I am going to create a DVD soon with a green screen, etc. I am trying to decide whether to buy the Sony HDR-SR11 or the Canon or the Vixia HV30 with the 24p option. Don't know much, but the question is SHOULD I RECORD IN SD OR CAN I RECORD IN HD AND JUST EDIT THE VIDEO, BURN TO DVD, AND IT WILL HAVE DOWNGRADED THE RESOLUTION ITSELF? What is the best way to do, and what camera is better?

Moved out of the Canon XH forum as this topic has nothing to do with the Canon XH series camcorders. Please do not "shout" by using ALL CAPS as that is very hard to read. Generally speaking, you'll get better looking SD video by recording in HD to begin with.

Not shouting, just using caps, making my question more readily read. Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know how to post or where to post, but it's very likely many of you will see the DVD, so I'm in need of help.

All caps = shouting.

You've found best online resources for digital video; start by using the search function to find discussions about specific topics that you're interested in -- or just browse a forum to get an idea of the types of discussions people are having here.

No matter what the subject is, chances are strong that we've already covered it. Just roll up your sleeves and dig in. Try http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/dvd-web-video-delivery/ for starters.

Please respond, I need help, lots of it, and I'll send you a free DVD of my crazieness...

Chris answered your question.... "Generally speaking, you'll get better looking SD video by recording in HD to begin with."

do you have more questions...

will it be just as easy to make a DVD which will play on DVD players or computers just as easy in HD? Or will I have to edit it to something else?

As Chris mentioned, that topic has probably been covered a number of times, but it basically boils down to what software you're using. I use Adobe CS3, which makes the HD-footage-to-SD-DVD transition quite easy if you're already familiar with Adobe Encore DVD. You just put your footage on the timeline and tell it what you quality you want out of it and it handles the transcoding. If you're looking for a cheaper solution, generally, any software worth its salt will handle the inputting of modern formats without a lot of complication (including HD formats). On the windows side, Vista now comes with "Windows DVD Maker," which makes the process quite painless, and I believe most Macs ship with iDVD on them which probably works even better. I therefore echo the sentiment that keeping your footage in HD through as much of the process is always best. Shooting, editing and rendering in HD and then authoring an SD DVD from your HD Cut will only give you better results. Hope this gives you a good starting point.

I believe you'll get better green screen results in HD than in SD Neither is outstanding, but HD shold be better.

Shawn: it sounds like you're trying to learn a lot on short notice, which is likely to get frustrating. As far as cameras are concerned the ones you mentioned are all decent and shooting in HD should yield better green screen results, but you'll need software which can handle the HD capture and editing and downsample to SD at the end. Picking the software will be more important than the camera, so start researching your software options. What's your budget for that?

Ok I just re-read your original question....

The easiest way for me to create a HD and SD DVD is as follows...

Use Cineform to injest your footage to your NLE.. work your magic editing
on the footage and output the footage to your hard drive...

then use DVDit HD pro... with this software you can write a HD and a SD DVD at the same
time...

Check out this tutorial and you will know exactly what you need to do... click on "Watch the Flash Demo" on the following site... and watch the whole thing :-)

Roxio DVDit Pro HD - DVD Authoring ? Overview (http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/dvdit/hd/overview.html)

Thanks for everyones help. Kevin, I can afford any software. Money is not an issue. I would like to keep it tame, but it is not necessary.

Ditto what Alex said then: Adobe CS3 is a decent solution for editing in HD and downrezzing to SD for the final output.

Especially if you're using a PC. On the Mac side there's a lot of support for final cut pro and you can still get Adobe products to work with it. In my experience thus far, (and I'll probably get lynched for saying this) there's little functional difference between Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. Either solution does a great job.

Hi Shawn,

As others have said, it is better to source in HD - just wanted to share some reasons though.

HDV uses 4:2:0 color vs. 4:1:1 of DV. Some of the tapeless HD (non-HDV) cameras may even use 4:2:2 color, haven't kept up on consumer camcorder specs. The better color space, combined with 5x the resolution, will produce better green screen results with cleaner edges on the keyed subject

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
Your #1 DV & 3D Animation Source - Safe Harbor 800-544-6599 (http://www.sharbor.com)

If you use Mac and Final Cut, edit in HD(V), copy the timeline and paste it into a new SD timeline (of your choice), render and burn a DVD.

On a PC I only done it using premiere, I can´t remember our settings, but it was very easy.
We did have to try a few different settings before we were happy with the results.

The footage was from different sources, Sony EX-1, Canon H1 and Panasonic HVX200 (shot in DV) and it turned out very well.
So start off in HD if you can afford to

4:2:0 color space doesn't provide any more color information that 4:1:1 (but it does match the color space of DVD video). HD simply provides more samples of both luminance and color.