Burning to DVD from 1920x1080P as source…

[John Rofrano]

[James Donovan] ” I’m working from a project recorded in 1080P. When I render to DVDA and then burn a DVD, it looks terrible. Please, can someone help me out with the best settings for getting my DVD’s to look un-like EP VHS tapes?”

You are rendering a 1920×1080 project to DVD which is 720×480 and complaining that it looks like a VHS tape that is 720×480… yup… that sounds about right.

If you want your HD footage to look like HD, then you need to buy a Blu-ray burner and Blu-ray player. Otherwise all you will get is SD quality video.

If you think it looks a lot worse than a regular DVD should, then tell us where your source footage is from, what your project properties are, what render template did you use, etc. so that we can understand your end-to-end workflow and possible see where you might have gone wrong.

~jr

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

[James Donovan]

Thanks a million – YOU ALWAYS are the guy that answers my novice questions. I really appreciate your help. I know it can be frustrating at times to teach something that is second-nature to you. I understood your point regarding needing a Blu Ray burner to burn HD video. I have to ask this (and I’m asking YOU because you never respond with the ‘all-knowing ego’ that some of the other guys here have and this does feel like a silly question). To burn HD I need a Blu Ray player. Here is where i’m confused: The Blu Ray player will burn to HD format AND Blu Ray, or is it just that Blu Ray IS the HD format for DVD?

[David Shirey]

Blu-ray is a format that can play 3 different types of HD encoded video, but if you were to actually get one you’d want to render out a Sony AVC video. As for the template you’d want to use, I know you can do 1080p@24fps, but does blu-ray support 1080p@30fps, because the wikipedia entry doesn’t mention it, but I know there’s an internet 1080p@30 template that I just used last night for a snowboard video.

Anyway, you still didn’t mention what your workflow is like for DVD authoring. Are you rendering out using the DVD Architect widescreen setting? What kind of bitrate? I go 1080p to DVD all the time and yeah it looks awful compared to the source material, but it certainly looks comparable to all the DVD’s we used to make when we actually recorded video at 480i. Not VHS tapes in EP mode.

[James Donovan]

I am rendering out using the DVD Widescreen settings. Nonetheless, it makes perfect sense that I need a burner capable of BURNING to HD rather than SD. The question I have now – do not laugh – is that does a Blu Ray burner solve this issue by allowing me to still burn to DVD-r in high definition, or will I now need to use Blu Ray media?

[David Shirey]

Yeah the first thing you’ve gotta fix is the terminology. You’re not burning in SD or HD, you’re burning to DVD and Bl-ray. I can stick SD footage on a blu-ray and it’ll play in SD, but it’s still a blu-ray disc and won’t play in a DVD player.

So no, there is no such thing as a DVD burned in high definition, you will need a blu-ray burner, bd-r’s and a blu-ray player. Anyone you give the disc to is going to need a blu-ray player. If what you need are DVD’s then you’re stuck with standard definition and need to find a way to make the DVD look as good as possible. Make sure that if the project is less than an hour you’re using a decent bitrate like around 8mbps.

As a side note, if you are considering a blu-ray burner for your pc, be aware that you can buy units that will burn blu-rays and dvd’s, or ones that will only burn blu-rays that are normally less expensive.

[James Donovan]

Thank you for the point in the right direction. I just want to make sure of what I need before I start grabbing stuff. I really appreciate the explanation about the terminology – it’s more than obvious that I need it. Thanx, Mr. Shirley!

[John Rofrano]

[James Donovan] “(and I’m asking YOU because you never respond with the ‘all-knowing ego’ that some of the other guys here have and this does feel like a silly question). “

James, I am truly humbled by that statement. Thank you. We should all remember that we were “noobs” once too. There are no stupid questions. Questions are how we learn so keep on asking until you understand. Then teach someone else what you just learned. That’s how we advance our art (by building on what others have taught us).

[James Donovan] “The question I have now – do not laugh – is that does a Blu Ray burner solve this issue by allowing me to still burn to DVD-r in high definition, or will I now need to use Blu Ray media?”

Let me expand a bit on what David is explaining because the terminology is confusing. Here is how I like to explain it:

• We use the term DVD to mean the shiny plastic disc that we put in the DVD player. We will call this “DVD Media“.
• We also use the term DVD to mean the file format and directory structure that we burn onto the media with it’s VIDEO_TS folder and VOB files. We will call this “DVD Format“.
• We use the term Blu-ray to mean the shiny plastic disc that we put in the Blu-ray player. We will call this “Blu-ray Media“.
• We also use the term Blu-ray to mean the file format and directory structure that we burn onto the media with it’s BDMV folder and MTS files. We will call this “Blu-ray Format“.

The answer to the question that you asked:

“…does a Blu Ray burner solve this issue by allowing me to still burn to DVD-r in high definition, or will I now need to use Blu Ray media?”

is explained like this (using the terms from above):

You can use a regular DVD burner to burn the Blu-ray format onto DVD media. It will now be a Blu-ray formatted disc and can only be played back in a Blu-ray player. Because it is still DVD media, it only has a capacity of 4.7GB so it can only hold about 20 minutes of AVCHD Blu-ray content. Also, not all Blu-ray players will play back this “hybrid” disc that has a Blu-ray format on DVD media. So this is not recommended (but it sometimes works). Bottom line: you can burn the Blu-ray format to DVD-R media with your existing DVD burner if you wanted to. But you will need a Blu-ray player to watch it.

You do, however, need a Blu-ray burner to burn to Blu-ray media. A regular DVD burner will not work with Blu-ray media. Either way, a DVD player will not play a Blu-ray formatted disc. Once you burn the Blu-ray format to either Blu-ray media or DVD media you will need a Blu-ray player to watch it.

This is why I said, you need both a Blu-ray burner (to create the disc) and a Blu-ray player (to watch the disc) because I don’t recommend burning Blu-ray format to DVD media.

Does that make sense? (if not ask more questions) 😉

~jr

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

[James Donovan]

That made PERFECT sense. I now know what I must do to do what I want to do. I’m gonna grab a Blu Ray burner and some BD-r media and take it from there. After reading through the responses of people that had similar questions, I understand WHY my DVD looked as it did. I’m confident that when I burn to the appropriate media I will have a nice product because i’m using your project setting recommendations. Again, thank you for everything and I truly meant what I said about you always being there to help. Enjoy the rest of your day, Mr. Rofrano.

[David Shirey]

[John Rofrano] “shiny plastic disc”

Could you please explain that to all my clients. I still get people who ask how many copies of their wedding they get on CD. Some people will just always see “shiny plastic disc” and think they’re all the same. The next format should be put on triangles just to force people to realize it’s different.

[John Rofrano]

[David Shirey] “Could you please explain that to all my clients. I still get people who ask how many copies of their wedding they get on CD.”

lol… yea, we assume a lot and don’t realize that most people don’t know (or even care) what the difference is. That’s why I said, it’s just a “shiny disc’ to them. 😉

~jr

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