Hi Robert
Just wondering if you can share your workflow with the rest of us? You seem to have it sorted so it wold be great to hear about step by step method. This HD to sd dvd seems to be the hardest thing to achieve. :-)
Thanks
mark

Most of it is in the previous post...
I log and transfer to pro res 422 regular quality and do my edit in that. The export out of fcp is self contained qt with same specs. From there i do the scaling to the 853x480 h264 on that file in qt7. (faster than compressor for some reason!) Generally the client takes that h264 file to view and approve.
Then I take the h264 into compressor and use the "best quality 150 min" DVD setting (making sure to check it's set to progressive) to create the mpeg2.
From there I use dvdsp.

The advantage is I can then give the client a full 1920x1080 file plus the DVD. If they want bluray, piece of cake!

That is not an issue for me. Quality is more important than saving disc space. I won't go lower than 6.5 on the data rate for a DVD.

yeah...I'm down around 3.7 for the super long discs but it really looks good. The client doesn't want to mess with dual layer or a 2-disc set so I'm kinda stuck there.
I'm gonna try your method out on a project I start editing on Monday. Much shorter material (about 12 minutes) so It should look spectacular!

Robert writes "I should have clarified that most of the material I do for DVD pushes the limit of what a single layer disc can hold. There is a significant quality difference in using the logical method to make a 150 minute disc and the method I use. I used to get terrible artifacting and blockiness before. Others have tried the double encode and have had great success too.

I'll have to try your method but the issue is that the client want's the edit in HD. I suppose dropping the HD edit into a new timeline would work though."

Why don't you just produce a high quality HD edit, put it on a removable hard drive and send him that. Build in the cost of the hard drive. It sounds like you are making life too complicated for yourself.

Ok - So I have shot the job now and have had many changes to the original brief along the way. I shot 1920 x 1080 @ 35mb/s as I have a 5 year old MBP and 50mb/s would have slowed me down to much. In total over the past week I have produced 5 DVDs of the football games and also I have made a 38 minute film which is still not totally finished as they are playing another game tonight.
Anyway I mentioned that the brief has changed well now it seems that instead of it being viewed in a cinema space is being made for the national broadcaster to show it, so all very interesting developments.
I'm giving them all the rushes and my edit on a hard drive they have bought as well as doing a DVD which I'll use Doug's route to achieve as it has worked on the other 5 I have made this week which actually ended up being made in idvd set to professional setting & they look very good.
It kind of goes without saying but the camera has performed very well indeed even in low light as some of the football games were played under floodlight.
If anybody is going to BVE it would be great to say hi and put some face to names. I'm working on the Canon stand.
All the best
Mark

Sounds good in theory but I need DVD copies (200) plus the client wants to archive the hd video for possible future use. Here's my secret...work get a lot less complicated when you are compensated properly! :)