[Dov Yellin]

Thanks for the suggestion Lon–unfortunately I don’t have the option of hardware conversions, as the facility I’m working in is bare-bones. All decks we use are rentals. The only option I have is a firewire-d HDV camera, which kind of defeats the purpose.

It’s going to have to be a software solution. I already have an HD QT file, 1280×720, non-anamorphic. Compressor’s been terrible at compressing this to an SD m2v, so a 2-step process has been suggested.

[Dov Yellin]

Thanks Uli:

I’m not going from progressive to interlaced, I’m staying progressive. The original FPS is 59.94 and it is staying at 59.94.

ProRes and Uncompressed are good suggestions, will likely require much less compression time from HD.

Also, I’ve had success de-interlacing HDV footage using MPeg Streamclip: if I remember right, I selected frame blending in addition to the de-interlace settings. It renders a much smoother motion in the picture.

Unfortunately After Effects is not available for this job, though Motion is. But again, I’m staying in progressive, not going to interlaced.

[Dov Yellin]

Thanks for the ideas Uli. Let me respond:

The frame controls were ON and consistent with all 3 attempts. Without them set to their highest qualities, the video comes out much worse. Still, with those settings all ON, the first 2 shows came out via Compressor in 7-8 hours, the 3rd had trouble. I should mention this also happened when compressing trailers for these shows–2 of 3 compressed in much shorter times than the 3rd, and no, that 3rd was not part of the same full program that is taking a long time now.

I am starting with a stand-alone DVCProHD 720p 59.94 file, and ending in a MPeg2 59.94 file. No FPS changes. I do have to resize the aspect ratio when I spit out of FCP, to get rid of the HD anamorphic–so I’m exporting as 1280×720 rather than 960×720. I’ve done tests, and this step seems necessary to ensure the final DVD aspect ratio is consistently correct.

We do have MPeg Streamclip–I will try your suggestion for downscaling from HD to SD with that rather than Compressor, separating the 2 steps. Likely will save a lot of time. Are Photo JPeg and DV50 the best codecs these days? I am more concerned with saving time than saving drive space.