P2 to SD DVD

lcwarden

lcwarden

Member
I just purchased my HVX200a and am trying to develop a workflow from 720p60 to SD DVD. I use Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, After Effects CS3, and Encore CS3 to edit. My footage looks great in Premiere. I convert it to a .avi file using VirtualDub that was frame served by DebugMode FrameServer. The SD DVD I ended up with looks OK but the quality is not as good as using my Canon XL2 (an SD camera) and making an SD DVD. I expected that shooting with an HD camera, even when converting to SD DVD, would result in a SD DVD with better quality than shooting with an SD camera and making an SD DVD. Am I wrong? Does anyone have a workflow using Adobe CS3, possibly with other software, that has produced a fairly high quality SD DVD?

Thanks,
Linda
 
When you convert to avi and then encode to mpeg2, aren't you going through two transcodes?

Why not go straight from a Premiere timeline to mpeg2 to Encore?
 
I tried it both ways and am still getting DVDs that have lower quality than SD footage to SD DVD. You are right in that using Premiere to Encore is easier. I tried the other method to see if I could get a higher quality DVD.
 
What target and maximum bit rate for video are you using for what length of video in minutes.

And how are you viewing the footage.

Out HDMI from an upconverting set top to HDTV?
 
I have found that most of the presets for encoding have pretty low data rate, I would increase the data rate and if you are gonna watch the dvd on a nice hd lcd or plasma you can author it as anamorphic 16x9. Most of the new dvd's players upconvert so if you do everything right it should look pretty damn close to true hd.
 
David S. & el jeffe,

It's just a short test HD video (1:08 min.). I'm viewing the DVD on a 16:9 HD TV and on a 4:3 SD TV. I've run so many tests that I can't tell you the bit rate. Can you recommend a preset/ rate that has worked for you?

Thanks,
Linda
 
I work on mac with dvd studio pro but I do all of my compression in compressor. I have my average bit rate at 7 and my maximum set at 9. Also see if you have a letterboxing option for those 4x3 tv sets. After you burn a copy in encore make a copy of that in an outside dvd burning program. That disc should play more reliably as 16x9 letterboxed on the sd tv's. If you dont do that sometimes you will just get your image cut off as a full frame image on the 4x3 set.

Hope that helps
 
Maximum bit rate of 7 mbps for video with 192 kbps for ac3 audio.

Again, are you going out HDMI via an upconverting set top?

To el jeffe: A maximum bit rate of 9 mbps is going to choke many set tops. Remember, the bit rate you set is directly related to the lengh of your video in minutes. A combined bit rate for video and audio of over 10.2 mbps is beyond the spec for DVD recordables. And you shouldn't ever approach it when encoding.

Arbitrary doesn't work and "more" isn't better for encoding.
 
I've found the software scalers built into Premiere Pro, and Final Cut pro to be very lacking. You'll always get low quality encodes when you change the frame size within the editor.


Right now what I'm doing for a high quality SD encode is :

Use a program called DebugMode Frameserver to create a signpost AVI file.

Run that signpost AVI file through any AVIsynth compatible encoding application, HCenc for Mpeg-2 or MeGUI for h.264 encodes. I use the Spline36 resizer with a slight denoiser to clean up footage.

The process is increadibly complex and is not for anybody who doesn't understand compression really well. If you try to use Avisynth you'll realize why high end compression companies ask for the big bucks!

The best thing I can suguest for HD-->SD DVD down converts is to have your display device do a real-time scaling of DVCProHD to SD, and then encode that. That way your hardware does the downscaling instead of the crappy software in the NLE.
 
David S: My DVD play is incorporated into my HDTV (one unit) so the connection is internal. I'm not sure if it is HDMI or not. Thanks to both you and el jeffe for the bit rate info.

Demistate: I've tried a similar DebugMode/AviSynth/HCEncoder or DebugMode/AviSynth/VirtualDub/Encore process but with poor results. The footage looks great in Premiere Pro, and in Encore, it is, as you've said, a problem with the encoding. I haven't tried MeGUI or Spline 36 but will do so (if they are not too expensive).

I don't understand what you mean to have my "display device do the real-time scaling of DVCProHD to SD". Please let me know what you mean.

Again, thank you all for your advice.
 
Interesting workflow Demistate, I'll have to give that a try. I have to agree that using Premiere to output a DVD straight from an HD timeline leaves a little to be desired. I'm game for a little extra work if thats what it takes to make a nice clean DVD. FWIW though going straight to Blu-Ray from an HD timeline has given me really nice clean results in Premiere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top