I am making a short promotional video for a local adult school that will be distributed on DVD. I'm wondering what is the best format to shoot in and edit with my Canon XHA1?

HDV as a final product is out, so is it STD 16:9 24p; STD 4:3 24p; STD 16:9 60i; or STD 4:3 60i?

Since I have no idea on what type of TVs the DVD will be played, I just want to make sure that the aspect ratio, when played, will always (or nearly always) be correct.

Also, what should I use as the Project Properties template?

Thanks for you help.

PS..I assume I could also shoot in HDV for better quality and render the project in some lower resolution format??

Shoot in HDV, edit in HDV m2t (if your computer and edit program can do it) and render in SD 16:9. I think most people these days are watching 16:9 tvs and if they watch it on 4:3 tv it should automatically pillar it.

BTW: How's Christine and Cujo (Couldn't help myself)

I would shoot HDV and import as SD. The SD workflow might be eaiser for you if you are going straight to DVD and won't require the HD footage. The HDV will just produce better results.

Aspect ratio is usually up to the user of the DVD player. There are settings within the DVD player to choose a 4x3 / 16x9 / PAL / NTSC options depending on the TV.

For maximum quality, I would work within the 16x9 scope..not 4x3 letterboxed. In Vegas you can easily set all of these options once the footage is in there.

For the "safest" viewing for DVD across users not savvy enough to even know about those options, 4X3 letterbox would be the choice. It will appear correctly on 4x3 tube TVs and those with 16x9 would just stretch it or magnify it to fill the screen. If it's short enough, you could provide both on one DVD too.

They are both fine, Terry ;)

to do what you suggest, what would I set Vegas Project Properties to; and what template would I use for the final render?

thanks

If SD, import your footage- select DV widescreen - make sure your framerate is correct to what you shoot.

On export choose MainConcept Mpeg2 > DVD NTSC > Custom > Video > and tweak any adjustments such as aspect ratio and bitrates.