HDV to DVD conversion

I've read a great deal of discusson on this site regarding HDV to DVD conversion and how to get the best possible results. There seem to be about a half a dozen marginal solutions but in my opinion and experience no real perfect definitive solution.
This is in the way of a suggestion/plea/request to Apple, to those who run this forum, and to those experts there who deal with Final Cut pro and HDV editing: Could someone please create a definitive expert professional manual/post/procedure on how to do this very straightforward conversion from HDV to DVD with the BEST possible industry quality results.
DF
g5 tower Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Seriously, open the phonebook, start asking who can take a HDV master on miniDV tape, and hand you back a DVD in a day or two, it may be cheaper than buying pro encoder software, and your time to learn how to use it effectively. You should have budget for this, promos / trailer work should be included. Your time costs money. It will also put you in a better position to know what to ask for when the project is finished.
Using the camera down convert is good enough. DVD from DV is fast to make. If you are just previewing it, S-VHS is also good enough, and very quick and simple to produce - don't rule out lower tech, or lower quality options, they will still tell the same story.
In answer to your question, (do you really want to know ?), the colour space of the NTSC DV in camera down conversion is 4:1:1, the colour space of MPEG video is 4:2:0 (search for those terms, until you hit a page with diagrams of boxes), the differences in these structures results in a worst of both colour encoding - if you are shooting PAL, then the story is different, as PAL DV is also 4:2:0, and probably not significantly different from the DV50 method, once its on DVD.
DV50 is 4:2:2, HDV is 4:2:0, but at a higher resolution. When downscaled, I estimate SD from HDV is around 4:2:2 or maybe even 4:4:4, by going via DV50 to DVD you deliver the most DVD's can represent, rather than with NTSC DV where you deliver half the colour space DVDs can show. BUT the in camera down convert is REALTIME, consider the benefit of that before taking the slower route.
Is the DV50 the best SD down convert ? I don't know. It certainly looks very clear, shows no, or little signs of the DV50 codec adding artefacts over the original HDV footage, and produces more quality than the MPEG encoder can represent once on DVD, or at least, the MPEG encoder I have access to. I cannot say the same of the in camera convert. I also played with uncompressed codecs, and the None compression codec, they require huge amounts of disk space, and didn't look better than the DV50 method. However, I didn't test them with your footage.
I suggest a 1 minute 'bake off' between the methods, using your own footage, to see just how much quality you are willing to accept. You may find the in-camera is good enough, and a darn sight easier and faster.
Hope this helps - search around more, trawl through some older threads, or, just pick up the phone and call a post house to make it all go away! By the time you have figured out what works best for you, they would have finished and be on to the next job.

Similar Messages

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

Will Procoder 3 work as well as Dan Isaacs HDV -- SD DVD Workflow

I have Premiere Pro Projects in HDV and I need to get them onto DVD.
Dan Isaacs HDV --> SD DVD Workflow looks complicated.
Are there products like Procoder 3 that will get the same results as Dans Workflow with less complication.
I realize Procoder 3 isn't cheap, but money isn't a problem.
I just want quality (HDV>SD DVD) conversions with the least amount of work.
TIA

> I no longer have access to the debug frameserver plugin in CS3 after installing cs4 on same machine. I saw a similar post and am eagerly awaiting to hear if Dan has any suggestions??
Sorry... I don't know about that one. Very strange.
> I cannot use Dan's workflow in CS4
You can't use DebugMode, but if you export some HD intermediary from CS4 you can run that through the script.
If you have the Cineform or Matrox HD codecs, you can try exporting with that. You can also try exporting as Lagarith @ 1440x1080i.
Another alternative that I'm forumating uses MPEG-2 4:2:2 I-frame exported from AME. See
this thread. (NOTE: This is for PAL I/O... adjust settings as necessary for NTSC).

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

FCS 2: HDV to SD Conversion

"Bonsai" posted a method for converting from HDV to SD resolutions last year which avoids the "dreaded line doubling" of just exporting HDV (or AIC for that matter) to compressor mpeg2 (for DVD ) conversion. It involved using an DV50 sequence to improve compressors handling of the down conversion.
Question: does anyone with FCS 2 (just shipped, I know) know if this issue of line doubling has been solved directly by Apple? Using DV50 intermediate and "exporting" is a disk space (and time) costly operation, and I'd like to avoid it if I can.
Ed

Thanks, Jerry.
For me the issue is just getting from one of the many HD formats to SD without going through a DV conversion with its color space issues. It is interesting that with the Bonzai solution one basically just sets up a SD sequence (DV50 is the suggestion) into which your drop your HDV ( or AIC, or, I'm guessing, even actual HD), with a particular value set for the conversion (linear as opposed to "best") and this causes compressor to behave better.
Apparently, without this little "fix," sending HDV, AIC or (?) directly to compressor for mpeg2 SD compression results in every other scan line being discarded, and the other ones repeated; the result is pretty jaggy around sharp, diagonal edges. Using DV50 with "linear) apparently results in averaging and dithering adjacent lines prior to the mpeg2 compression and the results are noticeably better.
The Bonzai solution also suggests "blurring" the HDV sequence, but in my testing, I found that though it makes edges a bit smoother, it softens the rest of the image too much for my taste (and that is with a .5 blur on each channel).
Anyway, it seems that the problem in this case is NOT HDV and its issues, but rather with the way in which Compressor 2.x deals with downsampling. The audio world has dealt with this in the early days of DAWs and the various flavors of dither, UV22, noise floor injection, etc. to down sample recorded rates (like 48kHz) to CD rates (44.1kHz) and word length reduction from 24 bits to 16.
I'm hoping compressor has handled this better in V3 so that I don't have to pay the time or space to convert things to DV50 (space if I export, time if I just send the DV50 sequence to compressor out of FCP). Clearly, the mpeg2 SD process should do the right thing and not just toss every other line.
Ed

HDV to DVD field issue

I need a work around for the field issue apparent when down-converting HDV to DVD.
The Bonsai method 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?

Just to make sure I undestand you (I am having the same problem...my video looks jagged and not very sharp).
You're saying to creat a new sequence that is the 720 x 480 10 Bit Uncompressed?
And then in Settings under field dominance set that to NONE and motion filtering quality to Best. When I put my sequence into this uncompressed timeline, do I need to render it or can I just go straight to compressor? Does it matter?
Are there any settings within Compressor to change, such as Deinterlacing, field dominance (progressive, lower/even, upper/odd), blur, anti-aliasing?
I am using HDV 1080i60 Codec to shoot in and edit.
Thanks so much. I will try your suggestion. Have you used this procedure much?

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

Video/DVD conversion problems and questions

I have been using i-tunes for a couple years. The music libary and its functionality is superb however after getting an Iphone I have been trying to fully understand the concept of the required video/dvd conversion before itunes will accept them.
I have used a couple different programs to convert content into Mpeg-4 itunes acceptable format. However when attempt to snyc video to my iphone several issues arise. First I have had content in my movie/video libary that for whatever reason will not transfer to the phone. Sometimes itunes will transfer a specific video and then on a later snycing, it will leave that same content out. Bizarre. I had 4 videos loaded into itunes and at one point I had all of them on the phone. During my last snyc session although they were checked, in the movie libary, they were not transferred.
I have been using the itunes conversion option even after its been coverted into Mpeg-4, is this neccessary ? I have ripped a full length purchased dvd and loaded it onto Itunes, however it will not sync to the phone. Should I be able to load an entire movie if I have the available space or is there a capacity limit ?
Can someone describe a process from start to finish, that will decode/convert video/dvd's into Itunes acceptable format that will also allow snycing to my I-phone without all of these constant issues ?
Thanks !
S ~

Ok folks let's disengage the panic button. This is more of a means of sorting out a movie/video clip snync problem than trying to circumvent legalities and or discuss copyright violations none of which are present.
i/tunes seems to make up it's own mind regarding which vid clips are transferred to the iphone even when all selections are formatted and are checked. No error message, no indicators, some files move while others do not.
Any ideas ?

Green line on left side of HDV-to-DVD footage

I am editing 1080p30 HDV footage. I get a faint green outline around the frame when I use Compressor to create the DVD M2V file.
This only seems to happen when I use Frame Controls - which I need to use, otherwise the footage comes out full of aliasing. So I need the resize filter.
What is a green edge a symptom of? What am I doing wrong here?

I just got done doing a fresh Snow Leopard install along with the new FCS3. Tonight I finished my first project (HDV 24p) and when I went to run it through compressor to go out to DVD I noticed the same thing.
I feverishly tried exporting with with dozens of different settings combinations. FINALLY, I found turning OFF frame controls fixed it. I'm glad I found the source of the issue but, like you, am a bit upset I can't use frame controls when I want higher quality output for my HDV>SD DVD downconversions.
As bad as this sounds- I hope a lot of people are having this issue that way Apple will acknowledge it and publish a fix.
PS Slightly OT but....I checked Compressor on another machine (latest version that was with FCS2) and it seems Frame Controls were OFF by default. Now they seem to be ON by default.

HDV into DVD SP " Incompatible format"

I'm having problems getting my HDV project into DVD pro. The film was shot in HDV and exported as a quicktime movie. I sent it to compressor and ended up with these specs once it compressed.
1920x1080 codecs: H.264. integer ( Big Endian), Duration 44:41 Total bit rate 11,320
DVD SPsays "Incompatible format". Is there anything I can do or should I convert it to SD?
Thanks!
Michael

Yes, Thanks Studio X. I used the preset in compressor for HDV H.264. Since I shot this in HDV I would prefer to have the final product in HDV. It seems others are having problems importing HDV into DVD SP. I was hoping for a simple explaination Ha Ha!
Michael

HDV to DVD-Change Field Dominance Or Not?

A search I did recently pointed to this article:
[http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/bkhdvconvert.html]
The author claims that when exporting an HDV sequence from FCP to Compressor, he changed the default field dominance from Upper to Lower, resulting in a better quality DVD, smoother motion, etc.
There wasn't anything wrong with my HDV exports using the default upper dominance, but I decided to try it, just looking to squeeze out any improvement I could.
The results were terrible; awfully jerky motion, dot crawl across the top of the image, etc., so I went back to using the default.
But then I thought, I wonder if the improvement the author saw was because he exported an HDV Quicktime Movie first, then put that into Compressor and switched the field dominance . . .
I usually export my HDV timeline right out of FCP to best quality DVD in Compressor, without the in between step. Just wondering if anyone else has tried it the way it's mentioned in the article, and if it's made a difference for them.

Wow, this thread was way back there;
Anyway, I use a Sony V1U, and shoot 1080i60, and I had been getting acceptable results, but was just looking for a bit more detail.
After reading the article, I sent a finished project to Compressor both ways; 1st with the default upper field dominance, and then again changing it to lower, as the article recommended. The default upper file looked pretty good, but the 2nd time with it on lower looked terrible; all kinds of motion displacement.
I've been using the default since, and have not tried it the other way since that first time. When I get time, I'd like to try exporting a QuickTime movie first, then put that into Compressor with the switched lower dominance to see if there's any improvement that way. I usually just export directly to Compressor from the timeline.
I appreciate the comments, and I'm always interested in any setting changes that might squeeze out some more detail when going from HDV to DVD.

*** Still trying to get good HDV to DVD image quality

Okay, so I thought I had a good solution, but I'm now back to square one. I'm shooting and editing in HDV with a Sony Z1U. I edit by using Final Cut Pro, 1 monitor and my 32" LCD tv (native resolution of 1366x768). While editing the image, and especially the text looks crystal clear.....beautiful.
My problem is outputting it to DVD. Currently, I am exporting my project directly from the timeline of FCP into compressor using the 90 minutes best quality 16:9. This gives my a 2pass VBR at 6.4mbps.
On a tube tv, it looks so-so, but it appears as though almost as if the lines are out of resigster. It reminds me of reading a newspaper where the print is off register. Definitely you can see interlacing around people and the text looks off register.
In DVD format on my LCD flat panel it looks really good (the best it can look).
On my 60" Sony SXRD new tv at home it looks really bad (granted I'm using a Playstation 2 to show it, and on the flat panel I'm using a DVD player with upconversion capabilities - maybe that's the solution right there....)
Currently I'm not adjusting the presets in Compressor.
Given all the variables above, is there anything that anyone can suggest that will give me better results? I don't want to import the footage in SD because then I'm editing SD and can never output the finished project as HDV when Blu-ray or HD-DVD comes out.
I would really appreciate some other workarounds that people have used to try and make their HDV footage look as best as possible in DVD format.
The frustrating thing is that you never know what TV your clients are watching your project on. Is there a standard set up that I could suggest they buy/use to get the best results?
P.S. When watching my project on the 60" SXRD I'm not only using a Playstation 2, but also it is connected through an S-Video cable. On the LCD flat panel, I'm using the up-converting DVD player and an HDMI to HDMI cord....Does the cord/way of connecting really make that much of a difference? How do I make it still look good for people that want to watch it letterboxed on a tube tv?

It's not the upconverting as much as the limitations of S-Video connections. And for true upconverting, you need to utilize the HDMI connection, which will produce better results over component, and qualitatively better over S Video.
As to client complaints as to image quality, my analog of the weakest link still holds. I always show my clients what it looks like on a good DVD player with at least component in to progressive conversion.
If their set up produces less, you simply identify what part of their set up is suspect.
Good quality blanks. Solid encode rates, and Dolby 2/ac3 audio.
Again, it has to be good going in
take care,
and I would appreciate it if you could award points.
It helps us all out.
david
BTW, go to http://www.lyric.com/video/losgatos/index.htm and look at the web samples of Los Gatos Then and Now, or buy the DVD.
Produce on a FX1.
best wishes
David
Remember to mark an response helpful or solved.
It protects the integrity of the board.

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

Exporting HDV for DVD

I'm shooting HDV with a Z1, and editing in HDV. I cannot get decent quality compressing for DVD through Compressor, nor if I compress a QT file. So I have to print to tape, then downconvert, and compress that, which gives excellent results. Downconverting to SD 4.3 is no problem, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to downconvert to SD 16.9. I know it's doable, because I've done it once, and can't remember what I did. What I'm getting is a very small image that needs enlarging to 300% in the motion tab, which gives lousy quality. Any suggestions how to get high quality compression from HDV, or how to downconvert to SD 16.9?
Peter in Tucson
2.7x2 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

If the destination is ultimately a DVD, then you should export from FCE to *QuickTime Movie* ... NOT QuickTime Conversion.
To speed up your export time, do the following BEFORE exporting your video:
+Sequence > Render All > Both+ and
+Sequence > Render Only > Mixdown+
When you export to QuickTime Movie, UNCHECK the option called +"Make Movie Self-Contained".+ Doing this will create what is called an QT reference movie. It will be relatively small and export quickly. You can import this into iDVD and create your DVD project same as if you had exported a self-contained movie from FCE.
Note that all DVDs are standard def, not high def. Assuming your project is 16:9 aspect ratio, it will be the same on the DVD, only it will be standard def. The only true high def media is BluRay, for which you need a BluRay burner and software (DVDStudio Pro or Toast).

HDV to DVD conversion

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