1080 HD Material to DVD-R

[Michael Sacci]

Yeah, this is asked so many times and it is pretty clearly answer as well (sorry if that sounds harsh)

HD DVD will only play back in the faster quad G5 or Intel macs, no PC or set top players other than the HD DVD players. So you don’t want them.

Encode video as 16:9 aspect ratio and 24p
Since you have such a short video use CBR method of encoding with 7.5 Mbps and use ac3 audio

In DVDSP your video should be 16:9 letterboxed and it will fill a 16:9 TV (if TV and DVD player are setup correctly) and it will letterbox on 4:3 TVs (if TV and DVD player are setup correctly)

[Sofi Marshall]

Thanks for clearing that up! I know there are a lot of answers out there, but there is also a lot of conflicting information. For example, I had initially been following this tutorial https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hd_dvds_on_sd_dvds_young.html, which does say to set the preferences to HD DVD. However, that method hasn’t really been working for me, so I’m giving your suggestions a try now.

[Roman Melekh]

The requested URL /fcp_homepage/hd_dvds_on_sd_dvds_young.html, was not found on this server.

[Sofi Marshall]

Looks like it’s trying to include my comma in the link. The tutorial I was following is here:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hd_dvds_on_sd_dvds_young.html

As an update, I created an SD DVD using the m2v encoding from Compressor. While everything is working and the DVD plays well, the quality is really very bad. I know it’s always a difficult thing to go from HD material to an SD DVD, but it seems there must be a way to get higher quality since I have such a short film.

I have heard that people get better quality using the h.264 codec with iDVD (since DVDSP doesn’t support it for 1080i), so maybe I will try that next.

Any ideas on how I can get better quality?

[Eric Pautsch]

Sofi

You are not going to get HD on DVD. The link is to create a HD DVD which is a different format and no longer exist. Create a Stand Definition DVD and you will be fine. The only way to get HD on DVD-R is to burn a Blu Ray disc.

[Michael Sacci]

NEVER go to H264 is you are making a SD DVD, it just means you are going through a major compression pass twice.

You can get great SD DVD from well shoot and color corrected HD footage, but it will not look as good as the HD footage. I gave you a start on compressing settings but you give no info on what you have tried.

That link is telling you how to make a HD DVD using standard DVDs media, they are still HD DVD that can only be played Intel macs, some G5 and the discontinued HD DVD players. So if you have any plans on passing your disc out it is a totally dead end. The article is also almost 3 years old. HD DVD has died a quick but painful death since then.

So you can try all sorts of things but if you are trying to make DVDs all you will be doing is wasting your time. It would be wiser to spend the time learning m2v encoding with Compressor and doing sample encodes and tweaking the use of filters.

What settings and method are you using?

[Sofi Marshall]

I used the setting for DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes from Compressor and pulled up the bit rate to 7.5 then burned the SD DVD with DVDSP.

Initially, I had tested the DVD on a TV and the contrast/colors were off and it looked jumpy, but it turns out that the problem was with the TV in that it was very old and it seems like it was having a problem with the progressive scanning. I just got to test it on another TV and the quality was much improved, though the disk stuttered in a few places, which was strange because when I went back and played through those areas again, there was no stutter. Additionally, there was no stuttering on my computer, so I’m assuming it’s just the DVD player having a little trouble with the recorded DVD.

Anyway, your suggestions for the m2v compression did yield the best results so thank you! I understand now what you’re saying about that tutorial and why I was getting very unstable DVDs. I guess I’m still getting used to the idea that after spending so much time and money on an HD project, I have to almost go back to SD to distribute it.

Thanks, everyone, for the advice!

[Michael Slowe]

Sofi, I have just read this thread and I wish I’d seen it sooner.

I have been through all the problems that you have and I now get wonderful SD DVD’s from my full HD footage and I do this:

Export the HD timeline (in Media 100) by reference to a QT .Mov file.

I then use BitVice to downscale the media and encode to M2V. The key is in the quality of the downscale, I think BitVice is the best of all of them and their encode is also top quality. They do this in two passes at a VBR which, for a short film, I set an average of 6.5.
I use Compressor only for converting the AIFF audio to Dolby ac3, then Studio Pro to format and mux the M2V and ac3 and finally Titanium Toast to burn the disc.

It’s a lengthy process (the downscale and encode takes 5 X the running time of the production) but the result is well worth it. I never have any play problems on any machine and nor does anyone playing my discs. I have seen my DVD’s projected in cinemas on a huge screen and the picture (upscaled through a Blu-Ray player)and it looked great.

It’s worth taking the trouble, I don’t have any connection with BitVice but I suggest you visit their site, the company is Innobits and is based in Sweden.

Michael Slowe

[Sofi Marshall]

Thanks! I will give this a try today. It does seem like Compressor’s down scaling and encoding to m2v is not the best quality out there, so I’m definitely willing to use an alternative, even it takes longer.

[Eric Pautsch]

Sofi….the problem is that your workflow is not correct somewhere. I just needed to tell you that before you go out a spend some money unnecessarily 🙂