HD to normal DVD..

M

Mr. Brown

Member
I'm shooting a short film and the end result will finally be a normal DVD. I had made a short with the HVX200 and realised that the 720pN 25p mode is in fact a 960x720 frame aspect. And when I wanted to get that onto DVD, I found out that normal DVD's can only handle 720x576.

Now since I am not going to be working with HD DVD's and my films will be shown on television, is it possible to just shoot on mini-DV with the HVX200 instead of on the P2 cards, or will my image, shot on 720pN 25p mode with the P2 card and then downrezzed to 720x576 look better? Also, in the downrezzing, what programs do you use? I did it in Premiere Pro, but all the hassle in the end when it's gone to be Standard Definition DVD made me wonder, is it worth the trouble? Why not just shoot on mini-DV and have that workflow, instead of uploading the P2 card every time it's full? (I'm still working with one P2 card at the moment).

Thanks in advance, the possibilities are a bit jarring sometimes.
 
It's better to work in the higher resolution and 4:2:2 color space and then downrez when you're ready to go to DVD.

And, even if you do nothing else, recording in HD and then downrezzing will give you a much cleaner image than recording in DV. Not (directly) because of the resolution, but because noise isn't as much of a factor. Yes, there's noise, but a pixel of noise is far less of a factor in HD than it is in SD, and the benefit will carry over through the downrez.
 
Thanks, I figured if my original source material was higher quality, it would still carry over to the SD version somewhat. With what do you do the downrezzing though?
 
Remember, though, that when you downrez, the image won't be any higher-resolution than DV. But working in the higher resolution and better color space before you downrez will help ensure the best possible overall image.

Any NLE you work in should be able to export as DV or as MPEG-2 suitable for DVD. But you can use stand-alone products like Sorenson Squeeze or Compressor, too.
 
In addition, shooting in HD gives you the option to crop in post without any loss of quality if your target is SD.
 
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