Best Mac software/settings for 53 minute DVD encode.

[Richard Mamary]

Hey Eric, thanks for all the help along the way.

I was away for a couple of days… Hopefully, you are still following the thread.

I did spend a bunch of hours and masked out the windows with the moire effect, (only in the first 30 secs), and put a combination of blur, contrast/brightness and selective color filters, and actually got a nice result. At least it doesn’t have all that distracting moire-ing right from the get go. It gives the viewer a little chance to drop in.
I don’t know how much more of that I will do though.

No doubt, your best friend in post, is good prep, and attention to detail in production. As you know, I had no such luxury. And so post, can only be a world of pain with improperly prepped and planned footage. You know what I mean…

I am a little confused as to the interlaced monitor comment.
Where am I watching on an interlaced monitor. My 24″ 1080p computer monitor?
I was also watching the final DVD on a 46″ 1080p Samsung. Is that also an interlaced monitor?

I am self taught at everything I do with NLE’s, AE or whatever CC I do. So I am far, far, from being able to make any kind of judgement, only guesses. But that guess is, considering how how much fluctuation there is going on with the auto aperture, and how little detail is to be found in either the dark or blown out areas, even though it would no doubt look better, there would probably be no miracles, even if I could afford pro services.

As to my options. I can’t afford any pro route, as much as I want it to be perfect. (I was looking at the Cinevision website. And, I have encoder envy! What do they charge for that? Is that one of the software encoders you mentioned could be tens of thousands?)

I will do some CC, scene to scene. as you suggest. All I know is basic stuff working with levels, saturation, B+C, etc. I am self taught working with the histogram, (though I am sure I could be better!) And, I still haven’t tackled utilizing FCS’s “Color,” yet. There may not be enough time for me to learn and use it on this project. I will get the tutorial going though.

So, I wish that I had any resources whatsoever to bring you in to have a look, and if nothing else, give me your assessment, but I have been hemorrhaging my own cash, just to work on this
.
i am very, very grateful for all the gratis help and advice you have given me thus far. As this is a labor of love, I know your helping me will result in some Karmic substantial paying work, to flow in your direction.

[Eric Pautsch]

Richard….are you in LA?

[Richard Mamary]

No, I’m in NYC…