-
How should I convert HD to SD
I just recently purchased a Cannon AVCHD camera. The footage I am shooting will eventually end up on DVD so I don’t need to keep it in HD form.
I have been messing around with Media Encoder trying to find the best conversion settings, but the more I try the more confused I get.
What is the best format and and preset to use. Keep in mind I will be turning it into 30fps NTSC DV. I want to keep as much quality as possible, disk space is not a problem.
-
4 Replies
-
If you absolutely never want to have it as an HD file, you could just edit in a NTSC-DV Widescreen sequence. I’d edit in AVCHD native and then just chose the NTSC-Widescreen high quality mpeg2-DVD output from AME. It does a fine job. If the footage is less than an hour – I like to use CBR rather than VBR encoding – seems to create the crispest picture overall.
You could also (in CS4) import the the dynamically linked sequence into encore and let Encore encoded for you (same basic results – but if you have to make changes after burning the DVD, you don’t have to also export from AME and re-import the .m2t and .wav files, blah bah blah. Still takes just as long to render, but less critical thinking is necessary (though you do have to remember to revert the transcoded enocre file to the source so it stops looking at it’s own rendered footage..)).
-
p.s. – one thing I’ve noticed about AVCHD footage is that the audio is always 5.1 surround – at least out of the Sony cameras. Since there is no way the camera has actually picked up even a decent stereo track, the first thing I always do now is to select all the clips, then go to Clips>Audio Options>Source Channel Mapping and pick Mono and then select just the mono channel.
-
When i encode it should i select the 4:3 ratio in the video tab or leave it widescreen?
-
Well it should be widescreen or the picture will be squashed. Also, with widescreen, on a standard TV the picture will be letterboxed, but on a widescreen it will fill the screen.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up