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1080i to DVD once again ! WARNING: this is long
OK, You guys are my heroes and have helped me on numerous occasions but I am at my wits end (as are most on this site) and I am going to explain my workflow and for anyone who may have suggestions I’d appreciate your feedback.
Equipment Scenario:
Camera: Sony HVR-1000u to tape (HDV 1080-60i)
Software: Sony Vegas Pro 8/9
Sony DVDA Pro 5
Destination/ Audience : Good Ole Crappy SD- DVD
Capture Method: Sony Vegas Capture results in a 1080-60i.m2t file1. New Project
2. Set Project Properties (I use the button and choose my captured footage, I also change my full resolution rendering quality to Best (because I can) resulting in a HDV 1080-60i (1440×1080, 29.970 fps)project. My Deinterlace method is default (Blend Fields) and Motion Blur is at default (Gaussian)
3. Previewing in “Preview Auto” I then edit.
4. I now have my cuts and edits with minimal effects ready to render to a file I need the following in order to deliver what my client needs
a. HD Version which can be encoded for youtube, etc. (although I generally upload the m2t file after changing the extension to .mpg)
b. SD Version which can be burnt to a DVD
c. H264 version so that my mac/quicktime clients are happy5. I also want to proof the file outside of Vegas before I begin the endless process of converting and compressing, I do this as follows
File—>Render—-> I choose MPEG-2 and =1080-60i I choose custom move the quality slider to Best (or high maybe sorry I’m doing this from memory)I hit ok and 30 minutes later I have a HDV 1080-60i (1440×1080, 29.970 fps) “bounce” of my cuts as one file that I can preview in VLC or whatever. Great ! Looks great, smells great, seems great….but then the hell is unleashed….
6. I start a new project and match the project properties to the file I have as a result of part 5. above, Hit file—->Render—-> Choose MPEG2 and the DVDA preset, (and in case your wondering….yes I change the field order to upper, yes I make sure the render settings are at best, yes I make sure I have the quality slider to high.) I hit ok and 2-24 hours later I have a 720×480 mpg file ready to import into DVDA.
7. After importing in to DVDA, setting the DVD project to generic “everyone in the world still has the $30 DVD player from Wal-Mart” settings I burn a DVD. I take it and put it in my DVD player, sit back hit play, and puke all over myself because my beautiful footage now looks like something that was shot with my camera phone, I begin to regret the investment I made in my camera, and in my life in general as there seems to be no solution to this issue and every time I post something im basically left with a gigantic question mark sitting somewhere where my career used to be.
WHERE AM I GOING WRONG ?
Some Notes:
1. Mixing my brothers SD Sony Camera footage in with my HDV footage I realized how absolutely fabulous his camera looked compared to mine in post after burning to DVD. Go figure !(?)2. I know converting to DVD loses quality but come on !, this is just ridiculous (it does the same in Sorenson Squeeze, Adobe Media Encoder, and Nero so I’m assuming the problem is somewhere in my first 2 steps)
3. Can i trade someone a kidney or child for a red camera V1 after the V2 comes out so I can keep some of my hair for god’s sake !
any thoughts are greatly appreciated and may in fact save my marriage, thanks in advance, sorry this was so long
p.s., it all looks like VHS !!!!
B.Nolan
http://www.awenmediadesign.com -
7 Replies
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A couple questions come to mind…
1) How long is your video
2) What did you shoot, and I am looking for something like quality of light, camera settings..etc
3) Are you using 16:9 setting in DVDA and NOT 4:3?I know you say “wal-mart” settings in DVDA but what are they….
Thanks
Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
I’m watching this because I have the exact same problem with hd to dvd. The only thing I have been able to do so far is to use less contrast and cut out the grainy section of the video. I suspect converting hd to sd is to perfection is a secret. 🙂 P.S My nephew has a 60″ tv and the video he shoots with cheap camcorder doesn’t have much detail but it is clear as glass on a dvd.
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– 5-6 minute long scenes from a concert I filmed,
– slow to moderately slow movement
– low light
– shutter speed at 60 on both cams (Sony HVR-1000U and Sony Z1U)The HD export/renders/encodes prior to SD conversion look fine, in the end, after rendering them with the DVD-A preset I import the separate scenes into DVDA and create a playlist, my DVDA settings are default 16:9, 4.7GB 8,000kb/s (I’ve been recommended this standard bitrate for compatibility)
The problem is that they look bad before I even get them into DVDA.
B.Nolan
http://www.awenmediadesign.com -
Ok so here goes:
1) The sensor in a HVR-1000u in similar to my HC1, they are not good at all for even reasonably low light…noise in abundance..is that part of your problem
2) I add a slight sharpening to my HDV footage (using the Sony sharpening FX) right as I render to MPEG 2. I use the NTSC template and alter the aspect ratio, and (in your case) would keep VBR and the highest settings as well.
3) If noise is the issue, try the Neatvideo FX plugin, this helps to reduce noise…it takes some time to work with and get used to, but does a pretty good job..If this doesn’t help, give me more details as to what “looks like garbage” means, clarity, detail, pixelation…etc
Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions -
Thanks for the responses, the problem seems to happen after I re-encode to DVDA-MPEG2….they look bad on my computer before I ever import them into DVDA, blurry, depth of field is lost, almost hazy, just bad.
(cue the “it’s MPEG-2 what do you expect”? comments, but that’s not the case, I cannot stress how much I understand I’m going to lose some quality)
But let’s fast forward to post burning of the DVD. If I play the DVD and hit fast forward (x2,x4) on my remote it looks fine, almost like I’m missing every other frame while playing at 1x speed, which may be in fact what is happening. I noticed that if I do this it looks like what I would expect, not HDV by any means but definitely not VHS.
B.Nolan
http://www.awenmediadesign.com -
Thanks for the tip about Neatvideo.
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I am not sure of your issue then…I have been doing these types of projects for years and I have had similar issues. Finding the sweet spot from HDV can be problematic but I get pretty good results. Can you give me the “template” you are rendering to? Did you try the tweaks I mentioned? The sharpening tool was a God-send when I found that…Also, if you have a lot of low light…try to boat your gamma using the Secondary Color corrector FX…that may also help!
Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions
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