HDV to DV quality & aspect ratios
 

I am exporting a HDV30p project to DVD. I need to know the absolute best exporting and DVD burning workflow that will preserve the best quality and aspect ratio. I have read many of the threads here, and they all have different solutions. I am an amateur at the tech. side of this so an informative response would be most appreciated. The most popular workflow i've found is to print back to a minidv tape, and recapture, etc. Can someone explain this workflow to me? My biggest concern is the left and right sides of my project are cut off, when a dvd is viewed. So whats the correct resize? and I know the quality will not be the same going from hd to sd, but i notice a huge de-satuation issue with the dvd project. How can I at least keep some of the saturation quality when going to SD? Is it possible? I dont want the fastest or easiest workflow, i just need the one that yields the best results.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Mason

it is also being viewed on a widescreen TV. Yet the sides still cut off.

it is also being viewed on a widescreen TV. Yet the sides still cut off.

HDV to DvD
 

I think the best way to do it is. Export an M2t file from your NLE. This M2t file you have to transcode it into m2v or m2p depending on your authoring system. If you want to preview on HDTV you choose aspect 16:9 if you want to preview on normal TV you choose 4:3, choose a high bitrate, 8200 maybe for best quality, choose 2 pass, long transcoding time, or 1 pass multiple files, less trascoding little less quality. Burn and it will look fine. I do not understand why you export to tape and recapture. What NLE do you use?
If you use Adobe premier try the export to mpeg encoder from the timeline, if you use Xpress pro follow the above.
Buy also the Canopus procoder that can trascode M2t (HDV) files into mpg without need of demuxing before import.
Normally following one way or another the DVDs should look good.
Good luck
Panos

Panos has good suggestions. Whatever you do, DON'T print back to DV tape! That's about the worst way to do it, because you'd be clobbering the footage with an unnecessary recompression with a lossy DV codec.

When you do MPG encoding, choose 720:480 (obviously). Your encoder should then offer an alternative to map the video full screen. This will result in the full image with tall skinny people when viewed 4:3. THEN tell the encoder it is a 16:9 image. The DVD player can then play it full screen on a 16:9 set, and letterbox on 4:3 set.

Hope this helps!