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HD to SD
I wasn’t real sure where this question belonged, but it was mostly a Final Cut question, more or less.
I’m going to be shooting a music video in HD. I’ll be using the Sony HDR-FX1 which shoots in 1440x1080i. I’ve been playing around with different settings on Final Cut and Compressor on what will give the best quality video for DVD. What are the best settings for capture and timeline as well as Compressor settings? I’ve done everything from exporting with Quicktime Conversion and using H.264 to exporting to Compressor and using the DVD 90 min best quality.
This is a pretty detailed question, so if anyone knows of another section on Creative Cow or tutorial I can see I’m all for it. I’ve basically either gotten interlaced or kinda lower quality video. I’m just not real sure what works best. Obviously standard DVD will be degraded from HD, but I know it can be done.
Thanks for the help you can give 🙂
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24 Replies
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[Ryan Atkins] “I’ve done everything from exporting with Quicktime Conversion and using H.264 to exporting to Compressor and using the DVD 90 min best quality.”
H.264 is for the Web and in some cases, BluRay disc. Never drop to H.264 before going to Compressor for DVD.
You capture / edit in HDV since that’s what your camera shoots. If you have access to something like the AJA Kona boards, I high recommending converting to DVCPro HD or ProRes. Personally, we use DVCPro HD for all our HDV editing.
You export your HDV timeline to Compressor.
You make a 16:9 MPEG-2 with AC3 audio file for DVDSP
You create an SD 16:9 DVD in DVDSP that will play letterboxed on a standard 4:3 TV and full screen on a 16:9 widescreen TV.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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Would I then need to edit in HDV 1080i, or could I still use your mentioned format of DVCPro HD? I just don’t remember if that format worked for me or not. I’ve been reading some about Deinterlacing and how it basically replaces the missing lines of resolution when you shoot in interlaced (such as my 1080i), which is what my camera does. My recent deinterlace project looked pretty good.
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[Ryan Atkins] “Would I then need to edit in HDV 1080i, or could I still use your mentioned format of DVCPro HD?”
You edit in 1080i no matter which of the formats you use. You only use DVCPro HD if you have hardware conversion to do this for you on the fly, like the AJA Kona boards do. If you don’t have access to realtime hardware conversion, stay in HDV.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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Yeah definitely don’t have the AJA, I’m editing on a MacBook Pro.
So let me get this right, basically capture in HDV 1080i, edit in HDV 1080i, and export to Compressor with a SD DVD setting (90, 120, 150) in 16:9, correct?
When I first started working with HD and interlaced video, I really saw the line breaks…does the output to Compressor and making it a DVD 90 min SD project automatically deinterlace it?
Whats your take on not getting the interlaced fields/deinterlacing?
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[Ryan Atkins] “So let me get this right, basically capture in HDV 1080i, edit in HDV 1080i, and export to Compressor with a SD DVD setting (90, 120, 150) in 16:9, correct?”
Yes.
[Ryan Atkins] ”
When I first started working with HD and interlaced video, I really saw the line breaks…does the output to Compressor and making it a DVD 90 min SD project automatically deinterlace it?”No, I never de-interlace video in compressor as this makes the video worse when you watch it on standard TV. Standard definition is an interlaced video format, compressor takes care of putting the fields in the correct order when you go from HD to SD.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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Gottcha, thank you very much for your help.
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What about outputting in an HD file, like a QT H.264, or something? Not necessarily for Blu-Ray…mainly to be viewed on a computer, not web.
Thanks,
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[Ryan Atkins] “What about outputting in an HD file, like a QT H.264, or something? Not necessarily for Blu-Ray…mainly to be viewed on a computer, not web.”
H.264 is just a codec. It can be SD, HD or just about anything else you want it to be. You just set the frame size, frame rate and data rate and encode. We use H.264’s all the time for transcriptions and client reviews on the web.
It’s a very compressed file so I would not use it to archive, but you can certainly use it to show back on a computer.
And FYI, we use MPEG-2 for all our BluRays.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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I just tried the exact steps you mentioned, and I saw horizontal lines in my video. Am I doing something wrong, or is this normal for viewing on a standard def TV?
I have 2 links to pictures, to show you what I’m seeing.
https://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6760/picture3rq6.png
https://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2470/picture2qs6.png
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[Ryan Atkins] “I just tried the exact steps you mentioned, and I saw horizontal lines in my video. Am I doing something wrong, or is this normal for viewing on a standard def TV?”
Did you set Compressor to Lower Field First? NTSC Standard Def is lower field first.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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