Jeff Pulera
Forum Replies Created
-
Hi Brian,
I don’t believe there’s a strobe effect available, but try the Posterize Time filter, it simulates the 24 frame look and may be jerky enough for your needs
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor -
Hi Sami,
I’ve authored countless DVDs without issue, but I’ve never tried a DL disc myself due to the incompatibilities I keep hearing about, so I have to wonder if that is part of the issue and maybe you’d be better off delivering DVD-R (4.7GB)?
How long is your project? Maybe it can be configured to fit a single-layer disc instead
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor -
You’re right Neil. When dealing with SD video, widescreen is called “anamorphic”, meaning the pixels are stretched, but resolution is the same for 4:3 or 16:9.
I work with NTSC, so 720×480 widescreen has a 1.2 pixel aspect ratio. When exporting 16:9 for web viewing, I set export to square pixels (1.0 PAR) and dimensions to 864×480. The problem with web playback is that it always expects square pixels, so if your video source used rectangular pixels, the player doesn’t know this and assumes square pixels for playback.
864×480 is roughly 16:9, and I believe the PAL equivalent would be 1024×576.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor -
I had no idea they were on dual layer discs. Wow. The cost of each disk produced would what – double? Triple? … Hmm … Can an ordinary burner burn two layers?
Yes, the blanks are more expensive, can be burned on most DVD burners as long as authoring software supports DL burning.
What exactly (in layman terms) is the difference between pristine source and home video? (I mean, they have to transfer film to digital, don’t they? And the size of film negatives isn’t conducive … uh … no, I’m at sea here. Please explain.
Hollywood is starting with film, or HD video, made with ultra-expensive cameras, so they are going to encode DVDs from a source with very high resolution and quality compared to something you or I shoot with a prosumer camera. Garbage in, Garbage out.
What is the difference between our crappy encoders and professional ultra-encoders? (I mean, is it the pixels? Interlacing? the bit rate?)
Same bit rates and number of pixels and all that, the DVD spec is the DVD spec whether I author or Hollywood authors the DVD. The difference is in the quality of the encoding software (and source video). There are free encoders, and $100 encoders, then the Hollywood encoders are $40k. You get what you pay for.
Thanks for warning me. For now my solution is to convert each file to .MOV. It reduces the size about ten times. The solution is crappy no matter how you scramble it.
Are you on the Mac or PC? I’m not clear on why you are going to .mov at any point, if you captured an avi to start with, edit the avi then export to MPEG-2 for DVD, don’t introduce additional conversions and compressions into the workflow.
(From my point of view – forgive the amateur – the actual quality of a video, any video, apart from the shooter’s skill, is predicated on the size and quality of the lens.
Actually, the IMAGE SENSOR makes a huge difference in quality. That is why HD video shot with DSLR cameras is suddenly so popular, because the image sensor is HUGE and the resulting images, depth of field, and low light sensitivity are amazing.
Going back to the Hollywood thing, if you take the awesome DSLR HD footage and convert it down to DVD, that DVD will look better than something shot with a consumer miniDV camera.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor -
I’ve had good results with MPEG Streamclip, it’s free software for PC or Mac, rips from DVD to almost any format, also works as an H.264 encoder.
I pull DV .avi files from DVD and use them in Premiere, works great once you come up with the right settings for your situation.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Hi Neil,
Glad it worked out for you. I didn’t sound like you had much need for a Blu-ray burner at this time, I think you’ll get a lot more use out of the WDTV.
Regards,
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Hi Chris,
I’ve been in that position myself, shooting many plays and recitals. Every display will vary in how much of the picture edge it shows and you have no control over that, so you need to decide which is the lesser of two evils – have some viewers see a bit of black along the edge, or have performers chopped off. Most of the recitals I’ve shot are very dark off to the sides anyway, with black curtains, so having a black edge in that case would be barely noticeable.
Any time you “scale” an image, up or down, there will be some degree of degradation. Definitely better scaling down than up, quality should still look fine.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
A miniDV camera will shoot NTSC video, 720×480 pixels, in other words, standard definition (no HD). In Europe, it may be the PAL format.
In Premiere, you would choose the NTSC DV project preset and capture the video using 1394 Firewire. If your computer doesn’t have a 1394 port, then you need to add one with an inexpensive 1394 card.
“AVI” means “Audio/Video Interleaved” – the audio and video are combined in a single file, and this is the most common format to edit with on a PC.
After editing your video in Premiere, you would Export to the file format of choice, for instance MPEG-2 for DVD disc, Windows Media for your website, etc.
YouTube likes MPEG-4 video, known as H.264, and you should find a YouTube preset in the export settings of Premiere to create the final file to upload. My 10-yr. old daughter edits her own miniDV movies, and converts and uploads them to YouTube all by herself after I showed her just once.
Do some Google searches on editing, there is tons of free info out there, or you can buy books and DVDs to learn Premiere and such.
Jeff Pulera
-
Hi Brandon,
I just looked up the D90 specs and it says that it shoots video at resolutions of 320×216, 640×424, and 1280×720 (720p HD). The first two sizes might be used for web video, but are not “standard” video formats, as NTSC would be 720×480 (or 640×480).
What exactly DID you shoot? I’ve never heard of “16 bit video” and have no idea what you mean by that. So, what resolution did you shoot, and what Project Settings are you trying in Premiere?
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor -
Hollywood movies are on dual layer discs, so twice the capacity of a 4.7GB DVD-R. Besides having more space, they are starting with a pristine source (not home video) and using ultra-expensive encoders used by a professional compressionist who tweaks the optimum encoding settings for each scene, so yes, they get better results than you and I can.
When working with Encore, be careful about where you save the Project – I just worked with a guy who had a similar issue with Encore stopping halfway through his Blu-ray job. Turned out project was saving to the default C: drive location, and there wasn’t enough room there for all the files that needed to be written, so check that out.
Jeff