down convert HD (hvx) to SD for DVD

on a mac with final cut studio, the simplest way to downrez to sd for dvd also gets you great quality. take your final dvcpro hd master into compressor. drag the "dvd best quality 90 minutes" setting onto the clip and hit "submit". this makes an "m2v" file which is the mpeg stream and a "ac3" file which is the audio. drag both of these files into your dvd authoring software and burn.

if you want to downrez to print to tape for broadcast this method works great for me. export your edit to a quicktime dvcpro hd movie. then create a new dvcpro 50 sequence. you can make it anamorphic if you want 16:9 or leave it 4:3 if you want to letterbox. then drag your dvcpro hd master onto this sequence. fcp will automatically scale it down to dv and you're done. make sure it's dv50, not regular dv. this keeps your footage at 4:2:2 instead of 4:1:1.

if you are using a pc or different software on the mac i can't be much help. sorry. good luck.
 
cheez... thanks for the reply.. just to clarify. What i have is two diff types of footage.

1 sd footage shot with vx2100
2 HVX footage shot 720 24pn.

I want to mix the two footage on one timeline and then out put to DVD as SD footage. No broadcast delivery but i will keep your suggestion in mind for when needed.

So, your suggestion on how to convert my hvx HD footage to SD will still work, and i dont have to worry about double compressing the footage? 1st compression takes place in the process of downconverting to SD and 2 when i compress final project?

Is there a way to take my raw footage (already imported into FCP 6.0) and downconvert to SD 4x3... then bring that footage into FCP 6.0 and work on my project and so on...I just need help understanding how i get the HVX footage (un-edited, etc) downconverted to SD so i can bring it back into FCP 6.0 and start my edits...
 
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well if you drop the hvx hd footage onto an sd timeline, it will recompress the footage upon rendering or output, but only once, not twice. i'm not sure how going from dv25 to dv50 will affect your 2100 footage. prob no big deal but i would do a test first....

i have used this method a lot for downrezzing hvx footage for output to digibeta for broadcast. works great. i don't know about cropping to 4:3. we always just letterbox the 16:9.
 
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