DVD from DVCProHD and FCP/DVDSP

darwinandpaine

Well-known member
I made my first DVD today from a DVCProHD 720p24 timeline in FCP, and it was really easy, which got me very excited.

First, it looks freakin' fantastic -- so much better than DV! 99.9% of people will never know that it wasn't shot on film. There's virtually no "video" look (if you're camera is set right), and it has none of the tell-tail signs of DV.

The coolest thing is that the FCP/DVDSP workflow was really simple. I made an FCP reference movie using "Current Settings" (not self-contained), imported that into DVDSP, put it on a track, and then made sure that the "Display Mode" for that track was set to "16:9 Letterbox." It was that easy.

My only question is this: Would I get better Mpeg2 quality using Compressor, VBR, etc...? Does anyone know if there is a workflow that will yeild a higher quality DVD?
 
I'd like to know how the PC people are making their DVD's.
I am suposed to be Kato, but feel like the lone ranger when it comes to the PC
side of the HVX workflow.


Anyway....
I use edius to pull in the clips, then I have to output it to an uncompressed avi while keeping the 23.976 frame rate. Then I take it into TMPGEnc to make an mpeg that will play 16x9 and with pulldown flags installed.

Here is where I get stuck.
I have used so many burning applications, that I can't remember which one worked the best. I do remember it was a cheap one.

The others would not let me burn the audio file, just video, don't know why.

So on the PC side, I need a DVD application that can input a wide variety of files to include wav for audio.
 
Scrappy said:
Congrats. Just curious, how long did the entire rendering process take?

The reference movie took seconds, but the piece was only 35 seconds long. I have DVDSP set to render in the background, and by the time I had created the menu (1 button), thrown the video on a track, set the track to 16:9 and put in a transition, I had to wait another minute or two.

I'm on an old dual 1.25Ghz G4 though, so I'm sure it would be much faster on a G5 or Core Duo.
 
I feel your pain. I have PC & Mac and having DVD SP is the way to go. Its the old Spruce DVD app from the PC in a shiny MAC wrapper. Spruce is what I still use on the PC. The PC DVD auth app side is like 1950 compared to DVD SP. I still do a limited amount of PC DVD work, just legacy jobs left over as I transition to the new gig here!
 
darwinandpaine said:
I made my first DVD today from a DVCProHD 720p24 timeline in FCP, and it was really easy, which got me very excited.

First, it looks freakin' fantastic -- so much better than DV! 99.9% of people will never know that it wasn't shot on film. There's virtually no "video" look (if you're camera is set right), and it has none of the tell-tail signs of DV.

The coolest thing is that the FCP/DVDSP workflow was really simple. I made an FCP reference movie using "Current Settings" (not self-contained), imported that into DVDSP, put it on a track, and then made sure that the "Display Mode" for that track was set to "16:9 Letterbox." It was that easy.

My only question is this: Would I get better Mpeg2 quality using Compressor, VBR, etc...? Does anyone know if there is a workflow that will yeild a higher quality DVD?

Congrats! I guess when you do it that way, then DVD SP is doing the encoding. I use Compressor and it does a great job but is very slow. I cannot wait to get the big intel/Apple iron!
 
HVXguy,
Thanks. I guess I'm going to have to do a test myself to see if DVDSP is doing a good job with the encoding. It sure looks good though.

P.S.: I realize that you've made a business decision regarding your avatar. But I'm gonna miss the old one.
 
darwinandpaine said:
HVXguy,
Thanks. I guess I'm going to have to do a test myself to see if DVDSP is doing a good job with the encoding. It sure looks good though.

P.S.: I realize that you've made a business decision regarding your avatar. But I'm gonna miss the old one.

I didn't think anyone noticed??
Some of my staff said I should change it, you know
look more professional. The old gorilla is still inside!
 
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