Comparison of NLE HD to SD downconversion quality

Ben Denham · July 29th, 2009, 07:01 AM

Having tried a number of ideas on this thread I've come up with the following workflow for going from HDV to DVD. I've played the DVDs created with this workflow back on a full HD monitor and they compare very well with the original HD project. So here it is

1. Capture and edit in PPCS3 Cineform intermediate (convert HDV to square pixels 1920x1080)
2. Export edited project back out to Cineform intermediate. Deinterlace at this stage. No scaling, resolution remains 1920x1080
3. Import this file into After Effects use the following composition settings
-Preset: PAL D1/DV Widescreen
- The “Lock Aspect Ratio to 5:4” will be checked (this does not cause any problems in getting the final 16:9 ratio)
-Pixel aspect ratio: D1/DV PAL Widescreen (1.42)
- The rest sets itself with no issues.
4. Drag your 1920x1080 video into your 720x576 composition
5. Select your video file in the composition window hit the “S” key for scale and adjust the scale of your video to 53.5%
If you want your monitor to show how your AE export will look toggle the pixel aspect correction button on the composition monitor window.
6. Next select “add to render queue" and under the “output module” use the following settings.
-Format: MPEG 2 DVD with the following format options
Quality: 5
TV Standard: PAL
Field Order: Progressive
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9
Bitrate Encoding: CBR
Bitrate [Mbps]: 8
The rest you can leave as is. Next hit Render.
7. Once this file has rendered out import it into a new Encore project. I have tried a number of other “consumer grade” DVD authoring programs and none of them have accepted the type of progressive MPEG 2 file produced with this method without wanting to re-encode the file in an interlaced form. Encore will not re-encode the beautiful progressive MPEG that you have created.

Ervin Farkas · July 30th, 2009, 08:22 AM

Have you tried with NTSC footage?

Ben Denham · August 2nd, 2009, 08:34 AM

No I haven't tried NTSC but I'd be interested to see how others might go with a similar workflow. There are two NTSC widescreen presets in the After effects composition settings dropdown. One for 29.97 (I think) frames per second and the other for 23.97 (or something like that). I guess if your authoring a progressive DVD the 23.97 might be the way to go or you could override the preset and insert 24 fps in the AE comp settings. Aside from that there's also the issue of going from 60i to 24p which I have no experience with but I'm sure you could find info on. The 50i to 25p of PAL land is a slightly easier equation.

July 29th, 2009, 07:01 AM	#91
Ben Denham Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: NSW Australia Posts: 149	My HD to (progressive) DVD Workflow Having tried a number of ideas on this thread I've come up with the following workflow for going from HDV to DVD. I've played the DVDs created with this workflow back on a full HD monitor and they compare very well with the original HD project. So here it is 1. Capture and edit in PPCS3 Cineform intermediate (convert HDV to square pixels 1920x1080) 2. Export edited project back out to Cineform intermediate. Deinterlace at this stage. No scaling, resolution remains 1920x1080 3. Import this file into After Effects use the following composition settings -Preset: PAL D1/DV Widescreen - The “Lock Aspect Ratio to 5:4” will be checked (this does not cause any problems in getting the final 16:9 ratio) -Pixel aspect ratio: D1/DV PAL Widescreen (1.42) - The rest sets itself with no issues. 4. Drag your 1920x1080 video into your 720x576 composition 5. Select your video file in the composition window hit the “S” key for scale and adjust the scale of your video to 53.5% If you want your monitor to show how your AE export will look toggle the pixel aspect correction button on the composition monitor window. 6. Next select “add to render queue" and under the “output module” use the following settings. -Format: MPEG 2 DVD with the following format options Quality: 5 TV Standard: PAL Field Order: Progressive Pixel Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9 Bitrate Encoding: CBR Bitrate [Mbps]: 8 The rest you can leave as is. Next hit Render. 7. Once this file has rendered out import it into a new Encore project. I have tried a number of other “consumer grade” DVD authoring programs and none of them have accepted the type of progressive MPEG 2 file produced with this method without wanting to re-encode the file in an interlaced form. Encore will not re-encode the beautiful progressive MPEG that you have created. Last edited by Ben Denham; July 29th, 2009 at 07:04 AM. Reason: wonky quotation mark

July 30th, 2009, 08:22 AM	#92
Ervin Farkas Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta/USA Posts: 2,515	Have you tried with NTSC footage? __________________ Ervin Farkas www.AtlantaLegalVideo.com

August 2nd, 2009, 08:34 AM	#93
Ben Denham Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: NSW Australia Posts: 149	Ntsc? No I haven't tried NTSC but I'd be interested to see how others might go with a similar workflow. There are two NTSC widescreen presets in the After effects composition settings dropdown. One for 29.97 (I think) frames per second and the other for 23.97 (or something like that). I guess if your authoring a progressive DVD the 23.97 might be the way to go or you could override the preset and insert 24 fps in the AE comp settings. Aside from that there's also the issue of going from 60i to 24p which I have no experience with but I'm sure you could find info on. The 50i to 25p of PAL land is a slightly easier equation. Last edited by Ben Denham; August 3rd, 2009 at 01:05 AM. Reason: adding information