Re: Further to HD down to SD

Thanks to all who helped last time.

I am persistent to say the least :).

After the post from Ronny, stating that the correct pixel size for SD Wide is in fact 1024x576 (which was great as I did forget that!, I did the following:...

I exported the whole timeline to QT Movie.
I booted up MPEG Streamclip, shoved the QT movie onto Streamclip.
Setup custom settings to export to 1024x576 / 25fps, 80% quality. With codec being DVCHD Pro.
Brought into DVDSP no problem, finish the authoring. Told all assets to display in 16:9 (logically I would have thought that the case)
Clicked on to Build & Format
Which produced an SD DVD.

Perfect so far.

Until I put the DVD into the player to play!. I get a mess. Everything is low res (video and text) , and I cannot get the aspect ratio correct yet!. It goes to 16:9 - but way off to the sides. Text is disgusting to say the least.

So that is about the fifth disc I have created to end up a beer coaster!.

I am definetly sure I am doing some things wrong, be fantastic to find out what!

Cheers again for any help.


Pete.

Hi Pete,

DVCPRO HD is an old anamorphic format that does not work well with square pixels. You should not need DVCPRO HD at all in this process. As Alexander said in your previous post, I think you are doing something wrong in the authoring process. So let's start again from scratch.

- You have made an edit in FCP X. What are the Project settings of your edit? I suppose it's 1920x1080 @ 25fps, correct?
- If so, just export a master file from FCP X. From here there are two ways you can go:

1. If your program is short there is no real need to go through Compressor, and there certainly is no need to convert your program to an old lossy format such as DVCPRO HD. You can drop the HD master file in DVDSP and let DVDSP do the transcoding. Just make absolutely sure that your DVDSP project is set to "SD PAL 16:9", drop the master file in DVDSP and let it create the DVD.

2. If your program is long you should use Compressor to create the DVD files and not let DVDSP do the transcoding. Compressor gives you the advantage that your audio will be compressed to AC3. This is important for longer programs because AC3 takes up much less space than the AIFF files produced by DVDSP.

If you are using the latest versions of Compressor you will find only one preset for DVD audio ("Dolby Digital") and one for DVD video ("MPEG-2 for DVD"). Import your HD master file in the Compressor window, then add the audio and the video presets to your file. If you are very experienced with DVD authoring you can manually adjust a lot of settings to get optimized results. If not you can just let Compressor choose the best options for your video file. The automatic settings always give a DVD with very good quality. However, there are a few things you will always need to adjust, especially in the Audio section.

I have attached two screenshots with some basic settings you can copy. It has been a very long time I haven't made a DVD anymore, so I have entered the settings by memory. If anything can be improved in these settings I'm sure Alexander or someone else will chime in to assist you.

When you have adjusted the settings, press Start Batch and let Compressor create your DVD files. This will result in an audio file and a video file. Then launch DVDSP, make absolutely sure your DVDSP project is set to SD PAL 16:9 and import the two Compressor files in DVDSP. Create your menus and whatnot and let DVDSP author your DVD.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Excellent info, Ronny.

While on the subject of Compressor, do feel the latest version 4.2 is a substantial improvement over the previous version and worth the investment? I'm still using 3.5.3 and compressing for the web, DVD and Blu-ray without a problem.

Thanks,
Phil

Hi Phil,

If you have a computer with any decent graphics card, Compressor 4.2 is a must-have. It now uses GPU accelerated encoding, making it one of the fastest encoders on the market. Even in FCP X, exporting via Compressor is now the fastest way to get your job done. Especially with longer program lengths.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Hi Ronny,

This is what I'm running:

iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
Processor: 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 20 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB

Would Compressor 4.2 help on this setup?

Thanks,
Phil

In Compressor, you should try CBR m2v encoding at a really high rate if you are going to commercially mould your DVD.
It's really all about reflectivity of the final disc.
If this puts you out of space for a single layer DVD and quality is your aim, then author to a DVD+RDL master.
If burning your final creation then it's all about the quality of your media, your milage may vary........

Cheers
Alexander

Gee, Thank you so much Ronny, that is an excellent reply, and gives me a direction.

Well you are quite right, I was doing the edit in 1920x1080, then sharing to a QT file (.mov), then trying to import that file into DVDSP. That was where I got the first problem in that after I chose to import the asset I got the error, "Incompatible format".
That was when I decided to use Streamclip to output to 1024x576. Rather surprisingly it went straight in, so I thought Ah ha!, that was where I was going wrong. Obviously not.....

I thought it quite feasible that the error I got made sense as I was trying to import an HD file into an SD authoring prog. So that did not raise alarm bells, but there might be something wrong with the editing maybe?. Cannot see what at this stage, never know!.

I shall await your reply before attempting anything else.

Cheers,

Pete

DVDSP accepts ProRes 1920 x 1080 (which is the default format of a master file from FCP X) without any problems.

If your master file from Final Cut produces an "incompatible format" error in DVDSP: make sure your FCP X export settings are correct. DVDSP will not accept any H.264 files, so if you have exported your edit as a H.264 master this will not work. In the attached screenshot you will see the exact settings you should use to export your video out of FCP X. When you export using these settings DVDSP should accept the file without any issues.

Once you know you have a correct master file you can decide wether to just import it in DVDSP and let DVDSP handle everything, or wether you want to create the DVD files in Compressor to author these in DVDSP.

Best wishes,

Ronny