Hi guys.

This may be a foolish question. I need to shoot a video project and I want to shoot it with my brand new 5D Mk II. Since I will be giving my client a standard DVD, I don't know if I should shoot at 30 or 24 fps. If I shoot at 30 fps, I will need to convert to footage to MPEG 2 at 29.97 for DVD. If I shoot at 24 fps, I just need to convert the footage to MPEG 2 at 23.98 fps. How should I shoot the project? And furthermore, how should I convert to DVD? I'm on a Mac, and I will be using FCS II.

Thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions. Cheers.

If you don't have a proven workflow, I'd recommend shooting in 30p (29.97). It will have more of a video look than a film look, but it will have less risk of looking bad. If you want a film look, can do a 24p test, have enough time to shoot a test, put it on DVD, and it looks good, then shoot 24p.

If you don't know what you're doing, use 30p/29.97. They are basically the same if you are recording the sound with the video.

When I shoot 24 fps I do mine own pulldown instead of letting the DVD player do it.

So if you want to shoot 24 fps, shoot and edit at 24 fps and then drop it on a 29.97 timeline - that should add the pulldown.

Thanks for your input guys. I think I will shoot at 30fps. I also want to edit everything in HD and output the final edit in HD. Now, how to down-convert the final HD video to DVD? Do I need to worry about pull-down? If I use Compressor, which I will, do I just select MPEG 2 and let it handle the 30 to 29.97 conversion?

Thanks again.

The latest firmware (2.0.4) shoots 29.97 rather than 30.00, so you're good to go.

Thanks Jon. I'll try it this way. I appreciate all of your comments.

Cheers

This is something I struggle with too. I just cant seem to get a good result from FCP to a DVD either using Compressor to create the right files (Best quality 90 mins setting) or outputting a hi res file direct from FCP then dropping it either into iDVD or DVD Studio Pro.

so I'm gathering from the above that frame rate has a lot to do with it. would that be right?

I could really benefit from a detailed workflow from 5D2 to DVD using Final Cut Studio on Mac. If anyone had a great workflow that gives good quality (and the time to post), it would be much appreciated

Thanks!

Have you tried any of the presets from Cram CompressorPack?

No never even heard of it…
Where do I track that down Olivier?

here's a link to the site : CRAMCompressor (http://www.compressorpack.com/)

Thanks Olivier, got it, will have a play with that later today.

Wayne - let's know how it looks, and anyone else - please share your workflow from FCPro to DVD. (or maybe there's been some previous posts?) Greatly appreciated :)
peter berg

I second that, Peter. It would be nice if someone can point us to a good HD to DVD guide, or if someone would share their experiences.
The CRAM Compressor seems like a good option, so thanks for pointing it out. However, I feel it's important to know what I'm doing exactly when converting.

Thanks for your input, guys.

Yes, I have used the CRAM DVD set-ups today and got mixed results. Better than Apple's presets, but still not acceptable. Hmm…

First problem for me is that they are all NTSC which means making a copy then changing the format to PAL. So not being an expert in these things, I don't actually know if that's messing up their preset and that's why I'm getting ropey results.

On the plus side, I notice a lot of the blocky artifacts are gone, on the downside, everything seems really soft and the slow pans and tracks jerk like crazy.

double hmmm…

Here's a thread

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/high-definition-video-editing-solutions/70792-comparison-nle-hd-sd-downconversion-quality.html

my HD to DVD work-flow is on page 7

Thanks Ben and although it's all on PC and Premier etc, there were a few snippets of info that might help me.

I don't know if this will help you but when I shoot for DVD DVD, which is still quite frequent, I shoot HD at the native resolution of the target destination (60i for NTSC, 50i for PAL), then de-interlace using Vegas and render the MPEG2 output in PAL or NTSC widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, 6Mbps average bit rate.

The big advantage with shooting HD is that you can make NTSC or PAL crops without losing quality, effectively reframing or enlarging the picture.

Here is a solution for PAL with presets @
Apple - Downloads - Final Cut Studio - 5DtoFCP (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/finalcutstudio/5dtofcp.html)

and it looks like Premier CS5 will be supporting the Canon H.264 codec native

When I first got my 5DMK2 I wanted to make the best DVD from the HD footage using Windows and Sony Vegas...I jumped in on this thread here and P. Ford gave me a lot of help: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-happens-vegas/271329-maximizing-hd-sd-quality-5.html

-Roy

Has anyone developed a solid FCP workflow for taking 5DII footage to DVD? I have struggled with this for a while now.

I simply convert the 25p HD files to PAL Avi 16:9 then drop onto the timeline. This makes it also easy to mix with original SD footage AVi files on the same timeline. Then when your project authoring is complete, just convert to Mpeg2 and burn to DVD. It produces very good quality DVDs.