Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP
by Greg Ball
on
Dec 5, 2008 at 1:30:40 am
I'm still having a tough time getting this video to look pristine on DVD. The picture looks soft often, and moved seem to blur with fine lines not clear.
I edited on a HD ex1 timeline. 1920 X 1080 I took that timeline and exported it to Compressor best settings 90 minutes. Then took that into DVD studio pro. It's just not as crisp as I would have expected.
Ken stone has an article that says to take the HD timeline and convert it to DV. That just seems strange to me. Rafael Amador gave me some helpful advice saying this:
I edit in EX-1 and very often CC with Color, exporting ProRess HQ. If I CC in FC I export as well in ProRes. When I have my ProRes HD ready, I drop it in a SD sequence. Be careful about the field order.
In the Sequence Setting check "Render Motion Effects: BEST". FC will render in "32b Floating Point" . FC wil make a very good job and in a fraction of time that Compressor. In Compressor use the High Quality preset. No need to set Frame Control ON, because you won't re-size, de-interlace neither change the time base.
I'm confused on this advice. How do you export Prores HQ? What SD sequence settings do I use? What field order? Should I be in progressive or interlaced?
Re: Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP by Andrew Commiskey on Dec 5, 2008 at 1:49:56 am
First Create a new sequence, Apple Prorez 422 NTSC (or PAL) open the sequence settings and check the 16:9 anamorphic box. then drop the HD EX-1 timeline into the SD Sequence. (When it ask if you want to change the sequence settings to match the footage click No) Render, then Export Quicktime movie Current settings self contained. Take this file to compressor.
Hope this helps,
Drew
Re: Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP by Andrew Commiskey on Dec 5, 2008 at 3:40:56 am
Now that is a good question. I normally just drag the sequence into the timeline, but if you needed to pan and scan or enlarge a clip to crop out something, then it would be useful to copy and paste.
Best,
Drew
Re: Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP by caleb crosby on Dec 5, 2008 at 5:16:43 pm
To follow up. This question of "dragging the sequence" vs. "copy and pasting" is in conflict on different forums. I don't have the names at hand, but experienced people specifically suggest one or the other method and caution to only do it one way.
My question is why!?
Does anyone know what the difference actually is in the FCP engine?
Why should "copy and pasting" create an advantage for repositioning a clip?
Isn't either method pointing to the exact same original media?
Re: Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP by Andrew Commiskey on Dec 5, 2008 at 9:12:26 pm
When you copy and paste, each file is automatically repositioned to fit the timeline. Unless you have some footage that has been modified motion wise, such as SD expanded to match the size of HD or a picture in picture, when you copy and paste FCP does not change the Motion (scale etc) info unless it is unchanged. Try it for yourself. Because of this reason dropping the sequence into the timeline will keep all this straight and is the recommended approach.
On the other hand, If you need to keep options open like reframing shots and there are no motion changes to clips of the sequence then copy and paste is a great option, it just depends on what you want to accomplish. FCP is a complex program, and after playing around with it for a while I understand there is a logic to how things are configured. Unfortunately their logic and my logic sometimes do not coincide.
The trick is understanding their logic. I hope this helps, I know I learned something new today. Did this process improve your DVD?
Best,
Drew
Re: Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP by Greg Ball on Dec 5, 2008 at 10:00:33 pm
Andrew,
Is this why why all of my titles and graphics created in livetype are blown up too large when copying to the SD timeline? The same for still images? Should I have created a new SD sequence and then dropped my EX1 sequence into it? I did the copy and paste. and now I'm stuck with fixing all of the graphics.
Also the sequence settings I'm using are:
Frame Size 720X486 CCIR 601 NTSC (40:27
Pixel aspect Ratio NTSC-CCIR 601/DV Anamorphic
Field Dominance Lower (even)
Re: Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP by Andrew Commiskey on Dec 5, 2008 at 11:04:02 pm
Also the sequence settings I'm using are:
Frame Size 720X486 CCIR 601 NTSC (40:27
Pixel aspect Ratio NTSC-CCIR 601/DV Anamorphic
Field Dominance Lower (even)
Re: Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP by Rafael Amador on Dec 6, 2008 at 2:25:32 am
Hi Greg,
If you are happy with your HD sequence, just do what Andrew suggests: Open an SD sequence a drop your full HD sequence on it. Your HD sequence should fit in a 720x840 NTSC Anamorphic sequence.
Rafael
Re: Exporting EX1 HD timeline to SD DVD in DVDSP by Chris Babbitt on Dec 7, 2008 at 8:43:31 pm
Raphael,
I'm really confused on this issue. Would you mind sharing your complete settings for your SD sequence, assuming that you are going to keep it as a 16x9 sequence. 720x840 can't possibly be correct for SD-NTSC.
