Jonathan Burton Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 I have just finished a project on HD1080i50 using a sony Z1P. It looks good, but now i am wondering the best way to down convert it and whack it on a DVD. What will give me the best results in terms of res and overall quality? Also what compression format should i use, (I am working on a mac with final cut). Any advice on this would be really helpful, cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd McCollum Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I have just finished a project on HD1080i50 using a sony Z1P. It looks good, but now i am wondering the best way to down convert it and whack it on a DVD. What will give me the best results in terms of res and overall quality? Also what compression format should i use, (I am working on a mac with final cut). Any advice on this would be really helpful, cheers. It's been a while, so you've probably already got this onto a DVD, but if you're using a Mac, I'd export it out at it's native codec with Export>Quicktime Movie>Current Settings, then use Compressor to do the MPEG2 compression - select the appropriate best quality preset for the size file you'll need (90 min, 120 min, or 150 min). You can do a fastest encode if this is more of a screener. Also, prior to exporting your project out of FCP, I would do a couple of things. If there are any filters (hopefully you're doing some basic color correcting) I'd set the renders (Sequence Settings/Render Control Tab) to use Prores 422. Under the Video Processing Tab, select Render all YUV material to High Precision YUV and Motion Filtering Quality to Best. Use the render manager to delete any previous renders for your final sequence, then render with the new settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Walter Graff Posted October 10, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted October 10, 2008 "Also, prior to exporting your project out of FCP, I would do a couple of things. If there are any filters (hopefully you're doing some basic color correcting) I'd set the renders (Sequence Settings/Render Control Tab) to use Prores 422." No, no don't do this. HDV is MPEG2 compression. DVDs are MPEG2 compression. They were made for each other. Don't re-render it into a codec that will then have to be rerendered as MPEG2. You are making more work for the render engine and you will loose something in the translation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd McCollum Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 "Also, prior to exporting your project out of FCP, I would do a couple of things. If there are any filters (hopefully you're doing some basic color correcting) I'd set the renders (Sequence Settings/Render Control Tab) to use Prores 422." No, no don't do this. HDV is MPEG2 compression. DVDs are MPEG2 compression. They were made for each other. Don't re-render it into a codec that will then have to be rerendered as MPEG2. You are making more work for the render engine and you will loose something in the translation. My thinking is that with HDV, any clip that needed rendering would lose something by having FCP rerender it (and the filter) back into the HDV codec - so using Prores would maintain higher quality on applied filters, such as the 3-way Color Corrector. Also graphics, stills, or other cgi elements not already HDV would be of better quality and wouldn't be rendered down to HDV for export, then be rerendered again in Compressor. Any native HDV material not needing to be rendered would still go out as HDV during the QT export. Another benefit would be faster render times (though larger render files). Just my $.02 and I'm always open to learning better ways of doing things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Walter Graff Posted October 10, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted October 10, 2008 I must have burned 600 DVDs the week I spent trying to find the best output for taking HD and making a SD DVD. And the winner. Make a SD timeline at uncompressed 8 bit. Import your HD file onto the timeline. Output it and make your DVD. The best way to do it from my testing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd McCollum Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 doing 600 of anything is a great way to work out best practices! I'll need to add that (8 bit uncompressed, not burning 600 DVDs) to my workflow. Thanks Walter! Boyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd McCollum Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 (edited) deleted - duplicate post Edited October 10, 2008 by Boyd McCollum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Adrian Sierkowski Posted October 10, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted October 10, 2008 I often also export 8 bit uncompressed SD from an HD timeline and do my other conversions from that, for what it's worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Fritzshall Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I must have burned 600 DVDs the week I spent trying to find the best output for taking HD and making a SD DVD. And the winner. Make a SD timeline at uncompressed 8 bit. Import your HD file onto the timeline. Output it and make your DVD. The best way to do it from my testing. This is pretty much what I do as well. Once you've got it in uncompressed SD, you can do whatever you want to it- put it through MPEG-2 for a DVD, downsample it and compress it with h.264 for the web, whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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