video, sound, or DVD-drive drivers! And if you do want to try upgrading, make sure you're familiar with Window's System Restore program first.
I would recommend you get a player that is compatible with both DVD+R and DVD-R and at least one of the RW formats. You want the player to be able to be able to use one RW format so that you can test your disks before you burn them onto R disks, and you want to be able to play both DVD+R and DVD-R disks to double check any disks you make for others in their preferred format. I think the "+" format is a little better than the "-" format, so I would recommend you have a player that can read DVD+RW, but, really, it doesn't make a lot of difference if you use DVD+RW or DVD-RW.
Check the DVD Player Compatibility List to see what is compatible with a particular DVD player and how people like a particular player. If you have disks in different formats, I recommend you bring them to an electronics store, and try them out in a player to confirm they play the formats you want before you buy the player. If possible, bring a disk that does not have an AUDIO_TS directory. Some digital video recorder do not make an AUDIO_TS directory (which is normally empty), and this missing directory confuses some DVD players. Try to get a player that can handle it.
Important: some players have trouble playing toward the end of a nearly full writable DVD or VCD. The video will begin to freeze for short periods of time; the closer you get to the end, the more often and the longer the picture will freeze. When you test your DVD player, make sure it can play the end of your disks well.
If you're on a budget, you can skip the DVD player, and just play your disks on your computer. However, I don't recommend that. The output may not look the same on a TV as on a computer: a TV will show you problems with your disks that your computer won't, such as excess clipping of the picture on a TV, or interlace problems. Besides, it's just nicer to watch a DVD on a large TV than on a computer screen.
I use a Pioneer DV-45A, and it plays all formats well. However, if I were buying a DVD player today, I would buy a DVR with a hard disk. With such a device, I could have all the advantages of a TIVO, and could stop using my VCR for recording new shows.
OK, so you've bought all the hardware you need and you're ready to begin. Here are the programs and steps I go through to make a DVD. Much of the software is free, and all have free trials.
There's a lot of software out there to make DVD's, but I strongly advice you to only use software that is free or gives you a free trial before you have to buy it! There's a lot of software that is buggy, hard to use, or missing key features. Sometimes, software won't even have key features that the documentation claims is there, or the features will be only partially implemented. For example, many of capture software programs claim to be able to save video as raw AVI files, but you may find that they can only save low-resolution formats -- good enough for VCD's but not DVD's. You want to find out about such problems before you buy. If you can't get a free trial, move on to another package.
The first step is to digitize the analog video into a raw, uncompressed file: an AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) file.
AVI files are huge; a single dorama episode can easily take up 20-30 GB. This means you must either break up your AVI files into 2 or 4 GB chunks (depending on whether you use FAT or FAT32 partitions), or use an NTFS file partition. I strongly recommend the latter solution for its ease of use, but NTFS is only available on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. If you're using an earlier OS, consider upgrading.
Once you've set up your file system, download Huffyuv. Huffyuv is a lossless video codec that compresses AVI. In English, that means that if you use it, your AVI files will be less than half the size vs. not using it without losing anything. To install it, just right click on Huffyuv.inf, and select Install.
Next, download and install VirtualDub. This free program actually works better at capturing video than any other program -- free or commercial -- that I've tried. For example, this is the only program I've found that doesn't have any problems with video and audio going out of sync at times. Also, many programs were written to be used for VCD's rather than DVD's or the programs give substandard results. Many programs can't even capture AVI, or, if they can, they can't capture at DVD's high resolution (720x480 for NTSC).
To capture AVI with VirtualDub, enter capture mode with File/Capture AVI. Make the following selections:
Once you've set everything, then select Capture/Preferences, check all the Save preferences, and press OK. Double check the settings when you next reboot your PC. For some reason, VirtualDub seems to "forget" how you set some of the fields after a reboot.
If general, don't use any of VirtualDub's filters when you capture AVI. You want to filter after capturing when you can experiment and try out filters more easily. I discuss filtering more in the next section.
Once you've set everything up, select Capture/Capture Video to start capturing. Click the mouse to stop the capture.
Watch the number of Frames dropped (i.e., not captured), which is shown in the information panel on the right side. If the number of frames dropped is greater than about 1% of the number of frames captured, you're dropping too many frames: either your hard drive isn't fast enough, or your video is too poor. The result is that your video will appear jerky. Figure out the problem and fix it before continuing.
Important: don't run any other programs or connect to the Internet while you're capturing. First off, other applications may slow down the capture so that you'll end up with more frames dropped. More importantly, any sound made by any application while you're capturing (for example, a beep indicating you've just received new e-mail) will end up being included with your captured sound.
Once you've captured an episode of something, I suggest you rename the capture file to something more descriptive than capture.avi so that you know what the file contains and so that you don't accidentally overwrite it if you capture again.
After you have the raw video, the next step is to improve the video. It's possible to significantly improve video so that your DVD's look much better than your tapes. The cost for the improvement is time: this step can be the most time consuming. On my computer, with the filtering I commonly do, it takes 6-8 hours to convert one dorama episode -- roughly 45 minutes of video when the commercials are removed -- and can take 24 hours if I do very heavy duty filtering. Fortunately, there's very little you need to do. You just set up the filters and have the computer do all the work. I'll do the filtering in the background when I'm not doing anything computationally intense, or run it overnight or when I'm not using the computer.
I use two programs for filtering. The major filtering is done with VirtualDub, the same program described in the previous step. VirtualDub is set up so that anyone can add a filter to the program. As a result, lots of people have, and some of these filters are quite good and some are very unusual (such as logo removal). Plus they're free!
Here are the locations for a number of filters:
Here are several filters I've used for doramas:
A '*' means I almost always use the filter.
Donald Graft has also written a page that tells you how to install and use a VirtualDub filter.
If you use VirtualDub to do filtering and use multiple filters, be careful with the order. You first want to do large-scale filtering (such as repairing unstable video or reducing noise) before doing small-scale filtering (such as color adjustment). The filters that I've used for doramas above are listed in the order I use them when I use multiple filters. Note: I've run into a bug in VirtualDub in which there can be a write stream error if you use multiple filters. If you run into that, try using the filters one at a time.
If you look at what filters are available, you'll notice there are filters that do temporal smoothing (makes the same pixel across frames closer in color) vs. spatial smoothing (makes pixels close to each other in the same frame closer in color). In my experiments, I've found that temporal smoothing does a better job than spatial smoothing of getting rid of video noise, but often end up making the video look worse because it introduces too many artifacts. Some pixels can end up with wrong colors, and when things move, the video can be messed up by trailing artifacts or with parts of the picture that have similar colors not moving when they should -- even with small movements. In particular, close-ups of people tend to look bad when they move slightly because parts of the face can look frozen. When there is faster movement, people can have a trailing "ghost" behind them caused by their dark hair color mixing with a background color. Also, even when people don't move, there can be scattered pixels with incorrect colors on their faces, especially near the hair line or shaded portions of the face. Thus, be very careful if you use one. If you are converting anime with simple colors, a temporal smoother may be very worthwhile. I suggest trying Jim Casaburi's Temporal Cleaner.
To show what can be done, here are several example frames of videos that vary from pretty good to awful. Notice that the filtering can improve both picture quality and subtitle readability, sometimes considerably!
Figure 1: Original "Nurse no Oshigoto 3"
Frame
Figure 2: Filtered "Nurse no Oshigoto 3"
Frame
Figures 1 & 2 show the before and after of Nurse no Oshigoto 3. The Nurse no Oshigoto 3 video was pretty decent to start with and didn't need much filtering. To process it, I used the following filters in the following order:
If you look to the left of the subtitles and the nurse's hair, there is apparent ghosting in the frame. However, when I corrected for the ghosting the picture looked fuzzier, so I left it.
By the way, the garbage lines at the bottom of the frames are artifacts of VCR's. The black edges on the side and top are from the broadcast. You won't see them on your TV because the TV clips the edges from the viewable portion of the screen. However, as is described in the next step, I clip these edges and center the remaining video when I encode the final video because they are seen if you watch the DVD on a computer. After clipping, I don't resize the video to full screen because that makes the video a little fuzzier.
Figure 3: Original "Hotel 2" Frame
Figure 4: Filtered "Hotel 2" Frame
Figures 3 & 4 show the before and after of Hotel 2. The Hotel 2 video had a lot of problems that needed fixing. To process it, I used the following filters in the following order:
The bright red background in these frames is especially problematic. As you can tell, the background is supposed to be a solid color. However, on typical videos, bright red or brown will vary considerably in color by time (between frames) and space (within frames), resulting in a bad flicker in this portion of the frame. On some videos, a bright red or brown portion will saturate the frames so much that the portion will almost appear to be sort of like a shimmering liquid sloshing. The antiflicker filter works best when the entire frame flickers, so it doesn't work well in this situation. Instead, the filters used in steps 2, 3, and 5 work much better as reducing this flicker problem. However, some of the resulting video may still have the flicker/shimmer problem, and I have not found a good way to get rid of it.
Figure 5: Original "Tokyo Love Story"
Frame
Figure 6: Filtered "Tokyo Love Story"
Frame
Figures 5 & 6 show the before and after of Tokyo Love Story. The video of Tokyo Love Story I had was just awful, and the tape was starting to become unstable enough that it would be difficult to watch the original. To process it, I used the following filters in the following order:
The subtitles in Tokyo Love Story appear to have some ghosting, but the rest of the video does not, so I did not try to deghost it.
The Tokyo Love Story frames especially show the limits of correction. Although you can improve video a lot, there's only so much you can do. Old video will look better with filtering, but still not look nearly as good as video that looks clear to start with.
I'm giving you the filters and values I used as a possible starting point in these examples, but don't treat what I've done as the ideal. I've found filters and values that work well for me, but there are many different ways to approach any particular video. I'm still learning and trying out variations myself, and, even if these filters and values worked for me with this particular video, your tapes may benefit more from different ones. Experiment and try different filters and values yourself and see how they look! VirtualDub has a very nice feature in that it shows you the input and output video for your filters so it makes it very easy to experiment.
Also, be careful not to overprocess your video. If you use too much filtering or too high values in some filters, the output video can look worse than the starting video. Generally, the worse the starting video, the more filtering and the stronger the filter values you can use to good effect.
Once you've set up your filters, be sure to select Video/Compression, and choose Huffyuv, the program you already installed in the previous section, for the compression. Edit out the ads with the controls at the bottom, and then run the filters by selecting File/Save as AVI.
I also use TMPGEnc Plus, a program I describe below, for simple filtering because they make it very easy to use a couple of these filters and do a fine job with them. In particular, TMPGEnc Plus is good for doing frame clipping and simple color correction. I describe my settings for these filters in the next section in Setting's Advanced tab.
The other popular free filtering program is AVISynth. This program allows you to programmatically apply filters. It is thus much more sophisticated, and, frankly, usually more than you need. I use it occasionally for very problematic tapes that require advanced filtering, but most of the time VirtualDub and TMPGEnc Plus are adequate.
Once you have your AVI video in a state you're happy with, the next step is to convert the file to a format DVD's use. This step is also time consuming: on my computer, it takes 6-8 hours to convert one dorama episode -- roughly 45 minutes of video when the commercials are removed -- from an AVI file to an MPEG-2 file. Again, I'll do the encoding in the background when I'm not doing anything computationally intense, or run it overnight or when I'm not using the computer.
To do the MPEG-2 encoding, I use TMPGEnc Plus. This program does an excellent job compressing the video to MPEG-2. Unfortunately, it's not free, though there is a free 30-day trial.
Before you use TMPGEnc Plus, get tooLAME, another free tool, which does a very good job encoding and compressing the sound. Just download it and remember where you put the executable. Then, when you run TMPGEnc Plus for the first time, get rid of the wizard (uncheck Enable this Wizard at start up). Select Option/Environmental setting, go to the Audio engine tab, click External Program for MPEG-1 Audio Layer II encoder, and put in the path of your tooLAME executable.
To encode video, select your video and audio source (the same AVI file), and select System (Video+Audio) for the Stream type. Then click Setting to set everything else. The main settings I use are as follows:
If you use these settings, you'll be able to store 2 1-hour episodes (with commercials removed) on a DVD. I arrived at these settings by sending test videos to various dorama videophiles. The consensus was that, if you use high-quality DVD players and TV's, more compression resulted in worse video, but less compression didn't improve the picture much more.
Whereas the programs I use in the first three steps are the ones that I have found work the best of any I've tried, the programs in this step and beyond are personal preference. There are many programs that work just as well as the ones I use to make bitmaps, author DVD's, etc. Use what I've written as a guide.
Your first step to authoring a DVD is to put together all artwork and sound you'll be using. I generally use frames (in whole or in part), and the theme song. I don't draw artwork; my skills lie elsewhere. I also don't use video for the menus because a video segment almost always contains spoilers, and I try to be careful that nothing in the menus and jewel-box covers contains a spoiler.
To get screen shots for logos, menus, etc., open a filtered AVI file in VirtualDub, move to the frame you want, and then select Video/Copy source frame to clipboard. Once you have the frame in the clipboard, paste it in your favorite image editor. The bitmap size should be 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL).
For image editing, I use Ulead PhotoImpact. This program is easy to use and it has all the features I want and more. Whatever program you use, I suggest you pick one that allows you to (1) have transparent backgrounds (useful for logos), (2) input kanji text, and (3) cut/paste with soft edges (so that you can more easily copy/paste over frames that have a clock or station logos superimposed, and have the result look natural). There are many, many fine image editing programs -- and some decent free programs, too.
One thing to watch out for is that some DVD authoring programs may make some or all of the edges of your screen shot visible when you use the screen shot as a menu background (in some cases, even if you are viewing your DVD on a TV). This means that the scrambled bottom lines (from virtually all tapes) and other edge problems will become visible on your menu. To prevent that, clip or (preferably) stretch the parts of the picture you don't want shown. Some programs -- such as Microsoft Picture It! Digital Image Pro (and possibly the cheaper Picture It! products) -- make it very easy to stretch an image and keep the resulting image the same size as the original.
I grab the theme song from the video for use as menu background music. Making a sound file from AVI input is easy. All you need to do is use TMPGEnc Plus to create a MPEG-2 clip that has the sound you want.
Once you have everything you want in your DVD, the next step is to actually put it together. There are a lot of programs that work fine for authoring a DVD. I use Ulead DVD Workshop because it's easy to use, fairly bug free, and does everything I want. I wanted a program that uses a simple drag and drop scheme to add the videos, and put the menu together. I also wanted to be able to add music and simple text effects to the menu, and be able to write the whole DVD to a directory or disk. DVD Workshop does all that. However, I'm sure there are cheaper programs around that work well, too.
I don't use any of DVD Workshop's buttons and menus, so I deleted all the thumbnails of them to speed up the program. When I create a new menu, I always select Standard menu (Blank). I then select background music, drag and drop the menu picture. If I have any other pictures I want to use (such as the program's logo), I drag and drop them as buttons. I type in the episode numbers as text, which will be the actual selectable items.
If you have multiple menu selections, make sure selections lower on the screen are left-aligned or to the right of selections higher on the screen. DVD Workshop (or the DVD player?) tends to make the leftmost item the default selection rather than the topmost item. Personally, I find this confusing, so I always make all my menu selections left-aligned if vertically stacked, or top-aligned if horizontally stacked.
I use Arial size 24 for the text. I usually make the text yellow (R: 255, G: 255, B: 0) for the unselected color, and orange (R: 255, G: 164, B: 60) and red (R: 196, G: 0, B: 0) for the text state colors. If the background color is a light color, the text may be hard to read. In that case, I do one of three things:
DVD Workshop has a couple of annoying defaults to be aware of. First, it sets menus to have a menu time-out action of 20 seconds. Always disable any time-out action so that users can take their time deciding on a menu action. Second, it often doesn't set the videos to play one after the other. Before burning a disk, always right click on each video title, and check that After Play is set to Next Title instead of Last Menu (except for the last title of course).
Once you're happy with the menu, it's time to make a disk. When you bring up the dialog to make a disc, be sure to check Do not convert compliant files (g). Otherwise, DVD Workshop may try to re-encode your MPEG files all over again. You can tell DVD Workshop is doing the re-encoding if it becomes very slow during any of the first 3 steps of making a disc. "Very slow" means it takes many minutes, rather than about 10-20 seconds, to reach step 4.
When I am testing DVD Workshop's output, I will check Record to disc so I can do a burn in one step. Once I'm ready for a final burn, I check Create DVD directory so that I can add assembly files before actually burning a DVD.
After you've created the DVD files, you will end up with two directories to be written to your DVD: VIDEO_TS, and AUDIO_TS. I then add a third directory, which I call Assembly. I copy any files I used to make the DVD or artwork for the DVD into a the Assembly directory, along with a short note explaining what all the files are. Having the Assembly directory burned on my DVD means that I can then always find these files later. Having easy access to these files is useful if I later want to print out another cover, or I later discover there's something wrong with the DVD and I need to re-author it. DVD players will ignore the entire Assembly directory, and you'll still be able to access the files in the Assembly directory on the disc with your computer.
Be aware that you cannot just drag and drop your DVD files to the DVD drive on your computer. DVD players look for files at specific physical locations on the disc rather than following a directory structure. If you just drag and drop, the DVD may play on your computer (depending on how your player software works), but it won't work on your DVD player. Thus, you need to use a program that knows where to place your DVD files on the disc.
I use Nero Burning ROM to burn my DVD's. I find Nero Burning ROM to be very easy to use, and I like the fact that Nero keeps providing free updates with bug fixes. At this point, it's a solid program, and I have had no trouble with it. Nero comes free with many CD and DVD burners.
Nero's Wizard makes the selection process pretty easy. If you need instructions, read Copying from a DVD to a DVD in my Copying DVD's page. Follow the second step on.
I never use stick-on DVD labels. I have a number of video tapes that have labels that started to peel after a few years. On a tape, a peeling label is no big deal; I just press it back on and put the tape in a VCR without thinking about it. If the label somehow peels off in the VCR (which has happened to me), it's pretty easy to remove it without harming the VCR. However, if you have a label peel off of a fast-spinning disc in your DVD player, you could end up with some serious damage. I've heard assurances that the labels won't peel, but I don't trust them. Why risk it? A black permanent magic marker with a fine point works quite well to write a label on your disks.
However, I do create jewel box covers. Most shows end up having 6 DVD's, so I store them in a Multi-6 CD jewel case. Double-sized jewel boxes for 4-6 DVD's have the equivalent of 2 single-sized jewel box back covers; i.e., both the front and the back of the box have side panels. Unfortunately, most labeling software and template paper products assume you will always have a single-sized jewel box with a front cover without side panels, and a back cover with side panels.
Most labeling software has other problems, too. For example, I was surprised to see that many products won't allow you to add graphics with a transparent background (which is used with logos), or kanji text. There are many labeling programs, but, in general, I found almost all of them too primitive.
The program that I like best is Click 'N Design 3D. The jewel case templates I use are Gizmo's [Stick-it Right's] Jewel Case Inserts (no longer in the download but found in older versions) for double-sized jewel cases and Avery CD/DVD Case Inserts 8931 for single-sized jewel cases. This program meets all my requirements -- plus it's even free! -- except that it doesn't allow me to enter kanji text. To add kanji text, I type the text in Ulead PhotoImpact using the highest size possible (128) in bold with a transparent background, and save it as a PNG file. Then, I add the text as a graphic in Click 'N Design 3D, and shrink it to the size I want.
Don't forget to save any files you use to create jewel box covers on one of your DVD discs so you can print more covers later if you need to. I place these files in their own directory which I name with the show name plus Cover, and then add the directory to the first disc's Assembly directory (as described in step 5 above). (Since I often won't have a title designed until I've seen most of the series and found good pictures, I usually don't burn the first disc until I'm done with the series. If you want to make covers and don't have the space to keep contents from multiple DVD's around, I suggest adding the cover files to the last disc's Assembly directory.)
I don't buy paper with CD template because the template I use is impossible to find, and the paper is expensive anyway. Instead, I print on plain white heavy card-stock paper (use acid-free paper if you're planning on keeping your discs for a long time), available cheaply at any office supply store. Then I cut out my covers with a miniature paper cutter, also available cheaply at any office supply store. I score and bend the side panels, and I'm done.
Lots of things can go wrong when you try to make DVD's. That's a big reason why you should always test your DVD's on rewritable media before making a final burn.
Here are various issues I've run across or read about, and how to solve them using the tools I've described above. Please e-mail me if you run across any other problems or have other solutions.
Unless otherwise stated, all these problems show up in the AVI file, and most of them can be seen on the source tape. However, you may not notice the problem until you watch the MPEG file or the DVD you make.
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
| Episode is split between two tapes. | Someone was trying to save tapes or was careless. | Create MPEG files for each part, and then combine them with TMPGEnc Plus. Select File/MPEG Tools, and go to the Merge & Cut tab. Add the two files, type in an output file, and press Run. |
| Red colors are very bright. | Let me know if you figure out the cause. | Use TMPGEnc Plus, and in Setting's Advanced tab, choose Simple color correction. Enable the filter and set Red to -100. You can play with this value if you want; when the edges of faces start to look green, you've removed too much red. |
| Dark scenes are almost completely black on the computer. | The gamma used on computers and TV's is different. | There is no fix; the way computers and TV's interpret colors is just different. The good news is that when you see a scene reduced to a dark blob when you are editing video on your computer, it will still look OK when you burn it on a DVD and watch it on TV. |
| Picture looks washed out. Whites look very bright. | Usually seen on very old tapes, so I presume it's either an artifact of old VCR's, or a problem with tapes aging. | Use filters in VirtualDub or TMPGEnc Plus to adjust the brightness, contrast, and/or gamma. Adjusting the gamma often works better than adjusting brightness or contrast. |
| Solid colors seem to flicker. | The color in the solid part actually varies a lot within and between frames. (Pause video and forward frame by frame to see this). |
1) Get a better VCR that has digital time base correction. 2) Use noise reduction and smoothing filters in Virtual Dub or TMPGEnc Plus. 3) Don't use a real-time MPEG converter. |
| Picture has ghosting. | Bad reception. | Use ghost-reduction filters in VirtualDub or TMPGEnc Plus. TMPGEnc Plus' ghost-reduction filter has an auto-setting feature that can give you a good starting point. However, if you use any noise-reduction or smoothing filters (typically in VirtualDub), you should do ghost reduction before applying those filters. |
| Picture is snowy. | Bad reception. | Use noise-reduction filters in VirtualDub or TMPGEnc Plus. |
| Picture is fuzzy. | Poor quality video. |
1) Get a better VCR. 2) Smoothing filters may help a little (especially VirtualDub's Smart Smoother High Quality). 3) If the source is anime, try sharpening filters in VirtualDub or TMPGEnc Plus (especially VirtualDub's MSharpen). I have not seen any improvement with sharpening filters used on doramas, but you can try it and see (and let me know if you find a good one). |
| Video jerks, rolls, and is generally unstable. | Tape is old, and/or recorded in EP. Vertical hold has become weak. |
1) A better VCR can help a lot. JVC VCR's with time base correction seem to do a very good job compared to other brands. 2) The Deshaker filter in VirtualDub works very well, and is the only free solution I've found! 3) Digital Video Stabilizer does a very good job fixing such video enough to be watchable. I don't know if it's better or worse than Deshaker above, but you can try it if Deshaker doesn't work well enough for you. 4) I've read that The "ACE" Standards Convertor supposedly can help, but I'm dubious. |
| Bottom horizontal lines of picture have shifted and are scrambled. Plus, top few lines may be white or scrambled. |
An artifact of the way most VCR's work. |
These lines won't show up when you play the video on a TV because the TV doesn't show the edges of the picture. It will show up on a computer. Because these lines would be very distracting if visible, I clip them. Use TMPGEnc Plus, press Settings, go to the Advanced tab, and press Clip frame. Set the Bottom number to be high enough to get rid of all the scrambled lines (usually 8, but I've seen it vary from 6-18). The Top number, if needed will probably only be 3 or so (though, on some tapes, you may need a much higher number). Leave the mask checkboxes unchecked, and set the Arrange setting to be Center (keep aspect ratio). |
| Sides edges of picture are ragged. | Probably an artifact of the way some VCR's work. | Same situation as above. |
| Subtitles are hard to read. | Noise and smearing causes subtitles to be thin, wavy, and/or uneven. | VirtualDub's Smart Smoother High Quality helps. |
| Sound gradually misaligns with video. | Timing on video and audio card doesn't match up (I think...). This problem tends to show up from some tapes, but not others, indicating to me that it's more than just out-of-sync clocks. |
Use VirtualDub for capturing, select Capture/Timing..., and check Adjust video clock dynamically to match audio clock. I have not found any other program that fixes this problem, including various commercial capture programs I've tried. Sometimes, if you capture the video again, the sound will be OK. |
| Sound is misaligned with video from the beginning in MPEG-2 file; AVI file is OK. | Bug in TMPGEnc Plus that can show up when you cut video without a picture (i.e., just static or black). | Reset the source range you cut out, and redo it. I have not been able to reproduce the bug. If you see the problem again, try moving to your set points for the range to be cut by moving from good video to bad rather than the reverse. |
| Sound level varies and has dropouts. |
Source tape's sound was recorded at a very loud level. You can confirm this is the problem during capture in VirtualDub by selecting Audio/Volume meter and watching the sound levels while the video is running. |
Unlike, most other problems, you need to fix this problem during the capture. Once the sound is stored in an AVI file, it's too late. Here are a few things you can try: 1) Lower the input volume meter to a very low setting. 2) Shut off the machine and then turn it on again. You may have to do this a number of times to get it to capture the sound well. 3) (Extreme solution) Shut off the machine and leave it off for about 30-60 minutes. Turn it on again and you should be able to capture the sound so that it sounds good for anywhere from 10-60 minutes, depending on volume. When sound degrades, repeat the process starting at the final point where the sound was OK. (You'll have to merge the MPEG files at the end.) Note: I've tried lowering the input volume by running it through a stereo receiver before it reached the computer, and this did not help. I'm very interested in any solutions anyone comes up with. |
| Sound is only heard from the right speaker. | The original tape was recorded in mono rather than stereo. This problem is common in old tapes. | Before you capture in VirtualDub, select Audio/Compression, and change attributes to 48,000 kHz, 16 Bit, Mono 93 kb/sec. |
| When playing the DVD on some DVD players, sound plays at a slow speed in merged MPEG-2 video after a splice. | The two original MPEG-2 streams had different sound bitrates. | Re-encode one of the MPEG-2 streams so that both files have the same sound bitrate, and re-merge the streams. |
| When playing your completed DVD, when objects move, there's a trailing ghost seen on TV's only, not on the computer. | The interlace field order is reversed. Computers (and some TV's) play the video progressively, so the interlace field order doesn't matter to them. | Re-encode the MPEG-2 video, with the opposite field order. In TMPGEnc Plus, select Setting's Advanced tab, and change the Field order value to the other setting. |
|
When playing the DVD, picture freezes at times, especially towards the end of an episode. |
Bad DVD player design. | Get a different DVD player from a different brand. |
There are many web sites you can go to to get more info on making DVD's; here are some of my favorites. Most of these sites have forums and articles you can look at for lots of advice about whatever DVD knowledge you're seeking. Chances are that if you have a question, it's already been answered on these sites in an article or in a forum -- so check before posting. If you don't see it, ask the question in one of the forums.
E-mail me if you have any questions or suggestions; and I'd love to hear about other people's experiences.
I hope this guide has been helpful and you have fun making your own DVD's!
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