DVD Nightmare! I know...here we go again

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I came to Shotcut from Pinnacle Studio and was glad to “stick it to the man” because this software seemed to have it all over the jerks wanting to keep charging me for upgrades. However, when going through the process of creating a DVD with separate video editors and DVD authoring tools…I’m starting to think it’s worth the money.

Before I get flamed, I want just want to say I have read all of the material I could find and think I understand the process of exporting video in NTSC and using a DVD authoring program to create DVDs for use in DVD players. I think it is an important topic because many people still use DVD players. However, I have .avi home video files that look great in Shotcut. No matter how I export them to DVD format (mpeg2, NTSC) and trying numerous DVD authoring tools (Win X DVD author, DVD Styler) - the final product is poor quality with horizontal lines (I have tried converting as both interlaced and de-interlaced). I wish there was a good solution with a “stick-note” on the forums that would put this to bed, but all I know is Pinnacle Studio can encode and burn to DVD and it looks great. I’m not suggesting it’s better…I’m saying I believe there is an important part of the process that I and many others (and based on the number of posts on this and other forums) just don’t understand.

I know there are really smart people on this forum - who might be able to help, but I understand that video editing is almost a purely digital arena and DVDs are becoming coasters.

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Just for those who may be interested, DVD Styler I was using was a beta and even when I selected “interlaced” it reverted to 480p. A newer version allowed me to select interlaced and while not 100% perfect …almost as good as Pinnacle Studio…lines were dramatically less noticeable. Too bad I didn’t notice that before I got on here and whined like a bittle bitc…err…baby.

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I would make sure the aspect ratio is correct when exporting.
I’m thinking your target is DVD’s to be played with televisions.
Here is a link on television aspect ratios.

If you are trying to burn DVD’s for television viewing, I do suggest that you test your final video via USB thumb drive, which can be played on most modern televisions and/or most modern Blue-Ray players.

You may want to look into MDisks. They are more expensive but a lot better technology than DVD -R +R.

I gave up on burning to DVD’s from Windows 98.