I'm sure this question has been asked many times on these boards, but i've just spent 30 minutes using the 'Search' feature to try and prevent myself from sounding like a complete noob. Unfortunately i couldn't find what i was looking for, its mostly SD-HD questions, which leads me to assume my question is an easy one. So, here it goes.

How do i get the best out of my 1080i 50 HD wedding footage, which will be going on a DVD as HD?

I've spent a good hour messing around with different settings on a 10 second clip trying to retain as much actual/real HD quality as seen in my raw footage, but it always seems to end up looking like standard def stuff except for mpeg2 which seems to yield the best result (.m2t), but can this be transferred to a playable DVD? Also Video for Windows (.avi) 1080i 50 Sony YUV has had good results, but the interlacing shows up with every movement of my camera, im assuming there is a way to prevent this without shooting progressive?

I'm still quite new to this, and trying to teach myself as i go, so please excuse my ignorance!

Many thanks.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-happens-vegas/271329-maximizing-hd-sd-quality.html


condensed version of above:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-happens-vegas/466972-best-project-render-settings-create-dvd.html#post1442691


HD to SD DVD - Best Methods | Creating Motion Graphics Blog | Blu-Ray DVD Authoring Menu | Precomposed (http://www.precomposed.com/blog/2009/07/hd-to-sd-dvd-best-methods/)

That will get you started :)

I'd just like to butt in here and pose the question is it worth shooting in 1080i, over say 720i, if you are burning to DVD? As the short answer to the OP's answer seems to be 1080i HD is only good if you are going to burn to blu ray. Are you getting any better end result shooting 1080i over 720?

720p is still 1280x720 so still needs to be down coverted to go on DVD which is 720x480. 1080i or p is 1920x1080.

Virtual Dub will allow you to downscale either rather nicely if you follow the steps.

There are resons to shoot in either depending on your needs...

Wow Thomas. Well, i finally got round to reading through that HD-SD. I cannot believe the kind of hoops we need to jump through just to get our HD/high quality footage onto DVD. I've ran into a few problems with his workflow, IE: I'm using vegas/architect not adobe and Isaacs plugins for AVISynth is no longer available (I cant seem to find them any where). I'm also running out of time with this wedding. I have 90-100 mins of MPEG2 ''HD'' footage (1080i) ready for DVD(s) and it needs to go out soon.

Im wondering if its worth investing in a blu-ray and/or dual layer burner, then again most clients wouldn't have a compatible player right?

Gah, now i can see why most videographers avoid HD wedding deliveries.

"which will be going on a DVD as HD" (from original post)

...what does this mean?

1) you are downscaling to SD?
2) using a format like WMV HD DVD?
3) you meant to say Blu-ray, not DVD?

What i meant was, it's filmed in 1080i, but it's going onto normal 4.7gb DVD(s). I just wanted to retain as much quality as possible as it looks crap once its put onto DVD. I'm also new to this sort of workflow, most of my work in my short career thus far have been web videos so im probably not making complete sense.

OK, so you are shooting in HD and going to deliver in SD on DVD. So at some point you have to downconvert to SD. You can either do that when you capture via the camera (which makes editing easier on your computer) or you capture and edit as HD (strong computer) and render it out as SD (obviously MPEG2) for buring on DVD? I have found either way to yield good results. Some like one way better than others. Keep your bityrate as high as possible on the DVD for best quality (up to 8,000,000). Use 2 dvds if necessary (I have not had good luck with DL dvd).

Hope this is of some help.

Hi Terry.

Yes, basically. I captured and edited in HD. However, getting 45 minutes (about 8.7gb) of MPEG2 onto a DVD using Architect has naturally produced some crappy results. What i was looking for was a way to retain as much clarity (as close to the original mpeg2 clip) as possible after it had been burnt to the playable DVD. I don't know if i've just grown use to looking at it in HD but the DVD just looks crap. Is there no way to get a 45min clip looking better than that? I guess following that guide posted by Thomas is the only way right now? Trouble is its missing essential parts like the AViSynth plugins etc i need. It all just seems ridiculous there is no decent work-flow/delivery for HD footage other than Blu-Ray.

Also, interesting thread you linked however the clients would require a blu-ray player and nobody has one of those yet (at least not the majority here in the UK).

OK, I've played with this over time and the best method I've personally found from all my reeaserch and reading and persoanl testing is this

1)Render all my HD footage whatever format into Cineform .avi's

2) edit as appropriate

3) render out from Vegas as cineform .avi

4) use the following scirpt to down convert: If it's 1280x720...

AVISource("myfile.avi",pixel_type="RGB32")
ConvertToYV12
FFT3DFilter(sigma=2.0, plane=0, bw=48, bh=48, bt=3, ow=16, oh=16, sharpen=0.5, interlaced=false)
Lanczos4Resize(704,480,0,1,1280,718)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)
ConvertToRGB32
Levels(0, 1, 255, 16, 235, coring=false)

for 1920 x 1080 sub out:

Lanczos4Resize(704,480,0,1,1920,1078)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)


(obviiously you will need to find the right plugins for this)

Depending on the length of the file I either open the above .avs script into TMPGenc 4.0 express and render out as the default DVD using the below settings but I would suggest a bit rate calculater, (sometimes this blows up with a memory error if it's too long or too complex) Or I run the .avs script into Virtual Dub first for the reasons staated and create another .avi to then import into TMP...

If you skip the TMP part I imagine you can still import this into Vegas and create an elementry stream, tried it didn't really like it although it wasn't "horrible"

Doing this I've been able to put an hour and 20 min into a single layer DVD using

2 pass VBR
Max 9100
avg 6200
Min 2450

Which is the "longest" DVD I've tried so far and had pristine results....


Bit Rate Calculator I use http://dvd-hq.info/bitrate_calculator.php


Good luck!

Sounds great Thomas, i assume the plug ins i need correspond with the scripts you've used? I'm new to this sort of thing! And i assume i can find all these on the AVISynth website/documentation link that comes with the download?

Also looking into Cineform, looks like a very interesting piece of technology that might be worth investing in.

Any way thanks again Thomas really appreciate the help! I'm looking forward to getting home from my other job so i can begin some trial and error.

Yes, you can find all those filters on the main avisynth site....

Yes, you can find all those filters on the main avisynth site....

Cheers Tom, will let you know how i get on and will keep in touch! Hope im not a bother!

And for our PAL freinds to avoid confusion :)

Use this script for 1920x1080

AVISource("C:your.avi",pixel_type="RGB32")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\FFT3DFilter.dll")
AssumeTFF()
ConvertToYV12
FFT3DFilter(sigma=2.0, plane=0, bw=48, bh=48, bt=3, ow=16, oh=16, sharpen=0.5, interlaced=true)
Lanczos4Resize(704,576,0,1,1920,1078)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)
AssumeFPS(25.000, true)
ConvertToRGB32
Levels(0, 1, 255, 16, 235, coring=false)


and if 1280x720



Use this script for 1920x1080

AVISource("C:your.avi",pixel_type="RGB32")
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\FFT3DFilter.dll")
AssumeTFF()
ConvertToYV12
FFT3DFilter(sigma=2.0, plane=0, bw=48, bh=48, bt=3, ow=16, oh=16, sharpen=0.5, interlaced=true)
LanczosResize(704,576,0,1,1280,718)
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)
AssumeFPS(25.000, true)
ConvertToRGB32
Levels(0, 1, 255, 16, 235, coring=false)

I can't believe all this time I've never tried burning a 1920x1080 AVC Blu Ray format direct from the Vegas timeline to standard DVD for playback in my BD player!!
Just did it and WOW does my stuff look awesome. Had a live 40 minute concert (Burned to Dual Layer) and a couple of eye candy projects I'd never really seen in all their glory as I've been holding off on a BD burner!
Going from software players on my computer monitor to a decent 46" TV is like night and day. I also noticed just how smooth the playback is compared to VimeoHD etc which is what I've gotten used to. Seems to negatively effect frame rate on playback...or maybe just 720p doesn't play back very smoothly what with flash/bandwidth/frame-rate conversions etc.
I've got a lot of burning to do.