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Best method of presenting demo/footage for client?
We’ve been discussing lately what the best way is to present our demo to clients in our offices. Most projects are DV compressed to mpeg2 and put on DVD. Some is HDV footage but always brought down to SD/mpeg2/DVD. The issue is when using large HD displays the graphics (ex. dvd menu) look crappy. But, if you have a large CRT, all DVD footage looks great.
This is where the question comes up, do we bring in an “old” looking CRT or show from a “fancy looking” HD display (LCD/Plasma). If we’re using an HD display, what are ways to have the DV footage look better? One thought was to have an Apple TV hooked up so your playing off the original QT file.
Client perception is a big issue which is why we all have a nice looking office and not a dump. This is why I’m posting here in the Business/Marketing section.
Thanks for your feedback.
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6 Replies
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I would consider how the client will use the final product. If the client is going to show the video on a plasma/LCD display at a trade show booth, then show it in that setting, knowing that the image will be stretched. If this is a DVD the client will distribute to the field, then knowing if sales reps for example all have laptops with DVD players (You’d be surprised) then show it on a laptop.
I have written numerous e-mails to clients explaining why a standard def DVD does not look very good on a plasma tv, even compared to a Hollywood DVD (film vs HD vs DV etc).
Mike Cohen
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[matt sherman] “The issue is when using large HD displays the graphics (ex. dvd menu) look crappy. But, if you have a large CRT, all DVD footage looks great.”
There is no hard and fast rule that SD has to look crappy on an HD monitor, there are solutions, you’re just not using them.
First, not all HD monitors are alike. Some display SD a lot better than others. As a rule, plasmas do a lot better job than most, but not all, LCDs. And, among the plasmas some do a better job than others. You need to take a DVD of your work around and demo monitors until you find a good one that pleases your eye. The Panasonic Pro series do a respectable job. https://www.visualapex.com/plasma/Plasma_details.asp?VA=Panasonic&chPartNumber=TH-42PH10UK
Second, while your demo may be stuck because you finished in using DV codec, in the future you can avoid the problems you’re having with graphics and text by changing your workflow slightly. Just because you’re editing DV video does not mean you have to finish using the DV codec. Finishing on a DV timeline compresses all of your text and graphics at DV resolution in 4:1:1 color space, and of course the graphics and text look like crap. The trick is, after editing your entire project, simply move everything to an uncompressed 8-bit or 10-bit timeline and render uncompressed. This will insure that all of your graphics are at they’re best before encoding to MPEG-2.
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY
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I agree with David that possibly your biggest issue is using DV for everything. DV, as you know, is highly compressed, and then you are compressing it again to MPEG-2 which is heavily compressed. The end result isn’t going to look so hot when played back on any screen large enough for you to see the footage in detail.
So the issue probably isn’t the HD TV, but rather that it is showing your footage very large and revealing unflattering compression.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Our quality looks great on a CRT television. But what I’m learning here is two things: 1. I’ve been looking at the wrong LCD/plasma displays and I should shop around because some handle standard def resolution better than others. 2. Starting with a better master before going to mpeg2 will also help when viewing on LCD/plasma displays since it’s really showing every inaccuracy in the footage.
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Perhaps some of your DV footage could be “framed” also to keep it in a smaller-but-tighter-looking resolution (it’s good for footage you no longer have the original or cannot re-render).
Display that simultaneously with other, similar DV footage (think like the show ’24’). Yes the black space may seem different, but it’s a creative way around your problem and looks better than the alternative.
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[matt sherman] “But what I’m learning here is two things: 1. I’ve been looking at the wrong LCD/plasma displays and I should shop around because some handle standard def resolution better than others. 2. Starting with a better master before going to mpeg2 will also help when viewing on LCD/plasma displays since it’s really showing every inaccuracy in the footage.”
BINGO!!! Its the DV codec that hurting you the most. It works fine for live action, but grahics and text get absoluetly hammered by the DV codec because its forced to interpolate (or “guesstimate”) what gets displayed by vast numbers of pixels.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY
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