How to Export from HD to SD correctly??

[Mavoz]

Hi,

I'm wanting to make an SD 16x9 DVD and have a mixture of 720 footage and regular mini dv. I'm trialling the workflow.

The Mini DV export to DVD in Premiere Pro works fine...quality works great....

My problem is the 720P footage...it looks horrible on DVD...very pixelated.

What is the best way to make an SD DVD with 720 footage??

I've tried the following two methods...each with their own grief!!

Option 1: Do the whole project with Premiere Pro (using Raylight) 1280x720 Square Pixels 25fps 16x9

When using the Premiere Export to DVD the HD footage comes out quite pixellated and very low quality - the mini DV in this same project looks better.

Option 2: Export the HD footage back to Microsoft DV AVI and just make it as an SD project.

Problem:
The video ends up at 720x480 for some reason...and is compressed from the sides with black bars....when rescaled and exported to DVD it doesn't look as good as the Mini DV.

In short an SD DVD made from 720p is vastly inferior to regular Mini DV. (And I figure this should not be the case!!)

What workflow allows one to make good quality SD DVD's from 720p footage and Premiere Pro.

Would love to hear from anyone who has got this working!

 

[dregenthal]

There are still a couple of unknowns, making it difficult to give you a comprehensive answer . . .

Are you using a combination of Premiere & Raylight or PP CS3 with the new MXF aware patch? Project (and Raylight) settings could make a world of difference here . . . I know from experience (having made most of the possible mistakes).

Remember also (I'm sure you've taken this into consideration) that you will lose resolution going from HD 422 to an SD final output.

Also, not to be overlooked . . . what are you viewing your DVD on? Usually there is a marked difference between what you will see on glass as opposed to an LCD (or more likely, a computer screen vs. a television monitor).

 

[Mavoz]

There are still a couple of unknowns, making it difficult to give you a comprehensive answer . . .

Are you using a combination of Premiere & Raylight or PP CS3 with the new MXF aware patch? Project (and Raylight) settings could make a world of difference here . . . I know from experience (having made most of the possible mistakes).

Remember also (I'm sure you've taken this into consideration) that you will lose resolution going from HD 422 to an SD final output.

Also, not to be overlooked . . . what are you viewing your DVD on? Usually there is a marked difference between what you will see on glass as opposed to an LCD (or more likely, a computer screen vs. a television monitor).

Firstly...thanks so much for responding dregenthal...I really appreciate the time experienced users like yourself take to help those of us taking our first HVX HD baby steps!

I'm using Premiere Pro 2 and Raylight (with project set according to their recommended settings)

Upon further experimentation I've realised the issue does actually seem to be the P2 footage itself in Premiere.

Side by side blown up to 200% the P2 footage is vastly inferior to the SD Mini DV footage...featuring much larger pixellation...almost as if I was viewing the P2 footage at twice the zoom level instead of the same.

Clearly something has gone wrong in importing the footage.

I've also had a look at the footage with the P2 viewer....it seems a lot better...

I'm not really sure what to do now...maybe I should just downconvert in camera back to Mini DV...and just stick with what I know...or buy CS3 and try that....

this whole P2 thing sure seems a lot more difficult to get right than regular mini DV!