best affordable configuration for HDV??
by cassiusjc
on
Sep 18, 2007 at 2:26:28 pm
I've posted a thread 3 days ago saying about the bad quality of my SD DVD projects and also asking if a Kona LHe card would solve my problem while capturing HDV (future) or SD. I am thankful for all the replies but after all I'm a bit confused.
This is my configuraton:
Shooting HDV on Sony Z1
capturing DV downconverted via firewire from Sony M15U
Mac Pro 2x dual core 2.66 GHz
- 2GB RAM
- SATA 250GB (speed 3.0 Gigabit)
- SATA 500GB (speed 3.0 Gigabit)
- NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphic card
- SONY DVD RW DW-D150A
- Final Cut Studio
- 2 SyncMaster LCD 1680 x 1050
- monitor Sony PAL for preview
Workflow:
shooting HDV 1080 50i, downconverting to DV (delivering SD DVD), capturing via Firewire, easy setup DV PAL 48KHz on FCP, exporting video to DVD Studio Pro, exporting audio AIFF to compressor and converting to Dolby Digital Professional, authoring and burning.
Video and sound quality are very bad. Motion effects look bad as well.
Please, what should I do or buy to get better quality on my DVDs? Also, what would be the best affordable HDV broadcast quality configuration for future projects?
Re: best affordable configuration for HDV?? by Zak Mussig on Sep 18, 2007 at 3:57:34 pm
Hey Cassius,
There are a lot of steps in there where something could go wrong. My question is, what do you mean by video and audio quality are bad? Is the picture blurry or pixelated? Is the audio crackling? If you could specify what exactly is bad about your sound and picture it will help to track it down.
Also, your post reads as if you're taking a QT file into DVDSP rather than using Compressor to export and MPEG 2 file. The latter way is much preferred, both for precision control over your settings and speed.
Does it look bad when your burn a disc and play it on a TV, or does it look bad on your monitor from FCP?
Depending on the project, I would probably advise capturing and editing in HDV and only down-converting when you export your MPEG 2.
There're some rambling thoughts to get you started, but we need more information to tell you anything useful.
Re: best affordable configuration for HDV?? by Harry Pallenberg on Sep 18, 2007 at 8:02:56 pm
So it looks good as a QT file on the computer? If so, then it is a problem with the way its going from QT to DVD. How long is it? Try using default setting in compressor.
Re: best affordable configuration for HDV?? by cassiusjc on Sep 18, 2007 at 5:43:04 pm
Hey Zak,
the image and audio look bad when I burn the disc and play it on a TV. Both video and audio look good on my monitor and speakers from FCP.
While playing the DVDs the image is blurry, not pixalated, the takes "fight" with each other during transitions (not smooth at all) and most of motion effects are not smooth as well (pixalated). The audio is weak, treble, really bad.
I do export a QT movie straight to DVDSP. I'll try export MPEG 2 using Compressor to see how it works and let you know.
What do you think I am doing wrong? Do you need any other information?
Re: best affordable configuration for HDV?? by Zak Mussig on Sep 18, 2007 at 6:02:53 pm
Hey Cassius,
I would use on of Apple's presets for DVD in Compressor. I think Harry is right about field order being the issue. Make sure the format and framerate are set for PAL.
Harry's also right that there are a ton of settings in Compressor, so I would just keep it simple right now and change as little as necessary from the preset.
For comparison, open the DVDSP preferences and see what the compression settings are set to. If you give DVDSP a QuickTime file, these are the settings it uses to compress it. That's one reason Compressor is better. More flexibility.
Re: best affordable configuration for HDV?? by Tim Kolb on Sep 18, 2007 at 9:43:05 pm
When you're compressing to MPEG2 DVD, the field order does need to be correct, most encoders will have some sort of option so you know they're reading it correctly. Standard field order on MPEG2 DVD is upper first, but DV is lower...HDV is upper.
I'm curious why you wouldn't simply edit HDV as HDV? Going from 4:2:0 MPEG to 4:1:1 DV back to 4:2:0 MPEG cannot be doing your image quality any favors...
Re: best affordable configuration for HDV?? by Shiloh on Sep 19, 2007 at 5:26:12 am
I was under the impression that SD DVDs are lower field first, at least for NTSC pal I have no idea.
When you paly back your origional sequence in FCP the red lights on your audio meters should never light, if they do , you are digitaly clipping your audio upon export. That would cause poor audio quality for sure.
My experience is that final cut is incompetent at scaling 1080i footage from your camera (FX-1 & Z1U) down to standard def. The best solution I have found is to use Quicktime conversion to scale. Capture cards are great but as other people have mentioned your best quality capture will come from firewire. The fewer digital to analog conversions the better. Plus all your footage has already gone through HDV compression and you cant get back any information that has already been compressed out.
Try this:
1) With your completed 1080i timeline selected click File>Export Using Quicktime Conversion.
2) In the box that appears click Settings. Uncheck Prepare for internet Streaming. Click Settings button under video. Change compression type to ProRes 422 (HQ) (if you are on FCP5 use uncompressed but it will be much bigger). Check the enable 4:4:4 color filtering. You may also want to experiment between checking and un-checking the interlaced box, It determines wether your QT movie will be progressive or interlaced and Im not sure what's better to start with for going to Compressor, If you use interlace, use BOTTOM field first. Do some Tests later.
Next Click the Size button. Select 720x480 16:9. Check De-Interlace Source. Keep Preserve Aspect un-checked. Choose your destination (a BIG one 50+ Gigs 4 a 2 hour Movie) and save the Movie.
3) Import your movie into compressor and choose the appropriate settings (DVD Best 90 min works well but make sure you set the aspect ratio to 16:9). Make sure the audio setting you use is Dolby Digital ac3.
4) Use the resulting m2v and ac3 files to author your DVD in DVDSP.
Re: best affordable configuration for HDV?? by Havanother1 on Sep 24, 2007 at 2:58:39 am
When you're converting to mpeg2 for DVD, go for 'better' motion estimation. I too assumed that 'best' was indeed best. But it isn't. If there's a lot of movement in your footage it'll come out jerky. I tend to crank the bit rate settings up too. Aside from that little tip, I'd agree with the others in trying to isolate where things are going to poo. Output a bunch of clips - uncompressed, compressed, compressed Mpeg2 etc etc. That should help you work where in the process things are breaking up. The only other thing I can add, is that the bad transitions sound like an HDV limitation. Every time you cut into HDV, because it's a difference codec rather than a whole bunch of separate frames, it has to recalculate and recompress around 12 frames or so. If you have a lot of cuts near each other this can cause problems. But I can't see how this would be happening if you're downsampling to DV on capture.
