DVD Output for HDTV

L

livelikeriley

Well-known member
So I had an eye opening experience tonight. I finally bought an HDTV and decided to pop in one of my SD films made with the HVX, it looked AWFUL! Admittedly I wasn't expecting much it's not a blu-ray or HD-DVD and I don't even have an up-converting DVD player, but I put in a commercial DVD and it looked pretty much normal/fine...what am I doing wrong. My current workflow has been thus - Edit P2 in Final Cut Pro, output as a quicktime file DVCProHD 720p24 (I shoot in 720p 24pN). I take that file and pull it into DVD Studio Pro and when I go to burn the DVD project, DVD Studio Pro converts it into an Mpeg file/aiff audio. Obviously it must be getting over compressed or something...so what settings are good to use for display of an SD DVD on an HDTV? Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mark.
 
DVD is MPEG-2 no way around that. If you want to have better imagery on an HD TV you would need to make a Blu-Ray or HD DVD. Or output a 720p QuickTime and connect your computer via DVI to the HD TV.

Noah
 
Right, I understand that, but perhaps changing the bit rate etc. would yield different results...as I said, I put in a commercial DVD which is still stuck in the same MPEG-2 quagmire and it looks passable, not great, but fine...but my personal burned DVDs from HVX material look like sh*t....anyone know what is a good bit rate/compression trade off?

Thanks,
Mark.
 
This is part art and part science.

Using DVD SP to encode isn't wise, because you have far less control over encode rates and no control over audio.

1. Length of the video in total minutes

2. Maximum and target bit rate

3. Treatment of audio -- encode to AC3, not aiff

4. Brand of blank media.

burn speed

which set top with what connection to what HD TV?

There isn't a "magic button here." I've been doing this for nearly nine years on a desktop. Our SD DVDs with a HDMI and upconverting set top look great
 
Well I just bought the HDTV so I don't have an up-convert player yet...it's not even HDMI, it's just composite into the tv...The videos I'm making are around 10-20mins. so I'm tempted to up the bit rate, but since I'm a noob at encoding I'm not sure where I should push it, because I want it to be compatible with most players. Encode the audio to AC3? All right, I'll try that - hmmph, methinks there needs to be a cheap blu ray external burner...that LaCie for 700.00 is a bit pricey.... :(

Mark.
 
You should definitely compress in Compressor, where you can choose
a short movie length, two-pass, etc. Not only do you have better
control over the encoding quality, but--once you have a good-looking
mpeg-2 file--you can make changes to your DVD without having to
recompress everytime. Authoring goes MUCH faster.

Les
 
Now that I'm researching a blu-ray burner, I'm finding that no mac DVD software can burn a blu-ray disc? Does Adobe Encore for the mac do this?

Thanks,
Mark.
 
Interesting...I just put my film back to P2 card from Final Cut and saw it in all the glory of HD for the first time - I was blown away. I'm gonna have to get a blu-ray burner, I'm just not going to be satisfied with SD any longer...no matter how high I can pump the bitrate up...Anyone know if it's possible to rig an internal burner up for external use on the mac? That LaCie is pricey....
 
What bitrate are you using for your DVD movies? Why not take some time to learn the technology before you rush to buy a DVD player?
 
livelikeriley said:
Interesting...I just put my film back to P2 card from Final Cut and saw it in all the glory of HD for the first time - I was blown away. I'm gonna have to get a blu-ray burner, I'm just not going to be satisfied with SD any longer...no matter how high I can pump the bitrate up...Anyone know if it's possible to rig an internal burner up for external use on the mac? That LaCie is pricey....
Click to expand...

how to put the film back to a P2 ?

Also, I found this about using a standard DVD to record HD footage:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hd_dvds_on_sd_dvds_young.html

Ulisses
 
Just hook it up via firewire and go into MCR mode on the camera...then hit the audio dub button and you'll be set to record whatever is in your FCP timeline....it only lets you record back out at 720p 24p though, you can't do 24pn (unless you have raylight I hear). I'll check out that article.

Thanks,
Mark.
 
Upping the bit rate isn't the solution

Selecting the correct bit rate for the total length of your video in minutes and combining that with ac3, 192 mbps audio is the right solution.

and DVD set top composite to HD TV is probably the worst possible picture you can show.

You need to think about learning the basics before expecting good quality video from a SD DVD set top to a HD TV
 
David S. said:
Upping the bit rate isn't the solution

and DVD set top composite to HD TV is probably the worst possible picture you can show.

You need to think about learning the basics before expecting good quality video from a SD DVD set top to a HD TV
Click to expand...
Agreed - I'm playing my SD DVDs through an upconverting HD-DVD player (as well as playing HD-DVDs burned in FCP). using HDMI from the player to the HDTV, and the SDs look good. All the normal composite stuff now looks worse on the HDTV than it did on my 36" analog.

Course, pretty soon I'll have to get a blu-ray player. but AFAIK, there's still no way to burn a blu-ray disk is there?
 
As for the bitrate question, most commercial DVDs run about 2-4Mbps average VBR. You can encode a total data rate of 9.something Mbps, with all audio included, but the lower your bitrate, the lower the chances of skips and read errors causing problems.
I think "superbit" was usually around 6.5Mpbs VBR, and I author most of my DVDs to that. I find that this looks respectable when upconverted to HD.
 
There's a lot more to it than the bitrate... the quality of the source material makes a big difference, as does image noise, etc. The first step to a great-looking DVD encode is great-looking, clean original footage. Sometimes something as simple as crishing the blacks a bit will make your DVD encode look 10x better...
 
Just hook it up via firewire and go into MCR mode on the camera...then hit the audio dub button and you'll be set to record whatever is in your FCP timeline....it only lets you record back out at 720p 24p though, you can't do 24pn (unless you have raylight I hear).
Click to expand...

Would that work with Edius or is that a FCP only option?
 
I assume it would be about the same....in FCP you print to video/tape....I don't know Edius, but I assume there is a similar option.
 
ProfessorU said:
As for the bitrate question, most commercial DVDs run about 2-4Mbps average VBR. .
Click to expand...

My understanding is that the commercial DVDs range from 3 to about 9 and are adaptive.

Of course, the source footage is film for the most part.

I always correlate my bit rate to the length of the video in total minutes, never exceedings about 7 mbps per 55 minutes.
 
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