Oh man,

What a mess. Ok, let's try to do this simply.

The selection of 32 or 8 bit has to do with how Vegas handles color in it's internal processing. So do all your cutting and editing in 8-bit, then do color correction in 32 bit. WHICH 32 bit mode really has a lot to do with what you have on the timeline, and what your final files will be. This is a tricky issue with no one correct answer. For research into this, head to Glenn Chan's site where he does a terrific job of breaking down the issue.

Glennchan.info

Please note that I have linked you to the Vegas 8 article. The link to the Vegas 9 color stuff is right in the first sentence. BUT I suggest you read the Vegas 8 stuff first because there is some background info there, which does not appear in the Vegas 9 article.

As for NeoScene and the 5D, no you don't have to use it, and I don't. It does make things easier on your editor. There are lots of ways to work with 5D footage, and NeoScene is one of the better ways.

Perrone,

Thanks again for the help here. I read Glenn's stuff on color and most of it's over my head right now, but it's a great reference for when I'm more mature with the process. So now I've decided to choose 32bit full range with other correction settings show in the following screen shot (saved as Cineform template):

http://www.motleypixel.com/public/po...w_settings.jpg

Now onto the next steps and I'll keep them baby steps so my posts don't continue to become short books.

My goal is to produce an SD DVD 740 X 480 to play on a standard DVD player hooked up to a wide screen LCD 1080p via HDMI. My thought here is to encode straight to MPEG-2 using Main Concept and resize, but reading this thread doens't seem to point in that direction as a good direction to go. I would like to stay as much as possible w/in Vegas, but going out and using V-Dub is not a problem for me.

So which way AVI or MPEG-2 from Vegas? If AVI for downsize in V-Dub then which template is best, default uncompressed or the = 1080-60i YUV template?

Thanks,
Roy

LOL! I had to read Glenn's stuff 3 times before I got it! No worries there man, it's heady stuff. You'll find that you develop a basic workflow where things come out right. Then you tend to stay with it. I stay in 32bit linear mode for all my work, but I tend to work with .MOV files and they expect that.

Ok, now for the issue of DVD production. There are really two ways to do this.

1. Do the DVDA template (widescreen) and build the DVD in DVDA and burn. This method works. However, it will not give optimum results.

2. For better results, you need to do the downscale in VDub (or some use Avisynth but I prefer vdub). Uncompressed is certainly one option, but I suggest you download and install the lagarith codec. It is lossless, but makes MUCH smaller files than uncompressed. And is a lot easier on the hard drives too.

http://lags.leetcode.net/LagarithSetup_1320.exe

Once you install that, the Lagarith codec will be available from all your video applications. It also supports multithreaded rendering so it's a bit faster than most codecs.

In VDub, you'll be downsizing to 720x480. Then exporting a lagarith encoded .AVI to bring back to Vegas. From there, make a widescreen NTSC project, drop the AVI file in, and do your Mpeg2 Widescreen render.

-P

Okay I'm following you and I'll go with route #2. Now for just a few minor quandaries...

So when I'm ready to render the to avi using lagarith I will have already done all my Vegas edits on the video. In addition I'll also render (same file name) the audio using the AC3 dolby codec (which reminds me...I render the avi w/o audio in this case right?). When I build the DVD I use TMPGenc and point it to the samename.avi/ac3

Where I'm somewhat confused is why I would bring the downscale avi from VDub back into Vegas? I'll be using TMPGenc DVD Author and it should be able to take that avi from VDub and the ac3 and convert to DVD just fine (I think?). Would Vegas do a better job?

I'll be doing some moving forward tomorrow and post any questions and screen shots if necessary.

****hold on, wait a minute...it seems i'm all screwed up in the flow then...so after the cineform convertion from 5D .mov to avi I open it in VDub next or Vegas? After re-reading your last post the flow doesn't work if I open in in Vegas-Edit-then render into ????-then open in VDub-then bring back into Vegas-then render mpeg2-then create with Tmpgenc...it seems it would only work if I open it into VDub and downsize it first right?

Also, now that I installed Lagarith codec, what would the difference be in downsizing avi in Vegas, per these render settings using Lagarith VS. VDub downsizing using Lagarith?

http://www.motleypixel.com/public/po...s_downsize.jpg

Thanks again!
Roy

Hi Perrone

My apologies for throwing a spanner in the works but, seriously, I have become neurotic about getting the best quality from HD footage and honestly after doing identical clips in AVCHD to SD, Transcoded AVCHD to HDV (50mps) to SD, and Transcoded AVCHD to AVI to SD I CANNOT tell the difference between 3 clips, same subject matter, same lighting all run in sequence on a DVD. I have dragged friends and family in front of the brand new 42" TV and forced them to watch the 3 consecutive clips and the ONLY comment after wasting hours of making test DVD's is that the AVCHD to HDV footage seemed a little darker. Not one person including a critical stills photographer has been able to say "Oh yes, the first one is much sharper"

Is there REALLY a big resolution difference between the way you render HD to SD or it is because we are rendering PAL footage which technically is different to NTSC?????

I do all my weddings by transcoding HD direct to AVI cos it's way faster but after each wedding, yes, I start up with my little tests again to see if I need to render it differently but each and every time the test DVD shows no visable resolution difference!!!

Your very expert comments would be appreciated here!!! I can only think that HD to Widescreen NTSC DOES give a vastly lower resolutiion otherwise you guys wouldn't be going to so much effort with the render process!!!

Chris

If you are using TMpegEnc, then you don't go back into Vegas...

And the down-res is not being done by the codec, but internally in the NLE. The difference between the two is measurable, but may not be discernible in some cases. A lot of it is down to the material in the picture, and the camera it was shot with. If the initial camera cannot resolve detail to a level where this matters, then there is no point doing it this way. But if you are shooting with a higher end camera, the difference really does become noticeable.

Workflow:

Original > Cineform > Vegas (lagarith) > VDub (Lagarith) > TMPGenc

Alright,

After Cineform here's my Vegas work:

Vegas file properties of the Cineform 5D avi:
http://www.motleypixel.com/public/po...properties.jpg

Render-As Default avi uncompressed:
http://www.motleypixel.com/public/posts/renderas.jpg

Custom Settings of avi uncompressed (chose Lagarith so it's not really uncompressed):
http://www.motleypixel.com/public/po...m_settings.jpg

Rendered the avi w/o audio and open in VDub and first went to Filters>Resize:
http://www.motleypixel.com/public/posts/vdub_resize.jpg

Now I'm in a quandary again because I don't know the correct size setting. Again this will be played on a DVD player hooked up to a 1080p LCD widescreen 16:9 TV via HDMI. Using 720 for the X asis yields an aspect on Y of 405 (not 480). What settings do I use for this resize filter?

Then in VDub>Video>Compression I chose this with these settings...good?:
http://www.motleypixel.com/public/po...ompression.jpg

I'll stop here and wait for your reply. I'm in no rush...just want to get this cook-booked so I can make standard files.

Thanks,
Roy

I'll be curious to see what others say because I don't work with TMPGEnc and don't know how it wants the size from here. SD Widescreen is 854x480. If you were doing square pixel work, that is what I would tell you to use. But I don't know what TMPGenc wants. It may want the 720x405, or even 720x480 and it will change the PAR on it's own.

As for the last of the v-dub settings, change the encoding method from Precise Bicubic to Lanczos. Lanczos is usually the best choice (probably 95% of the time), but on rare occasions the Bicubic will do a better job.

Alright thanks again. I checked and TMPGenc encodes to 720X480. Now I've done two test and limited by just one source .mov from my 5D I have to say that I can't see any difference on my HDTV via SD DVD.

Going from Cineform to Vegas to full-res Lagarith avi and then to TMPGenc seem to yield the same results when I insert the VDub step, only difference is that the encode in TMPGenc to DVD takes a bit longer to downsize the 1920X1080 lag avi from Vegas vs the 720X405 lag avi from VDub, but then you take into account the time to encode in VDub and it's a wash.

I think I'm satisified now...I guess it will be, oh maybe 6 months, and I'll be wanting to buy a BD Burner and BD's to burn so I'll have to go through some of this again.

As for the MP4 stuff, this is the guide I use once I do the Cineform conversion of my 5D footage...seems to work well for youtube and vimeo: Eugenia's Rants and Thoughts Blog Archive Exporting with Vegas for Vimeo HD

Thanks for all the help...I'll be coming back to this thread for sure.
-Roy

The 5D is barely resolving enough lines to be called HD. So it's not surprising at all that you don't see much difference (if any) adding the VDub step. Should you be faced with a camera resolving out near 1000 lines or more, you'll most certainly see the difference.

Hi Perrone

With footage from my HMC72 at a mere 13mps I would suspect that's why I also cannot see any visible difference between AVCHD to SD and Transcoded AVCHD to AVI to SD ???

I highly doubt that my little 1/4" CCD's would be anywhere close to 1000 lines!! It probably, like the 5D just manages to produce a 1920x1080 image and that's about it..pretty much scraping in at the bottom of the ladder. The HMC 72 scrapes in at a mere 567 line resolution and even the way more expensive Canon XH-A1 can only manage just under 700

If that is the case then it seems rather pointless going thru these long render times and multiple operations when I can simply just do a transcode to DV-AVI and have lightning fast final rendering and a final video on DVD where the client cannot tell the difference anyway.

Have you any idea at what line resolution it definately becomes a asset to take extra steps to get the best possible SD image ...or is 1000 the minimum???

Chris

My EX1 resolves somewhere between 800 and 900 lines and I can tell the difference. So no, 1k is not the minimum. I think a lot of it depends on the camera, the codec it records in, the care of that signal once it's ingested, and the delivery medium.

But if you (and your clients) can't see the difference, then why bother with all the steps? I was VERY happy with my recent 720p shoot not going through all those hoops.

-P

Thanks Perrone!!

Maybe that will now stop me wasting all this time with comparative clips and trying to decide what format to render to and will it be worth it!!

My res is nowhere near an EX1 (nor is my budget) so I'm now comfortable with doing things without the extra steps.

Your expert advice is much appreciated!!

Chris

Perrone,

Just wanted to do a quick follow-up and let you know that things are going well. My HD web and SD DVD footage seems very good.

Now, really quick, if this is my last step in Vegas (after I've opened the Cineform Neo Scene avi and edited the footage), so do these settings look right if after this step I open the avi (and associated .ac3 audio file) in TMPGenc (which down-scales to 720X480p) for SD DVD?

http://www.motleypixel.com/public/po...m_settings.jpg

I'm curious if I need "Interleave every (seconds):" checked...reading the purpose seems pretty vague. Also, know that TMPGenc down-sizes to 720X480 then should I use 1.00000 Pixel aspect ratio. And lastly I figure "Create an OpenDML" checked wouldn't make much of a difference right?

Well, all I need now is more filming skill...maybe a weight rig, microphone, LDC screen and I may acutall make some decent footage...here's an MP4 HD sample hosted by flickr: Niswanger Valentine's Day 2010 in HD on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thanks,
Roy

Okay, I have a new quandary, the 5D Mk 2 will have a new firmware released from Canon on March 16th and here's the official nuts-n-bolts:

Now, this 30fps conversion to std. 29.97fps, will this make my Windows step of using Cineform Neo Scene to convert the 30fps .mov files to 29.97fps .avi files obsolete?

Also, what's the big difference between 24fps and 30fps other than a slower frame rate...wouldn't higher action scenes benefit from a higher frame rate?

Thanks,
Roy

24p gives a film like motion signature as film also displays at 24fps. 30fps might look a little smoother and more like LIVE TV.

if anyone uses cinenemacraft CCE encoder - there is also LanczosResize filter posibility and the end DVD results are spectacular. Also CCE excepts cineform and original 5dmarkII .mov files
bye

well this has been a great read, and I must admit b4 now I didnt really get it,
HD to SD, too easy, what can go wrong, just do it in Vegas.......
I was wrong.....
Over the last cpl of weeks Ive edited up my latest HD multi cam shoot, and everybody wants a DVD ( not a Bluray ), so I read this thread and some more on the net and gave V DUB a go at the down convert.
I rendered the show out of Vegas first, 1080p Cineform to PAL DVD first to have something to compare it to ( it looked fine as always, I mean its just SD, right? ).
So the workflow was/is,
All cams media converted to Cineform High quality 1080p
Edit
Render to Cineform again (should I have done Lags here? probably )
Open in VDUB, apply resize filter, 1024 x 576 (PAL square pixel, is there a way to set pixel aspect ratio here so DVDA doesnt have to recompress?)
Render to Lags,
Import to DVD Architect, apply chapters etc
Export and burn.

Opened up the 2 files in Vegas, one over the top, Previewed on my big monitor in Best Full,
then found some nice frames and muted the top track to compare the two.
The difference is massive!!!
The DVD from Vegas is "washed out", the blacks are grey, all definition is soft.

Played the DVD (the VDUB vers) on the 50" plasma through the PS3 and everyone thought it was still
HD.
I had my doubts, but the difference is huge, Im a convert.

And one more thing, all my cameras apart from one are consumer Canons, and the difference is noticeable on every cam, even the old SD sony tape cam that gets upconverted at capture.

cheers guys.
:)

I have read much of this thread, and I have a (what I would think to be) simple question that I can't seem to find an answer for.

I finished a 22 minute short film for film festivals, shot mostly on 7D. I edited in the Perrone Ford DNxHD codec, and everything went great. For the Bluray copies I have MP4 settings that I am satisfied with.

For the SD copies that some fests need, I have found that the MPEG-2 at highest settings doesn't look as good on the TV as a WMV version that I rendered out, but the WMV still doesn't look as good as I would like it to. Would it help if I changed the timeline to SD widescreen before rendering? Or does anyone have specific settings that I should change to? I'm not real good when it comes to codecs and whatnot, so if anyone has specific settings I should try, I would GREATLY appreciate the help!

Note: The SD MPEG-2 I rendered to DVDA Widescreen 24p, but have not put it on a DVD through DVDA yet, because the quality on the comp was pixelated, so I didn't want to waste a DVD. Will the quality look better if placed on a DVD through DVDA?

Thanks!

Zach

It would not have made much of a difference because Vegas's built-in MainConcept MPEG-2 encoder (and the built-in MPEG-2 encoders of most other NLEs) do a piss-poor job of downsizing images (they simply use the wrong resizing alogarithm for the job and cannot be configured to use the proper resize alogarithm without the need for "unsupported" third-party plugins). This results in shimmering and pixelated reds. And if anything, the MPEG-2 encoder in DVDA is even worse than the MainConcept MPEG-2 encoder for downsizing video resolution.

A good down converter is VDub. This description is for Edius but substitute any NLE of your choice. Virtual Dub Tutorial for downscaling Edius HD to SD

Ron Evans

Quick update, I changed the timeline settings from the dnxhd match to the NTSC Widescreen 24P, and kept the pixel aspect ratio to 1.000 square, and then rendered a wmv at 960x540 widescreen wmv at 9.8Mbps. It will be done when I get back from work, and I will let everyone know how it looks.

How'd it look?

Optimal settings with just Vegas
 

I've completed several HD to SD projects and have noticed the quality issues noted in this thread. What render settings do you recommend for someone that just wants to use Vegas and can live with a minimal quaity hit? I have HD material and I need to produce a SD DVD.

Thanks,
Dave

Since you're resizing the video, the first thing to check is that you're rendering at BEST quality. The default is "Good" which is fine for most purposes. But when you're resizing frames/images, you need to change it to "Best" which uses a better (slower) algorithm for resizing images.

I experimented around with this issue for about a month trying to get the best possible HD to SD conversion for a large DVD project. Although I am not a Vegas user (use Edius) I found the best solution was to render out a lossless file and encode with Tmpg4 using default DVD template settings. Encoded using CBR at 8100kps with AC3 audio and motion search set to high. The results, including graphics were razor sharp and crisp. I was amazed at this simple solution. Just download the trial and try it for yourself. I got the suggestion from Ron Evans in a post over on the Edius forum. http://ediusforum.grassvalley.com/fo...ad.php?t=16947

I've been using Best rendering for photo montages but not for video. Now that I have a much faster PC, I'll switch to Best for everything. When I have time I would like to give tmpg4 a try too.

Ron (and others) are spot on with the VDub solution. It's simple and FREE! And the resized footage from a 1080p Cineform master is beautiful (coming in at 720X405 to maintain original aspect ratio).

Love Vegas for many things; resizing video is not one of them.

Brad

I am quite happy with the Pavtube Converter. It is easy to use and supports many different formats. Picture quality is very good for HD conversions, which is all I have used it for so far. As for speed and quality, I am satisfied though faster would always be better. It does what I want & at a reasonable price.

How to convert HD video to SD video?

Hi Perrone,

I would appreciate if you could help me with my workflow from HD to SD using
Vegas 10 Pro, and Source Video from Canon 5d Mark II 1080p. I want the video
to be SD widescreen at the end of the process. Since I only have 4gig of
Ram, I can't load 1080p video on the timeline that is over 1.2 hours long,
so I decided to downgrade the video first,then import into vegas.

1. Open .MOV in VirutalDub to resize to 720x480 using Lanczos3.
Ex: http://www.lwintegrationtest.com/resize_vb.png

2. Compress .MOV file in VirtualDub using Lagarith

3. Import new 720x480 file to timeline in Vegas 10 Pro.

4. Set pixel to 1.00, set to progressive square in Vegas on the project/timeline level.
Ex: http://www.lwintegrationtest.com/Project_Properties.png
Ex: http://www.lwintegrationtest.com/Tim...ties_Media.png
Ex: http://www.lwintegrationtest.com/Tim...ies_VEvent.png

5. Render video .AVI in vegas using Lagarith.
Ex: http://www.lwintegrationtest.com/Render_Settings.png

6. Encode .AVI file to MPEG2 using Procoder, or CinemaCraft.


The following is details of my source file from the Canon 5D Mark II

General
Complete name : K:\Dvd Projects\Dorothy_Class_Reunion\Friday\MVI_0390.MOV
Format : MPEG-4
File size : 3.36 GiB
Overall bit rate : 47919470

Video
Count : 185
Count of stream of this kind : 1
Kind of stream : Video
Kind of stream : Video
Stream identifier : 0
ID : 1
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format/Url : VideoLAN - VideoLAN - x264
InternetMediaType : video/H264
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Codec ID/Url : http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html
Codec : AVC
Codec/Family : AVC
Codec/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Codec/Url : VideoLAN - VideoLAN - x264
Codec/CC : avc1
Codec profile : Baseline@L5.0
Codec settings : 1 Ref Frames
Codec settings, CABAC : No
Codec_Settings_RefFrames : 1
Duration : 602602
Duration : 00:10:02.602
Bit rate mode : VBR
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 46380433
Bit rate : 46.4 Mbps
Width : 1920
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1080
Height : 1 080 pixels
Original height : 1088
Original height : 1 088 pixels
Pixel aspect ratio : 1.000
Display aspect ratio : 1.778
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Original display aspect ratio : 1.765
Original display aspect ratio : 16:9
Rotation : 0.000
Frame rate mode : CFR
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Frame count : 18060
Resolution : 8
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Scan type : Progressive
Interlacement : PPF
Interlacement : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.746
Stream size : 3493621216
Stream size : 3.25 GiB (97%)


The following is my downgraded 720x480p from Virtual Dub using (lanczos3).

Count : 267
Video_Format_List : Lagarith
Complete name : K:\Dvd Projects\Dorothy_Class_Reunion\Friday\Video\Source
\MVI_0390_720_480.avi
Format : AVI
Codec/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 8.56 GiB
Duration : 10mn 2s
Overall bit rate : 122 Mbps
Stream size : 735481
Stream size : 718 KiB (0%)
Writing library : VirtualDub build 32817/release
Writing library : VirtualDub build 32817/release

Video
Count : 182
Kind of stream : Video
Format : Lagarith
Codec/Info : Lagarith LossLess
Codec/CC : LAGS
Duration : 10mn 2s
Duration : 00:10:02.603
Bit rate : 120 Mbps
Width : 720
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480
Height : 480 pixels
Pixel aspect ratio : 1.000
Display aspect ratio : 1.500
Display aspect ratio : 3:2
Frame rate : 29.970
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Frame count : 18060
Standard : NTSC
Color space : RGB
Bit depth : 8
Bit depth : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 11.628
Stream size : 8.45 GiB (99%)


Questions

1. What should the correct Pixel aspect ratio be for 720x480p widescreen
NTSC?

2. I noticed the colorspace changed from YUV to RGB when I rendered out from
Virtual Dub. I'm wondering if this is why the color white in the video is
over exposed during playback on TV, but fine during playback on computer.

3. I also selected 16:9 within my encoder, and I see 3:2 instead of 16:9
according to mediainfo in the file from VitualDub, any ideas why?

3. What do I set Huffy to using this workflow?
http://www.lwintegrationtest.com/huffyuv.png

Thanks.
Matt

1) 1.2121 is the PAR for SD Widescreen, 0.9091 for normal.

2) If it converted to Computer RGB, then it will OK on a computer, depending on where you're playing it back. But when you encode with all but the 32 bit full-range setting in Vegas Pro, the codecs want to see Studio RGB for MPEG-2. If you can render to Studio RGB instead, or put a cRGB->sRGB filter in place somewhere, that will bring your blacks back to 16:16:16 and your whites down to 235:235:235.

3) 720x480 is 3:2, without the PAR adjustment. With it, the "rez" is 872x480, a bit wider that 16:9, but the sides are lost to overscan I guess. As I understand it, there is little to no decent/standard way of conveying PAR in AVI, so often the actual rez is changed to force the aspect ratio. 872x480, 720x396 or 640x360 to get AVIs to consistently playback correctly. The issue might be many players just ignore the PAR, I'm not honestly sure. Obviously though, this requires resampling, so it's NOT how to do the DVD or real output, only for an AVI for your computer or youtube or something.

Please help... XHA1 Problem
 

I recently connected my Sony A1E to a neighbours Canon XHA1 through the firewire to try and down convert from HDV on the Sony down to DV on the Canon, for capture puposes. (Not realising that the Sony could do this all on its own)
Now the neighbours Canon will only playback DV and not HDV tapes - I've changed and rechanged the menu settings but with no luck.

Can anyone out there please help.
Best regards, John

To export 4:2:2 YUV encoded with Lagarith, you need to tell VirtualDub to export YUY2 to the compressor and set Lagarith to encode as YUY2 (defaults for both are RGB).

To set VirtualDub to outputting YUY2: From "Video" on the menu bar, select "Color Depth..." and under "Output format to compressor/display", select "4:2:2 YCbCr (YUY2)".

To set Lagarith to encoding as YUY2: From "Video" on the menu bar, select "Compression..." then select "Lagarith lossless codec" then click the "Configure" button, and under mode select "YUY2".

Use YV12 (both as output from Virtual Dub to the compressor and as the Lagarith compression mode) if you want to export 4:2:0 from Virtual Dub (DVD video is 4:2:0).

Hello,

I just installed vdub 1.9 and under VIDEO>compression I don't see anything about Lagarith.
Is there something I have to do to enable this?

Thanks!

thats too much!

Too many steps to go,
too many formats to change
too much trouble
too much work.

I found that most resizers dont take care of too high frequencies - in worst case they mirror (Nyquist...) into the SD picture or produce moirees etc.
After hundreds of tries I simply edit in HD and play it (HD) back to XDCAM (even HDV works fine for this) and use the camera´s downconverter to play it back into PC via SDI or composite. The cam does the better downscale job than any of my softwares. Too high frequencies are filtered and the pic is nice, clean and without interlace (deinterlace) artefacts - especially in horizontal edges.

One ease way - maybe "oldschool", but always works.

Uli

Perhaps you haven't downloaded and installed the Lagarith codec?

Thanks Seth. Thought it was part of Vdub.

I use Virtualdub with the Lanczos 3 procedure described earlier in this thread with great results. I have a friend that uses FCP and Compressor on a Mac. He asked for a recommendation on resizing on his Mac. Is virtualdub available for the Mac? If not, are there good alternative resizing solutions?

Re: Maximizing HD to SD Quality
 

I have read this great thread and it gave me a good idea on how to move HD video material to DVD, but as usual, new beginner get's stuck somewhere along the way. I hope someone can help me through this journey. Here is my situation and questions.


Input

Video is shot with HDR – HC1E camera. It is European model, so video is in 1440 X 1080 (1,333 aspect ratio), 50i, PAL format.

Target

European SD DVD, playable on home DVD Players.

DVD format in Europe is PAL, 720 X 576 (1,25 aspect ratio) (not sure if there is a standard for interlaced/progressive image).

Watched on LCD or Plasma TV with full HD, 1920 X 1080 (1,777 aspect ratio). I understand LCD and Plasma are progressive (CRT is interlaced), but correct me if I am wrong. Not sure if 50 frames is of any importance here.

Procedure (based on this thread)
1. Capture with Cineform ConnectHD into avi file.
2. With Sony Vegas, render to smaller avi file using lossless Lagarith codec.
3. Using VirtualDub resize to 720 X 576, using Lanczos as a rescale codec.
4. With Sony Vegas render to MPEG2 using Mainconcept codec.
5. Render Audio to AC3 with Vegas

Software
Cineform ConnectHD
Sony Vegas Pro 10
VirtualDub 1.9.11
Lagarith codec 1.3.22
GSpot v 2.70a

Questions:
1. Do I want to keep video interlaced all the way, or do I need to think on deinterlacing. If I watch it on LCD and if it is progressive, should I leave that job to dvd player or would I be better off deinterlacing video material? Please don’t kill me on this if LCD’s actually are ok with interlaced material and there is no need to worry about it…
2. Aspect Ratio is different in source video, DVD standard and TV used to watch that video. My thinking is that changing aspect ratio will decrease video quality, but something needs to be done here. What route do I go? Should I resize in Virtual Dub into 720 X 540 to keep same aspect ratio as source? Or to 720 X 405 to keep same ratio as TV? If I do so, will DVD authoring software (DVD Architect) understand selected aspect ration and will not automatically resize back to 720 X 576 ???
3. Not sure what is the point on rendering original AVI file into smaller avi file in step 2. I understand that smaller files takes less space on HDD, but since we already captured video into larger avi, we have it on HDD and can pass to VirtualDub resizing and therefore safe time. Or am I missing something here?
4. Does Cineform ConnectHD do better capture than native Sony Vegas Pro capturing module?
5. If Cineform ConnectHD has valid reason to be used, it offers two options for capture: m2t or avi. Is there a difference which one to use?

Challenges along the way:
1. First challenge came while capturing… I have several options to choose and suggested file formats are m2t or avi. Many users talk about Cineform avi in this thread so I tried to capture into avi. Captured file was huge. 1 min 49 sec of capture ended up in 1 314 MB size avi file. I then try to drop captured file into vegas timeline and get error message “CFHD is not supported”… I then try to capture into Cineform intermediate and MPEG2-TS format. This creates two files: avi (same size as in first attempt) and m2t of 295 MB (4,5 times smaller!!!). Dropping onto Sony Vegas was not successful with avi again, but m2t file went fine into vegas timeline…

At this point I decided to ask for clarification, help as I am not sure where to go next. I attach few screenshots. One is for Cineform ConnectHD capture preferences (in case something else needs to be changed there). Other two show video properties of captured video stream into avi and m2t files. I got those properties by using free GSpot application.

Re: Maximizing HD to SD Quality
 

I would stay in HDV, edit as normal in a 1440x1080I project. Export a HDV file in the same format and then use TMPGenc V5 to encode for SD DVD with its preset. A lot easier and best downconvert and encode that I have experienced both for HDV and AVCHD. You could even use TMPGenc Authorworks and do the whole thing including authoring in the one program. I would normal do my video in Edius V6.02 where I would export a Canopus HQ file then use TMPGenc. Cineform would be another alternative but for one track of HDV it isn't worth going to an intermediate with modern PC's.

TMPGEnc - Products: TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5

TMPGEnc - Products: TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4

For Bluray just export from Vegas with the Bluray preset for authoring in DVDArchitect.

Ron Evans