7D Editing Workflow? Best Output Settings for DVD?

[LorenS]

I'm finishing up a 10 minute documentary piece in sony vegas and am wondering about other people's editing workflows - particularly how they're preparing their finished projects for DVD or projection.

For some background I'm currently working on a timeline with a mix of 7D footage (24p) and FX7 footage (60i HDV). The 7D footage has all been converted to the Cineform intermediate codec (fixing grading, recompression, and stability issues that previously plagued the project). The FX7 footage on the other hand is all still in native HDV (no problems thus far). Most of the interviews were shot using both the 7D & FX7 with both microphones (lav & me64 cardioid) running into the FX7. This means that the HDV footage contains my master audio.

My output workflow consists of rendering out to high quality 16x9 standard def mpeg2 (8Mbps cbr) then burning to DVD using DVD architect (no video recompression).

I've got four primary questions:

• (1) Should I convert the HDV clips to the cineform intermediate codec too?
• (2) Should I use specialty software like Magic Bullet Frames to convert the interlaced HDV clips to 24p separately?
• (3) Can I render individual interviews out to cineform codec .avi files of similarly small size (after adding correct audio tracks and color correction)?
• (4) What mpeg2 framerate should I be rendering out to for the finished standard def DVD? 23.976? 23.976 with 2-3 pulldown? 30p? 60i?

 

[LorenS]

Figured out (3) - if you're using cineform intermediate you can sync your external audio files up on the timeline then re-output the clip (now including the externally recorded audio) without needing to recompress the video at all. To sync audio this way to a 10-12 minute clips takes about 5 minutes. Hopefully this is handy for someone else.