Downconverted HDV looks lousy

Reed Gidez · December 2nd, 2008, 01:38 AM

A client brought me footage shot on an HDV camcorder for use in a DVD to be shown at a sports banquet tuesday night. Knowing that delivery would NOT be in HD, I down-converted the footage out from the deck and captured in DV through FCP. The video looks a bit soft althought the HD footage looked fine in the deck.

The edit is done but my question is, can I recapture in HD and re-conform for better results or is there a better capture setting in DV out of the deck that will give me better results?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions the community might offer.

Reed

Peter Kraft · December 2nd, 2008, 10:23 AM

Let me suggest my workflow as follows:

Capture and edit in HDV. Export HDV movie from FCP.
Downsize to SD with MPEGStramClip from www.squarred5.com
Encode SD file.

Hope this helps. P.

Edit: Please note that interlaced material is suboptimal for down-rez.
If possible de-interlace before down-scaling for better results.

Reed Gidez · December 2nd, 2008, 10:44 AM

I will give it a try. May have to reacapture the existing footage though.

Reed

James Brill · December 7th, 2008, 11:55 AM

You can stay HDV the whole way to compressor or whatever you use to encode and create a squeezed image. That way the most information gets to your encoding software and when you reach your authoring software like DVD Studio Pro you can flag your video track so it will be letterboxed on SD screens and unsqueeze on HD screens or projectors.

Liam Hall · December 7th, 2008, 01:50 PM

There's no need to use MpegStreamClip. James is right, your downconvert should be the last stage of the process and Compressor is the best place to do it.

Peter Kraft · December 7th, 2008, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Brill

You can stay HDV the whole way to compressor or whatever you use to encode and create a squeezed image. That way the most information gets to your encoding software and when you reach your authoring software like DVD Studio Pro you can flag your video track so it will be letterboxed on SD screens and unsqueeze on HD screens or projectors.

Did I suggest anything else? Yes with one exeption: downsize before encoding,
because this is a tricky job and not many an encoder does that job really outstandigly well.

December 2nd, 2008, 01:38 AM	#1
Reed Gidez Major Player Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Oradell, New Jersey Posts: 283	Downconverted HDV looks lousy - FCP A client brought me footage shot on an HDV camcorder for use in a DVD to be shown at a sports banquet tuesday night. Knowing that delivery would NOT be in HD, I down-converted the footage out from the deck and captured in DV through FCP. The video looks a bit soft althought the HD footage looked fine in the deck. The edit is done but my question is, can I recapture in HD and re-conform for better results or is there a better capture setting in DV out of the deck that will give me better results? Thanks in advance for any suggestions the community might offer. Reed __________________ Reed Gidez

December 2nd, 2008, 10:44 AM	#3
Reed Gidez Major Player Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Oradell, New Jersey Posts: 283	Thanks Peter I will give it a try. May have to reacapture the existing footage though. Reed __________________ Reed Gidez

December 7th, 2008, 01:50 PM	#5
Liam Hall Major Player Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London, England Posts: 969	There's no need to use MpegStreamClip. James is right, your downconvert should be the last stage of the process and Compressor is the best place to do it. __________________ Writer-Director-DOP www.liamhall.net

December 2nd, 2008, 10:23 AM	#2
Peter Kraft Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Europe Posts: 245	Let me suggest my workflow as follows: Capture and edit in HDV. Export HDV movie from FCP. Downsize to SD with MPEGStramClip from www.squarred5.com Encode SD file. Hope this helps. P. Edit: Please note that interlaced material is suboptimal for down-rez. If possible de-interlace before down-scaling for better results.

December 7th, 2008, 11:55 AM	#4
James Brill Major Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Goleta, CA Posts: 299	You can stay HDV the whole way to compressor or whatever you use to encode and create a squeezed image. That way the most information gets to your encoding software and when you reach your authoring software like DVD Studio Pro you can flag your video track so it will be letterboxed on SD screens and unsqueeze on HD screens or projectors.