Best Project Properties & Rendering Settings?

[John Rofrano]

[Russell Robertson] “Now I realize that could be like asking “how long is a piece of string?””

That’s an easy one. 42 inches… give or take a few miles. 😉

[Russell Robertson] “What do you think of these settings? Are there any other settings you would recommend?”

It’s great that you’ve been very specific because that allows us to be more exact.

[Russell Robertson] “The Zoom records audio in 48K, the Sony EX1r records in 44k)”

I doubt very highly that the EX1r records 44K audio. I’ve never seen a pro or semi-pro video camera that didn’t record 48K which is the industry standard for audio for video.

[Russell Robertson] “Project Properties I’m now using, for both 60i and 30p footage:
Video
Template custom (720×480, 29.970 fps)
Field order: Progressive Scan
Deinterlace method: blend
Pixel format: 32 bit floating point (video levels)”

You should set your project up to match your source. In this case, I would select the project template: HD 1080-60i (1920×1080, 29.970 fps). The reason is that you want to keep your options open. What if next year a client comes back and asks for an HD version on Blu-ray? If you edit in SD, you have a lot of work to do. If you edit in HD, you simple render to Blu-ray. Also by working in HD, all of your titles and other generated media will be in HD as well. This will give you more information to work with when you downconvert to SD. Also since some of your footage is 60i I would not use Progressive Scan. Why do conversions you don’t need? Finally, leave the Pixel format at 8 bit. Unless you have a really good reason for using 32-bit, it is best not to use it (e.g., if you selected it because 32 is greater than 8, that was the wrong reason!).

[Russell Robertson] “Audio
Sample rate (hz) 48k
Bit Depth 16bit”

That’s perfect. Make sure you render to Dolby Digital AC-3.

[Russell Robertson] “Rendering
Main Concept MPEG-2
Template: DVDA 24p NTSC widescreen video stream”

Why are you using 24p? You didn’t shoot in 24p. The DVD is not going to contain 24p. It’s going to contain 24p with 3:2 pulldown to bring it back up to 29.97 so why not just stick with your original 29.97/60i to begin with? Unless you are going for some “movie look”, I would use the DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream template. Make sure that you render using the BEST setting because you are converting HD to SD.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Russell Robertson]

John,

As always, many thanks for your comments. I now realize I left out a very important piece of information from my initial posting: the original footage was shot in SD (and I often find myself in this situation of shooting SD). There were a few reasons for this; the customer ultimately wants a SD DVD, the duration of the show was such; if I shot in HD I would have had to get additional camera media (100min performance) to capture, way too much footage to archive (4 EX1r multi-cam shoots). The probability of THIS customers wanting HD versions in the future is very remote. (However, with several of my key customers, I always shoot in HD and archive no matter the immediate final deliverable request)

Also, I double checked the EX1r audio specs – yes, as you commented it does record at 48K. However, when I check the clip properties on my timeline, the camera footage properties shows 44k? Perhaps because my audio project setting were set for 44k? I’ll double check when I get back to Vegas tonight.

So with my clarification (shooting SD, 720/480, 29.97p – looking to produce a SD DVD), what Project Property and Render Settings would you recommend?

RR

[John Rofrano]

[Russell Robertson] “So with my clarification (shooting SD, 720/480, 29.97p – looking to produce a SD DVD), what Project Property and Render Settings would you recommend?”

The render properties recommendation doesn’t change. Just change your project to the NTSC DV Widescreen (720×480, 29.970 fps) template and don’t change any of the settings.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com