So when you put your final wedding video on a dvd, what is the best way to get the best quality on a dvd, because when you film HD, you cant put hd on a dvd,,,, right?

Sure you can! Just not as much as standard definition.

Um, yes and no -

If it's a "DVD" that is going to play back in a "normal" DVD player, you have to go down to SD resolution, period... I stay HD until the final render, which goes typically to 720x480 24P. Looks pretty good...

BUT it is possible to burn HD files that can be read by some Blu-Ray players on a standard DVD. I experimented with it, and now burn a disc this way to archive even if I'm not delivering in that format, but I'm planning on offering the option.

A 4.7GB DVD will hold a 4.7GB m2t file, which is about 20 minutes of HD video. As Dave said, that will play on *some* Blu-ray players.

But I assume from your question you were asking about putting HD video on a DVD that will play in a DVD player. In that case, you're correct that you can't put HD on a DVD.

What software are you using? Sony, Adobe, other? Adobe Premiere/Encore will let you keep the entire project in HD, then making the final downconvert to SD when burning the DVD. That way you can use the same project to create a DVD now, and a Blu-ray disk later.

Others like to have a bit more control over the downconversion. Of the tools I have available, I like downconverting in After Effects best.

thanks for the replys. I am personally using vegas.
thanks again.

Ive never had to use a separate down convert feature when putting HD onto a dvd. I do all my editing in HD and simply burn to dvd. The picture comes out great. WHy is there a need to do a separate down conversion?

Ive never had to use a separate down convert feature when putting HD onto a dvd. I do all my editing in HD and simply burn to dvd. The picture comes out great. WHy is there a need to do a separate down conversion?

Technically speaking, your authoring software does the downconversion for you.

The only thing that I would worry about is if you film 1080/60i - You're going to want to create a 1080/30p file - either deinterlacing by interpolation (blending the fields) or deinterlacing by discarding every other line and creating a 540/30p file. (PAL resolution is 576, so this isn't a good option for PAL DVDs)

This is because you can inadvertently create VERY noticeable interlacing artifacts by downsizing (or for that matter, upsizing) interlaced footage.

I'm using tmpgenc 4.0 express to downconvert 1080p or 1080i footage to dvd and the result is very good, I always downconvert to a progressive file as that looks good on a crt and lcd, specifically when the source file is interlaced. It looks way better going from interlaced to progressive when viewed on a full hd lcd. I haven"t found any convertion program that can match tmpgenc output quality.

Unfortunately, i think both Adobe and Apple had a pink elephant in the room, but nobody wanted to admit it.

Any sort of scaling from 1080i to 480i requires some serious horsepower, and correct field processing...Therefore, a plugin, or filter that does proper deinterlacing, resizing, and field matching..For some strange reason, this is/was an issue that was never properly adressed..

My Avisynth script (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/attend-world-premiere/236619-windows-exporting-workflow-pp-cs4-not-using-media-encoder.html#post1167586) is perfect for what i need, but it is seriously slow...

I noticed you are using the Lanczos resize algorithm. This is a good one, and the best method Virtual Dub has to offer, but with AVISynth you might want to use Spline32Resize or even Spline64Resize as it offers even superior results.