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10-04-2009, 11:54 AM
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One of our members submitted some discs to me, requesting feedback on the authoring and menu work. For the benefit of all members/reader of the site, I've made the feedback public, since nothing will be private information.

My style of review tends to be to tell you what's wrong. And if I can remember, I'll toss in mention of a few things that you've done correctly. In many cases, if something is not mentioned, it was probably fine. I'm mostly looking for flaws, as the goal here is how to improve. Don't be disheartened by the comments -- trust me when I say professional video/photo work is far harsher. I sometimes think the comments exchanged in studios and newsrooms would make mercenaries cry.


DVD 1 - "TMCF"
  1. No firstplay. (That's fine -- firstplays are preferences.)
  2. On the menu, the interlacing looks odd. Not sure if it's reversed or just badly deinterlaced, since only the light rays are stuttering. According to the notes, Womble messed this up -- not surprising, honestly. Womble just does not encode very well -- it's best left as an MPEG editor only.
  3. The audio has a moderate hiss, something that can be filtered out easily using one of several programs and methods discussed in site guides or on the forum
  4. There are no chapters -- anything longer than 20 minutes (episodes of a show) should have chapters, especially long movies. You don't even need to plan chapters at certain scenes, even random intervals of 4-5 minutes works fine.
  5. The video is somewhat soft, the fault of the VHS tape poorly converted from the film, not your fault. This could be improved either with a VCR that can adjust sharpness (JVC HR/SR models, or Panasonic AG, VCR models suggested on this site).
  6. The colors are cooked -- again, the fault of VHS tape. But you could work to restore blacks, expand and enrich the color palette, and offset the hot luma (light colors washed white), using a proc amp. Some restoration work in VirtualDub, using video filters, could also help. Or with TMPGEnc Plus' color adjustment options (sometimes there work even better than VirtualDub does).
  7. The uncut/unedited original intro works well. However, given the lower quality of this VHS film release, consider re-making the DVD using the official DVD as the main movie source, and then editing it with the "cut" footage, to re-create the highest quality version available. You get the best quality AND the uncut bits together that way.

DVD 2 - "OMB57"

  1. I actually though the thumbnail was an accent visual to the "theatrical trailer" next to it. It took some playing with the menu direction buttons to figure out you used a thumbnail for the movie, but text for the trailer. It's not obvious. A better menu would have been two smaller thumbnails that play (not selectable), with text based entries for ""Feature Presentation" and "Theatrical Trailer".
  2. The problem with these thumbnails is that Womble -- again -- messed up the interlacing. This time, instead of removing interlace badly, it left it intact, so the thumbnails are actually somewhat blurry low quality. Ideally, you want to IVTC this sort of footage in TMPGEnc (or something else of your choice), to create a progressive object for the menu. Interlace on menus almost never works, you really have to submit progressive assets for menu creation in most software -- including pro programs.
  3. The main menu background image looks nice. It works really well.
  4. The film is presented in a matted 16:9 (in a 4:3 window, which becomes "postage stamped" on my 55" widescreen Sony TV). It would have been better to IVTC the filkm back to 23.976, and then put it back into a true 16:9 frame. Of course, my TV has a "zoom" setting, so it's okay.
  5. Audio is great, no noticeable hiss or noise.
  6. Contrast of the video is quite excellent. Your down-conversion from a color broadcast to a true B&W has helped with quality. B&W should be B&W, not color casted with some tint. Good work.
  7. Again, no chapters on main movie, not very helpful.
  8. Audio on submenu is WAY TOO LOUD !! WOW !! Keep audio normalized across an entire disc, nobody likes audio to nearly blow their speakers, never a nice surprised. At any rate, the submenu is almost unnecessary.
  9. Audio on trailer has a lot of hiss, and some crackles from red-lining of the levels -- audio distortion. The audio input and/or output was too high when it was converted.
  10. Video on trailer is great. However, it has some color noise present, chroma shimmers (blue/red/green misty noise, best seen in darks).

DVD 3 - "FLOM63"
  1. The menu is awful. The interlace is messed up, the video is extremely blocky, and the audio is so loud level-wise that it crackles on calibrated speakers. Honestly, you don't need a menu on a movie-only disc. menus are made to navigate, and there's really nothing to navigate. On a project like this, just have the movie play when inserted, like VHS tapes did. It's okay -- menus are not needed or required. Most folks would rather see no menu than a bad menu. I realized that, again, Womble did most of the menu damage.
  2. Again, add chapters.
  3. You could use a better VCR on this one. The video vibrate in all directions, and it has excessive color and chroma noise. A line TBC built into a higher end VCR would correct this. Failing that, some VirtualDub filters could easily clean up some of the micro-grain VHS debris and slightly suppress the chroma noise.
  4. I also see some jumping and instability in the video when played -- again, better VCR will fix you right up.
  5. The Panasonic encoder chipset has a flaw in those older models especially -- it makes noisy and blocky video when fed an imperfect signal. Even with all my Sony HD filters engaged, I see amoeba-like "mosquito noise" around objects.
  6. The dyed redhead on the boat, in the opening scene --one of my favorites !!!! She's so good in everything she ever did. Assuming she is who I think she is -- need to check IMDB.
  7. The audio is low, it needs a "high restore" preset filter in SoundForge to correct it. It's muffled as-is. The mono muffle can be compensated! (Most people don't realize it!)

DVD 4 - "RTMC75"
  1. Again, audio is too loud, cooked and distorted. Levels need to be much lower decibels for DVD. This is as loud as or louder than audio CD, which is notoriously cooked. A number of authoring programs (including my favorite Ulead DVDWS2) are known to sometimes cook audio input as anything but WAV -- and even then I lower the WAV to about 20-30% db.
  2. Again, with only one item, not sure a menu is even needed. To showcase the artwork, a DVD case or DVD print (inkjet) would probably do just as good. Just have the movie play like a VHS tape would have done. Inserts, plays.
  3. Movie quality looks and sounds fine, no surprise given the digital cable source. The black level does appear to be lower than is appropriate, a known issue of the Panasonic E5x series. Instead, it cooks luma a bit, and the green shade is pronounced in shadows and grays. But that's a nitpick easily fixed by tweaking the TV temperature and color/contrast settings -- something I do often, as even broadcasts can be off, or official DVD releases. Proper calibration is becoming more and more a lost art.
  4. Love the audio soundtrack about 4 minutes into the movie. Awesome music in those days. One of my favorites. Cranked the stereo on this piece, and it was clean as could be. No noise, nothing to distract from pleasure of listening. This speaks not only to the broadcast quality, but to the wiring you've used in your home and setup. There is some ever slight crackling at highest/loudest notes, so use RG6 coax in the home, not RG59, if at all possible.

DVD 5 - "TPDS 4e+2c"
  1. The menu background appears to be a fuzzy web image. It's okay, but on a large 55" screen, it's a bit tacky.
  2. The font is too small, and the bold face comic sans make it harder to read. It is good that the font lines are lined up.
  3. Episode discs definitely need menus. This is good.
  4. Still menu, no audio -- safe, easy, less problems to be had. No harm here, I do this a lot myself, both for professional work and my fun hobby stuff.
  5. Given the source, the video and audio look fine. It's broadcasted a bit light, and possibly the Panasonic E50 black level setting is not correct. Blacks are light charcoal instead of black as intended.
  6. This is being released now, watch for it. Check the calendar at TVPreservation.com/forum in the near future.
  7. The bonuses are great finds!!!
  8. I know chapters were added, but this is the one time they're probably not necessary being only 23 minutes or so long.

DVD 6 - "MRFD w/AG"
  1. This is by far the best menu. Font work is good, thumbnails look nice.
  2. I would move the bottom center thumbnail in line with the top on. Then take that "island" image at bottom, and shrink it about 50%. Then add more blue background to fill it back out to the right size. This would involve work in an image editor, such as Photoshop. To take a still image clip, I use VirtualDub, then go to the frame I want, then "copy frame to clipboard" and paste into my new Photoshop document.
  3. The custom text story intro is helpful. Not amateur looking at all -- did you make that? (Checks notes.) Yes you did! Professional job there, very good.
  4. Quality of source is all very nice, audio and video. Not bad for an unknown origin. Rarely is something this good. I'd love to see the whole thing, if there are more discs planned.
  5. Audio on menu is too loud again, much louder than the videos themselves. Not so bad that it crackles this time, but still probably twice as loud as the episodes. Lower it to 20-40% normalize curve in an editor like SoundForge.

DVD 7 - "Bern57"
  1. Audio on menu again. Same drill as before.
  2. Good first menu, nice selectors. Basic, but nice nonetheless!
  3. Slideshow is really good, even at large 55" screen. looks even better on the upscaling Sony DVD player via HDMI to set with Sony HD filters on top of it. Clean, clear, sharp. Other setups may not fair as well, but that's their fault too! Better equipment can get better signals off those tapes and discs! Budget DVD player on filter-less 20-year-old CRT shows noise and blocks.
  4. Audio on slideshow too loud. It matches the menu, but it's close to distortion.
  5. Add chapters to movie.
  6. Movie audio and video is fine. Levels on this one appear perfectly correct, from IRE/blacks to colors.
  7. This one overall turned out well too, probably my second favorite disc you did.

DVD 8 - "HR79 mftv"
  1. Audio on menu too loud. Almost jumped out of my skin walking back to computer, as it started to play!! AHH!
  2. Muffled movie audio can be fixed in SoundForge.
  3. VHS tape is soft. As above, a better VCR would probably handle levels and sharpness better. About the "cooked" white level, this may be your cables. Composite? Some of the cheaper cables (and sometimes even Monster cables) can be inferior to a good pair of thick gold cables bought at Radio Shack or another electronics store.
  4. Black level is off again, definitely an issue on the Panasonic black level setting, given this is a VHS source. I'll assume it's correct (likely), unlike broadcasts that are all over the map these days.
  5. On the menu again, given how there is only one thing to click on, it's probably wholly unnecessary.

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  #2  
10-04-2009, 01:37 PM
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DVD 9 - "DYinC-V1"
  1. Loud menu audio.
  2. Yay!! CHAPTERS!!! Good job. You must've planned these, as they hit scene changes. That takes time, good work.
  3. Audio and video is fine.
  4. Video IRE and color appears a bit off, but I believe this is the fault of the source, the broadcast masters. Content from this exact age often shows this sort of issue.
  5. Bonus menu audio is so whistly and red-lined that I had to hit mute. It made my ears ring.
  6. I wish the bonus menu's return MENU command took it to the bonus menu again, instead of the TOP MENU.
  7. Music video audio is a bit cooked. The levels are not that high, however. Was this a low-bitrate MP3 first? Did you make this? It's quite creative.

DVD 10 - "DYinC-V2"
  1. Audio is too high here, but only as the song progresses. Because it has a slow intro, it's not too bad when it starts. Still louder than the main movie assets, which is not a good place to be. Ideally, menu audio will be the same level, maybe lower. Consider it to be "background" music, meaning it should stay in the background. Honestly, it's not too bad, pretty close to the movie on this disc.
  2. The audio hiss on the "FI" segment could probably be removed in SoundForge. It's very mild.
  3. The "OT#3" piece has a LOT of VHS noise in some of the clips. The chroma at the top of the screen can be filtered with a heavy chroma filter in VirtualDub. If you have the original tape, a better VCR would remove it. This is a really creative piece. This is the kind of thing true fans and collectors eat up -- we love it.
  4. The bonus menu audio starts okay, but progresses too loud. That's just the song. It's twice as loud as it should be. I detect some initial distortion, but it's not quite there.
  5. I wish that "back" lined up with the others on the bonus menu.
  6. Overall, the menu images here are fine, albeit maybe not the best when viewed on large HDTVs.
  7. The text on the main menu is also helter-skelter, I'd rather see it lined up. Capital "B" for Bonus, and then it's really more like "Bonuses" being there are 3 of them.

DVD 11 - "JW's MG"
  1. Menu audio is loud, but maybe okay. Some high notes come close to distortion. The kind of song it is has a lower volume in the higher dynamic range it may be from. I hear some things here that makes me think it comes from a higher range source.
  2. On the opening credits, the chroma flicker can be fixed in VirtualDub.
  3. For audio pitch changes, I'd use SoundForge. It does it very well. I have to do this regularly on old time radio shows, because the old wire and record/LP recordings were not always converted to MP3 very well by the collectors. I restore everything before listening to it, sometimes taking 30-60 minutes to fix a 25 minute show!
  4. Chapters! Need chapters.
  5. I don't see any artifacts that suggests this was format-converted, from PAL to NTSC. If it was, I'd love to know how -- it's the best conversion I've ever seen.
  6. I've enabled the motion enhancement on the TV set, and it plays a high 120hz, and the motion is smooth and clean. It doesn't appear sped-up at all.
  7. I read the two pages of notes, and I think this looks great. Very cool indeed, about the actors that are in it!
  8. The only major issue I see is chroma noise -- something that is fixable in hardware if you have it on VHS tapes, or mildly correctable i VirtualDub if only as a digital source.
  9. The widescreen intro "lights" is really damaged, wiggles pretty badly, probably the worst thing on the DVD. I actually expected the movie to be poor quality when I saw it, but was happy to see it was only the intro with those issues. Search for another source, if you can.
  10. The intro credits need chroma removal too. And a desaturation, probably, as the pink and blue are overpowering the screen. And it doesn't match the main feature.
  11. On main menu, line up the two entries. The one on the right is lower than the other, not symmetrical.
  12. Slideshow audio is distorted with fuzz. It may not be quite as audible on muffled cheap TV speakers, but on anything moderately nice, it's clearly there.
  13. Slideshow images are great, like the other similar DVD. Clear, clean, great contrast/color, obeys "tv safe" overscan area. Well ... mostly obeys. I see a few that bleed out too far.
  14. Great main menu image. You used the right words this time: "Feature Presentation". Maybe "Slideshow Bonus" next time. My gradeschool English teacher -- maybe even my AP editor -- would agree that "slide show" is two words. But "slideshow" is acceptable form, much like "email" with no hyphen, or "website" as one word and with a lowercase 'w'. Times are a-changin'. Hey, if "dis" can be a word (pathetic ebonics synonym for "insult"), then "slideshow" can surely be one word!!

Audio menu notes:

Audio sourced from MP2, MP3 or AC3 does not translate well when converted to menu audio. A lot of programs "cook" it to a max db level. Audio off CDs is too loud (same for iTunes/Amazon MP3's), so it must be lowered before using on a menu. SoundForge is my favorite, but others may work (the freeware Audacity surely has such a feature -- I've just not used it).


Remember!

Again, the feedback here may seem really negative, but that's because I'm mostly going after what's wrong or weak.

Every year I author DVDs that are duplicated or replicated by the thousands, and used either as promotional pieces for organizations, or sold by small distributors. When creating these, certain key points are always in mind. These same points have been kept in mind while looking at your discs. Professional quality is within your grasp.


Closing thoughts.

Of all the "home user" work I've seen to date (8+ years, since DVD-R came out), this one rates in the top 5 or top 10 for effort. You've done some great things between B&W levels, editing in original intros, slideshows, bonuses, etc.

In terms of menu quality, this probably rates in the top 20 top I've seen to date (again, 8+ years!). Implementing some of the change I suggest, your author work could easily be in the top 10, probably #6 or so. A lot of what I see out there is pure crap, nothing more than using tacky templates from cheap software. And when they do try to make something unique, it's worse than the templates. They don't have a chance -- but you do! You seem to understand many of the fundamentals, as well as some intermediate level work.

I'm guessing these are all Taiyo Yuden discs. Everything has played fine so far. These look like the typical shiny-top discs. All have played well.

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10-04-2009, 01:41 PM
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