Advanced video settings

Advanced video settings

MPEG profile and level: The MPEG-2 standard defines so-called "profiles" and "levels". For creating SVCDs and DVDs you can use "Main profile and Main level". The high profile adds additional properties to the data stream like the option to display an image at a reduced resolution for restricted transmission quality (SNR-scalable profile), or locally scaled, for instance an HDTV data stream on a standard TV set. The 4:2:2 profile is used if the image data is to be encoded for alternative chroma scanning. However, these profiles are supported by very few encoders, and mainly only for professional use.

These levels define the restrictions to the image resolution and the maximum data rate. Low level can only reach a reduced resolution (352x2888 = CIF); high level, or High 1440, enables encoding in HDTV format.

Estimate movement: These parameters are controlled via the quality controller (see General Settings).

Noise sensitivity: This factor defines how sensitive the encoder will react to noise in the source material. If the source material only contains a little noise (digital recordings, computer animations, or material already de-noised by video cleaning), then you don't have to change the default value 4, or you can even reduce to increase the quality further. However, if you want to encode noisy material, then too low of a factor will considerably increase the encoding time at the cost of quality. For an unedited analog video you can increase the factor to 8-14.

Noise reduction (click on noise sensitivity): A noise filter is used with adjustable settings from 1-31.

Advanced parameters

Additional expert settings are available in the tree to the right of the window. These should only be changed by experienced users. They have been optimized for general applications to such an extent that changes are only necessary in exceptional cases.

Audio settings

Audio Type: You can use MPEG -1/-2, PCM ( WAV), or Dolby^® Digital. You can also select "No audio" in the export dialog.

Sample rate: You can set a sample rate of 32, 44.1 or 48 kHz for the audio track. VCDs and SVCDs require 44.1 kHz, DVDs require 48 kHz. To reduce the size of audio data it is recommended to lower the bit rate instead of the sample rate.

Mode: You can use mono, stereo, joint stereo, or dual channel. If audio type "Dolby^® Digital" is used, then "5.1 Surround" mode may also be selected.

• Dual channel enables encoding of two mono tracks (e.g. different language sound tracks) that can be switched during playback.
• Joint stereo is an optimized stereo encoder which takes advantage of the fact that the signal of both stereo channels is largely identical. Use joint stereo if you can only use small audio bit rates, but still require a stereo signal.

• 5.1 Surround is available only for surround projects for burning DVDs. During this process, all 6 surround channels in the audio stream are encoded.

Note! For Surround projects "Dolby^® Digital" should be selected under "Audio type", and "5.1 Surround" under "Mode".

Bit rate: Here you can set the audio signal bit rate. The higher the bit rate, the better the playback quality. VCD requires 224 kBit/s, and for SVCDs and DVDs select a value between 384 kBit/s and 448 kBit/s.

Dolby® Digital Details

Hint: These functions are available only in the "5.1 Surround" mode.

Dialog normalization: Set the dB level of spoken dialog. This value will be used to adjust the total volume of DVD movies and different programs that can be received by the DVB. To do this, you must first measure the volume of spoken dialogs in your movies. The values 1-31 correspond to volume levels of -1 to -31 dB.

Hint: Use the mixer's peakmeter to set the volume level. This process produces only approximate results, because the exact measurement requires a mean value and this cannot be easily measured with 

MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 15.

The displayed value serves also as a reference value for "Dynamic Range Control". Some areas are softer so that speech can be made louder, and louder areas will be made softer to avoid overmodulations.

Background: Action-filled movies have larger volume differences between spoken dialogs and loud scenes (during explosions, for example). Because of this dialogs are softer than in quieter films which can be modulated higher.

Surround mix level / Center mix level: These settings lead to an additional damping of the surround channels and the central channel. Usually both settings are set to -3 dB.

LFE channel: Switch off the LFE channel (Low Frequency Effect), e.g. if you want to eliminate undesirable rumbling sounds in the low frequency range. Normally, you should leave this option activated.

LFE filter: The LFE filter is a low pass filter, which lets through only the lowest frequencies. If you are dubbing a project in Samplitude/Sequoia, and have applied the LFE filter, you can switch off this function here, since this filtering has already been accomplished.