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HD to SD Workflow recommendations
I shoot dance recitals in HD at 1280 x 720p60. I need to deliver a finished product on standard definition DVD. I know I’m caught between acquiring in HD and delivering in std definition but I’m looking for some workflow recommendations to achieve the highest quality image results. I prefer to author in Adobe Encore because I can seamlessly edit my menus in Photoshop. I edit in Final Cut Pro and have primarily used Apple Compressor so far but I’m aware of other compression applications that are out there. Anyone else dealing with a similar workflow. What additionally makes this interesting is the degree of movement inherent in the dance routines. Any suggestions or current experience with this type of workflow?
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21 Replies
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Using FCPX, I have been pleased with the results from editing in HD (1920×1080 for me), exporting the finished edit with current settings, dropping the resulting .mov on an SD timeline and exporting again with current settings to make an SD version. Use these files to compress/author/burn as you please.
Do you have a Blu-ray Burner? Personally I would be doing my best to emphasize HD to the families. Feed live video to a ~40″ Flat screen in the lobby (preferably near the table with cookies for playback during intermission). Run Belden 1505a HD-SDI to the TV and convert to HDMI with an AJA Hi-5. Hand out bibs so the parents can wipe the drool off their chins, and get yourself the Square (or similar) Credit Card reader for iPhone so they can give you the money while they are so impressed with the clarity and quality of your video.
Question for you, have you also shot recitals in 1080i 59.94 but found that the increased temporal resolution of 720p 60 gives a better result? Or just always shot 720p since you started in HD?
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Now that is a workflow.
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The camcorder I use is the JVC GY HM700. When I first got it I ran a post on Cow and got some advice that the camera was best set up to shoot 1280 x 720p. The response was not good for 1080i60. I guess I should shoot with both settings at the next dress rehearsal and compare. Do you think shooting interlaced vs progressive could improve the final standard definition product?
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When you say drop on SD timeline in FCP what settings do you suggest for (a) pixel aspect ration (b) field dominance and (c) compressor?
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Most editing software has a hard time creating a decent looking DVD output from a 1080i source, not just because of the downscaling, but because HD is Upper Field First and SD is Lower Field First.
I think you’re better off shooting Progressive and keep interlacing out of the equation. That said, can you shoot at 30p? That might be a better starting point than 60p, when converting to a Progressive DVD format.
Jeff Pulera
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All depends on your final destination or what the client wants but if your final destination is DVD ALWAYS shoot 23.98
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When I say drop it into an SD timeline, I’m reffering to FCPX’s magnetic timeline specifically.
A method I’ve seen reccomended for FCP7, but never been satisfied with in my own tests, is to export from your HD timeline with SD settings, then bring that SD Prores file into Compressor to compress for DVD.
Before I switched to FCPX I was down scaling by using FCP 7’s Print to Video, playing out of a Matrox MXO2 LE/Mini to an AJA KiPro. Then bringing in the SD file from the KiPro to compress and author. Didn’t really matter which device I setup to do the actual scaling, they both do a great job. Maybe the KiPro is a little softer/smoother look, and the Matrox slightly sharper and “jaggy” or “harsh”. Nonetheless, hardware scaling is the only way I’ve been able to get DVD results from an HD source that I am satisfied with, FCPX aside.
Since moving to HD, clients have said that they noticed the improvement in video quality of their DVD’s… Even though to my eyes every DVD I’ve ever made since moving to HD makes me nauseous, knowing that whoever is watching it could be seeing HD instead. Either a Blu-ray or a digital file or YouTube, even compressing the show to h.264 at 586×320 and playing with HDMI output of an iPhone is better than DVD IMO. Personally I want DVD to die, now. Unfortunately for me and my opinion, the format still has a decent grip on life.
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David, you’ve raised some interesting points here. First of all your workflow, HD to SD. You refer to a number of downscale options with the comment that you haven’t found a good software conversion. Well, I use BitVice for all my DVD encoding and find that it does a brilliant downscale and it’s not done with hardware. Very likely of course a good piece of kit from AJA would convert even better, I haven’t tried.
As to distribution of productions that we shoot in HD, I agree, it’s frustrating that people don’t want them on BD. This is crazy because even if they play DVD’s generally these are going to look better with the modern ‘upscaling’ BD players. So they might as well get BD players. You predict the death of DVD’s, well they all say this but then it has to be files on drives for distribution, what a pain that will be.
Michael Slowe
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Jeff, I think you’ll find you are wrong, DV (SD?) interlaced is also upper field first. When I’m encoding for DVD in BitVice I set upper field first for my media, whether it’s SD or HD – shot 1920 X 1080i by the way.
Michael Slowe
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Hi Michael,
You must work in PAL, NTSC DV is absolutely positively LFF
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
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