Best encode for widescreen DVD

[Mark Maness]

Sounds pretty sound…

I do have a few questions.

First, why wasn’t it shot in HD? I know you didn’t shoot it and I’m pretty sure that you don’t have an HD-DVD player but its always best to shoot in the best quality possible. BUT, if you have an HVR-M10U or equivalent (preferably a secondary machine and/or camera), dump your program to it so that you could air your program in HD. But that is moot for this project. Keep this mind for the next project like this.

Second, just use Quicktime to export your file using your project settings. You don’t need to use Quicktime conversion.

Next, Compressor has settings for 16:9 SD DVD encodes. Use Compressor for your encoding. And DVDSP for your final composite to DVD. You don’t need to use After Effects for any of this.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[David Roth weiss]

[cable guy] “Feel free to correct me anywhere along the path.
-Capture with anamophic selected in capture settings – use an anamophic sequence, edit and graphics,…then…
a) use quicktime conversion
b) compressor
c) do I understand correctly that DVD studio can do this as well
d) and is After Effects also an option”

CORRECT PROCEEDURE
a) export self contained QT uisng Export Quicktime Movie
b)compressor – (FCS1 – make sure to check widescreen option) (FCS2 – change aspect ratio to 16×9)
c) use DVDSP to author your DVD

Step “b” above makes DVDs that automatically display 16×9 on widescreen TVs and letterboxed on 4×3 TVs.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

[Cable Guy]

Thanks guys, most helpful.

To answer your question about HD, I do have one of the decks, but the main issue is that the client needs to get 500 DVDs pumped out by Thursday. They are having someone else crank out a quick edit and DVDs (user guide). Apparently they can only ingest Beta or MiniDV. I am tackling the demo, show floor version. To accomodate timeline and other guy, they are recording in DV on the Z1. Normally I would get HDV and go from there. Where is the logic police?

Since you opened the can? Capture Native HDV, into HDV timeline, then ? self contained QT again (1440×1080?), compressor to get it down for SD widescreen?

Thanks, I love this place, I could read posts all day…but it would get me fired.
The help is greatly appreciated.

[Chris Poisson]

Cable Guy,

To your last query, yes, just work in HD and send it to Compressor for a 16×9 SD DVD. It will take care of everything.

[Mark Maness]

[cable guy] “To answer your question about HD, I do have one of the decks, but the main issue is that the client needs to get 500 DVDs pumped out by Thursday. They are having someone else crank out a quick edit and DVDs (user guide). Apparently they can only ingest Beta or MiniDV. I am tackling the demo, show floor version. To accomodate timeline and other guy, they are recording in DV on the Z1. Normally I would get HDV and go from there. Where is the logic police?”

Oh…. that makes sense… I still would have shot it HDV but that’s just me. I have friend who recently shot a project with the V1U and shot half of it DV and the other half HDV. Now that was a screwed up project.

Personally, from my point of view, shooting HDV and then donwconverting is so much high quality than just regular DV.

[cable guy] “Since you opened the can? Capture Native HDV, into HDV timeline, then ? self contained QT again (1440×1080?), compressor to get it down for SD widescreen?”

Yep! It keeps the highest quality possible for your DVD. And it also allows for the client to come back later and say, “I need an HD version of this. Can you do it?” It always happens somewhere sometime.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Ernie Santella]

Got a question…

What’s the difference between exporting directly out of FCP6 to Compressor vs. exporting as a QT reference file then opening that in Compressor?

Do you get all the compression markers with the direct to Compressor export, as you do when you select “Compression Markers” under the Markers tab?

Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com

[Chris Poisson]

Read the 4th section of this for your first answer.

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

The short of it is usually yes, better quality, but it depends on many things, quality of your material, motion artifacts, effects, etc. To be honest, I have done a few tests using the from FCP method and FCP movies, so far I can’t tell the difference. And reference movies work just fine and provide the absolute fastest workflow.

Second question, yes, the markers come over provided you have created them properly.

[David Roth weiss]

[santellavision] “What’s the difference between exporting directly out of FCP6 to Compressor vs. exporting as a QT reference file then opening that in Compressor?”

Two primary differences Ernie.

1) you can keep editing if you export before using Compressor.

2) Using Compressor from the timeline uses a segmented compression scheme (I forgot what Apple calls it), which looks ahead and encodes each clip and transition variably. It sounds great, and many think its a better method, but it takes much longer and often yields unexpected results such as funky dissolves.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

[Mark Maness]

[santellavision] “What’s the difference between exporting directly out of FCP6 to Compressor vs. exporting as a QT reference file then opening that in Compressor?”

Time. When you export directly from the timeline, you can’t do anything else in FCP until its done. When you export to QT Reference file, you can still work in FCP while its compressing in the background. When to do what is a preference of time and when you need to do this.

[santellavision] “Do you get all the compression markers with the direct to Compressor export, as you do when you select “Compression Markers” under the Markers tab?”

As for the makers, any marker in the timeline needs to be set as to what type of mark you want. If you have made a bunch of compression markers, then they will follow in Compressor. If you send out to Quiucktime Reference file, you need to specify in the QT settings before saving your file.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Mark Maness]

He He He… Great minds all think alike!

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey