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Advice For Making A DVD
In a few weeks I will be making a DVD of an event I am going to film, and I was hoping that someone could offer me some advice.
I will be filming with the Sony HDR-SR11 camcorder. Total, there will be about 120 minutes of footage. I have all of the Adobe CS4 software which is what I will be using for the project (OnLocation, Premiere Pro, Encore, After Effects, and Photoshop). I will need to produce many copies of the final DVD (anywhere from 100 to 300).
I have a few questions about what I should do. I want the project to be widescreen, so what resolution and pixel aspect ratio should I use? Should I create everything in HD even though I cannot put that on a DVD? I want this have the best quality possible. Any other suggestions/tips/tricks?
Thanks for the help.
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5 Replies
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For best possible quality, always go with HD, even if the final product is only SD. The reason you might ask?
DV footage uses 4:1:1 Chroma subsampling, which means it has 1/4 the horizontal resolution of color information than it does luminance information. So basically you have a 720×480 black and white image overlaying a 180×480 color image that is scaled up to produce your final video. This is how DV compresses the data.
Now what happens when you shoot with HDV? HDV uses 4:2:0 chroma subsampling (or better if you are using XDCam or DVCPro HD). So HDV has a 720×540 resolution of chroma data, which is then scaled up to 1440×1080. So when you make your final mpeg for the DVD, would you rather be starting with 720×540 of color data, or 180×480 of color data?… The answer is obviously 720×540 as it will produce an mpeg2 file with more color definition than the SD footage would have.
So in conclusion, always use HD if you want the best image possible.
For a better understanding of chroma subsampling, visit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
That’s very helpful. Thank you Jon.
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I just looked at the specs for the Sony HDR-SR11 which records in AVCHD Format @ 1920×1080 in 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. Although the data is extremely compressed to mpeg4, you have a 960×540 chroma subsampling resolution (assuming no pixel shifting techniques are being implemented), which is better than the 720×540 of HDV… even more of a reason to use HD instead of SD. Unfortunately that is a very consumer camcorder, which doesn’t have the nice lens and quality of a prosumer or professional camera.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
The only thing I can’t figure out is if the 1920×1080 that it records is interlaced or progressive. I’m assuming it’s interlaced. I am wondering what preset I should use in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4……AVCHD 1080i30 (60)?
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A few seconds of googling reveals that the Sony HDR-SR11 records @ 60i only… which is interlaced.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com
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