What is a good format to downconvert to?

A

alaskacameradude

Veteran
I'm shooting some interviews and B-roll for the group that makes the Coast Guard foundation videos. They want 16x9 SD video. I was just wondering what would be a good
format to convert to. I'm shooting with the FS-100. I am guessing that converting from the HD, straight to 16x9 standard def DV is NOT the best as there would be a
better/less compressed standard def format to convert to, but I haven't done this before so I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas. I can deliver to them as a file on
a harddrive or I can just FTP files to them. Anyone have any suggestions for this type of shoot?
 
Can you do prores in any resolution? if not h.264 and do 880x480 which would be 960x480 cropped to 16x9.
 
I am guessing you are editing HD then downconverting?

I would say H.264 and just make the resolution the same. If they are ok with that codec. They may need something compatible with a specific software. I know that some video I shoot for a live SD broadcast can't take H264. I have to use mpeg4 for that client.
 
Another thought is to either do a slight blur (1.5-2 pixel?) on your HD footage before shrinking down, or to use software like Episode which does this automatically.

The point is that HD contains so much info that - just like a Canon 5D - you need to be careful how you chuck away all that extra info. if you do it quickly (skip lines) you get aliasing and detail twitter (boiling bitty info). The blur removes this and makes for a much nicer downconvert. 720p60 makes for better NTSC than 1080i.

Probably too late to mention this, but shooting at 1080p60 would enable you to get nice 29.97 NTSC footage with interlaced motion which will cut well with existing DV video.

Delivery formats? DVCPro50 was an old favourite but both DV and DVCPro50 were big files to deliver - throwing selects onto DVD-ROM maybe best. H.264 at 5000-10000 kbps will be fine and playable (maybe not editable or even playable in older software or PCs).

Just thinking out loud...
 
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