HD output to DVD

[Ormond Williams]

Is it possible to output video from HD camera to a DVD in High Definition or will it revert to PAL resolution? If this can be done, can someone explain it or give me a reference to a tutorial please.

I don't have a HD camera, but can borrow one and would like to be able to create a DVD with the high definition video.

Thanks!

[GeorgeW]

For regular SD DVD (to be playable in a standard dvd player), it must be scaled down to SD DVD Resolutions. This was the most common method for distributing HDV HD (i.e. capture high def, convert to SD for distribution).

As more folks get HD equipment (TV's and Players), you can start to offer HD DVD's, but need an authoring application that will burn properly. Ulead's latest versions of VideoStudio and DVD MovieFactory will author "basic" HD-DVD's, and allow burning to either HD-DVD Discs, or to standard DVD5/9 discs (space constraints limit the amount of HD you can burn on a DVD5/9 disc).

Regards,
George

[dezco]

What DVD Authoring applications support burning converted HDV video to a standard DVD-R?

I use MediaStudio Pro to capture the footage and I have tested using DVD Workshop 2 to burn the footage to a DVD but it seems like the footage that was shot at 24p has problems. The footage is speed up like it is on fast forward all of the time.

Any help is definitely appreciated.

Thanks again,
Patrick D.

[Devil]

You cannot burn an ordinary DVD at 24 fps. The standards are quite clear: 25 fps interlaced for PAL and 29.97/30 fps interlaced for NTSC. Only HD-DVD applications will accept 24 fps.

Allowable picture resolutions are:
MPEG-2, 525/60 (NTSC): 720x480, 704x480, 352x480, 352x240
MPEG-2, 625/50 (PAL): 720x576, 704x576, 352x576, 352x288
MPEG-1, 525/60 (NTSC): 352x240
MPEG-1, 625/50 (PAL): 352x288

[Gorf]

You cannot burn an ordinary DVD at 24 fps....

You can: I seem to recall you can burn 720x480 (progressive) at 24fps (actually 23.976fps). It's called "film mode".

Whether it's worth doing is questionable- The pulldown is done by the player instead of the encoder.

[GeorgeW]

You cannot burn an ordinary DVD at 24 fps....

You can: I seem to recall you can burn 720x480 (progressive) at 24fps (actually 23.976fps). It's called "film mode".

Whether it's worth doing is questionable- The pulldown is done by the player instead of the encoder.

Agreed that 24p is valid (both True 24p and 23.976fps with pulldown).

Regards,
George

[Devil]

Sorry, it is in the MPEG-2 spec, but I cannot find anything in the DVD spec.

[GeorgeW]

Sorry, it is in the MPEG-2 spec, but I cannot find anything in the DVD spec.

First, congratulations if you actually have the DVD-VIDEO Specifications (they are costly, and they force you to sign the NDA for its contents).

Much of the "public" DVD-VIDEO Authoring rules have been acquired by a sort of "reverse" engineering approach. It's difficult to get quotes from the actual specs, but here's one place where there's alot of info (whether it is 100% accurate is a different story) :
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.4

I do know there are packages that will create an SD DVD-VIDEO from 24p material, and the DVD Player adds the pulldown...

Regards,
George

[Devil]

Of course, I don't have the full official specs: I'm going by what I see in the books on video in my library and what is on the Internet.

I'm sorry, but I repeat what I said earlier. The fact that there may be software fudges that create pseudo-DVDs at 24 fps, fooling the players into believing that they are as specified does not mean that 24 fps video is within the DVD specs.

[GeorgeW]

Of course, I don't have the full official specs: I'm going by what I see in the books on video in my library and what is on the Internet.

I'm sorry, but I repeat what I said earlier. The fact that there may be software fudges that create pseudo-DVDs at 24 fps, fooling the players into believing that they are as specified does not mean that 24 fps video is within the DVD specs.

Well, if you look at several hollywood/retail DVD's, you can see they use 24p material with pulldown embedded in their DVD's. Are you saying those hollywood authoring studios are creating non-dvd compliant DVD's

And the Authoring Software they use is also creating out-of-spec DVD's

[MrA]

Just want to be sure I am doing this correctly, myself. I captured HD video from a Sony HDR camera, but, via MSP capture program, which saved it as an MPEG-2 file.

The camera settings were 16:9 HD 1080i/60p, but, since MSP captured this as MPEG-2, the actual camera settings are now a moot point(???).

My project settings should be just a plain DVD - NTSC 16:9 format? (I'm in NTSC land)

Apparently MSP does not support this particular camera, so, I have to live with MPEG-2..??

Is there a defintive tutorial on the rest of the burn settings in MSP? There are some pretty advanced settings, and I'd like to know, if anything, "how and why the heck I messed that up.."

I basically just create a new video file (basically just an MPEG-2), with all the edits in place, then actually just use VS10 to make the DVD folders, then another app to make the actual DVD.

Whats the rule of thumb for bit rate and quality? I want the best quality for my render time. And, if it takes a week to render and I have the best quality, sheesh, I can live with it.. So far, totaly depending on the project and the amount of movement of the characters and camera, 100% quality at 8000k bit rate is acceptable, for MPEG-2 captured HD. Thats about, and very approximate, about an hour and a half render time in MSP 8.

[cgould]

Just want to be sure I am doing this correctly, myself. I captured HD video from a Sony HDR camera, but, via MSP capture program, which saved it as an MPEG-2 file.

The camera settings were 16:9 HD 1080i/60p, but, since MSP captured this as MPEG-2, the actual camera settings are now a moot point(???).

My project settings should be just a plain DVD - NTSC 16:9 format? (I'm in NTSC land)

Apparently MSP does not support this particular camera, so, I have to live with MPEG-2..??

Is there a defintive tutorial on the rest of the burn settings in MSP? There are some pretty advanced settings, and I'd like to know, if anything, "how and why the heck I messed that up.."

I basically just create a new video file (basically just an MPEG-2), with all the edits in place, then actually just use VS10 to make the DVD folders, then another app to make the actual DVD.

Whats the rule of thumb for bit rate and quality? I want the best quality for my render time. And, if it takes a week to render and I have the best quality, sheesh, I can live with it.. So far, totaly depending on the project and the amount of movement of the characters and camera, 100% quality at 8000k bit rate is acceptable, for MPEG-2 captured HD. Thats about, and very approximate, about an hour and a half render time in MSP 8.

If you captured MPG2 from the HD camera fine, MSpro supports it
HDV video IS MPEG2. (native camera format is M2T which is just "transport" rather than "program" stream of the MPEG data, and mspro can convert to m2t at end to record back to tape.)

Regardless, whatever the format(s) your input source video(s), you can make an NTSC DVD out of it- either by setting that target format in the project settings, for easiest preview (but maybe slower editing), or leaving the project settings match the source video (no conversion during preview). If you're careful with settings and the aspect ratio preferences, it will even letter/pillar box for you. This flexibility is one of the nicer features of MSPro.

In the end, you always need to create a new DVD-format spec MPG file(s), which you put into your DVD authoring program- either VS or DVDMF (a lite version of which is included in MSPro actually) or DVDWS or whatever.
If you want to use a different (burning) program like Nero to burn the created ISO image or DVD folders to the DVD-R, that's fine too...

You can find bitrate calculators on the web to tell you what bitrate to use, based on the running time of your total project, to stay under 4.4GB. Don't go above 8Mbps (~1hr/dvd).
Not much settings to change on the create video options dialog, besides bitrate, but you can up the "quality" setting to 100 (not default 70) for best quality renders (2pass is also there, but takes wayy longer), that's the main item. Make sure to check "non-square pixel rendering" if you're changing/mixing aspect ratios (since you have 16:9 throughout you shouldn't need it.)