PC HD to SD-DVD that works

[Harry Simpson]

I fought this battle almost a year ago and when I had to revisit it lately became rustrated once again. I looked back at the thread then and reread it and then looked at a few recent posts and tested. After repeated failures I finally tried this sequence with success. I'm not saying the video comes close to HD but it works. Perrone and others are super helpful through all of this.

This is a Cineform - Vegas Studio 10 - VirtualDub - DVD Architect Studio 5 workflow (not in that order per se)

HD to SD DVD Workflow
*******************
1. 1920x1080p .MOV from camera
2. Cineform HDLink
Maintian source frame format
High Quality
Render to 1920x1080p .AVI
3. In Vegas bring in the .AVI file to the timeline
4. Edit video, titles, filters ect to the movie
5. Render from Vegas to file using format: Video for Windows (*.avi) using the Lagarith (create a Custom template) Keep the video full size 1920x1080p Pixel ar of 1.000
6. In VirtualDub, pull in this AVI file and set resize filter added to Lanczos scaler to 854x480 (match origianl AR)
7. In VirtualDub, also choose Compression for output to Lagarith (or HuffYUV AVI though I've not testing this)
8. In VirtualDub still - now save the AVI file
9. Open Vegas up and pull in this new 854x480 .avi file (did notice that sound did not make it back from VirtualDub in the 854x480 .avi ??) So added sound from an earlier file.
10. Rendered out to MPEG2 by Selecting the Make DVD option from the Render Movie screen.
11. Select send to DVD Architect at the prompt.
12. DVD Architect opens up with the one file as the one chapter.
13. Prepared and burned the DVD to a Memorex DVD-R.
14. Tested the DVD in my older DVD player.
15. Loaded great, colors looked a little over saturated from the original but for this test i did zip color correction or other editing. Sound sounded great and was synced.

If anyone has anything to add to make this workflow even better please chime in!!

Harry

[Perrone Ford]

I have two comments.

1. In step 2 you are using a lossy (though good) codec. You are so careful elsewhere in the workflow in not losing any quality, why are you accepting it there?

2. You mention that you didn't get audio back into Vegas. Did you ensure you had the audio in VDub?

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

I'm working in Pal-land, so 25p.

I simply load the original 5D file from camera to PC; drop the full-rez HD files onto the timeline; render to 720 X 576 16:9 AVi file; add titles/authoring buttons etc; finally convert to Mpeg2 & burn to DVD disc.

The maximum length of movie inclusive of titles/sound/music on a single DVD disc is around 1hr 8mins, so I aim to edit each film down to around 1hr.

An hour length full rez HD file compressed to 16:9 avi file at 720 X 576 is usually around 14.5GB.

The same length Avi file compressed to mpeg2 is just under 4.7GB, so a perfect fit to DVD-R disc.

[Harry Simpson]

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

I have two comments.

1. In step 2 you are using a lossy (though good) codec. You are so careful elsewhere in the workflow in not losing any quality, why are you accepting it there?

2. You mention that you didn't get audio back into Vegas. Did you ensure you had the audio in VDub?

Are you saying to convert the MOV to AVI in VirtualDub? Will that make the editing in Vegas about as easy??

Pobably didn't ensure that I had Audio in VirtualDub. I ASSuMEd the AVI included it when I brought that into VirtualDub.

[Mike Watson]

Originally Posted by Harry Simpson

6. In VirtualDub, pull in this AVI file and set resize filter added to Lanczos scaler to 845x480 (match origianl AR)

You said 845 here, not 854. I think you meant 854.

[Harry Simpson]

you;re right Mike

I edited it toi correct it. Thanks,

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Harry Simpson

Are you saying to convert the MOV to AVI in VirtualDub? Will that make the editing in Vegas about as easy??

No, you can't bring a .mov into VDub. I was just saying that the rest of your workflow is built around lossless codecs, just seemed odd that it wasn't that way for the first transcode.

[Harry Simpson]

It's not that odd, I don't know what else to use besides Cineform. It's not like I'm looking for a lossy codec to use.

[Harry Simpson]

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

No, you can't bring a .mov into VDub. I was just saying that the rest of your workflow is built around lossless codecs, just seemed odd that it wasn't that way for the first transcode.

Perrone,

What can I use to transcode my MOV file to AVI which is lossless (instead of Cineform) - I want to be pure!! ;-)

Please share.

Thanks
Harry

[Perrone Ford]

I use Prism software (http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/prismsetup.exe) to do the conversion. For lossless formats I typically use Lagarith. Be forewarened. Using lossless HD codecs on any timeline will be very slow going. So you'll need to keep that in mind. You really need to examine your needs and workflow.

Originally Posted by Harry Simpson

Perrone,

What can I use to transcode my MOV file to AVI which is lossless (instead of Cineform) - I want to be pure!! ;-)

Please share.

Thanks
Harry

[Mike Hannon]

Even though I'm in PAL land, I'm confused by the horizontal resolution of 854. If you want 16:9 for NTSC, then shouldn't it be 720x480 with the appropriate anamorphic pixel aspect ratio?

[Harry Simpson]

Mike

Way I see it 16x9 gives a ratio of 1.78

So 480 height would need a 1.78 x 480 or 854.

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Harry Simpson

Mike

Way I see it 16x9 gives a ratio of 1.78

So 480 height would need a 1.78 x 480 or 854.

The question at hand is how do we know it's the 480 that's the fixed value and not the 720? If, for instance a TV could not display more than 720 lines physically, then feeding in 854 would tive what result?

Assuming for a moment that 720 is a physical limit, and we still needed 16:9, then our variable figure would be ~405, comes out to 406 in most encoders.