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freefallguy

Best HD to dvd workflow

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Just wondering if anyone has a good HD to dvd workflow. If this has already been covered, I must have missed it. Everything I have tried sucks. I usually use premiere/ encore but have tried avid, dvdit, procoder3, sorenson squeeze, and a ton of other encoders/burners/nle's. Nothing gives good quality. My best is edit in HD, burn back to tape then record on hardware recorder at the DZ thus lack of menu control.
Hoping someone out here has commercial experience with DVD's. How does Paramount get a DVD burned with the quality they have?
Obviously SD is not Bluray but I have seen DVD's with good quality that were origionally shot with HD including quite a few movies I have worked on. I know that it can be done.
I don't want to have to buy a Panasonic. Are there any differences between HC3 and CX100 in the download(hdv encoding?)?

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How does Paramount get a DVD burned with the quality they have?



There are a lot of reasons that commercial movies on SD DVD look better than your consumer videos. Start with cameras (usually film) that cost more than many jump planes. Lenses that cost more than your rigs, cameras and helmets combined. With DPs, camera operators, focus pullers and directors that know how to get the most of this equipment. Lighting sets that costs more than many hangers, with teams of lighting designers, grips and electricians to get a certain look. Editors and editing equipment that take months to get the cut right. Don't get hung up on mega-pixels, HD, and whatever other consumer buzz word you may hear. You will not take a $600 camera and somehow magically make it look like a Hollywood movie because of a $1000 software package.

Rant over. I'll let others answer your workflow question (although several different methods have been covered here). One guess is that your weak link may be your DVD encoder.

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My best is edit in HD, burn back to tape then record on hardware recorder at the DZ thus lack of menu control.



This process has way too many steps in it and should in no way result in your "best" outcome. You need to experiment with encoder settings when encoding the media file to burn to DVD. Your question is probably best suited for a more technical forum, I have got TONS of useful info at the videohelp.com forum.

Take a look at on of my videos encoded for the web here:

http://www.matthoover.com/gallery/skydiving-videos/Puerto_Rico_2009-HD.html

It started as 1080i HDV (MPEG-2) and was converted using x264 encoder to 720p H264 (MPEG-4). Not only that, the final product is 2.5Mbps, which is far LESS than DVD, while I think this looks superior to DVD in many ways. I could have done 480p just as easily, but 720p looks better when going full screen.

Now, that goes off the topic a bit of your desired end media (DVD), but the point I was trying to illustrate is that the right encoder settings are everything. I spent weeks experimenting with x264 (and getting tons of help from those videohelp.com forum members) before I got good results.

My guess is that it has something to do with what type of de-interlacer you are using when going from 1080i to 480p for DVD. Or are you burning interlaced video?
www.WingsuitPhotos.com

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There are a lot of methods, but the main problem you're running into is the encoder itself.
Look at what Matt Hoover or Scotty Burns are doing, and you'll see a huge diff. The encoder is *everything,*

Cinemacraft is a good but spendy.
Try the MainConcept encoder in Vegas. You'll be stunned (assuming you're using a reasonable bitrate). It's not the same encoder as Premiere/Encore use. Squeeze used to be great, but now it's merely "OK", IMO.
Adding a touch of Gaussian Blur helps quite a bit.
Desaturate just a tad.
you'll probably find you like this look better.

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