Glad to hear I'm not going crazy. I do think it's wierd that the quality appearing in the preview screen is LESS than my original AVI files. Sadly, I don't have a broadband connection, and of course, being a 'newbie' I couldn't tell you if I have an AVI splitter (must be incredibly frustrating to work with us newbies, eh?).
Someone else suggested I try a whole new program for capturing and editing my "movies" (actually, DrChips suggested I STOP using MyDVD towards the beginning of all this!). My reluctance to do so was based on that fact that I have never found a capture/editing program that could do the neat things Microsoft Movie Maker 2 can do....AND could actually BURN a disc, right from the editing program. It would seem all of my problems begin with MM 2's inability to actually burn the disc. This person pointed me towards Ulead Video Studio 7 as it converts files directly to MPEG-2 and is capable of burning the disc. Not sure if that will solve my problems, but I did download the trail version of the program to tinker with, so I will give it a shot. Supposedly it will accept Windows Media files too, so I guess there's a chance I can just dump some of my files in and see what happens. If it resolves the resolution issues....I'll gladly pay the $89 for the program.
My TMPGEnc.Plus free trial period ends in 2 days, so I will try a few more tests to see if I can get this thing to work. Any thoughts on the Ulead Video Studio 7?
Well.... I finally was able to convert my AVI files to MPEG-2 without too much touble. I am using this free download of Video Studio 7 from Ulead. I was able to set the bit rate up to a VBR of 10,000 kbps max. That pretty much mimics the original clarity of my DV tape.
I was able to verify this by comparing a newly burned DVD directly with the DV tape plugged directly into my TV.
Now I just need to address one more issue and I think I'm all set. The color of the original DV tape is much richer than the finished DVD and that which appears in the preview windows. Any idea what I can do to improve color quality? Our IT guy here at work suggested I may need to upgrade my PCI capture card (??)
