HD combined with NON HD????

[Screwball]

I use VS11, Three members of my family (Inc.me) use identical digital movie cameras. I am now very tempted to buy myself an HD movie camera. Every year when we go on holiday together, I make a dvd using clips from all cameras. My question is - is it possible to combine non-HD from their cameras with my HD camera in a VS project? As this is possibly the last time we go as a family I want no disappointing discoveries when I compile the new project.

[Ron P.]

Yes you can combine them, the output is what's in question. If you're wanting to burn SD DVDs, then your HD clips will be converted to a lower-resolution. That would be the preferable way. SD output to an HD format, would look rather bad. The project properties in VS do not mean much, unless you're wanting to use Smart Render. If you notice, there are really only 2 possible file formats available in the Project Properties, AVI (which could use about any CODEC on your system) or MPEG (now limited to DVD compliant MPEG-2, which is the NTSC or PAL DVD). That does not prevent using WMV, QT MOV, RM, ect., in your project. The problem will be that any file format that is not what the Project Properties have specified, will be recoded.

Rule of thumb, always start with the highest possible quality.

[Black Lab]

The other possible problem is that HD cams are Upper Field First. You don't say what your SD cams are, but most digital cams are Lower Field First. Mixing field orders in the same project is not recommended. Mixing field orders on the same DVD is ok, provided they are in their own separate projects (i.e. all the SD footage in Title 1, all the HD footage in Title 2)

[Screwball]

Many thanks for your answers. That's all I needed to know. At the end of the day, my vids have been a great success due to VS. Don't want to create problems now.