Encoding HD to a SD DVD HELPPPP!!!

[dlcjonathan]

i have a few hours of finished HD footage (used FCP to edit), when i import the footage into DVD Studio Pro to make a HD DVD the finalized DVD wont play on any of my Tv's (dvd players). Only works on my mac.

So unless anyone has any better solutions im trying to find out how convert the HD footage so that i can work with it in a SD DVD Studio Pro project.


My only solution is to open a SD project in FCP and import the HD footage and export it then use that footage in DVD studio pro for a SD DVD project. the footage is washed out, there has got to be a better way.


i need this done by the sunday sooooo...helpppppp!!!!

[kbob]

Haven't tried this myself yet-not a mac guy-but I think there's a hybrid product that allows you to record hd footage using a regular dvd disc (capped at something like 20 minutes or so if I recall)-BUT-no regular dvd players can play it. your mac MIGHT be able to play it, since that's what you created it on-so maybe someone knows if there's a playback solution for that? Failing that, then downgrading is likely your only solution, and you'll have to play with your settings to find the best output format for the sd dvd playback.

[WORDpictures]

An Apple-certified trainer recently told me you have to have an external Blu-Ray burner to create HD-DVD's from a Mac at this point in time. And that this wouldn't be created through DVD-SP either, but would merely be an auto-play DVD without menu capabilities. Least that's what I was told.

Could you use iDVD instead? Sorry, I haven't tried outputting to DVD-SP from an HD project master. I just set up a 4-minute HD mastered video to output to SD DVD through iDVD. This fit my need which was to set up a preview file for playback, but the priority was to transport master digital files in the DVD-ROM section. For this, I went through Compressor using the QuickTime file options (which, of course, won't work with DVD-SP). ProRes 422 ("not" HQ) gave a very good result.

Whatever you do, be sure that settings match between the project AND the compression software... (e.g. set ProRes 422 in the "sequence" settings AND in Compressor under Encoder> Video Settings> ProRes. This was "non" HQ which gives smaller file sizes, but the 4-minute project alone was still 1GB after compressed. Doing the same with H.264 pulls the file size way down, but didn't look nearly as good for my project. Of course, iDVD automates the MPEG compression from here, so the files burned onto the DVD will ultimately be smaller than that too. Getting anything near an "hour" of HD-mastered footage onto an SD-DVD and keeping quality up is probably the bigger issue.

Would like to hear what works for you on this.

[cmchamp]

You have two choices, 3rd party BluRay either external or internal in second optical bay, or proper encoding with compressor.

C.

[dlcjonathan]

Compressor doesn't work on my mac and iDVD can't do chapters very well so after many hours of testing i found a way to keep my chapter markers & the quality, Here's what i did.

(i did all the stuff i found on the web none of it looked as good as this)

- I did all my chapter markers in FCP

- Exported using QT (not "conversion") so i could keep all the markers

- Changed Sequence settings to: 8-Bit Uncompressed NTSC 48
(ProRess is good but had a little green line at the bottom, the 8-bit was better quality (of course size and rendering is a beast but its worth it, about a 1GB per min / 1 hour render time per 15mins, i have 3 hours worth, yay! )

- Dropped into SD DVD Studio project and dvd looks great.

- conclusion: Next time im shooting in SD

[benwilhelm]

random possibility... what about something like Handbrake?