Correct workflow for HDV to anamorphic SD DVD?

My current workflow amounts to building HD videos in Final Cut Express 4 (FCE), exporting HD MOV files for use in Encore CS3 to create standard DVDs.
To be clear (correct my verbiage if I'm wrong) when I say HD this is what I'm working with:
1920 x 1080
Interlaced
29.97 fps
Originally, before I got an HDTV, I would simply drop the finished HD timeline into an SD timeline in FCE, and create the DVD using these movie files. On a typical CRT 4:3 television, this actually works okay. But once I got my HDTV and watched how the 4:3 picture was simply placed in the middle of the screen, I realized I was doing this the wrong way.
Ultimately, I want to create the DVD so the video adjusts to the width of the screen, where the black bars you see aren't actually embedded in the video itself. Is this called an "anamorphic" DVD?
I've done my best to do this on my own, but any movement in the final videos on the DVDs contain horrible jaggedness, as if you were watching interlaced video on a computer monitor, even if I'm watching it on a CRT 4:3 television.
Here is what I'm doing:
Export 1920x1080 MOV
Import MOV into Encore CS3 project
Transcode Settings:
Format: MPEG2-DVD
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9 (1.200)
When I'm in the transcode settings panel, in the output preview window, I can see the jaggedness and can't get rid of it by changing any settings. If I change the PAR selection to "Standard 4.3 (0.900)" it gets better, but again I don't think this is what I want to do.
Can anyone see the problem in my workflow? Should I be exporting something different from FCE?
Thanks in advance.

Ann -- Thank you for the response. After digging a bit deeper into this forum, I found the HDV --> SD DVD Workflow? thread and it gave me this idea as well.
I created a project using "DV - NTSC > Widescreen 48 kHz" as the timeline preset. I was able to drag the final HD 1920x1080 MOV that I created in Final Cut Express onto that timeline. Then, I used the Adobe Media Encoder to export MPEG-2 files, which gave me many more options that the same step in Encore.
A while back, Apple removed the ability for Quicktime to export MPEG-2 files, for some reason, and I was never happy with that. I'm excited to see that Premiere Pro is able to do this, so I might start migrating over to Premiere Pro now. I just needed the right kick in the butt to get around to it, I guess.
I'd still like to hear any other suggestions, though. Thanks.

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I can record the footage fine. However I saw a few things which didn't seem right.
After capturing the HDV footage, the file was a .mpeg file. Secondly, the clip was 1 hour and 10 minutes and
it was only 11.3 GB. Does this sound right? A 55 minute .avi file is 11.6GB. I thought a HDV clip would be quite a large size file.
If this dosen't sound right, is there somewhere I could go to, to check that my settings are correct? By the way I'm filming and capturing with a Canon XHA1.
The footage is 1080i. HDV. I've exported it and it looks fine. Just want to make sure I've captured it correctly and to the best quality.
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The HDV format was advanced by Sony and others to use the same miniDV tapes used for SD. In fact, your Canon XHAI can record and play either without changing the tape transport speed.
Your observation in relative file sizes is due to the fact that HDV is highly compressed (MPEG), whereas, SD (AVI) is not as highly compressed. This is one of the reasons folks (such as Harm) don't consider HDV to be an edit format, but just a delivery format.
Note that what Harm was saying is symantics--you capture an analog source through a capture card that digitizes it. When you transfer a image file from HDV or SD, it is already digitized, so a bit-to-bit transfer occurs.

Workflow for dual NTSC and PAL DVD project

Hello,
I am really in need of professional advice here, and any tips would be GREATLY appreciated. I am not an expert in Final Cut Studio, but I am OK to get things done on the project I am working on. Some things, despite cracking through multiple manuals, I can't properly figure out... THANKS AGAIN for any help!
I am working on a DVD project which I want to release in two versions: NTSC version in US, and PAL version for Poland — same content. Content was created using DV-NTSC Quicktime files, made on import from an American mini-DV SONY camcorder into Final Cut Pro. All the titles created in Photoshop were created in 720 x 540 and converted to 720 x 480 for the sequences.
I made one NTSC DVD using Studio Pro, and it seems to work okay, with some minor tweaks. But I really need to know what is the best way to make a PAL DVD with minimal quality loss. I need to set up this project correctly, because I have a **** of a lot of work to do, and I don't want to screw it up by incorrect setup.
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Many thanks!
Rad

First off - you can do this. Finish your work in NTSC. Then go buy the Graeme Natress plug for FCP. http://www.nattress.com/standardsConversion.htm
Download and install the app. THen follow the instructions on his site. It's a short turorial movie and you're done.
Heads up - you'll need to first export NTSC Quicktime files of each of your movies.
Hope this helps.
Brian

What's best workflow for adding subtitle to existing dvd?

We have been requested to add a foreign language subtitle to an existing dvd. It was authored in DVDSP so we have the original files. The translators are requesting a QT or dvd with window dub of the timecode for timing. How would I do that if the assets are already encoded and in the DVDSP timeline?
Also, the project is setup on 5 tracks, many short chapters in each. Because the cost for translation is per file, it means we pay the minimum charge for each track which ends up being double than if we would have kept all the files on a single track. Other than re-authoring the dvd is there another way to do this and save the money. If I get a stl or son file of a long video stream can that file be broken into separate files for each of the tracks? Also looking for a better workflow for the future.

rshellhammer wrote:
...we have the original files. The translators are requesting a QT or dvd with window dub of the timecode for timing.
Take the file you used in Compressor to make the mpeg and make a mov file h.264 I believe will maintain the timecode.
Also, the project is setup on 5 tracks, many short chapters in each. Because the cost for translation is per file, it means we pay the minimum charge for each track which ends up being double than if we would have kept all the files on a single track. Other than re-authoring the dvd is there another way to do this and save the money.
No.
If I get a stl or son file of a long video stream can that file be broken into separate files for each of the tracks?
Not without a lot of work.
o| TonyTony |o

Best workflow for burning Blu-ray and DVD

Hi,
What's the best workflow for effciency sake for burning both a Blu-ray and a DVD of the same project?
Essientially I'd like to export and create a menu once, then be able to downrez to DVD. However, I'm not sure that is possible since blu-ray and DVD are differnt codecs.
Thank you

The only way that you can get acceptable re-scaling of menus is to go from BR to DVD, and do the editing in Photoshop. Simply re-scaling the menu here will not give acceptable results.
I usually copy the various button layers from the BR menu to a new DVD menu file created using the provided Photoshop preset. You will still have to do some manual re-scaling and alignment. The thing that has given me the most trouble over the years is round button highlights - a segment is often chopped off. Font sizes will probably need adjusting too.
Unless you are adept with handling layers and groups within Photoshop, it may be easier to start again.
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Best workflow for HDV 1080/60i/24pA with FCP 5.1.4

I've spent hours trying to find the answer to this specific problem on the discussion forums as well as the FCP user manuals and I can't find it, please help! I've got a Sony HVR-V1U and I recently recorded several hours of footage at 24pA. I would like to edit the footage in 24p, and preferably in a different codec besides HDV and definitely not in AIC. I don't have any experience with Cinema Tools and I can't seem to get any files directly from FCP to Cinema Tools no matter what I transcode the video to. Also, is there any way to transcode the video to ProRes because it is so much faster to render video in ProRes than in HDV.
Thanks in advance!

Removing pulldown is done during capture if you shot 24pa, and in Cinema tools if you shot 24p. However I don't think that camera shoots a version of 24p that works when you remove the pulldown pattern. I could be wrong, but as I recall, the 24fps video that the v1u shoots isn't exactly the same as that shot by say, a DV camera so might not work removing pulldown. Just looked at the specs at Sony on the camera... it does apparently shoot with a 2:3 pulldown, so after you capture, you might try Cinema tools for the removal. Never heard of anyone doing this with HDV though, so it might be pretty problematic.
That said, you should be able to transcode to ProRes in Compressor, and it should look great. Don't use your computer display to judge the quality of the results though, use an external video monitor. Artifact may show up on the computer's display when it's really not in the video...
Jerry

Best Workflow for HD content onto a DVD

Hello to you all out there! Here's what I'd like to do...I want to be able to burn HD footage onto a DVD, but still watch it as HD footage. I know that DVD resolution is MUCH lower, and am looking for a workaround for that. So what I need help with is:
1. What settings am I looking for as far as my export from Premiere CS5.5?
2. What settings in Encore?
Thanks in advance!

Fortunately BD disks are not that expensive any more. Philips 10 disks are for $10, Titan BD 10 disks are under 10. Blu ray burners are under 100 dollars on newegg.
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What's the correct workflow for high FPS footage motion blur?

Situation is the following:
I have a few 600fps recordings I want to put together with heavy editing.
Things I want to do (not in order):
Change the velocity heavily up and down, from 300% to 10% and back withing seconds.
Basic VFX, heightmap, masking, light flashes and so on.
3D tracking and effects, particles and text in 3D space
Color Correction
Good motion blur
Overlays
Now, my question is at which point I apply the motion blur. I'd like to start in Sony Vegas for the velocity and then move to After Effects.
But Sony Vegas is capable to export at max 120fps. Will the motion blur result be worse/different with minro FPS footage?
In Sony Vegas for example, the resample feature is pretty useless/bad unless you go over 120fps.
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Thanks in advance.

and until then the footage has to stay 600fps. Is this correct?
No. Motion blur is calculated from frame to frame at the actual playback speed. Anything else would look fake, anyway, though of course you may already ned to/ want to add some motion blur to some elements halfway through just to from the precision of higher framerates. Smoother curves and all that. So ultimately in which order you do it is till a matter of what gives you the best result, not so much a fixed "correct" order.
Mylenium

Correct workflow for 16 x 9 to 4 x 3 with letterbox?

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That's not what I said, but then maybe I misunderstood what you want to do.
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Problems with "Author once" workflow, can't transcode HDV to BD and DVD

Adobe claims that with Encore CS3 you can
"author once, deliver to three formats" -- Blu-ray, DVD and Flash. I have been doing some research and testing, but have not been able to get it to work.
It seems as though Encore is not capable of taking HDV 1080i60 footage and transcoding it for both Blu-ray and DVD. The Blu-ray looks great, but the downconverted transcode for DVD is completely unusable.
Link to screen shot of HDV to DVD transcode. (Note: this is a frame at 100%, so the "comb teeth" really are that big.)
I have seen some pretty pathetic downconversions from HDV to DV resolution, but this is the most creatively useless one I've come across so far.
I have been able to use Dynamic Link to get an almost acceptable "author once" workflow from HDV footage. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a way to get Encore or After Effects to render fields for the DVD transcode, so fast-moving graphic elements and text have jerky/strobing motion.
FYI, I got Dynamic Link working well for non-fast clips by doing the following:
Make sure that "Separate Fields" was set to "Upper" in "Interpret Footage" for the HDV clip.
Set the clip's frame blending mode to "Frame Mix" ("Pixel Motion" works, just take longer).
Enable Frame Blending for the comp.
(Enable Motion Blur for the comp if any layers are using Motion Blur).
If only there were a button to enable field rendering for the comp along with Frame Blending and Motion Blur, as both of those options directly affect how the Dynamic Link renders/transcodes in Encore.
I noticed that without Frame Blending enabled for both the clip and the comp, the motion in the transcode was very jerky, even though the clip had not been time stretched/remapped.
Does anyone know of some way to get the mythical "author once" workflow to work? Perhaps it's only for progressive workflows and not interlaced? Could this be a Mac-related problem (I have not been able to test on Windows)?
I know I can downconvert first, then import into Encore, and that does work fine, but that completely negates the wonderful concept of "author once".
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.
-Joel Granholm
Details:
Encore CS3 3.0.1.008
After Effects CS3 8.0.1.8
Premiere Pro CS3 3.0.1
Final Cut Studio 2
Mac OS X 10.4.10
Mac Pro 8-core, 8 GB RAM / MacBook Pro 17" 2-core, 4 GB RAM
Shooting/editing in HDV 1080i60
Trying to create:
BD: NTSC, 1440x1080, 29.97i (upper field first), H.264.
DVD: NTSC, 16:9 Aspect Ratio, 29.97i (lower field first), MPEG2

Ruud,
Gspot showed there was a problem with the file. What it said was of the 130K frames, most were not needed. I went back to the editor and reconstructed the 130K file. Had problems trying to export to M2v. PPro 2.0 would freeze every time, sometimes in a few minutes, sometimes just short of completing, approx 2 hours(this was a 2 pass vbr setup). I experienced problems just trying to make an AVI file for importing into Encore 2.0. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since I first started this journey(over 300 hours). My first shot at elation occurred when I decided to try an m2v at vbr 1 pass instead of 2 pass. It worked. I say this because of late I have successfully made an Avi file, Imported the timeline and in fact satisfactorily made an m2v file (2 pass). The m2v was also brought into Encore 2.0. Though I have 4 HD's, it seems to me that as I am moving toward a successful product, I'm finding that I've located all my assets on one HD. Is this the way to go? I'd like to thank the alert for using Gspot. And I will, always. I believe that if I had used Gspot earlier I would not have been trying to fix the problem using a bad asset.
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Best workflow for colour correction?

I’m still new to fcp and Iv e just started using the colour correction tools. I haven’t looked at color (part of the final cut studio yet) this may seem stupid but what’s the best workflow? After I’ve cut every thing and then go though it one clip at I time it seems a long-winded way of doing it as some of my cuts are only a 6-15 frames.
Dose every one else colour correct their clips before starting to cutting the footage?

You always color correct after...and you always do each shot individually, even if they are 15 frames.
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http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Pro-Training-Encyclopedia-Correction/dp/0321432312/r ef=sr11?ie=UTF8&qid=1238509072&sr=8-1
http://store.creativecow.net/p/66/stopstaring_and_start_grading_with_applecolor
http://www.amazon.com/Call-Box-Digital-Correction-Workflow/dp/B000UZUL3Q/ref=sr115?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1238509138&sr=8-15
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SLLOWWWW encode for HDV to SD for DVD

I am now in the 2nd day of waiting compressor2.3 encode a 2 hour program I shot & edited in HDV.  I am outputting it for a SD DVD.  The longer I watch it encode the longer the time remaining grows and slower the encode process seems to be.
When I went to bed last night it was at 48% complete only to wake up this morning and it is now at 49%.
I set the encode tabs using the apple settings for encoding a 150 minute 16:9 video.  I believe it is a 2 pass setting. I am only processing the dolby 2.0 (which has completed) and the mpeg-2 vid.
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FWIW, an improved FCS 2 (fcp - compressor) workflow with HDV content (I have a HVR-Z1P).
On advice from others and other forums, I do the following when working with FCP and HDV in FCS 2.
(option A) -
• import/ingest the footage as HDV.
• batch convert the HDV and RENAME the footage (from CAPTURE) in to APPLE PRORES 422 codec
• work the time line with output codec APPLE PRORES 422
• submit sequence (s) to COMPRESSOR (works fast)
• when finished, use MEDIA MANAGER to consolidate footage, and purge the HDV footage (if you have limited disk space)
(option b) -
• in FCP log the footage
• import the offline footage using APPLE PRORES 422
• work the project in APPLE PRORESS 422
• submit PRORES 422 sequqnces to COMPRESSOR
• watch cmopressor work this.
I dont have a tehnical explanation fort htis ony an optinion that for HDV to a MULTIPASS H.264 AVC transcode from FCP takes ages on this dual QUAD core (and worse on my old g5 QUAD).
Other methods you could try vary to taste.. THese are:
• from the HDV sequqnce - expoert a QUICKTIME REFERENCE MOVIE - sometimes is quick but most of the time takes ages... then
• set up a QMASTER VIRTUAL cluster with an instance for every two (2) cores you have on all machines in the cluster (plenty of info on this) in these forums. . On this octo, I have 4 x instances for example and one instance on each of the MBP's (unmanaged services).
• submit thereference movie to this compressor cluster.
Others have found better experience submittimg a SELF CONTAINED QUICKTIME movie as above.
post your results.

Best Workflow for Dvd studio Pro

I am looking to get the best possible workflow for dvd output. I currently just export my FCE HD project as quicktime movie NOT self contained. I then pull it into DVD Studio Pro 3 and after i do all the menus I build and burn the dvd. The image quality is good, but after reading alot of posts here it seems alot of people put their projects through compression before dvd studio pro builds the project. Should i be doing this?
Thanks.

Well, use the best encoder you can get your hands on. If you can budget for other encoders then maybe do that. Compressor will give you more control so its a good place to start,
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Advice for logical workflow for color correcting and color grading

I am an experienced user of PPRO CS5. I am a novice with color correcting and color grading. I am also just barely competant in AE CS5. It has been suggested that I use AE for color correcting my footage. Can you advise me as to the most logical workflow for doing this in coordination with PPRO CS5? Are there some tutorials that you recommend? I subscribe to Lynda.com and I think that they have some great tutorials, I am unsure as to where to begin looking and what to search for.
Thanks so much,
Lisa

lisaellensegal wrote:
I am an experienced user of PPRO CS5. I am a novice with color correcting and color grading. I am also just barely competant in AE CS5. It has been suggested that I use AE for color correcting my footage.
You can do it that way, sure. But you don't have to. You can accomplish quite a lot without leaving PPro. This has two major advantages. First, if you aren't using AE for anything else, it gets you out of using AE at all, so gets you out of climbing another set of learning curves.
Second, even if you are using AE for other things (I use AE to make motion lower thirds, for example), doing the work in PPro can improve exporting speeds. This is because AE gets restricted to a single processor core in some workflows as discussed in this thread and others (search around if you're interested). This can make exporting take 3x as long or longer, depending on how much footage has to be processed by AE.
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If you find you have specific colors that need to be fixed, you can apply another three way color correction effect and use it to make that secondary color correction (for example I find the blue dyes used in many labels tend to fluoresce under fluorescent lighting, and has to be desaturated with a secondary color correction or it "blooms" on an HDTV -- IOW, it has to be made "broadcast safe").
If you want tutorials for using these tools, the ones on Creative Cow by Andrew Devis are quite good, and free. The ones on color correction with PPro cs6 start at tutorial number 47. There's a bunch of them. All good.
Finally, get a copy of Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook. May be the best technical book I've ever read, and it'll certainly point you in the right direction for doing color correction work regardless of which tools you use to do it.

Correct settings for DVD

Hi
I wish to know which are the correct settings for making a new project in imovie and then what to do for getting the best quality on DVD. (I use still pictures and video clips with music, transitions and effects)
Thank you so much.

ola
the correct format depends on the format your camera (PAL or NTSC - 4:3 or 16:9) meaning the project format should meet the camera format. pleas note that that format changes in iMovie/iDVD are effective only for new projects and cannot change existing ones. the dvd quality settings depend on the length of your movie and can be set in iDVD under preferences.
my movies are never longer than 30 min. so i set it to faster encoding and check background encoding ... i also tried with best quality once but frankly i can't see the difference
buona suerte & viva la mela

Correct workflow for HDV to anamorphic SD DVD?

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