DVD Studio Pro 3 - burning HDV footage?

[Christopher C. Murphy]

Howdy all,

Does anyone here use DVD Studio Pro 3? I haven't actually needed to burn a DVD until now, so before I go and waste a bunch of blanks I'd figure that I should ask if there is any special settings needed with HDV footage? I did a search on here for DVD burning and almost nothing came up...which is weird, because I could have sworn this was discussed earlier!

I'm new to DVD Studio Pro, but not burning NTSC DVD's through iDVD. Is there anything needed to make sure it's WIDESCREEN and not stretched and wacky??

I'd appreciate any help!

Thanks!

Murph

[Rob Lohman]

I'm wondering why you are thinking about HD & DVD. The DVD
format does not allow for HD footage and therefor you cannot
make an HD DVD and even if you could it wouldn't be playable.

There are a new brand of players coming that support HD files
on a DVD-data disc. Like Windows Media 9 HD. Then it's just
a data disc (like a cd-rom) with a movie on it. But you can probably
count those players on one hand if they are available at all.

Ofcourse you can down convert your HD footage to SD (or
anamorphic SD to get a bit more resolution) and burn a regular
DVD.

You should do your down conversion outside of the authoring
burning application. Do such things in your editor or effects
application.

[Christopher C. Murphy]

I should clarify, I didn't mean HDV footage...I meant typical DVD mpeg 2 footage. But, I guess I meant "anamorphic" or whatever would give me widescreen 16:9 and not stetched 4:3 of my footage.

I've only burned DVD's using NTSC 4:3 footage, so I was inquiring about aspect ratios! There are a bunch of options in DVD Studio Pro 3 in regards to aspect ratios. I could burn some DVD's and test it, but all I have is write-once DVD's. (not cheap!)

Murph

[Frederic Lumiere]

Murph,

My advice for burning DVDs from the HDV footage is to make the best master possible in HD resolution from FCP (I know you use FCP).

For example 10bit uncompressed, 1280 X 720, 29.97 fps.

You can then use compressor to make a widescreen DVD dual pass.

In DVD Studio Pro, you can set an automatic widescreen/letterbox depending on the TV set it's played on. Essentially, it will show it widescreen if the TV is widescreen or put letter box if it isn't. It will always keep the 16:9 aspect ratio.

You could also use the PAN & SCAN feature but not many viewers know how to use this.

Using the new compressor from Apple, you will get the best quality DVD progressive scan possible. The reason for that is the new MPEG encoder is optimized for HD > SD conversion.

I hope this helps,

Frederic

[Christopher C. Murphy]

Thanks guys....Frederic, you're a great resource!

Murph