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Volstag
2007 July 26th, 00:04
Hey all,

Like the title says, I'd like to do all my shooting in 60i, edit/downconvert (or vice versa), then burn to SD DVD for distribution. I'm currently using Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 along with HDVSplit, MPEG StreamClip, VirtualDub and a trial copy of Tmpgenc.

The problem that I'm currently having is that the MPEG encoder in PrEL appears to, quite frankly, suck. All the test SD DVDs that I've burnt over the past month of extensive experimentation are pretty poor quality. The colors are washed out, and the picture is exceedingly soft... it almost looks like it's out of focus. I just encoded my first mpeg from tmpgenc, at 8000 kbps, and you can easily tell the difference between the mpeg export from PrEl (at highest quality, 9 Mbps CBR).

For the longest time I thought I was going crazy, until I found the following thread over on dvinfo.net: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=70792

My current workflow, or the closest match anyway, is rated a 2 out of 10 (w/ regards to video quality).

I'm so fed up with this problem that I'm at the point where I'm willing to throw money at it (if that's what it takes). If there's anyone out there who shoots in HDV and distributes in SD DVD, I'd love to hear what tools, NLEs, and workflows you're employing. I'd also love to hear what kind of quality you're seeing on the finished product.

While I like Elements, a part of me feels that I need to move up to something more robust -- like Vegas 7, for example. But for all I know that might not be enough. Would it be better to start segmenting my workflow across various platforms.... like a dedicated NLE, a dedicated encoder, a dedicated authoring/burning tool?

Ideally I'd like to have a "silver bullet" solution, but such a thing might not exist.

One final question (before my next one :hv20-smilie03: ), how necessary is Aspect HD? I feel like I can't read anything about any HDV cam w/o Aspect/Prospect HD getting mentioned.

Thanks in advance,
V

SenorKaffee
2007 July 26th, 04:19
I´m a friend of rendering out the project losslessly (Lagarith/PCM Audio) and then preparing for distribution. Now I have my 100GB AVI file.

If I´m lazy, I´ll just throw it in NeroVision Express. Disillusioning, yeah, but for consumption it´s fine.

If I´m not so lazy, I´ll prepare an AVISynth script (preparing the right size and colorspace), frameserve to Tsunami, compress as seperate streams and import the output to my DVD authoring tool.

In case I want to compress the original TS from the cam, I´d also use AVISynth with DGIndex and MPASource. Either make an AVI out of it with VirtualDub and throw it into NeroVision or frameserve the data to Tsunami.

More tools need support for frameserving. *sigh*

Volstag
2007 July 28th, 01:16
SenorK,

Thanks for the response. What do you think of the quality when burning to SD DVD? I've read reports from other users/forums wherein they state the quality of their HDV to SD DVD conversions are phenomenal. Sadly, mine look like they came from a VHS source.

While I've got you.... if I capture from the camera as m2t (via HDVSplit), what's the best way to perform a "lossless" conversion to AVI for import into VirtualDub? Your response implies that VirtualDub can handle m2t files -- which hasn't been my experience at all (unrecognized format)

Thanks again,
V

groblus
2007 July 30th, 06:50
I would be really happy to know the way of importing m2t's into virtualdub (using avisynth or sth ???)
thx for any kind of info