720 or 1080 for DVD mainly viewd on monitors not TV's

J

joemahoney

New member
I am going to be doing a shoot with the HVX200, of a bunch of product demos for a DVD that will be mainly viewed full screen on computer monitors & want to have the best quality possible when the footage is shown in full screen mode.

I am still up in the air about what format I should shoot at due to the fact that 99% of the viewers who will be watching this DVD will be on there computers as apposed to a set top box for TV's .

I have run a few DVD quality tests with both 1080i & 720p samples that used the DVCPRO HD codec and also used the QuickTime Conversion export option and selected the Apple 10-bit Uncompressed 4:2:2 Codec with an output size of 720×480. They both looked good when I burned them and ran the DVD in full-screen.

I would appreciate any suggestions, tips or insight to get the best results possible.

THX
 
If it is destined for computer screens, I would record 720P (your choice of frame rate), and output H.264 using QuickTime.
 
I'd shoot progressiv, probably 720p. Odds are the vast majority don't have a 1920x1080 or larger screen, so is of no benefit to them. Plus interlaced looks crappy on computer displays. H.264 is small files but high processor requirements. DVCPRO HD has lower processor requirements for codec playback (1 GHz G4)can't be counted on being on the other person's Mac (is part of FCP not QuickTime), and is not even available for Windows boxes.
 
I would output via hi-def Divx or Xvid (the latter if you wish to distribute without licensing fees)

As to your original question, I would just do 720p. You'll have more recording time on your P2 cards, your resulting file sizes will be smaller after the compression, and as stated, it will take less CPU power to play back.
 
I would shoot 720 24pN. SD DVD delivery. People do not want to download a bunch of codecs to view video. A 16:9 24p progressive DVD would look good on computer, plasma, HD or SD television.

Just remember with FCP.
Export your show to a .mov first. Close FCP and then import your new file into compressor for DVD encoding.
 
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