Hi

I have a canon XH-A1, I edit on FCP and master my dvds using idvd.
My footage looks great on my computer screen and through the camera. Everything is shot well (ie correct exposure)

Yet when I master a dvd, the footage appears very dark and movement in shots is not smooth.

I have mastered dvd's using idvd and 16:9 SD footage, and it appears fine.

I am aware HDV is a compressed format, but surely I can expect better quality than 16:9 SD

What can I do, can anyone suggest any tweaks?

How and with what software are you compressing your projects? The compression program settings can make all the difference. For instance, if your motion shots are not smooth you may have the wrong field dominance chosen. FCP allows you to export directly through Compressor, but you can still adjust Compressor's settings to make the image darker or lighter, among other things. Take a good look at those areas.

Best wishes,
Peter Rhalter
www.parkfilms.com

i noticed last week that idvd has terrible compression. you'll find a much nicer result burning with Toast, although the menu's can't be fully customized, it burns fast and looks great. You dont even have to compress your clip to SD, i've been dropping my HDV clips in and Toast will encode it to an SD (or HD dvd if you have that capability) for you. Until i get DVD studio up and running it seems to be the best option.

thanks Brian

Even a HDV project mastered to 16:9 SD looks crap in idvd.

Time to learn dvdsp i think!

Mark,

Be sure to export a QuickTime movie (not Quicktime Conversion) to an external drive. When you import the movie into iDVD make sure that in Preferences/Projects that Professional Quality is selected. Also, obviously if your putting more than 1 hr of footage on the disk the quality is going to suffer.

"time to learn dvdsp I think"

Yes!

To use a XH-A1 and FCP and then iDVD seems
a touch counter-productive.

You will love DVDSP, jump in...


David

What editing program are you using? Final Cut for example does a horrible job converting HDV to SD! SD interlacing is lower fields and HDV is upper, final cut shifts fields automatically (look in filters) and it looks awful. There are a lot of factors involved, for example HDV gets MORE compressed when you render it, or cut, or add transitions. You avoid this by changing your render settings to pro res or animation (when you are done with the project) and re-render your final before you export.
I could go on and on, but maybe if you were a little more specific (what program you use, and are you editing in HDV or SD?) I could recommend a solution.

Here's what works very well for me with HDV footage from the Canon A1 (24F):

1. in FCP: render everything (I'm using native HDV codec)
2. export as quicktime movie (self-contained, no resizing! - 1440x1080).
3. Preview this raw quicktime movie using QuickTime Player. Should look nice. (at least it does in my case).
4. (Drag-and-) Drop this into compressor. Select one of the default NTSC DVD templates. I forget which one I used - use the one with the least compression (determined by the total length of your footage).
5. Let compressor do the down-sampling (resizing).
6. Dump the output into DVD Studio Pro and burn.

For me this produces perfect, very high quality DVDs.
Best,
Dino

thanks guys

I am using FCP. What I was trying to do was export the HDV sequence as a DV PAL anamorphic quicktime movie, and then trying to use that in idvd.

I will try doing it in compressor, and tell you how I go.

thanks guys

I am using FCP. What I was trying to do was export the HDV sequence as a DV PAL anamorphic quicktime movie, and then trying to use that in idvd.

I will try doing it in compressor, and tell you how I go.

Mark,
don't export HDV from FCP as DV SD!
Sure recipe for quality problems. Export directly to compressor, and do the resizing (HD > PAL 16:9) and compression there. Use the setting appropriate for the length of your piece. IF it is over 2 hours, use only the dolby audio - not the aif. A 2 hour dvd should look fine if everything else is good.

DVDSP has a simple mode which is nearly as easy as imovie. Easier if you are trying to do anything beyond a templated basic author.

Import the separate audio and video files generated by compressor. Making the first disc will take only a few minutes to begin burning in most cases. The time-consuming area is in compressor, where a high quality job can take several times as long as the project itself, depending on your machine.

I'm not following one part of this thread that I need to - I'm assuming "Compressor" is software?

I'm assuming "Compressor" is software?Yes, that's right. Compressor is an application that comes with Apple's Final Cut Studio. It's a collection of codecs and a user interface to run/configure them.

Compressor can be launched from the Finder/dock, or it can be launched from inside Final Cut Pro ("File -> Export -> using Compressor").

- Martin

My Canon XHA1 1080 30p timelines exported from FCP using Compressor, than dragging the m2v file into DVDSP makes Gorgeous SD DVD. But I also installed the recent Pro App Updates. I hadn't tried a SD DVD with HDV prior to the updates, so I couldn't report if the Updates were the cause of such gorgeous DVDs or not... But right now FCP Studio 2 kicks serious ass!

Lonnie

thanks for everyone's help

I have had success!

I exported directly from fcp to compressor, using one of compressors dvd templates.

I then dragged audio and video files into dvdsp and (very easily) produced a menued dvd

No motion artifacts in the finished dvd BUT the images are darker on the tv than they appeared on my computer

maybe time to learn color now, he he

thanks for everyone's help

I have had success!

I exported directly from fcp to compressor, using one of compressors dvd templates.

I then dragged audio and video files into dvdsp and (very easily) produced a menued dvd

No motion artifacts in the finished dvd BUT the images are darker on the tv than they appeared on my computer

maybe time to learn color now, he he

It might also be time to calibrate your monitor. This is probably just a case that your computer monitor is not set up correctly.

Ok can anyone help me? Im shooting with my XHA1 set in hd 16.9 I'm using Sony Direct dvd burner and if i use fire wire or composite out the TV stations keep telling me that my video is letter boxing when they play my dvd and yes letter boxing on my camera is off and Sony keeps telling me that the burning will burn the same size as what my camera is set to I'm beginning to Sony is full of it, how can I fix this.

HELP PLEASE!

"time to learn dvdsp I think"

Yes!

To use a XH-A1 and FCP and then iDVD seems
a touch counter-productive.

You will love DVDSP, jump in...


David

I could never get DVD Studio Pro to... well, to actually BURN a goddamn DVD!

For very simple projects, I use DVDFlick, which is open source; for more complex projects, DVD Architect seems to be the way to go.

learn to master DVD studio
i used to use idvd but after basic tuturiols on youtube i mastered DVD studio, the quality is much much better than IDVD, just remeber to bump up the settings in the preference.

And its much much faster than IDVD

I'm a news stringer and have to make dvd's out in the field so thats why i got sony dvd direct

Chas: You say you're shooting in 16:9 in HD and burning an SD DVD and it's letterboxed? How else would it work? You're recording in 16:9. Therefore it's going to letterbox on 4:3. Unless you're looking for a 4:3 centre cut, in which case I would never expect a video appliance to do what you're asking OR if your discs are STILL letterboxing on 16:9 screens, in which case you are recording discs as "letterboxed" instead of "anamorphic".

More details please.

[QUOTE=Shaun Roemich;1009109]Chas: You say you're shooting in 16:9 in HD and burning an SD DVD and it's letterboxed? How else would it work? You're recording in 16:9. Therefore it's going to letterbox on 4:3. Unless you're looking for a 4:3 centre cut, in which case I would never expect a video appliance to do what you're asking OR if your discs are STILL letterboxing on 16:9 screens, in which case you are recording discs as "letterboxed" instead of "anamorphic".

More details please.

Well I'm shooting in 16.9 burning using sony dvd direct vrd-mc 5 there book says to get 16.9 from my footage i need to set my camera tv type to 4.3 well my camera is an XHA1 there is no tv type setting. The TV stations use old style 4.3 square monitors does this help. oh and i tried to call you and on my end it says i cant reach you your not in the usa.any way did this info help

If you've got the time learn how to use DVD Studio Pro along with Compressor, assuming you have access to both.

From FCP, export to Compressor using the Best Quality 90 Minute format template (only if you're amount of media total length is under 90 minutes). Then import that to DVD Studio Pro. It's shouldn't have to re compress it. Make sure your clip is set to 4:3, 16:9 Letterbox, 16:9 Pan-Scan, or 16:9 pan-scan/letterbox, whatever you're preference is.

It takes awhile to get to know it and to see how it reacts once it's in a DVD player, but the pay off is knowing how to use the software. I think it's worth it.

It sounds like you're wanting 16:9 anamorphic.

In order to do that, you need to find a menu in the camera that says something like "stretch" (sorry, I have no time on the new Canons but it HAS to be there somewhere) in reference to your downconvert options. When the video plays out to your recorder, it will be 4:3 aspect stretched vertically. This is normal for 16:9 anamorphic, which uses ALL 480 lines of vertical resolution and uses a pixel aspect ratio of 1.2 to get widescreen 16:9.

I ASSUME the broadcaster knows that you are sending them 16:9 and indeed WANTS 16:9 material. Otherwise, you're already doing it "right"

It sounds like you're wanting 16:9 anamorphic.

In order to do that, you need to find a menu in the camera that says something like "stretch" (sorry, I have no time on the new Canons but it HAS to be there somewhere) in reference to your downconvert options. When the video plays out to your recorder, it will be 4:3 aspect stretched vertically. This is normal for 16:9 anamorphic, which uses ALL 480 lines of vertical resolution and uses a pixel aspect ratio of 1.2 to get widescreen 16:9.

I ASSUME the broadcaster knows that you are sending them 16:9 and indeed WANTS 16:9 material. Otherwise, you're already doing it "right"

no there is nothing just down convert with no options on size. there is letter box off or on i have it set to off. should i try it with it on.

If you've got the time learn how to use DVD Studio Pro along with Compressor, assuming you have access to both.

From FCP, export to Compressor using the Best Quality 90 Minute format template (only if you're amount of media total length is under 90 minutes). Then import that to DVD Studio Pro. It's shouldn't have to re compress it. Make sure your clip is set to 4:3, 16:9 Letterbox, 16:9 Pan-Scan, or 16:9 pan-scan/letterbox, whatever you're preference is.

It takes awhile to get to know it and to see how it reacts once it's in a DVD player, but the pay off is knowing how to use the software. I think it's worth it.

that wont work I'm out in the field with no computer i have a Sony laptop but its worthless and 6 years old

Ok Chas. I'm going over and above here: I have downloaded the owners manual and I'm prepared to talk you through this but I need some very specific questions answered.

How are you getting the video TO the Sony recorder? Firewire, composite or component out?

Ok Chas. I'm going over and above here: I have downloaded the owners manual and I'm prepared to talk you through this but I need some very specific questions answered.

How are you getting the video TO the Sony recorder? Firewire, composite or component out?

I have tried both fire wire and composite oh and thanks for going above and beyond lol

Ok, according to the chart on Page 97 of the English Owners Manual, you need to select [Off] under the [Letterbox] menu item, and come out the video terminal outs. If you have a monitor attached to your Sony recorder, your footage will look stretched vertically. Believe it or not, this IS what you want at this stage. The DVD player at the other end of this process will deal with the DVD properly and letterbox your footage for 4:3 TVs or pass along a 16:9 signal for widescreen.

Ok, according to the chart on Page 97 of the English Owners Manual, you need to select [Off] under the [Letterbox] menu item, and come out the video terminal outs. If you have a monitor attached to your Sony recorder, your footage will look stretched vertically. Believe it or not, this IS what you want at this stage. The DVD player at the other end of this process will deal with the DVD properly and letterbox your footage for 4:3 TVs or pass along a 16:9 signal for widescreen.

which owners manual the one for my camera or for sony dvd direct. note on my camera i have letter box set to off. the sony recorder has no way to attach a monitor.

now the camera has a few video terminals either fire wire or composite

I was refring to the Canon Owners Manual. I'm downloading the Sony DVD recorder's now.

I was refring to the Canon Owners Manual. I'm downloading the Sony DVD recorder's now.

thank you very much for your help the ops manger of koin and i are at a lost so if you solve this you should get a Nobel Prize lol

Ok, there are no user selectable items on the Sony recorder that would affect the process. Your only options are at the camera side.

So, in order to create an SD DVD from 16:9 HD program material on your XHA1, you need to:
- connect the supplied cable (identified as STV-290N Stereo cable on page 99 of Canon Manual) to the video terminal on the camera and switch the output selector switch to A/V1.
- connect the yellow video and red and white audio RCA's at the end of this cable to the Sony recorder.
- Go into the Canon's menu and find [Signal Setup]
- Select [Letterbox]
- Select OFF
- On the Menu of the Sony recorder, select Video => DVD
- Press Record to record as usual.

This should take your 16:9 HD material, downconvert it to SD, stretch it vertically in order to fill the frame INSTEAD OF letterboxing it, allowing a DVD player to decide whether to letterbox your material for a 4:3 set OR display full wide 16:9 for a widescreen TV.

Even if you think you've done as I say above, PLEASE go through each step from scratch and make sure you haven't missed anything. Good luck!

Ok, there are no user selectable items on the Sony recorder that would affect the process. Your only options are at the camera side.

So, in order to create an SD DVD from 16:9 HD program material on your XHA1, you need to:
- connect the supplied cable (identified as STV-290N Stereo cable on page 99 of Canon Manual) to the video terminal on the camera and switch the output selector switch to A/V1.
- connect the yellow video and red and white audio RCA's at the end of this cable to the Sony recorder.
- Go into the Canon's menu and find [Signal Setup]
- Select [Letterbox]
- Select OFF
- On the Menu of the Sony recorder, select Video => DVD
- Press Record to record as usual.

This should take your 16:9 HD material, downconvert it to SD, stretch it vertically in order to fill the frame INSTEAD OF letterboxing it, allowing a DVD player to decide whether to letterbox your material for a 4:3 set OR display full wide 16:9 for a widescreen TV.

Even if you think you've done as I say above, PLEASE go through each step from scratch and make sure you haven't missed anything. Good luck!

Your right i have done this and still letter boxes at the station could it be just a matter of them setting there player to the right setting on there dvd player under the aspect settings. i will go over all my camera setting again
thank you for all your time oh and i do have to have my camera set to down convert right. in the owners manual of the sony burner it says to set the cameras TV TYPE to 4.3 to get a 16.9 dvd how ever my camera doesnt have a TV TYPE setting

But it SHOULD letterbox at their end. Unless they are broadcasting in 16:9. You are providing them with 16:9 material, it needs to display in 16:9 UNLESS you are doing a centre cut, which you can't do with the Canon.

Are you trying to provide them with a 4:3 image? If so, you NEED to edit first.

But it SHOULD letterbox at their end. Unless they are broadcasting in 16:9. You are providing them with 16:9 material, it needs to display in 16:9 UNLESS you are doing a centre cut, which you can't do with the Canon.

Are you trying to provide them with a 4:3 image? If so, you NEED to edit first.

No they want 16.9 but there monitors are 4.3 I think its on there end wen i look at my video on there monitor there is a black space on the top and bottom of the video and it fills from side to side they say it looks squished