Soft picture in DVD export

[Radomir Charapich]

I filmed a Wedding in HDV 1030i format with my Sony HVR - Z1U, imported all files as HDV, and sequence setting was for HDV 1030i. When I exported video for Blue Ray encoding, everything is fine and sharp, but, when I exported the same sequence for DVD MPEG 2 encoding (standard setting with PPRO preset), picture is very soft, almost blurry. I am using PPro 5.03. Any suggestion how to fix this problem?

[Bart Walczak]

Export to uncompressed SD, and then convert the file to MPEG-2. Premiere has problems with different field order on export, and applies a lousy deinterlace algorithm. This is the case only during export from HD timeline to SD MPEG-2 or DV files.

[Radomir Charapich]

Thanks Bart, only option that I have is Uncompressed Microsoft AVI, is it right one? Are you using Media Encoder for conversion?
Regards, Rad

[Bart Walczak]

Yes and yes, although you can also import avi to Encore, and let it handle the transcoding. It uses the same engine as AME, so there will be no difference.

[Ann Bens]

Make sure when export to mpeg2-dvd fields are set to upper.

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Bart and Ann,

I appreciate your insights on this matter. Two questions -

1) Could one export to the Lagarith lossless codec for SD, or must it be uncompressed?

2) Ann, are you suggesting Upper Field DVD for NTSC users, which is normally lower?

Thanks much

Jeff Pulera

[Alan Craven]

Jeff,

I have been using VirtualDub to downscale my Matrox HDV files, using the Lanczos 3 filter, and exporting as an uncompressed avi.

I then use Procoder to convert this to a DVD compatible m2v.

You are starting with Upper Field First, so to avoid problems you need to stay with that right through the process.

[Ann Bens]

Originally Posted by Jeff Pulera

Hi Bart and Ann,

I appreciate your insights on this matter. Two questions -

1) Could one export to the Lagarith lossless codec for SD, or must it be uncompressed?

2) Ann, are you suggesting Upper Field DVD for NTSC users, which is normally lower?

Thanks much

Jeff Pulera

Yes, do not change fields.
DVD can be either lower or upper regardless ntsc or pal
I frameserve to TMPGenc when downscaling HDV to SD.

[Bart Walczak]

Jeff, I have no experience with Lagarith codec. The easiest thing would be to check by exporting short part of your movie and examine the results.

[Eric Olson]

Originally Posted by Radomir Charapich

I filmed a Wedding in HDV 1030i format with my Sony HVR - Z1U, imported all files as HDV, and sequence setting was for HDV 1030i. When I exported video for Blue Ray encoding, everything is fine and sharp, but, when I exported the same sequence for DVD MPEG 2 encoding (standard setting with PPRO preset), picture is very soft, almost blurry.

Try using tmpgenc, procoder or hcencoder to create a DVD compliant MPEG2 stream directly from the blu-ray render. Since you already have a blu-ray, it should be easy to downconvert it using one of these external encoders to create a high-quality DVD.

[Mark Williams]

+1 for Tmpgenc. I spent way too much time trying to get a decent DVD from HD material until I came across Tmpgenc. My standards are pretty high and Tmpgenc gave me what I wanted with pretty much the "default" DVD settings. I ended up with a 1 hour DVD encoded at 8000kbs CBR and audio at 320kbs AC3. I now happily shoot 1080i HD material knowing it will look great on DVD.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Ann Bens

Make sure when export to mpeg2-dvd fields are set to upper.

Usually, that is true. However, I found that Encore may flip the field order on any SD material that's upper field first (since that program expects all SD material to be lower field first), especially if the program is forced to (or the user chooses to) recompress the video within Encore. This is why I am testing my sample videos for this possibility.

As it turned out, this field flipping only occurs if the recompression is performed using Encore's default "automatic using project settings". If I wanted to create a custom preset, I can select upper field first in the field order properties.

[Ann Bens]

Encore forces the HDV file to lower on import via DL.
Then in the export you are forcing it back to upper.
Have a look at the summery (source and output) in the export settings of Encore.

[Randall Leong]

I wasn't using Dynamic Link. I was importing a UFF SD file directly into Encore without using DL.

I double-checked again, and now I see that it did flip the field order to lower field first. No wonder why my results weren't as good as previous attempts when I manually converted upper to lower intentionally via HD2SD, AVIsynth and VirtualDub. I now have a feeling that the field order of any upper-field-first Encore-ready MPEG-2 DVD files could also be flipped to lower field first on import into Encore (even directly, without using Dynamic Link).

I just checked with an already prepared MPEG-2 file, and it turned out that on all DVD projects in Encore, the field order on all upper-field-first video is flipped to lower-field-first on import.

What all this means is that Adobe (or at least Encore) wants all interlaced DVDs to be lower field first on export.

[Ann Bens]

I knew it was flipping when using DL.
I did not realise it was doing that also to ready made upper mpeg2-dvd files.
I never checked.