Just cant figure it out: How to Make a PAL SD DVD from AVCHD footage?

[Robert Young]

Originally Posted by Adi Head

THE RESULT:
Noticeable strange looking wavy noisy pixels particularly in bright areas (such as white colored walls) and areas with horizontal lines (such as window blinds). The defects in image seem to be especially noticeable during camera movement.

Adi
I use Cineform for all of my HD editing, regardless of the source format (HDV, AVCHD, XDCam, etc.)
The DVD image artifacts you describe sound like what is seen when rescaling HD to SD is done poorly by your NLE- particularly if the material is interlaced.
If you seach the Cineform site, there is a description of the best procedure for going from CFHD to DVD.
Basically you:
1) render a master movie of the project as 1920x1080 CFHD.avi
2) Use Cineform HD Link to convert the master to (in your case) a PAL standard def CF.avi (Cineform standard def master.avi)
3) Then transcode the CFSD master to m2v and author your DVD.
I don't have much personal experience with PAL, but the issues and workflow should be the same as with NTSC.
As you are aware from your research, getting from HD to good looking DVD is not as simple as one would expect. Be assured that if you are starting with good quality Cineform HD images, you can expect a supurb looking DVD once you pin down an effective workflow.
Also, not all transcoding software are equal. Many third party transcoders (I use Procoder 3) will produce significantly better DVD images than can be obtained with the NLE software.

[Adi Head]

Thanks Bob! Your post is rather re-assuring.

I can't find how to convert the HD to SD using NeoScene. Where is there a setting for that?

Thx!

[Robert Young]

Hmmm...
Neoscene is the "lite" version of CF and I'm not familiar with it in any detail.
I use Neo 4K v.5. All of the full featured CF products come with an app called HD Link. This is the module used for capture, conversion, etc.
If you have HDLink, you need to click the "prefs" button at the lower right of the window. This will open up all of the HDLink settings and choices.

[Adi Head]

Hi. NeoScene DOES have HD Link. Here's what the Prefs window looks like. Can't find how to down-convert from HD to SD.

http://i54.tinypic.com/x3zghj.jpg

[Robert Young]

Looks like Neoscene lacks the full HDLink functions, including the rescaling capability.
The prefs menu on the full versions is twice that size with lots of options for conversion output.
So, to get good rescaling, you will need to upgrade your CF, or look to other 3rd party software to get the job done.