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

Similar Messages

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.

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).

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

Going HD 24fps to standard DVD NTSC

Hey everyone,
I've been working with HD projects for a couple years, but I now have to bring them to DVD NTSC format to ship out to potential employers. I mainly work in the following format:
1280x720 HD (Square Pixels)
24 fps
Progressive (No Fields)
So, what's the best way to get this down to proper format (720x480, 0.9 pixel aspect, 29.97 fps) without hiccups and quality loss? I have the Adobe suite, so access to Premiere, AE, and Encore are no problem. HD/Blu-Ray formats are also out of the question. Thanks for the help in advance! :D

Hi Nick,
Read this forum topic:
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b5b2fb/62
Using PrP and some readily-available free tools, you should get a very nice result.
-Jeff

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

CS4 and pillarboxing 1920x1080 AVCHD to 16:9 DVD NTSC

I'm new to Premiere CS4. I'm using Canon HF11 30p MTS files, so I'm using the 1080i30 (60i) settings.
I Import my AVCHD files. When I try to use Adobe Media Encoder CS4 to downsample the 1920x1080 AVCHD to 16:9 DVD NTSC or DV I get pillarboxing on the sides of the DVD file. I don't in any of my other video editing programs. Why do I ONLY see this in Premiere, and how can I fix it? I've never seen a video editor not 'stretch' the video to fill the entire 720x480 'screen' with the correct aspect ratio played on the TV.
I read about and already understood apect ratios:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PremierePro/4.0/WS03BF7479-8C7B-4522-8C75-210AD102524Ea.html#W S9058AE69-455C-49c2-AD1B-35DA227B376Aa
And this sounds like it's about my problem but doesn't help since the MPEG2-DVD setting in AME doesn't allow me to choose square pixels:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/325/325883.html
Here's the output showing the pillarboxing:
Here's the source tab:

For CS4, Adobe "fixed" the non-square pixel aspect ratios to conform to BBC and Orange Book standards. For years Adobe apps have had the wrong PARs. It's now been fixed across the entire suite of Adobe applications. The technical solution involves Production Aperture, Clean Aperture and more math than I care to review.
If you'd like to try to get your head around it, this link may be helpful:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tvbranding/picturesize.shtml
The bottom line is that what you are seeing now is correct.
-Jeff

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 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-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.

DVD NTSC conversion to DVD PAL

I had a DVD NTSC converted to a DVD PAL, and when I play it on my Mac DVD Player the image is dropped below center, and looks slightly narrower. I thought any format DVD played on the computer?Was I wrong, or is it a bad conversion?

Duplicate post: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12107352#12107352

HD 1080i PAL to DVD NTSC

I've learned a tremendous amount from reading the forum, and this is the first time I've been compelled to post - I am stuck!
My basic question is what is the best way to go from 1920 x 1080i AVCHD 25 fps PAL source footage edited in its native format in Premiere CS4 to a SD NTSC DVD authored in Encore? I'm fine with losing quality, but I've been getting choppy video in transitions and audio sync problems, and that's not acceptable.
I've tried using the dynamic link and transcoding in Encore with all sorts of different settings and usually end up with the audio going out of sync in a couple spots and some unexpected frames in transitions that cause jumps. The best I've come up with is encoding to NTSC 23.976 fps progressive, 2 pass VBR which still has slightly choppy zooms.
The sequence is about 27 minutes and takes 2 hours to transcode to NTSC 23.976 fps WITHOUT using the maximum quality option. If I select maximum quality then it takes over 24 hours (!!) and the quality is actually worse (jumps in transitions and audio sync problems). Could this be due to the "frame blending" bug that I've read about in AME?
I realize I'm dealing with two major issues: frame rate and resolution. Any suggestions? Thanks.
- Aaron
System Info:
AMD Athlon II X4 2.9 GHz
8 GB RAM
64-bit Windows 7
CS4 Production Premium
Drives:
C: System
D: Pagefile/Project Files/Media Cache
E: Source media

Thanks for the quick replies, everyone. It seems that there were some specific edits that were causing audio syncing and video glitches - they were fine in the Premiere project, but would cause problems when exported. I spent some time exporting (directly from Premiere without multiplexing or changing the frame rate) those specific sections that were giving me problems. I couldn't get anything to work consistently. Finally, out of desperation, I tried exporting to tape and it worked! It rendered to 1080 50i HDV and recorded to my Sony HDR-HC9 without any problems. Then I recaptured it into Premiere and was able to export it from Premiere into both PAL and NTSC standard definition Encore projects without any problems. I think it must have been some problem with way Premiere was trying to export the original AVCHD clips and/or the way they were edited together. I'm not really sure what it was, but I'm relieved it finally worked.
- Aaron

CS3...Exporting 24F HDV to DVD

Hi, I have a question regarding the exporting of HDV footage to DVD from Premiere Pro CS3.
I have Adobe Encore installed, and prior to using HDV, I would export my timeline from Premiere to Encore, and get a .m2v file and audio file. I had everything all set up, where I exported the timeline in NTSC Widescreen high quality. All of that was a result of a lot of help from this forum a year ago, which told me exactly the proper settings to use (bitrate, frames, etc).
But now, since I'm using HDV 24F footage captured from a Canon XH-A1, on a 24F project timeline, I am lost on what to do for exporting to encore.
There are several Blu Ray options, but I do not know which one would be best, and even if that file would still burn to a normal DVD.
Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
- Ken

Could you explain what "60i wrapper" means? If it's too complex and time consuming, I can look it up. I'd just rather hear it from someone's own words.
And for exporting, the format I did for my SD timelines was MPEG2-DVD. What I need to know is what preset I need in the options, to get the best quality from the HDV footage.
I tried the one I would use for the SD (Widescreen NTSC 23.97 High quality), and it looked bad. I know there are options that don't specify the frame rate in the headline, but when going to the options for frame rate, there is no 24 listed. So this is the area I need help on to know how to not lose quality.
Thank you

HDV to DVD (NTSC)

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