*** HDV to DVD is losing something in the translation

I'm going from HDV 1080i60 footage to SD-DVD and am still completely unhappy with the text on my projects. Nearly every time the text looks like it's out of register and not at all crisp. The footage looks okay for the most part although it is a lot softer than when I watch the same project through my AppleTV. I understand that DVD is much less resolution than either full HD or DVD but is it unreasonable to expect that the text from my HDV footage looks so bad on DVD? In the days when I'd shoot on my VX2000 and transfer to DVD the text always looked crisp and clean. How could it have gone so far backwards.
There are a few different workflows I'm currently using so I'm wondering if someone could comment on what I may be doing wrong or what I could tweak to improve the results. Specifically, should I be de-interlacing the footage first in Final Cut Pro or should I be changing the field order in Compressor? What could I do to improve the results?
Workflow 1:
FCP>Compressor>DVD 90 minutes best quality encode
Workflow 2:
FCP>Self-contained QT movie>Compressor>DVD 90 minutes best quality encode
Workflow 3:
Print to tape>Import down-converted to SD into FCP>Compressor>DVD 90 mins best quality
Workflow 4:
FCP>self-contained QT movie>Convert to AppleTV (.mp4) with ViddyUp>Compressor>DVD 90 mins best quality
I'd be extremely thankful for any help that anyone can give. This is an issue I've had a lot of trouble with and need to find a reasonable solution for, soon! Thanks in advance!

Quite honestly, you'll continue to have this "issue" as long as you use HDV or any format of hd in general to make sd dvds. If you really want to alleviate this problem you're experiencing, don't acquire in any sort of hd video that is destined for dvd at this time.
You have got to be kidding me. Instead of there being a viable way to convert 1 format to the other you think a reasonable solution is to shoot SD or only author HD-DVD or Blu-ray? It's this unrealistic approach that has a really negative impact on these boards. I am not going to use my HDV camera in SD mode and handcuff myself later on when I truly CAN make HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs easily. Apple has still to develop DVDSP that can do this and don't sell internal Apple burners. So according to your suggestion, I should still be shooting in the dark ages b/c somebody hasn't found a way to convert 1 format to the other. Unfortunately, most clients don't even have HD-DVD or Blu-Ray players yet so DVD is still the norm. Shooting in SD completely limits my ability to upsell the project to HD when they get a player and therefore eliminates a perfectly good revenue stream.

Similar Messages

What's the better procedure for HDV to DVD SP?

I found 2 articles on how to take an HDV timeline and export it for DVD SP for a SD DVD.
Anyone use either of these procedures? What results in a better quality video?
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/hdv_to_sddvd.html
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/hdv_timeline_to_sddvd.html

OK. So to report back:
Having set the sequence to render as ProRes and then exporting via Compressor looks as bad as exporting a straight HDV sequence via Compressor.
So I reset the Render setting to "Same as sequence" and exported a small part using the procedure outlined in my first post, exporting using quicktime conversion. That looked great.
Exporting using Quicktime conversion or straight quicktime takes the same amount of time on my system (intel iMac), so I opted to go with Ken Stone's recommendation and use Quicktime Conversion, since that's the more recent recommendation.(The other link did recommend outputing a QT file, but it was a year older. Maybe the author(s) learned something in the interim?)
So now I am in the middle of a 20 hour export to a QT file. I'll report back in about 13 hours...
Message was edited by: ihans

Building distribution with CVI2010 always needs something from the install DVDs

Using CVI 2010, installed from NI Dev Suite 2011 with all the defaults. When I try to build a distribution, something is always missing and must be found on the DVD. If I don't have the DVD with me, I can't build the distribution. It must be something simple, I know, but its not obvious what must be installed from the DVD to keep this from happening.

If you include additional components, when you build the distribution for the first time you must insert a CD or a DVD, but as stated in the CVI help for Distribution Needed Dialog Box
In the Distribution Not Found dialog box, enable the Cache products pulled from this distribution locally for future builds to copy all necessary components from a distribution into a permanent location on the target system. When you initiate future builds, the local system finds these components instead of prompting you to insert a distribution CD.
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Using LV 2013 SP1 on Win 7 64bit
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Using CVI 2012 SP1 on Win 7 64bit, WinXP and WinXP Embedded
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How to burn an iMovie to DVD without losing quality? I have iMovie 10.0.5 and imac 10.9.4 mountain lion. I do not have iDVD. After iMovie goes through the encoding process, quality is horrible. How can I fix this?

How to burn an iMovie to DVD without losing quality? I have iMovie 10.0.5 and iMac 10.9.4 mountain lion. I do not have iDVD. After iMovie goes through the encoding process, quality is horrible. How can I fix this problem? I have tried the apps BURN and DVD Creator for MAC. I need to finish this DVD asap and becoming more and more frustrated. Why would Apple give us iMovie and not provide us an app to burn it to a DVD and / or take away the iDVD?
Alicia McGinnis

Why is there no iDVD on my new Mac? How do I get it and how do I install it?
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3673
To burn a DVD with iDVD from the latest version of iMovie, you have to export the movie using the Export button and select 480p as the size. Open iDVD and start a new project, then drag that exported movie file into the iDVD menu window, avoiding any drop zones you see.

Got a MacBook with 10.5.8 I am anable to burn cds, dvds, and dl dvds. Everything worked before I reformatted my computer but now it comes up with error messages like unable to communicate or something about the laser power levels. Help! Anyway to check

Got a MacBook with 10.5.8 I am anable to burn cds, dvds, and dl dvds. Everything worked before I reformatted my computer but now it comes up with error messages like unable to communicate or something about the laser power levels. Help! Anyway to check to see what is going on?

Hi I am having the identical problem with my 24" intel iMac 2007..... Did you ever figure out what the problem was? I'm on round 3 now and with a completely blank grey screen and it won't start up from the disk 1.. I also have diskwarrior and techtool pro as well as the osx leopard and snow leopard disk... The HD is new.. Replaced by apple 3 months ago.. Don't know the cause the first time this happened about 9 months ago.. 2nd time, 6 months ago it never rebooted from the office for mac 2008 critical update... Did a clean install after backing up to TC... Took it to apple replaced HD even though it appeared ok, they checked all hardware and I ran techtool pro daily ever since. Last week software update had several updates avail. Office for mac being one of them.. I updated and have never booted since.. . I swear to never ever use another Microsoft product as long as I live if I can just fix this once more... Help me please

Is the canvas something like "the final output"? Or is that the viewer?

I am making a video of my HD footage i shot with my Full HD Camcorder (Sony HDR-SR12).
When i go through te timeline and play something, it shows fully in my viewer, but in the canvas i get only a selection of the full image (it seems that it is zoomed in)... So, my question is, do i have to "make the video smaller" by choosing image+wireframe in the canvas? Because i am afraid that when i output on to a DVD, i will also get the zoomed-in video? Or is the Viewer the "final output?"... I am getting crazy, because i can't let two or more clips play after eachother in the Viewer, right?
Also, what is the best way to output my full HD footage? (without loosing to much quality) Just click "Export -> Quicktime Movie"? Wil quicktime not lose the HD? Thanx...

The canvas always displays the final result and quality of your editing in the current sequence in the timeline; the viewer is just a way to monitor single clips (not the composition of clips as in the canvas) and displays the quality of the clip usually before you edit it into the timeline.
This is important, because if (for example) your sequence (in the timeline) is a standard DV while your captured clips are HD, when you look at a clip in the viewer opened from the browser, you watch it at +HD quality+, when you drag (edit) the same clip into the timeline it is down-converted to the +DV lower quality+; and this is what you see in the canvas. Instead if you open a clip from the timeline (not browser) in the viewer, you see the exact same quality as in the canvas, but only for that single clip. So the best way is to always check quality in the canvas, since it shows the result of all your editing, conversions, and composition, as it will show up in the exported movie.
Now, to really verify the result in the canvas you must also make sure to:
- use Fit to Window (from the small zoom button on top of the canvas window) when you want see the full frame and its composition, but not the final quality
- instead use 100% (same button) to see the final quality for HD
- or even better connect the firewire output to an HDTV through a HDV deck (or camcorder) for HD, or to a standard TV through a D/A converter (or camcorder) for standard DV. The advantage of this solution is that you see the final result on the final output device while editing, without having to burn DVDs to check it (and this is almost mandatory when you import images and want to have control over interlacing artifacts).
When you export to iDVD you always use Export/Quicktime Movie even if you burn the DVD on different Mac; if the burner is on the same Mac you can uncheck the Make Movie Self-Contained option, so the file will be smaller and the export faster; otherwise you leave that option checked, and the file will contain all video and audio media necessary for burning (but the file much larger, and export much longer).
One more note: the Image+Wireframe option in the 2nd small button on top of the canvas (or also viewer) window allows you to apply changes to the frame size and position directly in the canvas without using the Basic Motion control of the viewer; in any case, whatever change you apply and you see in the canvas will be reflected also to the exported movie.
My guess in your case is that you are using a wrong (standard DV) setup for your sequence even if you captured HD, and that probably you zoomed in too much so that both the canvas and the exported movie show a small portion of the original frame.
I hope this helps a bit
Piero

DVD Movie is "lighter" than the M2v File - ?????

Hello Board,
I need help . . . . again!
I used the NTSC monitor to color and export the my short film and it looked FINE. Many of the scenes were dimmed (darkened Intentionally) intentionally to create and omnious effect.
I had to take the monitor back but everything seemed fine. I exported the project via Compressor - Best - 90 minute setting.
I watched the M2V on the computer and it looked great, so I imported the M2V into DVD pro and created a very basic DVD.
I burned the DVD pro project to DVD using Toast Titanium 6.
Now here's the twist. When I watched the DVD on TV, the images were significally ligter than in the M2V file and the DVD SP viewer.
I said ok, let me put the DVD into the computer and see if it looks different on the computer LCD and it did not, it was still lighter.
I then did a side by side comparison - with the M2V screen up on the left and the Mac DVD player screen up on the right. I went to the same frame in both and behold, the DVD version is noticable ligher. Things that are concealed by Shadow in the M2V can be seen in the DVD version.
Is it possible that something in the burn process did this. Or could it be that I saved the file a certain way in DVD SP and that did it?
I don't think it's an issue with Compressor, because why didn;t the M2V file look light on the computer.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Lin

It's probably not a problem with Toast or DVD SP. It's the same old display and TV calibration issue that many complain about. Try this with Apple's DVD Player -- switch to an NTSC display profile and see what the DVD looks like then. However, the latter is not a "fix," just an example of how display gamma and calibration can affect results.
I'd suggest that Lin review the following tutorials on color and brightness adjustments:
http://www.signvideo.com/dv-black-levels-dvd-authoring-mpeg-2-part-1.htm
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/video_levelsnattress.html
You might also find some useful information in the following thread:
Waymen, "DVDSP 3 adds ten pounds of brightness on formatting!!!" #16, 03:08pm Sep 13, 2005 CDT<small><hr width="75%"><small>If this suggestion helps in any way, a confirmation or acknowledgment would be appreciated, since that would also help others who may be having the same difficulty. Do for others as you would have them help you.<center>Thanks for sharing, Waymen.</center></small>

Can't play DVD and use Spotlight at the same time.

I have been running in to all sorts of problems while playing a DVD. I have TV shows on DVD, so I watch them while I work. Everytime I have one playing and I open Spotlight to search for something my PB begins making this very loud noise. I don't know if it is my DVD player or something else, but as soon as I delete what is was I was searching for in Sportlight, it stops. It really bugs hearing this noise, because it sounds like something is wrong. If anybody can help, that would be great.

Oh sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear.
I have noticed that when you ask the optical drive to do one thing, it spins perfectly well and does what it is supposed to.
If however you ask it do a second thing while it is still doing the first, then the laser skips between the two jobs and sounds strange.
So... If you had a dvd or cd with 2 large files on it and
a) Selected BOTH files together and copied them to the desktop, the drive would spin fast and transfer the files.
b) Selected one file to copy and started the transfer to the desktop, THEN while the first was copying, selected a SECOND file from the DVD and started copying that, you would find the laser skipping between the two jobs.
I thought that if you do this, and it is the same as what happens when watching a dvd and using spotlight, then it could be that spotlight is indexing the dvd while it is playing and the drive is therefore trying to do two things at once.
I hope that helps.

Why are burned DVD's poor quality from the IDVD?

I made a slideshow in iphoto and exported to IDVD so I could burn copies. The show lloked great on screen but the first copies on dvd's were terrible. The quality of images are very poor and seem to be depixilated? Why would the copies be so poor? Does the widescreen or standard have something to do with it??
Help

Hi
There are levels in h*e*l*l*
iDVD - is same as DVD Standard - Interlaced SD-Video
Feeding iDVD progressive or HD material will not improve result but degrade this as from
- iMovie'08 to 11 - as they can not deliver - but only every second line of the picture
- iDVD downscaling from HD - is doing a bad job
So by using a program that can deliver - best possibly DVD is the result
- iMovie HD6
- FinalCut any version
- FotoMagico™ - (for SlideShows)
If this is not enough - then DVD is no option as HD-DVD is rare and needs special HD-DVD-players - alt
• Blu-Ray e.g. from Roxio Toast™ but still needs BD-Player as PlayStation3 etc
• out in high quality to USB-memory to be played on device that can do this
• Play via MacBook and out to a HD-projector/TV
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

Best Quality Exporting From HDV to DVD

I've searched on the web & gotten a few answers, but nothing seems to solve the situation.
What I've tried.
1920x1080p MPEG2, Quality 5, Min, Target, Max All Set To 60. Came out looking like crap when it was put on a dvd. Noisy, over contrasted (could be the tv), over colored (could be the tv).
720x480 MPEG2-DVD, Quality 5, Min, Target, Max All Set To 9. Came out looking worse then my previous attempt.
Anyone have a secret formula for HDV to DVD conversion?

Hello,
Couple of questions on the below:
1) Does this work for converting .MTS files?
2) If so, I download the Encoder presets, but where do I place them? (I didn't see any .epr files in the root of /encoder
On the Premiere CS4 end of things:
Download these Adobe Media Encoder CS4 presets for 100Mbps MPEG-2 I-frame 4:2:2
Export your 1440x1080 60i timeline using the corresponding preset from the ones above; this will create a (very large) .m2v file and .wav file
Now some freeware tools to get the conversion done properly:
Download and install the Lagarith lossless codec
Download and install VirtualDub
Download and install AviSynth
Download and install my hd2sd() conversion package for AviSynth (instructions for installation are in the .zip file)
Create a new blank text document in notepad, like such, and save this file as premiere.avs, and save it to the same folder as your .m2v and .wav file (edit the video and audio parameters to match your filenames). This is your "script" file for AviSynth:
video = "myfile.m2v"
audio = "myfile.wav"
FFMpegSource(video)
(audio == "") ? last : AudioDub(WavSource(audio))
hd2sd(OutputColorSpace="YUY2", OutputBFF=true)
Run VirtualDub
Open your premiere.avs file in VirtualDub
In VirtualDub, go to Video : Compression and select the Lagarith lossless codec
Also set VirtualDub to use Video : Fast recompress mode
Save your output to lagarith.avi
Import lagarith.avi into Encore for transcoding and authoring

HDV to DVD (NTSC)

Hi,
I am desperately trying to get a viewable SD-DVD version of HDV footage.
I am following the simple 2-step procedure:
1. Export in HDV
2. Use Compressor 2 to get DVD-90min best quality
I have no major problem in PAL, but when I transfer everything into NTSC, the 1st step is still fine but the second step gives me horrible horizontal lines on the edge of moving parts of the image. I tried all sorts of configurations for de-interlacing and field dominance but it does not seem to do any better.
Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? This is quite urgent, I have to send the film to Japan by the end of next week...
Thanks.

Jean:
I don't work with HDV but have heard good opinions about this workflow in these forums: Bonsai’s HDV to DVD page.
Hope it helps !
Alberto

Workaround for compressor HDV to DVD field issue?

I need a work around for the field issue apparent when down-converting HDV to DVD.
The Bonsai method <http://www3.telus.net/bonsai/Welcome.html> will not work, as there is too much motion and a side effect of the "fastest" conversion is that it gives a 3-d ghosting effect on fast motion in the frame.
I can not convert to 720P60 or 480P, as FCP converts it to 30P and then doubles the frames, and the motion is jittery.
I could dump it to camera and then down-convert in camera, but I have heard this is not a great method either.
I have seen in another forum to save the HDV timeline in FCP as a HDV quicktime movie, and then import that into DVD studio pro and have it down-convert, but DVD studio pro says this is an "incompatible file".
How do I get 1080i HDV footage onto a DVD so that it looks acceptable?

I had a similar problem with HDV (1080i shot on Cannon HV-20) footage, looks great in post and terrible when converted (herringbone lines and too many artifacts.) I’ve successfully used the Bonsai method on another piece I did but the footage was shot on a HVX-200 at 720 24p and there were no “action” shots. I wasn’t as successful using the method using 1080i footage and it definitely didn’t help with the fast motion shots. I did a search in this forum on HD to SD and there are a lot of helpful hints and methods. I experimented with a lot of the suggestions but in the end I was able to produce very nice and acceptable results by doing the following:
1] I didn’t create an SD sequence; I exported the footage as a Quicktime movie (self contained) straight from my HDV sequence.
2] I dropped the Quicktime file into Compressor and selected 90-minute DVD Anamorphic Best 2-pass VBR. Running Compressor from Final Cut ties up your system as well as there seems to be a delay between the handoff from Final Cut to Compressor (running the latest 5.x version and 2.3.) Creating a Quicktime file frees your system and it’s debatable if you actually compress faster or take a hit on quality. I’ve tested both from Final Cut and using a Quicktime file and didn't see any real difference in quality.
3] Change the field dominance from Top to Progressive in the tab where you see 2-Pass VBR Best and also in the encoding tab (not in front of my system so I can’t recall the name or order of the icons). In the encoding tab you will notice it says “same as source.” The pull down will show you Top, Bottom, Progressive, Automatic…I tried them all and in various combinations and anything other than progressive in both tabs produced undesirable results.
4] The options for Fast, Good, Better and Best in the other encoding pull down sections are a matter of preference and patience. Selecting Best in all categories takes a really long time to compress (36 hours for a 9-minute piece using a Mac Pro 3.0GHz dual-core Intel with 4GB ram.) I ran tests using different combinations and found that selecting the default settings is decent and stepping each category up to the next level helped but not enough to warrant the long compression cycle to stick with Better across the board. When you do your testing, it’s best to use as little footage as possible or you will find yourself waiting too long to see the actual results. I used a 1-second (29 frames) shot of a girl twirling around, hair flying everywhere, and girls next to her using hula-hoop’s.
5] Use the sliding bar in the viewer to see the impact of your choices before submitting the job. To the right you will see the “original” footage and to the left you can see the results of your selection. You can move the bar across the footage to see (approximately) the end results.
6] One thing I did notice is that no matter what settings I use, the output is slightly darker (reds were deeper, skin tones were warmer and not as smooth), but hey, you are going from HDV to SD so it’s not going to be perfect.
Hope that helps and good luck.
Kenny

HDV to DVD interlace field order - depends on export path!

Summary: Export... -> Using Compressor versus compressing an Export... -> QuickTime Movie file, produces different field orders in the resulting MPEG.
In Detail: Here is my HDV to DVD (MPEG2) process;
Create a DV sequence, and drop the HDV into it, it gets resized, and has a filter to shift the fields by +1 added to it, and is scaled to the correct size for 4:3 (letterboxed) or 16:9 (fills 720x480) - which is fine.
Set the Quicktime Video Compressor for the sequence to 'None', and set the Video Processing -> Motion Filtering Quality to 'Fastest (linear)' as I don't like what Normal or Best does to the image (makes it pixally, check in the canvas).
Now, if you Export -> Using Compressor, and setup a 2-pass mpeg 2 encode, you get a very good image, no via - DV artifacts. I also add the channel blur, set to 1 on all channels, if its too sharp - channel blur does not blur between fields, like flicker filter does, so the motion is not compromised, and looks excellent, but it stops sharp still images from flickering.
However, this is really slow, FCP is tied up, and for a 2 pass encode, any blur or colour filters get applied twice, its also harder to hand this off to a second machine to get on with.
So, logically, you would instead, Export... -> QuickTime Movie... -> Current Setting, Make Self Contained and then load that into Compressor, apply the SAME settings you did Using Compressor... At which point, the FUN begins.
I have finally narrowed down, that this changes the field order, although I nearly went mad discovering it - every time I thought my little 10 second test worked, (exported from the timeline) I would save the whole thing out and compress it, only to find, the interlace order changed, and now needed the field shift removed! And, because my little test worked, I would then do the whole thing, some 20+ hours later, only to find it was wrong!
Export... -> Using QuickTime Conversion... is the same as QuickTime Movie...
Anyone else with experience of this ? It was maddening! But I think I am over the worst of it now! Is there any solution for unifying this for all export methods ?
When it works DVD's encoded from HDV look amazing.
When it works.....
FCP 5.0.4
Compressor 2.0.1
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi Ben,
Ignore the Apple-0 (zero) part - that's just the key shortcut for the sequence settings. (press the Apple Key, and a Zero key with a sequence selected)
So, from the top: (although I'm not in front of my machine right now, so this is from memory)
Create a new DV sequence, 4:3 or 16:9.
Drop the edited HDV sequence into the DV sequence.
De-select the HDV sequence in the DV time line, bring up the Sequence Settings Dialogue for the DV sequence. (make SURE it isn't the sequence setting dialogue for the HDV sequence)
In the sequence setting dialogue, change the codec from DV to None (note - not the same as Uncompressed). If it's currently HDV, you have the wrong sequence, leave it as HDV, close the dialogue, and bring up the setting for the DV sequence.
On the 'Video Processing' tab, for the DV sequence, set the 'Motion Filtering Quality' to 'Fastest (linear)'
Choose OK to close the settings dialogue.
If you want to, and it depends on your footage, add the following blur filter to the HDV sequence in the DV timeline:
Select the HDV sequence in the DV timeline, right click (or hold ctrl key, and click) on the HDV sequence in the DV timeline, and choose the top item in the pop-up menu, 'Open' (in viewer). Click the filters tab of the viewer, you will see the Shift Fields filter, set to +1, added by FCP, add the channel blur, above the shift fields filter. Set the blur to 1 on each channel. I prefer this to the Video -> Flicker Filter, as channel blur does not blur between fields, so it does not blur motion.
I discovered this by accident
Now Save, the following sometimes crashes FCP. Check it in the Canvas viewer, set to 100%, with the channel blur, around text and sharp contrast areas, you get a nice soft blur, turn off that filter if you think its too much.
On to the encoding:
The simplest step, is to choose the DV timeline, and export via compressor. Pick a 2 pass MPEG preset, that matches the 4:3 or 16:9 of the sequence, and submit. This takes a while, on slower machines.
The alternative, which can reduce the time, is to export the DV sequence as an uncompressed QuickTime file - this does not change the quality at all - but can speed things up, because FCP is quite slow at delivering frames to Compressor, compared to Compresser just reading the frame from an uncompressed file, Compresser has to read them twice for 2 pass MPEG encoding. However, you need a lot of fast disk space to store the uncompressed footage.
Hope this helps.
Keep the replies / mail on these boards, that way they stay useful to all!
It was great weekend in Vancouver, wasn't it ?
Hit the beach on Sunday, good times

HT2499 why does my dvd player all of sudden say "supported disc not available" for dvds i have played in the past

My dvd player has been displaying "support disc not available" for all dvd's that i put in that just weeks ago were playing fine. ive tried cleaning the player and that did nothing...dont know what to do

I'm having the same problem lately. I have a mid 2010 21.5" iMac with an internal SuperDrive running Yosemite. I tried putting in "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and "The Giver" rented from RedBox. Both spin sputter for a bit and then eject the disk back out. So, it never mounts and no software (Finder, Disk Utility, DVD Player) ever gets a chance to see it. Both play fine in a 15 year old DVD player, and my purchased copy of "The Dark Knight" mounts just fine in the iMac. So, I have to assume that something is being done to the DVD's that rental companies are given to prevent them from mounting or something.
Not having any luck on Google trying to confirm that.
I guess I need to amend this. Both DVD's play fine in a early 2011 13" Macbook Pro with the internal SuperDrive. It's running Mavericks still and has a "MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-8A8". The iMac has a "OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5680H". Not sure if it's the drive, the OS, or what (although I will say I'm fairly certain I was having this problem on the iMac before Yosemite, so it's probably not the OS).

Very new to Mac, how do I take a dvd and create something I can watch on my Mac book pro and I Pad2

How do I take a DVD and create something in a format I can watch and save on both my MacBook Pro and I Pad 2/

dean1959 wrote:
what if I have an unencrypted DVD? for instance something I have recored to DVD
No "what if." No one here knows exactly what you really want to do legally or illegally. Suggest that you re-read Apple's TOU which you agreed to.
You would do better by doing a Google search for exactly what you want to do & the instructions to do so. "Google is your friend."

*** HDV to DVD is losing something in the translation

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