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Shooting 1080p or 1080I for SD DVD Delivery
I am about to shoot a three camera fitness video using Sony EX1Rs. The delivery format will be standard definition DVD. I am not sure what format is best to capture in 1080p, 1080i or 720p. I know this has been posted before but a clear cut answer never seems to come from it. My dilemma is that almost every DVD player made today is progressive. Every HDTV made today is progressive using 1080p or 720p. Why are there so many people pushing for 1080i. It seems like 1080i would be going against the grain. Unless there is a real good reason. Can someone help me out? Keep in mind my subjects will be moving a lot in this dance fitness video.
Thanks,
Dave -
14 Replies
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Most HDTV broadcasts are 1080i, some are 720p though depending on the Network.
One issue is temporal resolution. 1080i60 has more temporal (motion) resolution than 1080p30.
720p60 might be the best alternative as it has the high temporal resolution and some find downconverting from 720 to standard def to be better than 1080.So what’s best may depend on content and whether or how it will be multi-purposed.
I’m sure others will post details based on a variety of situations.
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The only distribution will be DVD. With most DVD players and TVs being progressive these days why wouldn’t everyone shoot in 1080/30p or 720/60p? Does compressor or Bitvice change the files back to interlaced when making m2v files?
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I have to say that shooting 1080i ( PAL) has always given me first rate results when I use BitVice for encoding for DVD, regardless of the amount of movement of the subject matter. The point about downscaling for the DVD may be valid but one very good feature of the latest versions of BitVice is the quality of their down scaling.
Michael Slowe
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When I am doing a project for DVD, I shoot 720p. The down converted image looks a bit more pleasing to me. I have shot 1080 before for DVD, but found the down converted picture had aliasing in fine detail areas. I think that may have been a function of rendering to MPEG2 directly from the timeline in Sony Vegas Pro using MainConcept. I’m sure some dedicated encoders would have done a better job with 1080. That would require an additional render for me. Do some testing with various formats and see what you like. The rescaling of HD to SD causes problems.
Bob
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Articles worth reading on going from HD to SD and DVD
https://www.xdcam-user.com/2009/11/getting-sd-from-hd-and-the-problems-of-oversampling/
https://www.xdcam-user.com/2011/03/getting-good-sd-from-an-hd-camera/
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The image quality is not what I am worried about. I have had success in the past scaling down 1080i to 480i using Bitvice. I am worried about the quality of progressive scan DVD players out there. I don’t want strobe like movement in my video. All standard def DVD is 480! correct? Maybe that is why some people shoot in 1080i. Even if I shot 720p the video would be downscaled and converted to 480i using compressor or Bitvice. Then forced back to progressive by the DVD player. The question still remains which format will play back smooth and clean over the widest variety of DVD players?
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I have done extensive testing using all the frame rates that my EX-3 shoots and the best DVD came from 1080/60i. The motion is very smooth and the picture looked great. I am not sure why this is since DVD’s are burned in 720p but that is the way it turned out.
ronpesteshdvideo.com
Apple Certified Master Pro FCS 2
Sony EX-3
MacBook Pro
Dell M6600
New convert to Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium -
Thanks Ron, The EX1R and the EX3 are pretty much the same camera internally. Did you use Compressor or Bitvice to make your files?
Dave
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I have been shooting 1920x1080i now ever since the first Ex-1 came out. My end product had been SD DVD. My main project has been auto mobile racing and delivery either for TV or for DVD. In the past I down converted with virtual dub (free software) to 720×480 and then out to DVD from the Edius 5.51 time line. Now that Eduis 6.06 is out if the DVD is going to be less than 90 minutes I use Edius to down convert (simply change project settings to 720×480)and burn my disk from the timeline. Excellent results.
If I need an extensive complicated menu then I use a third party program like TMPG or DVDit or even Ulead WS2. If WS2 handeled 16×9 menus better I would use it for everything. Very simple and great results. Most of the local affiliates that I have delt with only want 1080i not progressive. Of course whether you shoot progressive or interlaced is a personal preference and the “look” that you want. Some folks like the “progressive” look or a “film” look. I personally want a “video” look to my projects. Like some say “beauty is is the eye of the beholder”..
I think that you will get excellent results with the Ex camera family regardless . We have three of the cameras in this family (EX-1R, EXS-3 and the PMW 320) Our experence shooting interlaced has been super.
good luck
Ronnie Martin
https://www.dirtracingvideo.comRonnie Martin
Kato Video Productions
http://www.dirtracingvideo.com
http://www.ramtv.tv -
I have always used Compressor.
ronpesteshdvideo.com
Apple Certified Master Pro FCS 2
Sony EX-3
MacBook Pro
Dell M6600
New convert to Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium
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