Shooting Mode For Standard DVD
- Thread starter jdycus
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Andrius Simutis
Veteran
I'm not familiar with that specific camera, but looking at this in general terms you should always choose the format for the best quality and the look you want. A wedding? Most people like the dreamy film like look of 24p. Quality? May as well go HD (just use a good scaler when you compress for DVD).
Those are all HD modes, so you don't have to worry about quality being good enough. If you want a more filmic speed, yeah pick 24p. I would stay away from the 60i, which is interlaced if you haven't messed with scaling it, it could cause you problems depending on your software. If you want to be able to do slow motion stick with the 720/60p, but set your timeline when you edit to 30 or 24 fps. If you wan't the video to look more like you are really there, then leave your timeline in your app set to 60fps. The speed comparison, would be like watching news/home movies(60fps) vs a film(24fps). I would play with the camera ahead of time and test the different modes to see which one you like.
For wedding ceremonies we shoot 1080 30P. It gives good 1080 master footage for future promos/etc plus allows for some reframing room. For Receptions we shoot 60P to allow for smooth slow motion.
I absolutely avoid 60i after dealing with interlacing for 15 years now that all my cameras can shoot progressive.
1080 24P has the advantage of the "dreamy" look and also lets you drop your shutter speed to 1/48 and 1/24 if necessary for low light **BUT** my shooters just aren't smooth enough to shoot in 24P and camera pans and zooms must be very slow to avoid the herky jerky strobe look. I find that if you have cameras positioned anywhere along the sides then just panning at the speed the bridal party walks is a problem for 24P. If cameras are just at the front and rear and don't pan much and only do creep zooms then it would be fine.
30P seems to be a compromise between the "live" soap opra look of 60P and the dreamy filmic look of 24P. It looks a little dreamy, allows for normal pans, tilts, zooms, and can even handle being slowed down a little bit for highlight videos.
The HMC 80 is not very good in low light so I'd plan on using a light
I absolutely avoid 60i after dealing with interlacing for 15 years now that all my cameras can shoot progressive.
1080 24P has the advantage of the "dreamy" look and also lets you drop your shutter speed to 1/48 and 1/24 if necessary for low light **BUT** my shooters just aren't smooth enough to shoot in 24P and camera pans and zooms must be very slow to avoid the herky jerky strobe look. I find that if you have cameras positioned anywhere along the sides then just panning at the speed the bridal party walks is a problem for 24P. If cameras are just at the front and rear and don't pan much and only do creep zooms then it would be fine.
30P seems to be a compromise between the "live" soap opra look of 60P and the dreamy filmic look of 24P. It looks a little dreamy, allows for normal pans, tilts, zooms, and can even handle being slowed down a little bit for highlight videos.
The HMC 80 is not very good in low light so I'd plan on using a light
30p is nice too, because you can always just shoot 60p and drop every second frame to get the 30p. Then you also have the option of perfect 50% slow motion with everything.
On the other hand, converting 60p to 24p doesn't work as well. It's doable, but since 24 doesn't evenly divide into 60, the motion cadence is off compared to shooting in 24p.
You don't need a special scaling software. I was asking about if you already own an editing software since it will just scale down when you prepare it to burn?
If this is the only thing your going to edit and put on DVD, I would try to keep it cheap. Since you are on PC and if you don't wan't to spend any money you could use try Windows Movie maker. I think it might even output to DVD. It's not the best solution, but if your not doing a ton of editing it would do the trick. Otherwise you could get a month of Adobe's Creative cloud and edit in premiere and burn in encore, but the learning curve will be a little steep, especially for Encore (should be a 30 day trial for this). Roxio has a all in one solution called Roxio Creator NXT that lets you edit and burn, i haven't used it, but I imagine it's pretty user friendly. I've switched to Mac's 10 years ago, so I haven't edited much on the PC since then. Maybe some PC users can chime in.
If this is the only thing your going to edit and put on DVD, I would try to keep it cheap. Since you are on PC and if you don't wan't to spend any money you could use try Windows Movie maker. I think it might even output to DVD. It's not the best solution, but if your not doing a ton of editing it would do the trick. Otherwise you could get a month of Adobe's Creative cloud and edit in premiere and burn in encore, but the learning curve will be a little steep, especially for Encore (should be a 30 day trial for this). Roxio has a all in one solution called Roxio Creator NXT that lets you edit and burn, i haven't used it, but I imagine it's pretty user friendly. I've switched to Mac's 10 years ago, so I haven't edited much on the PC since then. Maybe some PC users can chime in.
You really don't need "scaling software" if you have a good NLE. You can edit as HD and then export as SD for DVD.
Also, the choice of frame size (1080 vs. 720 vs. 480/576) is entirely separate from the choice of frame RATE. Frame RATE is entirely about the feel of the motion and will give the same feel at any frame size. Pick the frame rate according to the feel you want.
I would strongly advise going out and shooting quite a bit with each frame rate and frame size to see what they're like before you ever shoot for someone else. Shoot many different things -- things IN MOTION work best, not just peaceful, still scenes -- and pay attention to motion, visual detail, etc. Familiarize yourself with it all. Shoot the same thing at every frame rate, and every resolution, so you can compare in between them.
The difference in cadence is really negligible; it's the same as watching 24 fps material on TV with 3:2 pulldown, and that's never a problem. What causes problems is if you're shooting in 60p, you can't see while you're shooting if you're moving the camera in a way which will produce exaggerated strobe once you convert to 24p. For good 24p, you have to move the camera as though you're shooting 24p all along, and that's harder to see when you're shooting 60p.
Andrius Simutis
Veteran
I think you guys misinterpreted, or more like I wasn't being very clear… You don't need a special program to down scale since your NLE, AE, and encoder can all do it. What you do need to do is choose the one that does it best, and get the settings correct. For example, if you just drop an HD video into Apple's Compressor it will default to its fastest option which isn't the best and can result in some jagged edges. So on the PC side of things, I'm not sure what your exact options are and which one will give the best results. Some encoders do a great job from HD to MPEG2 SD, so it could be that simple one step option. If your encoder leaves it all a little jaggy on the edges and not so clean, then try After Effects to make a SD file that you can then encode without the encoder doing the scaling.