XL2 25p to DVD anyone? at DVinfo.net

Phil Rogerson · December 14th, 2005, 01:14 AM

I really hope someone in PAL land can help...

I realise I'm at the fringe of an area that's been covered at length, but I still don't understand why I can't get a reasonable result with 25p footage output to a standard TV monitor from a DVD created in DVD StudioPro 3.0.2.

I've captured the 25p XL2 footage, shot with shutter speed 50, in FCP via firewire, capture settings: DV PAL 48kHz, anamorphic.

Then exported the sequence 'using compressor' from FCP. The sequence had the following sequence settings :
Field Dominance = 0
Anamorphic checked
Frame size = 720 x 576 Aspect ratio = CCIR 601/PAL (5:4)
Pixel aspect ratio = PAL CCIR 601
Field Dominance = none
Editing timebase = 25
Quicktime video settings = DV-PAL
Quality = 100%

Before exporting the sequence, I viewed it in the FCP canvas at full screen, and it looks good, minimal aliaising, but with a few artifacts on the panned shots.

I compress using the 'MPEG-2 PAL 60 minute High Quality 2 pass VBR Widescreen' pre-set in Compressor 1.2.1. When that MPEG-2 asset is imported and previewed in DVD StudioPro, it looks good when viewed on my 15" PowerBook with the DVD SP Viewer enlarged.

But when I burn to DVD, play through a JVC XV -- N33 DVD player, and view it on a standard definition PAL TV, it looks very average, similar to the footage I was seeing when I ignorantly set the FCP sequence setting Field Dominance to 'lower' for PAL 25p... full of aliasing jaggies and artifacts.

I tried customising the Compressor pre-sets, the last setting I tried was:

Description: 25p from FCP
File Extension: m2v
Video Encoder
Format: M2V
Width: 720
Height: 576
Pixel aspect ratio: 0.703
Crop: None
Frame rate: 25
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Field dominance: Auto detect
Average data rate: 7 (Mbps)
2 Pass VBR enabled
Maximum data rate: 8 (Mbps)
Better motion estimation
Closed GOP Size: 6, Structure: IP
DVD Studio Pro meta-data enabled

I wonder if later versions of Compressor allow a Field Dominance setting of 'None', as 1.2.1 only has the options: 'Upper', 'Lower' or 'Auto'.

As always it would be great if I could post a clip, but my connection crawls.

Does anyone have an answer? -- phil.

December 14th, 2005, 01:14 AM	#1
Phil Rogerson Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Denmark, Western Australia. Posts: 25	XL2 25p to DVD anyone? I really hope someone in PAL land can help... I realise I'm at the fringe of an area that's been covered at length, but I still don't understand why I can't get a reasonable result with 25p footage output to a standard TV monitor from a DVD created in DVD StudioPro 3.0.2. I've captured the 25p XL2 footage, shot with shutter speed 50, in FCP via firewire, capture settings: DV PAL 48kHz, anamorphic. Then exported the sequence 'using compressor' from FCP. The sequence had the following sequence settings : Field Dominance = 0 Anamorphic checked Frame size = 720 x 576 Aspect ratio = CCIR 601/PAL (5:4) Pixel aspect ratio = PAL CCIR 601 Field Dominance = none Editing timebase = 25 Quicktime video settings = DV-PAL Quality = 100% Before exporting the sequence, I viewed it in the FCP canvas at full screen, and it looks good, minimal aliaising, but with a few artifacts on the panned shots. I compress using the 'MPEG-2 PAL 60 minute High Quality 2 pass VBR Widescreen' pre-set in Compressor 1.2.1. When that MPEG-2 asset is imported and previewed in DVD StudioPro, it looks good when viewed on my 15" PowerBook with the DVD SP Viewer enlarged. But when I burn to DVD, play through a JVC XV -- N33 DVD player, and view it on a standard definition PAL TV, it looks very average, similar to the footage I was seeing when I ignorantly set the FCP sequence setting Field Dominance to 'lower' for PAL 25p... full of aliasing jaggies and artifacts. I tried customising the Compressor pre-sets, the last setting I tried was: Description: 25p from FCP File Extension: m2v Video Encoder Format: M2V Width: 720 Height: 576 Pixel aspect ratio: 0.703 Crop: None Frame rate: 25 Aspect ratio: 16:9 Field dominance: Auto detect Average data rate: 7 (Mbps) 2 Pass VBR enabled Maximum data rate: 8 (Mbps) Better motion estimation Closed GOP Size: 6, Structure: IP DVD Studio Pro meta-data enabled I wonder if later versions of Compressor allow a Field Dominance setting of 'None', as 1.2.1 only has the options: 'Upper', 'Lower' or 'Auto'. As always it would be great if I could post a clip, but my connection crawls. Does anyone have an answer? -- phil. __________________ aspirant