HDV to sd DVD….again

[Peter Berthet]

its generally good practice to maintain your source file quality, so obviously your editing in HDV which is fine.

for SD-DVDs its just a simple process from adobe of dumping out to a DV avi or DV MOV and bringing that file into your favourite authoring software, alternatively (i suggest avi’s or mov because encore which we use has a great transcode function)

but anyway, the other export method you could use is dumping straight to mpeg2 for dvd authoring, pros are that you dont need to transcode a second time, cons (in the case of encore anyway) are that you may not get the optimal image quality for your dvd, as encore dynamically transcodes your media based on available dvd space and generally gives a better result than a set bitrate encode

~Peter Berthet
Sydney, Australia

[Eric Hite]

Ok Ive been using the Dynamic Link Function. One of the reasons we went with adobe was to skip some of the seemingly redundant steps of render to this file…put that here..put this there.. then do this. But it seems at a loss in quality.

So let me make sure I understand this. You are saying that If i render out an AVI file and then dump that into encore it will look better than the Dynamic link function. (because of how it handles the bit rate)and you are saying DV AVI. So thats export-media-(then choose Microsoft avi- then choose NTSC widescreen DV…then theres codec options at the bottom. Leave it on DV…I have heard some people suggest none? OR would you say that the Uncompressed Mircosoft AVI. Then take the file into encore.

Also in Preimere while editing the text looks great, but as soon as I let it Render Work Area the Text Gets Jaggies even on HUGE fonts. Is that the software conforming to the DV codec and is there a way to keep it from doing that.

Thank you for your time.

Eric D. Hite
Lubbock, Texas USA.
Maxworx Events, TLP, OPRTV

[Tim Kolb]

[Eric Hite] “Also in Preimere while editing the text looks great, but as soon as I let it Render Work Area the Text Gets Jaggies even on HUGE fonts. Is that the software conforming to the DV codec and is there a way to keep it from doing that.”

This doesn’t make sense to me. Can you be more specific on project settings and video assets…how you have your preview set, etc?

Also…no, exporting HD or HDV to DV before compressing to SD MPEG2 for DVD won’t help your quality…you’re adding another transcode step.

I recently edited a project using uncompressed 1280x720p 23.98 settings…the source clip was actually QT ProRes. I dynamic linked it to my Encore project and it encoded it just fine to SD MPEG2…it took a while as it was a long timeline and it letterboxed it, (4×3 project with 16×9 source footage of course) but it was fine.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Eric Hite]

I use what ever my source footage is for my time line. So typicaly HDV. Or the XHA1 does DV, but I think it really shines in HDV mode. So ill use a HDV1080i timeline. I select Preview in maximum and render in maximum bit depth. Then edit away… Then I have dynamically linked to encore and for my test I use no menues just basic first play and burn. Then Play the disc back either on the computer to a Samsung 42inch lcd or on a seperate dvd player to an Olivia 40 LCD. The result is less than stunning, infact its quite disapointing. It is blocky, noise around edges, diagionals are stair stepped and you get the idea. I tried the uncompressed avi then into encore and that look alright but it made a smaller 4:3 then letterboxed the video inside that…so on the dvd playback you get a 4:3 with black sides then a 16:9 letterboxed inside that which looks alright but small, say 1/3 the screen size then you can zoom the tv and fill it, but it get nasty as the tv is doing the zoom.

I was going to try encoding mpeg2 from Preimere, then opening encore and import the already finished file. You say I should be able to get nice crisp image without that, so I’m obviously missing something, and I am sure its simple.

OK the text issue. I noticed this on a DV timeline and a HDV timeline. My setup for viewing is the Samsung 42″ LCD connected to my pc via HDMI to DVI cable and resolution set at 1920 x 1080 and so it basically a large computer monitor/tv. On a dv timeline I can use 100% on the preview monitor and it fits nicely on HDV it scalled down to 50% or so.

So what I am noting is that when I create a title (still) and get the text all perfect and such then place it on my timeline it looks great in the preivew. Now at this point preimere has the Red i want to render this line but i can play it anyway for several layers and it looks good. BUT if I render workspace the red line goes away and the quality of the text goes down…alot. The edges are rough and jaggie/stairstepped. Then they look simular in the final output on a DVD.

I have had good success with a 1080P Windows MEdia file..In fact I was pleasntly suprised with that. Also creating an AVI file and displaying it from presenter software onto a projector looks good too.

And then there is the tricaster…We connect our 3 cannon xha1’s via coax composite video and either shoot in SD or HDV and let he cam down convert. I think we decided Shooting in SD is better than the cams conversion but thats not my final answer. We are considering many options to improve this (basicaly looking at converters). It seems that the best signal we can get into the tricaster is 480 componet. OK so we switch mix and text over lay live and put intro and outro on from the ddrs live and record to the internal Hard drive using their “mpeg-2 Studio” setting. This is in mpeg format but is typically 8-12 gig for an hour and a half or so. That file play and looks “ok” in preimere but when I dynamically link to encore and burn the video playsback jumpy and blury and at times has a huge ghost like or timewarp looking effect.

So…Thoughts..Suggestions…Books to read? I unterstand there are a hundred codecs and options. What I think I am missing is which to use and how to get from one to another…

Thank you again

Eric D. Hite
Lubbock, Texas USA.
Maxworx Events, TLP, OPRTV